FBI Releases Documents

The FBI has released highly redacted documents on Sarah Bardwell and Scott Silber in response to FOIA requests filed by the ACLU in December 2004.

Sarah Bardwell was an intern at the American Friends Services Committee in 2004 when agents of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, accompanied by Denver police in SWAT gear, suddenly appeared at the home in Denver where she lives with other antiwar and social justice activists. FBI releases documents on Bardwell (pdf)

Scott Silber has worked as an organizer for the Service International Employees Union and as an activist organization centered on the CU Boulder campus called 180-11. In July 2004, the FBI called Mr. Silber and asked him to come to the FBI office for a chat. FBI releases documents on Silber (pdf)

People Involved in the ACLU's FOIA Request
Georgia | Idaho | Kentucky | Maine |
Massachusetts | Missouri | North Carolina | Wisconsin

Reverend Raymond Payne is a United Methodist Minister from Russell, Kentucky. Last October, Canadian border officials interrogated Reverend Payne for more than an hour as he attempted to enter Canada for a vacation with his wife. According to Reverend Payne, the officials informed him that the interrogation was triggered because he is the subject of an FBI file. Reverend Payne has never been arrested, been charged with a crime, or participated in a protest. Payne FOIA request (pdf)

GEORGIA
> Women's Action for New Directions is a national organization located in Atlanta that empowers women to act politically to reduce violence and militarism, and redirect excessive military resources toward unmet human and environmental needs.

> The Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition is a diverse group of community organizations, faith-based institutions, students, local organizations and individuals from across Georgia working for global justice and peace. It calls for foreign and domestic policies leading to true social justice and economic security.

> School of the Americas Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement working to close the SOA and to change U.S. foreign policy in Latin America by educating the public, lobbying Congress and participating in creative, nonviolent resistance.

> Atlanta Refuse & Resist! was formed in 1987 by artists, lawyers, activists and others who saw an alarming trend in the U.S. toward greater state control and repression. Refuse & Resist! is a non-partisan, national membership organization.

> Tabitha Fringe Chase is a self-described anarchist and a street medic for demonstrations and protests.

IDAHO
> The Idaho Progressive Student Alliance is a non-partisan student group, whose mission is to work for social, economic and environmental justice, and acknowledges the interconnections of all issues, political movements and life. The IPSA organizes and participates in education campaigns and conducts an annual training for its members every year. The IPSA, among several organizations, implemented a campaign to support the Immokalee workers in Florida in their struggle to improve working conditions. After joining a boycott of Taco Bell, officers of the IPSA were singled out for questioning by FBI agents in Idaho. IPSA officers were asked why they supported the Immokalee campaign, whether they planned any "direct action" or other "violent" activity in or around the Taco Bell Arena, as set forth in the section below, the individuals answered that IPSA was a non-violent organization.

> Arielle Anderson is the current President of The Idaho Progressive Student Alliance. In March 2004 Anderson was questioned by the FBI about a Taco Bell boycott that had already ended.

> Audra Green is a member and Secretary of The Idaho Progressive Student Alliance. In March 2004 Green was contacted by phone by Idaho FBI agents about a Taco Bell boycott that had already ended.

KENTUCKY
> Louisville Peace Action Community is dedicated to peace, justice and the world community. The organization's goals are to educate and impact public opinion through creative non-violent action, the use of technology and lifestyle changes. It strives to build local and national coalitions in order to restore participatory democracy and to act as an outlet for alternative voices in order to promote human rights, economic justice and self-determination for all people.

> Patriots for Peace is a national non-profit organization designed to inspire individuals and support groups in promoting and achieving peaceful solutions to global controversy.

> Joseph Craig Rhodes, a retired high school teacher.

> Joyce L. Merryman Kemp, a peace activist.

> Heniard Gergory Waldrop, a peace activist

> Kevin Barry Murphy, founding member of the Paducah group Patriots for Peace

> Reverend George and Jean Edwards, active in the Presbyterian Church and in the peace movement. They have resisted paying that portion of their taxes which would be used to fund military operations.

