AP: NYPD ‘Infiltrated’ Liberal Groups in Order to Monitor Them
- Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:22pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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Editor’s note: the following is an investigative piece by the Associated Press. We have presented it in its entirety.*
NEW YORK (AP) — Undercover NYPD officers attended meetings of liberal political organizations and kept intelligence files on activists who planned protests around the country, according to interviews and documents that show how police have used counterterrorism tactics to monitor even lawful activities.
The infiltration echoes the tactics the NYPD used in the run-up to New York’s 2004 Republican National Convention, when police monitored church groups, anti-war organizations and environmental advocates nationwide. That effort was revealed by The New York Times in 2007 and in an ongoing federal civil rights lawsuit over how the NYPD treated convention protesters.
Police said the pre-convention spying was necessary to prepare for the huge, raucous crowds that were headed to the city. But documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the police department’s intelligence unit continued to keep close watch on political groups in 2008, long after the convention had passed.
In April 2008, an undercover NYPD officer traveled to New Orleans to attend the People’s Summit, a gathering of liberal groups organized around their shared opposition to U.S. economic policy and the effect of trade agreements between the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
When the undercover effort was summarized for supervisors, it identified groups opposed to U.S. immigration policy, labor laws and racial profiling. Two activists – Jordan Flaherty, a journalist, and Marisa Franco, a labor organizer for housekeepers and nannies – were mentioned by name in one of the police intelligence reports obtained by the AP.
“One workshop was led by Jordan Flaherty, former member of the International Solidarity Movement Chapter in New York City,” officers wrote in an April 25, 2008, memo to David Cohen, the NYPD’s top intelligence officer. “Mr. Flaherty is an editor and journalist of the Left Turn Magazine and was one of the main organizers of the conference. Mr. Flaherty held a discussion calling for the increase of the divestment campaign of Israel and mentioned two events related to Palestine.”
The document is available here: http://apne.ws/GGCBuX .
The document provides the latest example of how, in the name of fighting terrorism, law enforcement agencies around the country have scrutinized groups that legally oppose government policies. The FBI, for instance, has collected information on anti-war demonstrators. The Maryland state police infiltrated meetings of anti-death penalty groups. Missouri counterterrorism analysts suggested that support for Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, might indicate support for violent militias – an assertion for which state officials later apologized. And Texas officials urged authorities to monitor lobbying efforts by pro Muslim-groups.
Police have good reason to want to know what to expect when protesters take to the streets. Many big cities, such as Seattle in 1999, Cincinnati in 2001 and Toledo in 2005, have seen protests turned into violent, destructive riots. Intelligence from undercover officers gives police an idea of what to expect and lets them plan accordingly.
“There was no political surveillance,” Cohen testified in the ongoing lawsuit over NYPD’s handling of protesters at the Republican convention. “This was a program designed to determine in advance the likelihood of unlawful activity or acts of violence.”
The result of those efforts, however, was that people and organizations can be cataloged in police files for discussing political topics or advocating even legal protests, not violence or criminal activity.
By contrast, at the height of the Occupy Wall Street protests and in related protests in other cities, officials at the U.S. Homeland Security Department repeatedly urged authorities not to produce intelligence reports based simply on protest activities.
“Occupy Wall Street-type protesters mostly are engaged in constitutionally protected activity,” department officials wrote in documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the website Gawker. “We maintain our longstanding position that DHS should not report on activities when the basis for reporting is political speech.”
At the NYPD, the monitoring was carried out by the Intelligence Division, a squad that operates with nearly no outside oversight and is so secretive that police said even its organizational chart is too sensitive to publish. The division has been the subject of a series of Associated Press articles that illustrated how the NYPD monitored Muslim neighborhoods, catalogued people who prayed at mosques and eavesdropped on sermons.
The AP left phone messages with Cohen and two NYPD press officers last week seeking comment about the undercover operation in New Orleans. They did not return the calls.
The NYPD has defended its efforts, saying the threat of terrorism means officers cannot wait to open an investigation until a crime is committed. Under rules governing NYPD investigations, officers are allowed to go anywhere the public can go and can prepare reports for “operational planning.”
Though the NYPD’s infiltration of political groups before the 2004 convention generated some controversy and has become an element in a lawsuit over the arrest, fingerprinting and detention of protesters, the surveillance itself has not been challenged in court.
Flaherty, who also writes for The Huffington Post, said he was not an organizer of the summit, as police wrote in the NYPD report. He said the event described by police actually was a film festival in New Orleans that same week, suggesting that the undercover officer’s duties were more widespread than described in the report.
Flaherty said he recalls introducing a film about Palestinians but spoke only briefly and does not understand why that landed him a reference in police files.
