U.S. Military Spying on Web Sites

by SCP

U.S. Military Spying on Web Sites

"Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined not more than $10,000 or imprisoned not more than two years or both (1878 Posse Comitatus Act, 18 U.S.C.1385)."

For as long as we've been keeping track of the military servers that are used to access our website, we've been certain that the personnel involved are not time-killing web-surfers who have come upon www.notbored.org by accident, but are engaged in their official duties. To convince those who might have been sceptical of the significance of these visits, we emphasized certain facts, e.g., many of the visitors were (from) military entities that specialize in computer security, telecommunications or satellite reconnaissance and surveillance; some of these visitors returned to the site over and over again, though they didn't "click around" in it; and almost all of them appeared to be using robotic "sniffer" or "siphon" programs that extract basic "signals intelligence" (who is hosting and posting to the site, rather than what they are hosting and posting) and ignores everything else. We also pointed out that a great many of the military units that had supposedly visited Psychic Spy back in 1998 -- the Defense Logistics Agency, the National Computer Security Center, the U.S. Army Medical Department, the U.S. Army Intelligence Center, the U.S. Army base at Fort Bliss, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Commander of U.S. Naval Surface forces in the Pacific, the Naval Research Laboratory, the Navy's Pacific Fleet, the Chief of Naval Education and Training, the U.S. Navy Medical Department, the Ramstein Air Force Base, the Kirtland Air Force Base, and the U.S. Coast Guard -- had also visited us, two years later. (What was the purpose of these visits? We could only guess.)

Since 7 October 2001, when the United States government declared war on "terrorism" and began bombing Afghanistan, persuasion no longer seems necessary. The U.S. military is obviously spying on us and, no doubt, on lots of other people as well.

We think it is both appalling and alarming that the Army and the other Armed Forces have been spying and keeping tabs on the activities of any American political group or organization engaged in any form of lawful protest. Such spying blurs the carefully maintained line between military intelligence gathering and civilian law enforcement, and thus violates the very spirit of democracy. But we think it is especially appalling -- we think it clearly shows the degree to which military personnel have been over-stepping their proper bounds, even before the beginning of the "war on terrorism" -- that the Armed Forces have been spying on the Surveillance Camera Players. A very small and informally organized group, the SCP engages in an entirely legal form of protest, and is most definitely not a "terrorist" organization of any kind. We've never advocated illegal activity of any kind, nor have we ever expressed support for either "terrorism" as such or any "terrorist" group.

Since June 2000, when this text was originally posted, the numbers of anti-globalization and other legitimate protest groups wrongfully lumped together under the category of "terrorist organizations" have increased. In his assessment of The Threat of Terrorism to the United States, dated 10 May 2001, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh defined "The Domestic Terrorism Threat" in unacceptably broad terms.

Domestic terrorist groups represent interests that span the full spectrum of political and economic viewpoints, as well as social issues and concerns. It is important to understand, however, that FBI investigations of domestic terrorist groups or individuals are not predicated upon social or political beliefs; rather, FBI investigations are based upon information regarding planned or actual criminal activity. The FBI views domestic terrorism as the unlawful use, or threatened use, of violence by a group or individual that is based and operating entirely within the United States or its territories without foreign direction and which is committed against persons or property with the intent of intimidating or coercing a government or its population in furtherance of political or social objectives. The current domestic terrorist threat primarily comes from right-wing extremist groups, left-wing and Puerto Rican extremist groups, and special interest extremists.

[...] Left-wing and Puerto Rican extremist groups. The second category of domestic terrorists, left-wing groups, generally profess a revolutionary socialist doctrine and view themselves as protectors of the people against the "dehumanizing effects" of capitalism and imperialism. They aim to bring about change in the United States through revolution rather than through the established political process. From the 1960s to the 1980s, leftist-oriented extremist groups posed the most serious domestic terrorist threat to the United States. In the 1980s, however, the fortunes of the leftist movement changed dramatically as law enforcement dismantled the infrastructure of many of these groups and the fall of communism in Eastern Europe deprived the movement of its ideological foundation and patronage.

[...] Anarchists and extremist socialist groups -- many of which, such as the Workers' World Party, Reclaim the Streets, and Carnival Against Capitalism -- have an international presence and, at times, also represent a potential threat in the United States. For example, anarchists, operating individually and in groups, caused much of the damage during the 1999 World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Seattle.

Special interest extremists. Special interest terrorism differs from traditional right-wing and left-wing terrorism in that extremist special interest groups seek to resolve specific issues, rather than effect more widespread political change. Special interest extremists continue to conduct acts of politically motivated violence to force segments of society, including, the general public, to change attitudes about issues considered important to their causes. These groups occupy the extreme fringes of animal rights, pro-life, environmental, anti-nuclear, and other political and social movements. Some special interest extremists -- most notably within the animal rights and environmental movements -- have turned increasingly toward vandalism and terrorist activity in attempts to further their causes.

In recent years, the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) -- an extremist animal rights movement -- has become one of the most active extremist elements in the United States. Despite the destructive aspects of ALF's operations, its operational philosophy discourages acts that harm "any animal, human and nonhuman." Animal rights groups in the United States, including ALF, have generally adhered to this mandate. A distinct but related group, the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), claimed responsibility for the arson fires set at a Vail, Colorado, ski resort in October 1998 that destroyed eight separate structures and caused $12 million dollars in damages. In a communique issued after the fires, ELF claimed that the fires were in retaliation for the resort's planned expansion that would destroy the last remaining habitat in Colorado for the lynx. Eight of the terrorist incidents occurring in the United States during 1999 have been attributed to either ALF or ELF. Several additional acts committed during 2000 and 2001 are currently being reviewed for possible designation as terrorist incidents.

It is outrageous to include the Workers' World Party, Reclaim the Streets, and Carnival Against Capitalism in a list of "terrorist organizations" because A) neither Reclaim the Streets nor Carnival Against Capitalism are organizations (they are kinds of tactics adopted by spontaneous groupings of individuals or names for provisional "umbrella" coalitions), and B) none of them are violent or even advocate the use of violence. While it is quite true that the ELF and the ALF use "violent" tactics -- it is for this very reason that they do not belong in the same category as Reclaim the Streets, Global Justice, Greenpeace, et al -- these groups strike against property, not people. This means that the ELF and ALF are commiting criminal acts, not acts of war or terror. Only ignorance or cynicism on the part of the Director of the FBI explains the presence of any of these groups on a list of "terrorist organizations" -- organizations that kill innocent people.

In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks, cynical defenders of "law and order" have been quick to detect non-existent "parallels" between legitimate protesters and "terrorists." On 23 October 2001, the San Francisco Examiner quoted Ken Ford, the Vice-Chairman of the Pacifica Radio National Board, as saying of those who oppose the sale of two stations in the Pacifica network), "They're zealots," he said. "I see parallels between this group and Al-Qaeda, the terrorists who bombed New York. They have an innate anger towards society as a whole."

And so, both despite and because of the 11 September 2001 attacks, we hereby call for 1) the immediate cessation of and full investigation into the U.S. military's surveillance of non-violent, lawful protest groups such as the SCP, and 2) the restriction of investigations into and prosecutions of crimes committed by groups such as the ALF and the ELF to proper law enforcement (not anti-terrorist or military intelligence) agencies.