> William Kenneth "Ken" Nevitt, founding member and facilitator of the Louisville Peace Action Committee.

> Chris Harmer, a peace and social justice activist.

> Reverend Gilbert Schroerlucke, a retired United Methodist Church minister.

MAINE
> Peace Action Maine is the state's largest peace organization. The group has worked for over 20 years to promote peace through grassroots organizing, citizen education and issue advocacy. Peace Action Maine is a voice of education and a center for all people committed to disarmament and creative responses to conflict.

> Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice is a statewide organization of individual citizens and Maine group representatives working collectively and nonviolently for social equality, economic justice, direct democracy and regenerative environmental policies.

> Veterans for Peace Maine Chapter is a non-profit educational and humanitarian organization dedicated to the abolishment of war. Members, having dutifully served their nation, affirm their greater responsibility to serve the cause of world peace. To this end they work with others toward increasing public awareness of the costs of war; to restrain our government from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations; to end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons; to seek justice for veterans and victims of war; to abolish war as an instrument of national policy.

> Shenna Bellows is the Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union. Formerly an organizer with the ACLU National Legislative Office in Washington, D.C., Bellows has made speeches across Maine and across the country about threats to civil liberties contained in the Patriot Act.

> Zachary Heiden is the Staff Attorney at the Maine Civil Liberties Union. Heiden has acted as an advocate for protestors and demonstrators throughout Maine, including individuals gathered to protest President Bush's visit to Maine on Earth Day 2004.

> Tom Ewell, Executive Director of the Maine Council of Churches, has helped with the planning and organization of numerous peace rallies and demonstrations across Maine to promote an end to militarism as an instrument of foreign policy. A member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Ewell also is actively involved with the American Friends Service Committee, which has come under FBI surveillance in Illinois and elsewhere. Ewell serves on the Maine Board of Prison Visitors, the Maine Interfaith Mentoring Program and the Communities for Children, and recently served as President of the Maine Coalition to End Homelessness.

> Greg Field is the Executive Director of Peace Action Maine. He has organized and participated in numerous rallies, marches and demonstrations across Maine, including anti-war rallies in Augusta in 2003 and 2004. In his capacity at Peace Action Maine, Field has organized Maine delegations to national protests in New York City and Washington, D.C.

> Sally Breen is a board member of Peace Action Maine. Breen has been involved in the movement to abolish nuclear weapons and in the struggle to protect the environment. Breen has participated in protests across the country, including events at the Bath Iron Works, the Indonesian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and the Los Alamos Research Laboratory in New Mexico. In January 2003, Breen participated in a sit-in at the office of Senator Olympia Snowe to prevail upon the senator to vote against going to war with Iraq.

> Wells Staley-Mays is a board member of Peace Action Maine and an activist in human rights causes. Staley-Mays started the Diversity Networking Project, as part of Peace Action Maine, to act as an advocate for refugees from Somalia and Sudan settling in Maine. Staley-Mays serves as an advisor to a number of community groups dedicated to serving East African refugees in Maine.

> Timothy Sullivan is a coordinator of the Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice. He was one of the primary organizers of the March for Truth, held in Augusta in March 2004 to show opposition to the war in Iraq and to support better pay and benefits for members of the armed services and their families.

> Margaret "Peggy" Akers is a Nurse Practitioner and the Vice President of Veterans For PeaceMaine Chapter. Akers served in the United States Army from 1967 to 1972. She is an outspoken critic of current U.S. foreign policy and was a featured speaker at the "March for Truth" in Augusta in March 2004.

> Doug Rawlings is the President of Veterans For PeaceMaine Chapter. Rawlings served in the United States Army from 1969-70.

> John "Jack" Bussell is a board member of Veterans For PeaceMaine Chapter. Bussell served in the United States Army from 1959-1979. He is active in the Plowshares Support Group, which provides support for a group of nuns currently serving federal prison sentences for protesting at the Bath Iron Works.

