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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