ACLU calls state police spying files 'a joke'

BALTIMORE - The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland and some of the more than 50 activists mistakenly classified as terrorists by the Maryland State Police are calling for more disclosure by the agency after receiving heavily redacted files linked to a covert surveillance program.

The files shed some light on how individuals in anti-war, anti-death-penalty and environmental groups were described in a police database. The pages show when their entries were created, mention their involvement in activist groups and attendance at meetings or protests, sometimes include photographs, and list their "Primary Crimes" under designations such as "Terrorism - Anti-War Protestors" or "Terrorism - Environmental Extremists."

But almost entire pages are blacked out, particularly the "Narrative" portions that would provide details of state police actions.

Those redactions prevent full disclosure of the motivations, purpose and extent of the surveillance, said David Rocah, an attorney for the ACLU, who pledged the group will use "every legal tool at our disposal to get what our clients are entitled to."

"It shouldn't take lawsuits from the ACLU to pry this information loose," he said yesterday at a news conference. "If we have to do it the hard way, we will do it the hard way."

Mr. Rocah said the stakeholders are not satisfied with the response from Gov. Martin O'Malley. Although Mr. O'Malley was not governor at the time of the surveillance, he is in charge of state police now, the attorney said.

"The files that have been released are a joke," Mr. Rocah said. "The state police need to give an explanation."

The surveillance, already the subject of a state senate hearing and blistering report from former Maryland Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs, has been explained by the state police as part of a 14-month effort in 2005 and 2006 to monitor regional protest groups and make sure they would not disrupt scheduled executions.

No criminal activity by these groups was found, however, and both Mr. O'Malley and Col. Terrence Sheridan, the superintendent of the state police, have pledged prolonged surveillance of activist groups will not occur without evidence of wrongdoing.

Documents released to the ACLU were created as late as Jan. 10, 2007, and accessed as recently as July 24, one week after the organization first publicly discussed the surveillance.

The files also show that an undercover trooper attended a meeting of the Frederick Progressive Action Coalition in September 2006 and members of the national peace advocacy organization CODEPINK were placed in their database, even though the ACLU said the individuals from that group have never attended a protest or done direct organizing in the state.

But incidents appearing outside of the original 14-month window related to death-penalty protests should not be categorically grouped together as a wider net of surveillance, said Greg Shipley, a state police spokesman.

State police will always observe situations pertaining to public safety, he said, and meetings such as the one in Frederick were not continually covered once the worries were shown to be unfounded.

"These actions were incident-based in response to intelligence information, and proposed events or actions, that led to concerns of public safety," Mr. Shipley said. "If there was nothing there, police went on."

The files disbursed by the state police are in compliance with the recommendations of the Sachs report, he said, and the agency will comply with any subsequent Public Information Act requests from the ACLU.

Concerns about the program, however, have reached all the way to the U.S. Capitol.

Maryland Democratic U.S. Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin and Barbara A. Mikulski sent a letter with U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, this week to law enforcement and intelligence agencies in order to find out how much state police information ended up in federal hands.

In response to the ACLU, Shaun Adamec, a spokesman for Mr. O'Malley, said the governor has taken proactive steps to address the issue. Those include convening an independent investigation and working with Col. Sheridan to implement new regulations aimed at preventing the surveillance from occurring again.

The ACLU reiterated its call for legislation yesterday, but Mr. Adamec said Mr. O'Malley is satisfied with the implementation of the new rules.

"That was at the governor's urging," he said. "The governor is confident in Col. Sheridan that the regulations in place … will prevent future incidents of this kind."