US anti-war activists wonder who they can trust

AMERICA:A Freedom of Information request this week revealed a spy operating among protest groups

WITHIN THE small community of anti-war activists in the port city of Olympia, in Washington state, John Jacob was a popular, hard-working organiser who helped to plan peaceful protests at the nearby Fort Lewis military base.

His friends knew that Jacob was a civilian employee at the base but they trusted him enough to make him a co-ordinator of their listserv, a computerised mailing list that gave him access to the personal details of activists and supporters.

“He was a friend of mine. We hung out. We gave workshops together on grassroots direct democracy and anarchist struggle. I mean, he was a friend. A lot of people really, really did like him. He was a kind person. He was a generous person,” Olympia anti-war activist Brendan Maslauskas Dunn told the daily political broadcast Democracy Now! this week.

Last week, Dunn discovered that his friend John Jacob was in fact John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Unit at Fort Lewis, who had been spying on the anti-war group for two years.

“He admitted that, yes, he did in fact spy on us. He did in fact infiltrate us,” Dunn said.

“He admitted that he did pass on information to an intelligence network, which . . . was composed of dozens of law enforcement agencies, ranging from municipal to county to state to regional, and several federal agencies, including Immigration Customs Enforcement, Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI, Homeland Security, the army in Fort Lewis.”

A spokesman at the army base confirmed this week that John Towery “performs sensitive work within the installation law enforcement community” and the army has launched an investigation into his activities.

Dunn, who is a member of Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarisation Resistance, uncovered Towery’s true identity when he made a Freedom of Information Act request for communications between the Olympia police and the military that referred to anarchists.

The trawl of documents produced evidence that Towery was feeding information on the activists to one of dozens of “fusion centres” throughout the US that share intelligence between numerous law enforcement agencies and the military.

In an e-mail to an Olympia police officer last year, Thomas Glapion, Chief Investigations/Intel of New Jersey’s McGuire Air Force, wrote: “Good morning, first let me thank you for the effort. To the contrary you were quite the help to me. You are now part of my Intel network. I’m still looking at possible protests by the PMR SDS MDS and other left-wing anti-war groups so any Intel you have would be appreciated . . . In return if you need anything from the Armed Forces I will try to help you as well.”

The FBI and other civilian law enforcement agencies routinely spy on peace activists, including such apparently harmless groups as the Raging Grannies.

Under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, however, the US military is forbidden from taking part in domestic law enforcement activities. Lawyers disagree about whether spying on anti-war groups can be justified as “force protection” but exceptions to the Posse Comitatus Act are usually only permissible if the military passes to local law enforcement agencies information gathered through normal military operations.

Towery told his former friends in the Olympia anti-war movement that he was not the only spy in their midst, adding that he had asked his military bosses to remove some of the others.

Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, FBI infiltration of the Trotskyist American Socialist Workers Party was so intensive that, at one stage, 10 per cent of the group’s members were paid police agents. During the 15 years up to 1976, 55 informants held offices or committee positions and 51 served on the party’s executive committees.

The Trotskyist group eventually turned the tables on the federal government, filing a lawsuit and and in 1986 winning $264,000 compensation for years of surveillance and disruption.

This week’s revelations have left anti-war activists across the US feeling more beleaguered than ever and unsure about whom they can trust.

“I always suspected that there was surveillance going on. It was obvious it was going on locally from local agencies and local police agencies. I had no idea how widespread it is,” Dunn told Democracy Now! “And I think this is just the tip of the iceberg. I have no clue what’s below the water.”