“The only threat was the threat of ideas,” he said. “I think this idea of secret police following you around is terrifying. It really has an effect of spreading fear and squashing dissent.”
Before the terrorist attacks of September 2001, infiltrating political groups was one of the most tightly controlled powers the NYPD could use. Such investigations were restricted by a longstanding court order in a lawsuit over the NYPD’s spying on protest groups in the 1960s.
After the attacks, Cohen told a federal judge that, to keep the city safe, police must be allowed to open investigations before there’s evidence of a crime. A federal judge agreed and relaxed the rules.
Since then, police have monitored not only suspected terrorists but also entire Muslim neighborhoods, mosques, restaurants and law-abiding protesters.
Keeping tabs on planned demonstrations is a key function of Cohen’s division. Investigators with his Cyber Intelligence Unit monitor websites of activist groups, and undercover officers put themselves on email distribution lists for upcoming events. Plainclothes officers collect fliers on public demonstrations. Officers and informants infiltrate the groups and attend rallies, parades and marches.
Intelligence analysts take all this information and distill it into summaries for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s daily briefing, documents show.
The April 2008 memo offers an unusually candid view of how political monitoring fit into the NYPD’s larger, post-9/11 intelligence mission. As the AP has reported previously, Cohen’s unit has transformed the NYPD into one of the most aggressive domestic intelligence agencies in the United States, one that infiltrated Muslim student groups, monitored their websites and used informants as listening posts inside mosques.
Along with the political monitoring, the document describes plans to use informants to monitor mosques for conversations about the imminent verdict in the trial of three NYPD officers charged in the 2006 shooting death of Sean Bell, an unarmed man who died in a hail of gunfire. Police were worried about how the black community, particularly the New Black Panther Party, would respond to the verdict, according to this and other documents obtained by the AP.
The document also contained details of a whitewater rafting trip that an undercover officer attended with Muslim students from City College New York.
“The group prayed at least four times a day, and much of the conversation was spent discussing Islam and was religious in nature,” the report reads.
Eugene Puryear, 26, an activist who attended the New Orleans summit, said he was not surprised to learn that police were monitoring it. He said it was entirely peaceful, a way to connect community organizers around the issues of racism and the rights of the poor. But he described it as a challenge to corporate power and said the NYPD probably felt threatened by it.
“From their perspective, they need to spy on peaceful groups so they’re not effective at putting out their peaceful message,” he said. “They are threatened by anything challenging the status quo.”
—
View the document: http://apne.ws/GGCBuX
*Editor’s note: an earlier version of this story said the FBI conducted the monitoring. It is actually the NYPD that is accused of monitoring liberal groups.
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Comments (53)
SkySoldier
Posted on March 24, 2012 at 3:31pmIf you would like to see the list of all the words that the Department of Homeland Secuirty uses to troll the internet looking for innocent people to spy on, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) uses a Freedom of Information Act request to get a hold of it. SO here it is in all of its jackbooted glory. Enjoy! (please note that this list only covers the DHS and is most likely not all inclusive)
http://epic.org/foia/epic-v-dhs-media-monitoring/Analyst-Desktop-Binder-REDACTED.pdf
Report Post »wntsmallgov
Posted on March 26, 2012 at 12:19amDHS has FBI looking at TEA Party, The 912 project, Fox News, The blaze and all other Republican news outlets. the NDAA says they can hold a US Citizen for any reason for any length of time.. The Military is allowed to be used as a police force within the US.
So they are watching and counting how many times we call obama out for being wrong.
Report Post »Have a good night DHS
Sleazy Hippo
Posted on March 24, 2012 at 8:31amOvengerK-Shame shoves its own news and is a Sorosity troll.
Report Post »happ77
Posted on March 24, 2012 at 7:56amAt least somebody knows who the real enemies are.
Report Post »Blackw0lf
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 10:23pmI cant believe this is a surprise to anyone!
Cant believe it is even a story.
What i cant believe is that with all of the personal attention those who opposes the current regime get from the government regulatory branches is why there is not more stories of that!
Report Post »But of course then I guess they would then get attention too!
Robert999
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 5:51pmEvery Communist, Liberal. Progressive, Democrat and non-Conservative is an enemy of freedom and America. Not only should these groups be investigated, they should be banned.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on March 24, 2012 at 6:30amWithout our right freedom of assembly, which is meant especially to protect political groups including those espousing unpopular causes, we wouldn’t need enemies, because we wouldn’t be America anymore.
Report Post »jeffile
Posted on March 24, 2012 at 11:49amIt’s not “freedom to assemble” but freedom to peacefully assemble. One doesn’t have a right to destroy parks, damage private property, intimidate those who oppose your views, burn cars, interfere with commerce and many other things done by the pigs. Yes, by all means protect the individuals right to “peaceably” assemble such as occurred with Glenn Beck in D.C. but groups who act like drunken college kids on spring break should be stopped by all means.
