Thursday, March 16, 2006
Knight-Ridder reports that the FBI placed a spy in Pittsburgh's Thomas Merton Center from 2002 to 2005:
There have been lots of stories like this in recent years but this one hits home for me because its, you know, about my home. I live and work in Pittsburgh. The Merton Center is the local leftwing organization for which I have the most respect and in fact I did graphic art work for the Merton Center during the time at which it was apparently infiltrated by the FBI -- I think I designed the cover of their annual report in 2003.
The documents released on Tuesday were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act. They showed that the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI's Pittsburgh office conducted a secret investigation into the activities of the Thomas Merton Center beginning as early as Nov. 29, 2002, and continuing as late as March 2005. [ ... ]
The ACLU contended that the documents are the first to "show conclusively" that an anti-war group was targeted for "its anti-war views."
"These documents show that Americans are not safe from secret government surveillance, even when they are handing out fliers in the town square, an activity clearly protected by the Constitution," said Marty Catherine Roper, an ACLU staff attorney.
The center, founded in 1972, describes itself as a group of people from diverse faiths who believe in "nonviolent struggle" for peace and justice. Merton, an American Roman Catholic monk, author and poet, died in 1968.
An FBI report dated Nov. 29, 2002, identified the center as "a left-wing organization advocating, among many political causes, pacifism."'
There have been lots of stories like this in recent years but this one hits home for me because its, you know, about my home. I live and work in Pittsburgh. The Merton Center is the local leftwing organization for which I have the most respect and in fact I did graphic art work for the Merton Center during the time at which it was apparently infiltrated by the FBI -- I think I designed the cover of their annual report in 2003.
