[Peace-discuss] From SF Indymedia

Fri Oct 10 11:58:21 CDT 2003

Absolutely.  There was a nice piece on Democracy Now
yesterday on this, too.
--- "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
wrote:
> [What one sheriff's office is here accidentally
> exposed as doing (rather
> ineptly) we have to assume is repeated by sheriffs
> and police chiefs
> across the country.  Same as it ever was.  --CGE]
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> 
> http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/1650550.php
> 
> 	LOCAL PEACE GROUP INFILTRATED BY GOVERNMENT AGENT
> 	By Mike Rhodes
> 	October 4, 2003
> 
> Peace Fresno was infiltrated by an agent working for
> the Fresno Sheriff's
> Department. Aaron Kilner, known by Peace Fresno
> activists as Aaron Stokes,
> attended several Peace Fresno meetings. Peace Fresno
> activist Nicholas
> DeGraff remembers him taking voluminous notes and
> several members say they
> saw him at peace vigils held at Shaw and Blackstone.
> He was also on the
> bus local anti-globalization activists took to
> attend the WTO
> ministerial-level conference on Agricultural Science
> and Technology
> demonstration in Sacramento in June 2003.
> 
> Aaron Kilner died in a motorcycle accident on August
> 30, 2003. In his
> obituary in The Fresno Bee he was identified as a
> member of the Fresno
> County Sheriff's department. The obituary went on to
> say that he was
> "assigned to the anti-terrorist team."  Local
> activists believe that this
> "anti-terrorist team" is, in fact, the Joint
> Terrorism Task Force (JTTF)
> that has recently been formed in this area.  When
> members of Peace Fresno
> saw the picture and read of Kilner's association
> with law enforcement they
> began piecing the story together.
> 
> The infiltration by law enforcement of progressive
> community groups in
> Fresno and throughout the country has long been used
> to disrupt legitimate
> political work. This disruption occurs by sowing
> seeds of mistrust among
> members, agents often promote discord within the
> group, and sometimes
> encourage illegal or violent actions. Agent
> provocateurs have been know to
> instigate violence at demonstrations, giving the
> police an excuse to
> attack protestors.
> 
> During the 1980's the Latin American Support
> Committee in Fresno, who
> worked to end U.S. intervention in Central America,
> was repeatedly
> harassed by government agents. Undercover agents
> attempted to disrupt
> meetings by polarizing members about the use of
> violence and encouraging
> the group to raise money for weapons which were
> needed by Central American
> revolutionaries. Agents approached individual
> members and asked them to
> engage in illegal and violent activities. The local
> police and the FBI
> spent years investigating and harassing LASC without
> uncovering any
> illegal activities.
> 
> A few years ago, the Fresno Police Department and
> the CSUF police
> conspired to violate anti-sweatshop activists'
> rights by infiltrating
> United Students Against Sweatshops. A police agent
> attended the group's
> meetings and monitored email messages of
> anti-sweatshop activists. The
> distorted information that this agent passed on to
> her superiors to
> justify her job greatly exaggerated the extent of a
> planned demonstration
> at a local mall. This mis-information resulted in
> the police's use of riot
> clad officers, a police helicopter, and over one
> hundred officers to
> arrest 19 peaceful protestors at the Fashion Fair
> mall. The presence of
> the informant was discovered during the course of
> criminal proceedings of
> the Gap 19. All charges against the anti-sweatshop
> activists were later
> dismissed. For more information about this case see:
> <http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home/GAP.htm>.
> 
> Ken Hudson, a long time activist with Peace Fresno,
> said that Kilner
> played a very quiet role in the group. Other Peace
> Fresno activists also
> remembered him as being quiet and added that he did
> not actively engage in
> political, tactical, or other discussions while
> attending the meetings.
> 
> According the California Constitution, law
> enforcement does not have the
> right to investigate and infiltrate groups unless
> they have a reasonable
> suspicion of criminal activity. If local law
> enforcement and the JTTF was
> using Kilner to investigate Peace Fresno, one has to
> ask - what else are
> they up to? Do they have agents imbedded in other
> community groups? Are
> they watching what people say at Churches and
> Mosques? Because of the
> Patriot Act, does law enforcement now believe they
> have the right to
> monitor what you do and say in your home? In your
> bedroom?