> Kate Brennan is the chair of the Board of Directors of the Many and One Coalition, an organization dedicated to working for the end of racism and all forms of hatred, prejudice, discrimination and oppression in our communities, and for the construction of safe, peaceful, and just communities for everyone. Brennan teaches citizenship classes and English for speakers of other languages at the Adult Learning Center in Lewiston. She has been a featured speaker at a number of rallies and demonstrations.

> Stephen Wessler is the Director of the Center for the Prevention of Hate Violence and is a board member of the Maine Civil Liberties Union.

> Bernie Huebner is board member of the Maine Civil Liberties Union. In 2002, Huebner was the spokesperson for opponents of a mandatory fingerprinting requirement for public school teachers, which resulted in numerous encounters with the FBI. Huebner resigned his teaching position in protest of the fingerprinting requirement.

> Jonah Fertig is a coordinator of the People's Free Space. He also helps direct the "Victory Gardens" project in Maine, which uses community gardening to promote sustainable agriculture, self-determination and community gardening.

MASSACHUSETTS
> American Friends Service Committee, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947, carries out service, development, social justice and peace programs throughout the world. Founded by Quakers in 1917, its work is based on the Quaker belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.

> American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Massachusetts Chapter is a non-profit civil rights advocacy organization committed to eradicating discrimination against people of Arab descent and promoting their rich cultural heritage. ADC, the largest Arab-American grassroots organization in the United States, has documented government abuse of Arab-Americans in the aftermath of September 11, and protested new immigration procedures, interrogation techniques and the detention of Arab-Americans.

MISSOURI
> St. Louis Instead of War Coalition is a group, made up of approximately a dozen local organizations, including the Catholic Action Network, the Center for Theology & Social Analysis, the Peace Economy Project, Alternatives to Military Service, the St. Louis chapter of Women in Black, the St. Louis Chapter of Labor Against War and the Human Rights Action Service, dedicated to enhancing public awareness about the war in Iraq, the policies that led to that war, the reasons which have not been borne out, and the number of casualties in the war. The organization serves as a voice of dissent in the St. Louis area and holds weekly meetings, rallies and marches.

> Human Rights Action Service is an organization of human rights activists who meet to support victims of human rights abuse using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a barometer. They engage in letter-writing, non-violent direct action and consumer boycotts of companies and corporate products.

> Bolozone is a loosely-knit group of activists who identify as anarchists dedicated to social justice issues. Specifically, they are dedicated to making fundamental changes in American society related to the destruction of the earth and the domination of people, and they oppose corporate power.

> Gateway Green Alliance is an organization dedicated to making fundamental changes in American society related to environmental and social justice issues. The group addresses the public through weekly local educational programs, produces newsletters and manages a website.

> Council on American-Islamic Relations is a civil rights advocacy organization that protects the rights of Muslims in the United States and strives to portray an accurate image of Islam to the American public.

> Islamic Foundation of St. Louis is a mosque in the St. Louis area and is a primarily educational organization in the community. It partners with the Islamic Society to promote public education about Muslims, to build bridges with the general American community and to correct misconceptions about Islam through public speakers and presentations.

> The St. Louis chapter of Women in Black is a network of like-minded individuals that holds vigils to protest war, rape as a tool of war, ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses all over the world.

> Alliance for Democracy is a political organization with chapters throughout the country. The organization focuses on workers' rights and corporate accountability and stands against corporate abuses of the environment and their employees.

> American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri has provided direct representation to individuals and organizations targeted by the FBI and state and local police for exercising their First Amendment right to criticize the government, including people who participated in numerous rallies and marches to protest the war in Iraq, and who were excluded from meaningful participation at public presidential speeches. ACLU of Eastern Missouri advocates have also used litigation, lobbying and public education to limit oppressive FBI and state and local police monitoring, interrogation and arrest of people at public rallies, marches and meetings.

> Chris Scheets, Daniel Coate and Ben Garrett are political activists. Scheets, Garrett and Coate were questioned and put under surveillance by the FBI's JTTF in the weeks preceding the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. The three young men, who have no history of violent activity, were also subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury on July 29, the date of their scheduled protest, which prevented them from traveling to Boston to protest the convention as they had planned. To date, no charges have been filed. The FBI's actions directly prevented the three from engaging in a peaceful protest and have caused the men to question their ability to continue to be politically active.