Report Post »Goldomark
Posted on March 25, 2012 at 11:56amHow fascist! Not surprising from a “reader” of the blaze.
Report Post »MONICNE
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 5:27pmGB: Blaze ‘Infiltrated’ Atheist Groups in Order to Monitor Them
Training Day!
TEA
Report Post »Mess23
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 5:23pmFINALLY=, some good news…
Report Post »Tickdog
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 4:43pmgood.. about time!
Report Post »Windsong
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 4:20pmCan someone tell me why the ‘governent’ has decided that Tea Party members were put on the ‘danger’ list? Can someone explain why the IRS is auditing hundreds of Tea Party and 9-12 groups? Can someone explain why the Tea Party has to pay exorbidant fees in order to hold a one day rally somewhere, while ‘occupy’ and/or ‘union Communist’ groups can take up residence on any public property – for no charge?
Report Post »Want to be a one party , all union system ‘Occupiers’? But be prepared to take the bad with the worse – there aren’t any other choices with Communism.
You’ll have your one party. Of course, the usual taxpayers, workers, inventors, business owners, volunteers and once concerned citizens will have unplugged from your – Sorosville world. They won’t be working, so they won’t be paying your way any more.
You’ll have all-union ‘shops’, so everyone will make an identical salary, regardless of age or experience. Of course, in Communist China, the salary is almost non-existent BUT, they do provide identical apartments with identical furniture for all ‘employees’…in exchange for a sixteen hour day.
Of course, your computer and/or phone use will be strictly monitored, so you‘ll need to make sure that you never say the things about your ’party‘ that you’ve been saying about Conservatives or Republicans or Tea Partiers, etc. Don’t forget, Communism doesn’t involve a first amendment right. When people say or do the wrong thing, they simply disappear.
infortheride
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 6:12pmObama/Holder
Report Post »swmopatriot
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 6:12pm@Windsong………..Thank you Well Done!
Report Post »TangLaoYa
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 6:36pmYou leave me speechless. There’s nothing to add.
Report Post »RepubliCorp
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 7:31pmThe best comment of the day……… thanks!
Report Post »Unix
Posted on March 24, 2012 at 12:06pmIndeed, you are correct. these ‘useful idiots’ are plotting their own demise, as well as our, they just don’t get it at all. Oh well, when the SHTF and there is anarchy on the streets of America and around the world, everyone will in a world of hurt anyway. When the ‘petro dollar’ fails, we will ALL be in the same boat – sinking fast. I hope you are preparing to feed and protect your families, the CF is just around the corner, and NO ONE WILL ESCAPE IT. July is going to be the end-game event, it be just the beginning mind you, and it will go downhill fast from there on out. PREPARE!
Report Post »yanki161
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 4:08pmGood.
Report Post »Skee
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 3:33pmI’m sure Holder has instructed the FBI too serve cookies and koolaide at
Report Post »these events.
thegreatcarnac
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 3:20pmThe FBI investigates and infiltrates more right-wing groups that leftwing. The FBI is not your friend. In fact, true Americans must realize that the federal government is our enemy in this day and time.
Report Post »db321
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 4:20pmNo our enemy is not our Government – it’s the Satan Worshipers in our Government that is our enemy. The Bible told us what would would happen in the end times and we are seeing it everyday. I’m just waiting on the day when Obama ask all of us to denounce Christ and except Obama as our savor.
I choose Eternal Life – a much better deal.
Report Post »inferno
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 3:20pmThe FBI has always infiltrated conservative groups. When disclosed, the media reports these groups as “militias”, or white supremacists. They will never report that the FBI infiltrates Communist, Progressive groups. The slant is always a violation of those groups Constitutional rights, i.e, their right ot privacy. The WSO’s comes to mind, as well as Islamist groups.
Report Post »BurntBacon
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 3:08pmAlthough I’m pleased when I find that the police are investigating some anarchy or communist group and gathering information through “infiltration”, I need to remember that the same rationale will be used to justify monitoring liberty-minded groups. This is certainly a two-edged sword. Think before slashing.
Report Post »TangLaoYa
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 6:41pmI agree with you. I think the answer is that the police have the right to attend any public event and gather any information they choose. If they sneek in to private meetings or wire tap or listen at the window it’s a different deal.
Report Post »BlackCrow
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 2:29pmSurprise, Surprise, Surprise. The FBI penetrated the Communists in the 30′s, the Klan in the 60′s. The Pinkerton‘s penetrated the Rail Road Unions in the 1870’s. Why would this surprise anybody? Don’t like it? Then you need to study OPSEC.
