Research

Activists Sue Denver Over Civil Liberties Violations

Since the successful street demonstrations against the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle in 1999, police and federal agencies have relied on aggressive and unconstitutional tactics to disperse, disrupt, and dissuade popular protest. Last…

Article

Napolitano Embraces Her Inner Cheney

Last week, Janet Napolitano reaffirmed America’s unfocused approach to domestic intelligence and counterterrorism in her July 29, 2009 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. The Secretary of Homeland Security embraced the word “terror,” a word…

Article

From Movements to Mosques, Informants Endanger Democracy

In February, 2009, members of the Islamic Center of Irvine learned that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had hired Craig Monteilh, a 46-year-old fitness instructor and convicted con man, to infiltrate their mosque and keep it under…

Article

Army Civilian Employee Spied on Peace Activists

The discovery this month that anarchist “John Jacob,” an activist in anti-militarist organizing in the Pacific Northwest, is really civilian Army intelligence analyst John Towery II, shows that those concerned about civil liberties must remain…

Article

Can Extreme Surveillance Keep Us Safe?

Eridiana Rodriguez vanished during her shift cleaning the office building at 2 Rector Street in Lower Manhattan’s Financial District on Tuesday night, July 7. After four days, one hundred police scoured the building and discovered the body of this…

Article

White Supremacist Shootings Post-Election Create Deadly Legacy

During the election campaign in 2008 it was clear some people on the political Right were becoming agitated about the potential for a Black man backed by liberals to become the next President of the United States.

Article

FBI Secret Surveillance and Secret Policies

If history is any guide, lax oversight and secrecy are a recipe for abusive political intelligence gathering by the FBI. Pervasive official secrecy continues to threaten our national values under the Obama administration, in spite of a declared…

Article

Connecticut State Police Keep Tabs on Greens

Connecticut state troopers’ surveillance of Green Party activists serves as the latest warning of whether we should allow government to conduct political intelligence and engage in “preventive” policing. A May 31, 2009 article in the Hartford…

Article

Remembering the New Right

Political Strategy and the Building of the GOP Coalition

A color image of Paul Weyrich, a black and white image of Morton Blackwell, and a color image of Richard Viguerie.

When the Washington Post ran an obituary for Paul Weyrich on its front page last December, the casual reader could be forgiven for not recognizing the name. But those who followed conservative politics inside Washington probably approved of the…

Article

Battle over Labor Law Reform Shows True Power of the Right

A sign that says "On strike for living wages"

Some people may enjoy watching the Right thrash around trying to find its way in the Obama Age, but I take the election results and their aftermath as a sign of a country dangerously divided. There really was a stark difference in the major party…

Article

Toxic to Democracy

Conspiracy Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating

In his 2009 report, Toxic to Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, Demonization, & Scapegoating, former PRA Senior Analyst Chip Berlet traces the roots of conspiracism throughout U.S. and European history and challenges it as a form of…

Guest Commentary: Killing for Life Returns

The murder of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas raises again the question of what it means to defend life through killing. When militant antiabortionists began bombing clinics and shooting doctors in the 1980s and 1990s, law enforcement officials looked…

Article

Provocation Masquerading as Anti-Terror Policy?

A word of advice to activists and people praying at mosques. If a guy offers you a free stinger missile, he’s probably an informer. If he offers you free IEDs, he’s probably an informer. If he asks you to pledge an oath to his foreign terrorist…

Article

More Informants, More Fear

On May 17, the Des Moines Register reported that the FBI planted an informant in an Iowa City “anarchist collective” planning to “disrupt the Republican convention.” Those advocating undercover surveillance say the government should spy upon…

Article

Homeland's Lexicon of "Extremism"

In May 2009, Homeland Security released — and quickly retracted — a “Domestic Extremism Lexicon,” one in a series of reference aids designed to provide operational and…

Article

Defending Convention Dissent in St. Paul

On May 15, 2009, Judge Wilson of the Ramsey County District Court granted RNC defendant Sean McCoy’s motion for a new trial. So far, St. Paul has prosecuted ten defendants on 34 charges without a single conviction involving arrests during the…

Article

Boston Police Snoop at Celebs - Who's Next?

So Boston police troll the Criminal Record Information system to find personal information about local movie stars and sports heroes. We know that from a state audit released on May 6, 2009.

Article

Von Mises Rises from the Scrap Heap of History

Corporate coffers are spilling out tens of millions of dollars to block the Employee Free Choice Act and keep unions from having a fair chance at organizing workers. Their propagandists claim this confrontation is a “firestorm bordering on…

Article

Government Sets Sights on Extremists

Hot Air Leads to Violence? Homeland Security apparently thinks so. The Department of Homeland Security recently warned law enforcement that disenchanted, angry Americans are like kernels of corn under heat, ready to pop at any time.

Article

Thought Police Patrol Virginia

If the Virginia Fusion Center (VFC) isn’t careful, people might think its intelligence analysts are America’s thought police. Take a look at its 2009 Threat Assessment, which talks about “subversive thought” as a marker for violent terrorism and…

Article

Search

Research