> Bill Ramsey is a local peace activist and the Executive Director of Human Rights Action Service who has spent decades resisting war through non-violent protests and tax resistance. He is already aware that the FBI has a file on him and received a copy of that file in 1976. Since 1971, Ramsey has been arrested numerous times for nonviolent protests. Most recently, he was arrested twice when peacefully protesting the visits of President Bush (November 2002 and April 2004).

> Bill Quick is a St. Louis attorney affiliated with the National Lawyers' Guild who sits on the Steering Committee of the St. Louis Instead of War Coalition (IWC). Quick has been active with the IWC Patriot Act Working Group, the Center for Theology and Social Analysis and the International Solidarity Movement. He regularly participates in seminars and discussion groups about the war in Iraq, Guantánamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and Israel/Palestine. Quick planned and lead a protest rally at the Boeing Missile Facility in Missouri. He runs the Web site for the IWC and has noticed that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department visits the site every day.

> Hedy Epstein is a peace activist with Women in Black, the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Instead of War Coalition. An activist for more than 50 years, Epstein is aware that the FBI has a file on her, which she previously requested in the 1980's and 1990's. Epstein has made two trips to the Middle East and West Bank as a peace activist and human rights monitor. On those trips, her name was flagged at the airport, and on one occasion she was detained, questioned and strip-searched. During the 1950s, Epstein was questioned by the House Un-American Activities Committee because of her political views and saw that the FBI had a thick file on her even then.

> Wilson "Woody" Powell is a leader of the St. Louis chapter of Veterans for Peace and former Executive Director of Veterans for Peace. He engages in public dissent against the Bush administration's policies, protests war, including the war in Iraq, and asks for better treatment of veterans.

> Jim Hacking served as an attorney for Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) until January 2005.

> Richard LaMonica is the chair of the St. Louis chapter of the Alliance for Democracy and is involved with workers' rights, anti-war and anti-genetic engineering activities. The Alliance for Democracy and the Ohio chapter have been confirmed to be under FBI surveillance.

> Joan Suarez is actively involved with the Instead of War Coalition, Jobs with Justice, the Peace Economy Project and U.S. Labor Against the War, as well as the Immigrant's Rights Task Force. Her groups regularly engage in protests and demonstrations.

> Molly Dupre is a social activist who has been affiliated with environmental and anti-globalization groups. She is a founding member of People Over Profits, a member of Earth First, Heartwood, Cascadia Forest Lands, the St. Louis Independent Media Center, the Community Arts and Media Project, Missouri Resistance Against Genetic Engineering, Jobs for Justice and the Coalition Against Police Crime and Repression.

> Sheila Musaji is a religious activist who is actively involved in religious, peace and justice issues. She is editor of The American Muslim magazine, a member of Women in Black, the Interfaith Partnership, the Islamic Foundation of St. Louis and the director of the Islamic Speakers Bureau of St. Louis.

> Sheikh Nur Abdullah is the Imam/president of the Islamic Foundation of St. Louis and is religiously active in the St. Louis area. He also belongs to the Islamic Society of North America and the Interfaith Partnership. Sheikh Nur has been stopped at airports and scrutinized at airline ticket counters every time he has traveled since September 11th. Airport officials have informed him that his name may match that of a suspected terrorist. In addition, since September 11, 2001, FBI agents have interviewed Sheikh Nur at least once a year about potential "suspects/terrorists" or suspicious people at the Islamic Foundation.

> Gulten Ilhan is the Vice President of the St. Louis chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. She has been a delegate for the Democratic Party and is the township president for the Democratic Party.

> Kelley Meister is a founding member of Bolozone, a loosely-knit group of activists who identify as anarchists dedicated to social justice issues and a collective urban living experiment in St. Louis. Meister has attended several anti-war demonstrations and is involved with an anarchistic coalition. Meister was arrested when the Bolozone house was raided by members of the St. Louis Police Department, ostensibly as part of a building inspection / condemnation.

