Two Catholic nuns were among dozens of people falsely identified as terrorists after a Maryland State Police Trooper infiltrated nonviolent groups and provided information to state and federal agencies.The Los Angeles Times reports that Maryland officials now concede that state police wrongly listed at least 53 Americans as terrorists in a criminal intelligence database - and shared some information about them with half a dozen state and federal agencies, including the National Security Agency.
Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist.
One suspect's file warned that she was "involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings."
"There wasn't a scintilla of illegal activity" going on, said David Rocah, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit and in July obtained the first surveillance files. State police have released other heavily redacted documents.
Investigators, the files show, targeted groups that advocated against abortion, global warming, nuclear arms, military recruiting in high schools and biodefense research, among other issues.
"It was unconscionable conduct," said Democratic state Sen. Brian Frosh, who is backing legislation to ban similar spying in Maryland unless the police superintendent can document a "reasonable, articulable suspicion" of criminal activity.
The case is the latest to emerge since the Sept. 11 attacks spurred a sharp increase in state and federal surveillance of Americans.
Critics say such investigations violate constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and assembly, and serve to inhibit lawful dissent.
In the largest known effort, the Pentagon monitored at least 186 lawful protests and meetings - including church services and silent vigils - in California and other states.
The military also compiled more than 2,800 reports on Americans in a database of supposed terrorist threats.
That program, known as TALON, was ordered closed in 2007 after it was exposed in news reports.
The Maryland operation also has ended, but critics still question why police spent hundreds of hours spying on Quakers and other peace groups in a state that reported more than 36,000 violent crimes last year.
Stephen Sachs, a former state attorney general, investigated the scandal for Gov. Martin O'Malley - a Democrat elected in 2006.
He concluded that state police had violated federal regulations and "significantly overreached."
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