"It is ... important to note that these events occurred in a new and challenging context - the dangerous reality of terrorism that struck home on 9/11 and our understandable insistence on homeland security," Sachs writes.
But he concludes that the people subjected to spying are, in fact, "the opposite of terrorists: they are individuals committed to changing the policies or conduct of the government through strictly nonviolent means."
RECOMMENDATIONS
* State police surveillance of protest or advocacy groups should be prohibited unless a superintendent issues a written finding of "reasonable, articulable suspicion" that a crime could be committed; and that "a less intrusive method of investigation is not likely to yield equivalent results."
* Creation of standards for collection and dissemination of criminal intelligence information, including periodic auditing and the purging of information obtained inappropriately.
* Revise and "possibly discontinue" a Case Explorer database used for homeland security because it encourages the overinclusion of individuals and groups in the database."
* Contact all individuals listed in Case Explorer as being involved in terrorism without involvement in a violent crime, give them opportunity to review the entries as appropriate under law, and purge the entries.
Marbella
These activists are benign and operating in plain sight. PG 2
