When a group of Washington state peace activists discovered that one of their fellow organizers was in fact a military informant, they decided to take their case to the courts. The activists, part of the Port Militarization Resistance movement that attempted to stop military shipments from operating out of the state’s public ports in Olympia and Tacoma, uncovered the informant after he had infiltrated their group for over two years. Many considered the informant to be a close friend.

One of the plaintiffs in the case currently underway, Brendan Maslauskas Dunn, tells The Nation about his experience with the military’s surveillance of his peace group.

—Sara Jerving