> 
> There have been several meetings between law
> enforcement and groups
> concerned about civil liberties, in the wake of
> September 11, 2001. One
> such meeting was held with Lt. Pat Farmer of the
> Fresno Police Department.
> Lt. Farmer told this group of community activists
> that there is nothing to
> prevent the police or JTTF members from
> investigating and interrogating
> community members. He suggested that the person
> being investigated might
> not even know he was talking to a police officer.
> "If the person doesn't
> want to talk with us, they don't have to," Farmer
> said. At an earlier
> meeting, immediately after 9-11, an FBI agent told a
> group, of mostly
> immigrant rights activists, that anyone helping a
> group identified as a
> "terrorist group" by the United States government
> would be investigated as
> a potential terrorist. That was interpreted to mean
> that if you are
> working, for example, to support the Zapatistas in
> Chiapas, you might be
> investigated as a supporter of international
> terrorism. This FBI agent
> said that every agent in this area was now focusing
> on stopping the
> terrorist threat.
> 
> Another justification on the local war against
> terrorism comes from Fresno
> Police chief Jerry Dyer. He told community members
> that Fresno is a hotbed
> of terrorist activity and that is why the JTTF has
> been established in
> this area. He told this group that Fresno could have
> "sleeper cells," that
> they are connected with illegal methamphetamine
> production to fund
> terrorist activities, and all of this is somehow
> related to radical Muslim
> extremists. While this story may seem far fetched
> for those of us who live
> in this area it was good enough to bring in millions
> of dollars in Federal
> anti-terrorism funds.
> 
> The Fresno Bee printed a story about the
> infiltration of Peace Fresno by
> law enforcement in their Friday, October 3 issue
> (see:
>
<http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/7537174p-8449347c.html>).
> They
> printed a statement from Sherriff Pierce that said:
> 
> *************************************
> 
> Detective Aaron Kilner was a member of the FCSD
> Anti-Terrorism unit. This
> unit collects, evaluates, collates, analyzes, and
> disseminates information
> on individuals, groups, and organizations suspected
> of criminal or
> terrorist activities. This information meets the
> stringent federal and
> state guidelines for intelligence gathering and
> civil rights protections
> in order to prevent crime and protect the health and
> safety of residents
> of Fresno County and the State of California.
> 
> For the purpose of detecting or preventing terrorist
> activities, the
> Fresno County Sheriff's Department may visit any
> place and attend any
> event that is open to the public, on the same terms
> and conditions as
> members of the public generally. No information
> obtained from such visits
> shall be retained unless it relates to potential
> criminal or terrorist
> activities.
> 
> Peace Fresno was not and is not the subject of any
> investigation by the
> FCSD. The FCSD does not have any reports, files,
> rosters, or notes on
> Peace Fresno or it's [sic] meetings.
> 
> The FCSD is dedicated to protecting the citizens of
> Fresno County. The
> department will continue to utilize legal methods
> for collecting,
> evaluating, collating, analyzing, and disseminating
> criminal intelligence
> of terrorist and organized crime organizations to
> accomplish its mission,
> while respecting the constitutional rights of all
> persons.
> 
> Sincerely, RP, Sheriff
> 
>
*******************************************************************
> 
> The revelation that the Sheriff's department placed
> an agent in Peace
> Fresno begs [they mean "raises" --CGE] the question
> of what other groups
> are being investigated, what has happened to our
> civil liberties since
> 9-11, and how will the community respond to this
> attack against our civil
> liberties. Some activists and legal experts are
> claiming that state
> attorney general Bill Lockyer's directive to
> California law enforcement,
> telling them not to collect intelligence on
> religious or political groups
> without evidence of criminal activity should be the
> law of the land. But,
> does State law override the Patriot Act?
> 
> A united community defending their Constitutional
> Rights to civil
> liberties will be the best defense against future
> attacks. The goal is to
> not only stop these current intrusions against
> peaceful and nonviolent
> groups engaged in civic participation but return the
> rights that were
> taken away with the passage of the Patriot Act. To
> find out how Fresno
> progressive groups respond to this incident you are
> invited to subscribe
> to the Community Alliance magazine, P.O. Box 5077,
> Fresno Ca 93755 ($35 a
> year) or visit them on their web site:
> <http://www.fresnoalliance.com/home>.
> 
> For more information about Peace Fresno see their
> web site at:
> <http://www.peacefresno.org>.
> 
> ___________________________________
> 
> 
> 
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