Speaking to the West Point graduating class on June 1st, President George W. Bush said: "If we wait for threats to fully materialize, we will have waited too long. We must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans and confront the worst threats before they emerge."
The domestic expression of this policy is Attorney General John Ashcroft's new guidlines for America's political police, the FBI, announced on May 30, 2002. These new guidlines seperate spying on legal political activities from any pretense of a law enforcement purpose. The requirement that FBI investigations be based on some "reasonable indication of the criminal activity" has been thrown out. The new watchword is to go after critics and opponents of the government policies before any laws are broken. Agents can now search web sites and chat rooms for comments critical of the war in Afghanistan, and then follow up with personal visits. Others may show up at the doors of people who order books online.
The new guidlines for the federal political police to assemble records and files on dissenting individuals and organizations are rooted in the needs of the government's new war. They are designed to repress opposition just as they did in the 1960's. They were used against the Black Liberation Movement and the antiwar movement to disrupt organizations, spread disinformation, promote antagonism between opposition organizations, and even foment acts of violence that resulted in the death of political dissidents. Looking at the methods used shows that this didn't have anything to do with "national security" or to "combat terrorism." [See War At Home, Brian Glick, South End Press, 1989.]
As the Washington Post observed on May 31, "The FBI's history of domestic suveillance is an ugly one."
Refuse & Resist! calls on all movements and organizations opposing Bush's new "war on the world" to adopt guidelines, standards, and practices that will frustrate the activities of the federal snoops. Now is not the time for paranoia, which can be as dangerous as the actions of the government. It is a time to put in place the careful measures to protect the integrity of records, communications, and organizational structures, and to send a message to our friends, and to the government as well, that we will not be intimidated. We will not "watch what we say." We will dare to do what is necessary and organize to stop the war on the world and police state measures.
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