Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Glick Brian
Title : War at home Covert action against U.S. activists and what we can do about it
Year : 1999

Link download : Glick_Brian_-_War_at_home.zip

In January 1988, the people of the United States learned of a secret nationwide FBI campaign against the domestic opponents of U.S. policy in Central America. Government documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show that from 1981 through at least 1985, the FBI infiltrated the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES) and disrupted its work all across the country. The investigation eventually reached into nearly every sector of the anti-intervention movement, from the Maryknoll Sisters, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and the New Jewish Agenda to the United Auto Workers, the United Steel Workers, U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd, and U.S. Representatives Pat Schroeder and Jim Wright. Some of the goals and methods of this campaign were revealed by a central participant, Frank Varelli. Varelli admitted that from 1981 through 1984, the FBI paid him to infiltrate and "break" the Dallas, Texas chapter of CISPES. To this end, he and his cohorts put out bogus literature under the CISPES name, burglarized CISPES members' homes, and paid right-wing students to start fights at CISPES rallies. Varelli was told to seduce an activist nun to get blackmail photos for the FBI. It was also suggested that he plant guns on CISPES members. As part of his work, he routinely exchanged information about U.S. and Central American activists with the Salvadoran National Guard, sponsor of that country's death squads. Elsewhere in the Southwest, in 1984, government informers surfaced as the main witnesses in the federal prosecution of clergy and lay workers providing sanctuary for refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala. Salom6n Graham andJesus Cruz testified that they were paid by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to infiltrate church services, Bible classes, and sanctuary support networks. They were part of "Operation Sojourner," the U.S. Justice Department's countrywide crackdown on sanctuary churches and organizations. In the San Francisco Bay Area, in the early 1980s, the Livermore Action Group's meetings to plan anti-nuclear civil disobedience were Similarly infiltrated by both the U.S. Navy and the Federal Emergency Management Administration.4 The FBI has admitted such operations from 1982-84 against the Bay Area branches of Physicians for Social Responsibility and other peace groups. In September 1987, the Bureau fired Special AgentJohn Ryan for refusing to conduct a similar "terrorism investigation" of the Illinois peace group,Veterans Fastfor Life. ...