Truly terrifying

by Katherine Heerbrandt

Their primary crime, according to Maryland State Police, was terrorism.

Their secondary "crimes" are listed on heavily blacked out MSP documents produced this week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland: "Antiwar protesters, antideath penalty protesters, environmental extremists, animal rights" advocates, and "anarchists."

The ACLU obtained the files through the Maryland Public Information Act and has more requests in the queue. The organization -- and those 53 who were stunned to find themselves targeted by state police between 2005 and 2007 -- are still not getting any real answers. Information in the released files, including those of local activists Barry Kissin and his wife Malgo Schmidt, is minimal because the MSP redacted most of it.

If the MSP is not more forthcoming, they can expect more lawsuits, ACLU attorney David Rocha said in an interview.

"The surest way to get sued is to not make a full accounting. Nobody wants money or years litigating this in the courts, they want the truth about how and why this happened," he said.

Who authorized the investigations and why? What is the federal connection, and are these citizens' names on federal watch lists too? If so, have they been purged?

Those are just some of the questions posed by three U.S. Senators, Ben Cardin, Russ Feingold and Barbara Mikulski. The trio sent a sternly worded request to the directors of federal intelligence and homeland security agencies.

"Americans exercising their First Amendment right to nonviolent protest should not end up on a federal terrorism watch list," Sen. Mikulski said in a press release. "I am committed to finding out why these events happened and will work to make sure it never happens again."

Cardin spokeswoman Sue Walitsky said in an interview that the point of the letter is to ensure that safeguards are in place to protect law-abiding citizens.

About 1 million names, many U.S. citizens, are on federal terrorism watch lists. The sheer magnitude of the list, which grows by 20,000 names a month, coupled with the fact that it erroneously includes innocent Americans like Sen. Ted Kennedy, commercial pilots and federal air marshals, makes a mockery out of the entire initiative. How is this bureaucratic boondoggle making us safer?

Federal regulations prohibit revealing those names. To find out if you are on the list, you will have to try and board an airplane, apply for a government job or get pulled over for a traffic violation. If you are whisked away and interrogated by federal agents, then you'll know.

Getting off the list is much harder apparently than getting on it. Ask Sen. Kennedy, who had to make a personal call to the head of Homeland Security to have his name removed.

Who is truly being terrorized here?

Maryland's example and the senators' letter put the spotlight on the federal watch list, and that's encouraging.

Meanwhile, given the [MSP's] unwillingness to be straight with citizens of Maryland, clear legislation is a must, Attorney Rocha said.

"Just trust us is hardly a credible response at this point," he added.

Five state lawmakers, including Delegate Rick Weldon, will sponsor legislation next year aimed at better oversight and accountability.

"If our Constitution still means something, and I believe it does, then we owe it to future generations to protect them from a government that arbitrarily picks and chooses who to monitor," Weldon said. "I am more fearful of an overbearing government presence than I am a harmless group of activists and protesters!"