ACLU releases documents it says show government spied on Georgians

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http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=100420

 

ATLANTA - The American Civil Liberties Union has released two documents from the FBI and DeKalb County Homeland Security related to an anti-war protest and a vegan protest that it says show those agencies spied on Georgia residents.

 

The ACLU's Gerry Weber said during a news conference in Atlanta Wednesday that the documents are part of a case the group is building that will show that officials at all levels of government are doing surveillance of government critics.

 

Weber says so far the ACLU has received complaints from six organizations and nearly two dozen people who fear they have been spied upon, photographed, videotaped or had their events infiltrated by government agents.

 

He says none of them did anything that would justify surveillance but rather are critics of the Bush administration.

 

Democratic State Representative Nan Orrock of Atlanta says Congress must check what she calls the government's excessive power.

 

The leader of an umbrella pacifist organization -- the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition -- says her group is the one that organized two Atlanta peace events cited in a Defense Department database as ``credible threats'' to the Pentagon.

 

The coalition's Ann Mauney says spying is the government's first line of attack in trying to silence those who dissent.

 

FBI spokesman Bill Carter says all FBI investigations are conducted in response to information that the people being investigated were involved in or might have information about crimes.