Maybe while the four undercover state troopers - identified in a report released yesterday only as "T1" through "T4" - were wasting their time spying on a few peaceniks, other members of their unit were gathering intel on the kinds of people who actually have some power and influence over our lives.
Maybe T7 was sent to infiltrate the Center Club. Who knows, maybe Ts12 through 20 were spread out to the corporate boxes at Ravens Stadium or Oriole Park. Surely a T or two could have slipped into the executive dining room of Constellation Energy and given us advance warning of the company's slice of the national credit crisis.
But no, according to a review of the Maryland State Police's spying activities. The groups that the Homeland Security and Investigation Division focused their efforts on were those dangerous sidewalk protesters who oppose the war and the death penalty.
They must number in, oh, the low two figures. They operate so secretively and with such hidden agendas that they advertise their meetings and issue reams of position papers. I suppose they do pose a major threat - to anyone who wants to walk down the street without seeing earnest people stamping Birkenstock-clad feet, waving signs and handing out fliers, printed single-spaced and sometimes on both sides.
Perhaps if the unit had been investigating the people who screwed up the financial markets, I'd be more inclined to look favorably on this spy game. But in my experience, these activists are dying for attention; call them, and they'll talk your ear off, invite you to any number of meetings and ceaselessly e-mail you. You need to "infiltrate" them as much as you need to sneak into a time-share presentation.
The review, conducted by former Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs at the request of Gov. Martin O'Malley and released yesterday, says that the state police investigative unit started spying on protest groups as possible threats to public safety.
It's comical on the face of it - really, these protesters are about as threatening as tofu - except for the utter disregard of these activists' civil liberties. That's never funny, particularly today, when the words "terrorist" and "national security" are thrown around to excuse any kind of activity that a government official wants to undertake without going through the usual legal channels.