Report Post »Jaycen
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 2:40pmIt’s amusing to me that anyone would expect anything different from Progressives/Socialists/Communists/Marxists. Of course the monitor themselves. They trust each other less than they trust people like me. At least with me, they know where they stand. With their friends, they‘re always wondering what’s going on behind the scenes, especially since they know they’re screwing their buddies as often as possible.
People assume others are like themselves. That’s why so many Conservatives are dismayed when other people turn out to be untrustworthy or disloyal. It’s also why people like Kieth Olberman proclaim “…everyone is at least a little racist…” Since he knows he’s a racist, he assumes everyone else is, too.
Report Post »BlackCrow
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 3:05pm“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.George Santayana
Often paraphrased as “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Report Post »TheObamanation
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 2:19pmNew Yorkers and Californians want things this way. They vote for liberals … vote for gun control … and vote to shred the constitution … They want occupiers … they want their states to go bankrupt … That’s what they want … that’s what they get
Report Post »AvengerK
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 5:12pmOBAMANATION…succinct and accurate.
Report Post »Git-R-Done
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 5:38pmLiberals want this country to become a Marxist utopia.
Report Post »justangry
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:57pmSeems like the real issues is the NYPD overstepping it’s jurisdiction. Are they the new arm of the federal government? World government? Who is their master anyway?
Report Post »Walkabout
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 5:43pmGood military commanders aggressively patrol. That is they patrol beyond the boundaries of their base.
This is all the NYPD is doing.
If you are only on defense you can never when. In fact you will lose. The opposition will adapt & overcome.
Report Post »GoodCook
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:56pmHow did Holder miss this? He’ll stop it now unless of course they were infiltrating Conservative groups.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:50pmdhs says hands off? What are the other hands doing? This gov’t is a hydra, gotta watch all of the hands.
Report Post »kegbuna
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:38pmI thought Obama was using the FBI to further increase his power and push the progessive agenda, but they “infiltrated” liberal groups? Does not compute… who do we fear now?
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:47pmThey infiltrate and spy on everyone. Fear the government.
Report Post »Polarized America
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:51pmi see your starting to get it
it’s called ….GOVERMENT
Report Post »drattastic
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:55pm“liberals”think the democratic party is theirs but the truth is there is government & the elite who run things & we the sheepole. We conservatives have awoken and are trying to take back our party from the elites, liberals are helping build a more powerful government that will consume us all.
What do you liberals think will happen if you get your way & there is one party rule? You will be subjects not “the people” anymore. Pick up a book while you still can & read something that doesn’t confirm to your narrow world view. You may have already read one in high school that gives you a good look at our future, much of it is taking place now. Try“1984”
Report Post »Polarized America
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:56pmoooops…*N*
Report Post »Mateytwo Barreett
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:59pmFBI infiltrated liberal groups. Yep, and conservative groups too! Its what they do with the information that stinks. Ruby Ridge, Branch Dividian, Montana freemen, . New black panthers, who knows who else. The difference is what they do with the information. The interaction with the three conservative groups didn’t end well. You think OWS is just wandering around, for 6 months because of dedication. There is some subsurface direction and funding there. what are they for- the protest against wall street feel flat as hell- but- the groups are still there.
Report Post »Durruti
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 2:06pmReactionaries on GB learn that the left is heavily infiltrated and harassed on a nationwide scale. GB reactionaries become very confused.
Report Post »Git-R-Done
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 5:40pmDurruti – Quit acting like you left wingers are poor little victims in this country when you’re not at all.
Report Post »vox_populi
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:38pmIf they can do it to us, they can do it to you.
Report Post »THX-1138
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:38pmWhen you build a Prison the People begin to act like Prisoners.
How is this surprising?
Report Post »Marsh626
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:38pmGood. The Left is the enemy within. They host everyone from racist anti-White brown power militants to islamic jihad terrorists to environ-mental terrorists to far-left militants. The Left is a treasonous 5th column.
Report Post »Itsjusttim
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:32pmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzntZLHcYy0
Report Post »GoodCook
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:53pmIsn’t this the Democrats theme music for the 2012 elections?
Report Post »Ducky 1
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 7:27pmMy daughter uses this a a ring tone for certain people. Nice!
Report Post »Obama Nation
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:24pmVideo: Lord Monckton: Obama’s Birth Certificate Plainly a Forgery; Very Serious Matter
http://obamareleaseyourrecords.blogspot.com/2012/03/lord-monckton-obamas-birth-certificate.html
Report Post »kegbuna
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:36pmWho the heck is “lord monckton”. I thought we stopped taking advice from these lord types sometime around 1776
Report Post »THX-1138
Posted on March 23, 2012 at 1:39pm@kegbuna
Education is our friend. You have a computer. Use it…
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