We're Making News!

Come Join Us!  Every Friday from 5-7pm Downtown Ft. Lauderdale in front of the federal building. Our weekly pro-peace rally.

EVERY SATURDAY, 12pm-1pm in Boca Raton:
Palm Beach County antiwar activists protest at the
corner of St. Andrews & Glades Rd. every Saturday.

EVERY SATURDAY, 1pm-2pm in Deerfield Beach:
Deerfield Beach residents are organizing peace vigils
every Saturday, beginning Dec. 24, 2005. Meet on the
south side of Hillsboro Blvd. between Military Trail
and the entrance to Century Village.

EVERY SUNDAY, 7pm to 8pm in Coral Springs:
Peace Vigil Organized by Coral Springs for Peace at
the SE corner of Sample Rd. & University Drive.

EVERY MONDAY, 5pm to 6pm in Delray Beach:
Join the Raging Grannies and others who recently began
organizing vigils in Delray Beach. Meet at the NE
corner of Atlantic Ave. and Swinton (Old School
Square). For more info, contact Vicky at
raginggrannies@juno.com

EVERY FRIDAY, 5pm to 7pm in Fort Lauderdale:
Join BAWC at our weekly antiwar protest vigil in front
of the Federal Bldg/Courthouse at the corner of
Broward Blvd. & NE 3rd Ave. downtown. Bring a sign or
feel free to use one of ours.

Protesters rally against government surveillance

By Mike Clary / South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Representatives of a dozen or more South Florida anti-war and environmental groups gathered in front of the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach on Wednesday to demand an end to secret surveillance by the U.S. government that one speaker said represented an attempt "to deliberately undermine the legitimate political activities" of advocacy organizations by linking them to terrorism.

"The Truth Project Inc. believes that we have been defamed by agents of the federal executive branch by being designated a `credible threat' to military recruiters and recruiting facilities," Marie Zwicker, a board member of the Lake Worth group, said while reading from a prepared statement.

The Truth Project, which offers counter-military counseling in area high schools, was infiltrated and spied on last year by the Pentagon, according to documents that served as the basis of an NBC News report broadcast earlier this month.

That revelation, which came days before President Bush acknowledged authorizing a clandestine spy program being carried out by the National Security Administration, has sparked calls for Congressional inquiries and energized local activists who oppose the administration tactics and the war in Iraq.

"We are alarmed to see the way that secrecy has taken hold in this country today," said Dr. Ethelene Jones, president of the Palm Beach County branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Rob Ross, an attorney representing the Truth Project, said he is working with the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York to explore filing a lawsuit on the group's behalf.

Also on hand at the hourlong rally was Jonathan Katz, legislative director for U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, a member of the House Judiciary Committee. Wexler has joined several Democrats and some Republicans in pressing for hearings into the Bush administration's surveillance activities.

Of about 30 people who attended the rally, all were either members of a participating organization or a news reporter.

Other speakers who railed against the secret actions of the government included representatives of the Green Party, the Broward Antiwar Coalition, the American Friends Service Committee in Miami, the National Lawyers Guild, the Improvised Action Collective and the Lake Worth Global Justice Group.

Spied on by government, S. Florida activist group demands congressional inquiry

Pentagon scrutiny may lead to lawsuit

By Mike Clary / South Florida Sun-Sentinel

A Palm Beach County group known to have been spied on under a secret Pentagon program has launched a campaign to seek a congressional investigation of what members allege are blatant infringements of civil liberties.

Attorneys for the Truth Project Inc., formed last year to counter military recruitment in high schools, say they also are exploring a lawsuit that could put the Lake Worth-based group at the center of a wider effort to reveal a pattern of Bush administration surveillance of anti-war and activist organizations in South Florida and elsewhere.

The group plans a news conference at 5 p.m. today in front of the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, where members intend to discuss their legal strategy.

"We expect this to be a springboard for litigation with a national impact," attorney Rob Ross said.

The efforts of the Truth Project comes at a time of growing furor over President Bush's assertion that he has the authorization to order the National Security Agency to carry out domestic eavesdropping, without a court order, in pursuit of terrorists.

Adding to the concerns of civil libertarians were revelations, published by The New York Times on Tuesday, that the FBI had conducted many secret intelligence-gathering efforts directed at groups as diverse as animal rights organizations and poverty agencies.

There have been no indications that the members of the Truth Project were being monitored for any links to terrorism or al-Qaida, or would have been the focus of any of the domestic spying efforts Bush said he has approved on more than 30 occasions since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Yet members of the Truth Project and other South Florida groups, many of them veterans of the local protest scene, seemed convinced they still are under surreptitious scrutiny by the government.

At an organizing meeting Monday at a member's home in Lake Clarke Shores, several people reported hearing mysterious clicks and echoes during recent telephone conversations and noticing cars they considered suspicious pass by during meetings.

During one outdoor gathering by a Lake Worth canal, Marie Zwicker said she had seen men in a Boston Whaler cruise by, posing, unconvincingly, she added, as fishermen. "It was the wrong time of day," she said.

More than one person at Monday's meeting, including host Bonnie Redding, recalled a one-liner popular during the Nixon era: "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that someone isn't out to get you."

"They may try to silence us, to intimidate us, but it just makes me feel more committed," said Redding, 55.

Also at the meeting were representatives from Coral Springs for Peace and the Broward Antiwar Coalition.

The Truth Project gained national attention Dec. 13 when NBC News reported that a Pentagon agency had monitored and infiltrated the group when about eight of its board members met in November 2004 in a Quaker meeting house in Lake Worth.

The 400-page document obtained by NBC described the group as both a "threat" and "credible."

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, on Tuesday released a letter from Undersecretary of Defense Stephen A. Cambone in which he directed the military's counterintelligence arm to review its policies regarding "receipt and retention of information about U.S. persons."

Nelson is a member of the Armed Services Committee.

Cambone, in the letter to Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John Warner, said he also ordered intelligence officers to "receive immediate refresher training" on handling information about U.S. citizens and residents.

Truth Project board member Rich Hersh of Boca Raton said the group would file several Freedom of Information Requests to obtain more information about government monitoring.

"We really want to know the extent of the spying that has been going on, and want Congress to do something about the misbehaviors by the executive branch," said Hersh, 59.

"They are out of control," said Allen Taylor, a Delray Beach attorney and Truth Project board member. "Some people are afraid. It is absurd to think that anything we're doing is against the U.S. There is no reason to investigate us."

Constitutional scholar Bruce Rogow, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, said, "Everybody has reason to be alarmed by the government's actions."

The Pentagon's spy efforts were conducted by the 902nd Military Intelligence Unit, based at Fort Meade, Md. That also is the home of the NSA.