> Erica Wiggins is a political activist. She has attended numerous political and anti-war protests. She has been involved at a housing cooperative with political protest and women's health issues. In July 2004, FBI agents approached Erica's parents, allegedly in an attempt to contact Erica. They also questioned her parents' neighbors about her.

> Elizabeth Schaefer is a St. Louis political activist who has been involved in various anarchist causes.

> Denise Lieberman is the Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. Lieberman and the ACLU of Eastern Missouri have provided direct representation to individuals and organizations targeted by the FBI and state and local police for exercising their First Amendment right to criticize the government, including people who participated in numerous rallies and marches to protest the war in Iraq, and who were excluded from meaningful participation at public presidential speeches.

NORTH CAROLINA
> ACLU of North Carolina works to secure, protect and defend the freedoms and civil liberties of all North Carolinians through litigation, legislation and public education.

> Student Peace Action Network is a grassroots peace and justice organization working from campuses across the United States. They organize to end physical, social and economic violence caused by militarism at home and abroad; campaign for nuclear abolition; support a foreign policy based on human rights and international cooperation; and push for a domestic agenda that supports human and environmental concerns, not Pentagon excess.

> North Carolina Campus Greens is a national, student-based, non-profit organization dedicated to building a broad-based movement for radical democracy on high school and college campuses in the United States. Campus Greens works throughout the year, both on and off campus, serving the community and promoting Green Party politics. Members of this organization aim to become effective agents of social change, able to overcome the world's gravest problems, and to aid in the construction of a society based on grassroots democracy, ecology, social justice and non-violence.

> North Carolina Food Not Bombs is part of a larger, growing movement to share free vegetarian food with hungry people and protest war and poverty throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia. Food Not Bombs works to end to the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine. It also supports actions against the globalization of the economy, restrictions to the movements of people and the destruction of the earth.

> Brad Goodnight is a member of the North Carolina State University Campus Greens. He has been interviewed by members of the Raleigh Police Department and of the FBI's JTTF.

WISCONSIN
> Islamic Foundation of Greater Milwaukee is the largest mosque in the Milwaukee area, and has been visited by local FBI agents on numerous occasions. Agents sought to solicit agreement from the leadership that they would alert the FBI to any suspicious individuals or activities. The FBI has also contacted many members of the mosque separately.

> Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba (formerly the Milwaukee Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba): Several members are being prosecuted for travel to Cuba. The organization maintains an extensive e-mail list and hosts frequent educational events open to the public.

> Peace Action Wisconsin is the statewide affiliate of the national antiwar and social justice group. The ACLU of Wisconsin has obtained, through state open records requests, copies of "Daily Protest Reports" prepared by members of the Milwaukee Police Department's "Intelligence Division" that record surveillance of street protests. This surveillance is fairly open, with uniformed officers and videotaping and overt questioning of event organizers.

> National Lawyers Guild, Milwaukee Chapter has trained and provided legal observers for protests and coordinates a number of political efforts, including a Judicial Watch program that protested Justice Scalia's speech at Marquette Law School and Justice Rehnquist's acceptance of an alumni award at Shorewood High School.

> George Martin is Program Director for Peace Action. His name appears frequently in the Daily Protest Reports compiled by Milwaukee police.

> Arthur Heitzer is a civil rights attorney and long-time activist involved in Peace Action, the Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba and the National Lawyers Guild. At one time, he ran a labor-leftist bookstore that was the target of the Milwaukee "red squads."

> Steve Watrous is a long-time Milwaukee activist. His name and intercepted e-mails from him appeared in files obtained by the ACLU of Colorado. His name came up in connection with 1999-2000 protests against Kohls Department Stores by members of the Wisconsin Fair Trade Coalition.

> Karyn Rotker is a Wisconsin Civil Liberties Union staff attorney who has been involved in dissent activities in Madison and Milwaukee. Her name appeared in documents obtained by the ACLU of Colorado in connection with the 1999-2000 protests against Kohls Department Stores.

 


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