Abstract

Spying on the Guild

The author argues that the office of U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft is using the Patriot Act to conduct covert investigations of American antiwar activists. On February 3 a law enforcement official working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in Des Moines served a subpoena on Drake University seeking records on its student chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and on a conference the guild had sponsored in November titled "Stop the Occupation! Bring the Iowa Guard Home!" When asked why it was investigating an antiwar conference and seeking records on a student group, the government initially said it could not comment, citing grand jury secrecy. After receiving substantial criticism, it reversed course and said it was investigating an incident during a rally that followed the conference, in which a demonstrator tried to climb a National Guard fence. Given the government's swift cave, one might be tempted to dismiss this as an isolated incident of wayward prosecutors. But it's not. It's the foreseeable result of policies adopted at the highest levels of the Justice Department. In June 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued guidelines permitting the FBI to attend public meetings of political and religious groups without any indication that a group was considering criminal activity. When Congress enacted the Patriot Act, it included a definition of "domestic terrorism" that critics said could conceivably apply to political demonstrations. It is possible that the Drake University investigation is an aberration. But it fits all too comfortably within the guidance set forth by Ashcroft in his first Congressional testimony after 9/11.