Based on the new
Federal Bureau of Investigation manual on “Domestic Investigations
and Operations,” 14,000 FBI agents can now spy on and infiltrate
political groups without even pretending to have a basis. They can
set up surveillance squads on people and go through their trash
without even pretending to have a basis. They can run people’s
names through databases without even having to record what they have
done.
These new
policies are all meant to give FBI agents free rein on the
“assessment” category of cases, which are opened on individuals
and organizations for whom they have no firm evidence to suspect
criminal or terrorist activity. According to the New York Times, the
FBI opens thousands of such “assessment” cases every month. The
new rules make it easier for agents to surreptitiously attend
meetings of such organizations. They allow agents to search the trash
of individuals so as to find materials that can then be used to
pressure them into becoming informants.
The FBI has
called such new policies more “fine-tuning than major changes,”
and asserts that they do not require Congressional approval.
There is no
evidence that the judiciary has any intention of curbing the
ever-expanding “national security state.” Quite the contrary.
Just a few days after the FBI rules were announced, the Supreme Court
ruled 7-2 that evidence found in unconstitutional police searches is
admissible in court as long as the police were following precedent.
The ruling guts the “exclusionary rule” protection that has long
been used to protect defendants and essentially encourages police
departments to rewrite their search policies as broadly as they want.
Joining the conservatives in the decision were Justices Elena Kagan
and Sonio Sotomayor, Obama’s so-called “liberal” appointees.
The Obama
administration has often taken the lead in the onslaught on civil
liberties. It has defended and continued Bush’s policy of
warrantless wiretapping. It has prosecuted more vigorously than
perhaps any prior administration whistle-blowers who have attempted
to unveil unconstitutional programs.
Congress is no
better. While a few representatives raised objections, in late May
the Republican House, Democratic Senate, and Democratic White House
worked together to extend the Patriot Act for another four years.
Police and
security agencies are employing countless policies and programs—as
well as off-the-books practices—that trample upon civil liberties
and the well-advertised right to free speech. The Fourth Amendment in
particular, which protects individuals from unreasonable search and
seizure, has been shredded from all directions. We see it in the
National Security Letter provisions, which give the FBI authority to
demand personal customer records from internet providers, banks and
credit companies (without court approval or oversight). We see it in
the stop-and-frisk policy employed by the New York Police Department,
among others, used to harass and search Black and Latino young men in
particular.
Some critics of
the all-sided attack on civil liberties portray it as a legacy of the
Bush administration. Others see it as an overreaction to the
September 11 attacks. In reality, the problem is much deeper.
The natural
tendency of the modern capitalist state—organized to protect the
economic domination of the few—is to continuously restrict,
monitor, and record the activity and speech of the many. They aim to
obstruct and isolate potential critics, while intimidating and
incarcerating entire communities which they consider to be surplus
populations.
How can this be
stopped? The FBI’s infamous Counter-Intelligence Program
(COINTELPRO), aimed at weakening and destroying revolutionary and
progressive social movements, was formally brought into the light by
Congress in the Church Committee. But this was not because of
enlightened representatives. Rather it reflected the fact that the
defeat in Vietnam, and the corresponding radicalization of millions,
had threatened the legitimacy of the system as a whole.
Congress went so
far as to draft legislation that would have made political
surveillance illegal, but pulled back when the new FBI Director
Clarence Kelley promised the agency would reform itself.
We can see that
elements of COINTELPRO have been rebuilt bit by bit, as the people’s
movemetns of the 1960s and 1970s have receded. The capitalist class,
whether led by Republicans or Democrats, has used the opportunity to
again target dissent—as was strikingly shown in the FBI raids on
anti-war activists last year. The Coalition to Stop FBI Repression
www.StopFBI.net
has formed to take up their fight. History has shown that attacks on
civil liberties begin, and new police tactics are employed, to target
specific groups, but then are expanded to ever-larger sections of the
population. This is a fight for all of us; we need a movement to stop,
and ultimately replace, the capitalists’ “national security
state.”
