Following up on previous reports that Maryland state police engaged in surveillance of local peace and anti-death penalty groups during the administration of former Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich (R), the Washington Postnow details some new findings. Those who were labeled as terrorist reviewed their records and apparently, “a trooper working for the program had used an alias to join the group’s e-mail list.”
A review by The Washington Post of those and other files given in recent days to many of the 53 Maryland activists who were wrongly labeled as terrorists in state and federal databases shows an intelligence operation eager to collect information on the protest plans of a broad swath of nonviolent groups from 2005 to at least early 2007. Those groups included not only death penalty and Iraq war protesters who were spied on by undercover troopers in a 2005-06 surveillance operation exposed in July, but also those who opposed abortion, the manufacture of cluster munitions, globalization and the government’s expansion of biodefense research at Fort Detrick.
“The individuals are listed under headings for ‘terrorism’ with such labels as ‘anti-war protestors,’ ‘threats,’ ‘environmental extremists’ and ‘anarchists,’ although there is no explanation why any of the groups or individuals would be considered terror threats or extremist groups.”