The Denver Post covers ACLU case, United States v. Strandlof. Read the story by Felisa Cardona here.

At a news conference held today at the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado (ACLU), Legal Director Mark Silverstein presented documentary evidence that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (“JTTF”), contrary to its public statements, has been collecting information about the peaceful protest activities of Colorado residents and the constitutionally-protected activities of law-abiding advocacy groups.

“The FBI is collecting information about nonviolent protesters and law abiding organizations whose issues are as varied as animal rights, protection of the environment, labor rights, United States military policies, social and economic justice in Latin America, and the treatment of Native Americans,” Silverstein said. “Their advocacy and expressive activities have nothing to do with terrorism.”

The Colorado ACLU also announced that under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), it had filed a formal request on behalf of 16 organizations and 10 individuals to obtain additional documents about the monitoring of their expressive activities by the Denver Division of the FBI and the Denver-based Joint Terrorism Task Force. The FOIA request is part of a nation-wide ACLU campaign, launched today, to uncover the full extent of FBI political surveillance. The national ACLU and at least a half-dozen additional state ACLU affiliates filed similar requests for FBI documents today.

According to the ACLU, all of its 26 clients have documentary evidence or strong grounds to believe that the FBI has obtained information about their nonviolent expressive activities. The evidence presented at the news conference includes the following:

• Documents the ACLU obtained in the Denver Spy Files litigation include a binder kept by the Intelligence Unit of the Denver Police Department (DPD). One tab is labeled “Colorado and local links: JTTF Active Case List.” The pages in that section consist of printouts made in April, 2002, from the web sites of a number of the ACLU’s clients, including the American Friends Service Committee, the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace, and The Human Bean Company.
• A written report stating that in April, 1999, JTTF agent Tom Fisher monitored two peaceful demonstrations in Denver protesting the bombing of Serbia and obtained information about planning for additional protests.
• A two-page fax that the intelligence unit of the Colorado Springs police department provided to JTTF agent Tom Fisher. The fax lists the license plate numbers, and the names corresponding to them, of participants in a nonviolent protest outside a convention of a lumber industry association. Environmental groups had organized the peaceful demonstration to protest timber industry practices. The fax cover sheet indicates that the JTTF Agent Tom Fisher asked for the list of names.
• Five separate emails from the DPD Spy Files. Each was originally sent by political activists about upcoming First Amendment activity, such as a rally about Palestine, an animal rights protest, a possible rally in Aspen, an announcement for Transform Columbus Day, and a schedule of events. Although these emails were originally directed to supporters and potential participants, law enforcement officers received them electronically and forwarded them, not only to the DPD Intelligence Bureau, but also to the FBI.
• An FBI “Intelligence Bulletin” sent to law enforcement agencies in October, 2003, titled “Tactics Used During Protests and Demonstrations.” The Bulletin asked police to “be alert” to “possible indicators of protest activity.” It urged police to “report any potentially illegal acts to the nearest FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.” According to Silverstein, the Bulletin represents “a standing invitation to inform the JTTF about constitutionally protected organizing and advocacy as well as plans for symbolic nonviolent civil disobedience.”
• Documents indicating that intelligence officers from at least two dozen Colorado law enforcement agencies trade political intelligence information at bimonthly meetings of the Multi-Agency Group Intelligence Conference (MAGIC). MAGIC documents state that meetings are “limited to sharing of information on extremist groups.” Agendas for these meetings, however, reveal that subjects of discussion have included peaceful protesters and law-abiding organizations, such as the American Friends Service Committee and Amnesty International. Silverstein said that the ACLU of Colorado wants to find out whether JTTF agents, operating under recently-relaxed guidelines, now attend or receive briefings about information exchanged at MAGIC meetings.
• The ACLU also presented evidence that Bill Sulzman, a former Catholic priest active with Citizens for Peace in Space in Colorado Springs, is falsely listed in an FBI database as a “member of a terrorist organization.”

“This evidence of political surveillance raises questions whether the FBI’s anti-terrorism unit unjustifiably regards dissent or criticism of government policies as potential terrorist activity,” Silverstein said. “That poses a tremendous risk of chilling individuals and organizations from taking part in the free exchange of viewpoints that is the basis for our democracy. We don’t want to go back to the era of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, when Americans feared that speaking out would result in an FBI dossier.”

More on the ACLU's FOIA requests to JTTF

Relying on the Colorado Open Records Act, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado (ACLU) filed suit today against the City and County of Denver, seeking disclosure of a document that sets out the terms of the Denver Police Department's participation in the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF).

The Denver JTTF, one of over five dozen similar task forces around the country, is run by the FBI and includes full-time agents on loan from participating federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Denver supplies two officers from its Intelligence Unit who work full-time for the FBI task force. One of the Denver police officers has been with the JTTF since 1998.

"The Denver Police Intelligence Unit's relationship with the JTTF is an important public issue," said ACLU Legal Director Mark Silverstein. "Last Spring, Denver settled the Spy Files lawsuit and agreed it would stop collecting information about peaceful protesters who have no connection to criminal activity. The FBI, however, is not bound by the same restrictions, especially now that recently-relaxed FBI guidelines make it even easier for the agency to gather information on peaceful political activity. This raises the question whether Denver intelligence officers assigned to work full time for the JTTF must abide by Denver's new intelligence policy, or whether they are permitted to operate under the FBI rules that are much less protective of civil liberties."

According to Silverstein, documents released to the ACLU during the Spy Files lawsuit, some of which are posted on the ACLU of Colorado website, demonstrate that the JTTF has been collecting information about peaceful protest activities that have nothing to do with terrorism or any other criminal activity. "These documents show that the JTTF has been gathering the same kind of information that the Denver Police Department is now prohibited from collecting," Silverstein said.

Denver's Public Safety Review Commission (PSRC) also raised questions about the Denver Police Department's relationship with the JTTF in a preliminary report issued on August 21, 2003. The PSRC noted that in a public hearing about the Spy Files in April, then-City Attorney Wallace Wortham said that Denver Police Department intelligence officers who are assigned to the JTTF are not bound by the new intelligence policy that forbids spying on peaceful protesters. Chief Whitman, however, told the PSRC the opposite.

According to the lawsuit filed today, the ACLU requested that Denver Police Chief Gerald Whitman release the Memorandum of Understanding between the Denver Police Department and the FBI that sets out the terms of Denver's participation in the multi-jurisdictional task force. The response came from the City Attorney's office, stating that Chief Whitman had determined that the requested document is a criminal justice record the disclosure of which "would be contrary to the public interest."

"Chief Whitman is getting very bad advice from his lawyers," Silverstein said. "In other cities around the country that participate in the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the memoranda of understanding have been treated as public records and freely disclosed to the public. Disclosure does not harm the public interest. On the contrary, disclosure serves the public interest."

Today's lawsuit, ACLU of Colorado v. City and County of Denver, was filed in Denver District Court by ACLU cooperating attorney Bruce Jones of Holland & Hart. 

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