New
Defense Department Policy Bans Same Spying Practices Army Used on U.S. Antiwar
Activists for Years
August 23, 2016 by Kris
Hermes
Police
at 2007 anti-war protest in Olympia, WA. Photo: Jason Taellious
Plaintiffs file brief in widely watched federal lawsuit to draw
Ninth Circuit’s attention to policy change
Seattle, WA — Antiwar activists filed a brief today in Panagacos v. Towery, a widely watched military spying lawsuit from the Pacific Northwest currently on appeal before the Ninth Circuit. The brief draws attention to a recent policy change by the Department of Defense (DOD) prohibiting intelligence officials from engaging in the same type of questionable surveillance the Army has admitted to conducting for years against antiwar groups and other political organizations.
Earlier this month, cryptome.org obtained the most recent manual for “Procedures Governing the Conduct of DoD Intelligence Activities,” which has a new section 3.10(e)(2) prohibiting the surveillance “for the purpose of collecting information on the domestic activities of U.S. persons.” Under another new section 3.10(b)(3), the manual also prohibits military intelligence officials from anonymous spying on email listservs.
Seattle, WA — Antiwar activists filed a brief today in Panagacos v. Towery, a widely watched military spying lawsuit from the Pacific Northwest currently on appeal before the Ninth Circuit. The brief draws attention to a recent policy change by the Department of Defense (DOD) prohibiting intelligence officials from engaging in the same type of questionable surveillance the Army has admitted to conducting for years against antiwar groups and other political organizations.
Earlier this month, cryptome.org obtained the most recent manual for “Procedures Governing the Conduct of DoD Intelligence Activities,” which has a new section 3.10(e)(2) prohibiting the surveillance “for the purpose of collecting information on the domestic activities of U.S. persons.” Under another new section 3.10(b)(3), the manual also prohibits military intelligence officials from anonymous spying on email listservs.
“The
recent Defense Department policy change shows that the military knew what they
were doing was wrong and is now covering its tracks,” said Larry Hildes, a
National Lawyers Guild attorney who filed the Panagacos lawsuit
in 2010. “But, the illegal spying operation was so pervasive and harmful, the
Army and its law enforcement collaborators must be held accountable.”
The DOD policy change comes one year after antiwar activists appealed a summary dismissal of the Panagacos lawsuit, which alleges widespread Army surveillance and infiltration, the disruption of constitutionally protected speech, and the very same surveillance activity the military is now trying to outlaw. Despite the importance of the Panagacos case to the public interest, the plaintiffs were forced tofile the appeal last year under seal.
The DOD policy change comes one year after antiwar activists appealed a summary dismissal of the Panagacos lawsuit, which alleges widespread Army surveillance and infiltration, the disruption of constitutionally protected speech, and the very same surveillance activity the military is now trying to outlaw. Despite the importance of the Panagacos case to the public interest, the plaintiffs were forced tofile the appeal last year under seal.
Public
records obtained in 2009 established that over a three-year period beginning in
2006, Army analyst John Towery (under the alias “John Jacob”) infiltrated and
spied on the antiwar group Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) as well as
several other organizations, including Students for a Democratic Society, the
Industrial Workers of the World, and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Not
only did Towery admit in a March 2014 deposition to routinely being paid by the U.S.
Army to gather intelligence and disseminate it to his military superiors as
well as to the Washington State Fusion Center, a communications hub of
local, state and federal law enforcement, but Towery’s information was also
circulated to police departments in multiple states, and used to disrupt
planned protests by preemptively and falsely arresting activists.
Both
Towery and his supervisor at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Force Protection Division
Chief Thomas Rudd admitted to anonymously spying on email listservs run by various
political groups. Towery also took confidential information from an
attorney-client-protected listserv and gave it to prosecutors in a pending
criminal case thereby causing a mistrial. In addition to these constitutional
violations, Towery, Rudd and other Army personnel also violated Posse Comitatus, which
prohibits the military from enforcing domestic laws on U.S. soil.
After
an Army investigation in 2009, Rudd said he was reprimanded for his conduct but, despite this, Rudd
admitted in an April 2014 deposition that he continued to anonymously spy on email listservs of
political activists in order to assess their threat to Army operations.
While
PMR was active, the group protested shipments of military equipment and weapons
in and out of the civilian Ports of Olympia and Tacoma. For years after, both
ports refused such shipments but the Port of Olympia recently started to
reconsider its ban on military shipments.
Plaintiffs
in the Panagacos lawsuit are currently waiting on the Ninth
Circuit to schedule oral arguments in the appeal. Named defendants in the case
include Towery, Rudd, the U.S. Army, Navy, and Coast Guard, as well as certain
officials within its ranks, the City of Olympia and its police department, the
City of Tacoma and its police department, Pierce County, and various personnel
from those jurisdictions.
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.
Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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