Documents released by the Department of Justice on Dec. 16, 2009 show homeland security officials have been improperly collecting intelligence on American citizens and groups since 2007.  The 162 pages of “intelligence oversight reporting” were obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) after filing a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in July 2009. According to EFF, the report describes intelligence gathering activities that the agencies “have reason to believe may be unlawful.”

Activities protected by the First Amendment appear to have been targeted. The Nation of Islam, activists at an abortion rally in Wisconsin and a Muslim conference in Georgia were all subjects of intelligence reports written by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) analysts. In all three cases, homeland security officials expressed concern that there was insufficient evidence to begin any investigations and all of the reports were eventually retracted.

The documents obtained by EFF found:

  • An October 2007 report, “Nation of Islam: Uncertain Leadership Succession Poses Risks,” should not have been written because the 180-day examination period had passed without uncovering evidence of terrorist activity. DHS held a workshop on intelligence-gathering “while ensuring the protection of civil rights and civil liberties” after this report was written.

  • A February 2009 “threat assessment” written by DHS for Wisconsin police in preparation for an abortion demonstration was criticized within the department because the advocacy groups were not terrorist threats. The author of the report was given remedial training.

  • A March 2008 “terrorism watch list” that included several American citizens as speakers was created by DHS for a Muslim conference in Georgia. DHS gathered the intelligence even though it “did not have any evidence the conference or the speakers promoted radical extremism or terrorist activity,” and even though the speakers’ right to free speech is constitutionally protected.

“I think it’s a positive sign that these agencies responded to this and took steps to correct the situation,” said Marsha Hoffman, a staff lawyer at EFF.

EFF also stated that “a federal judge indicated during a hearing yesterday [December 15] that she intends to order other intelligence agencies to produce similar documents to EFF by Feb. 2, 2010. We expect those disclosures to include reports from the CIA, Department of Defense and the Defense Intelligence Agency.”