On May 18, the ACLU-EM, along with ACLU affiliates in nine other states, filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the FBI seeking information about the FBI's use of Joint Terrorism Task Forces and local police to engage in political surveillance based on the individual's or group's political or religious affiliations. The ACLU-EM's nearly two-dozen clients represent a "who's who" of community political and religious activists, including Sheikh Nur Abdullah, the Imam of the Islamic Foundation; Bill Ramsey, director of Human Rights Action Service; Bill Quick, a National Lawyer's Guild attorney and leader of the Instead of War Coalition; Michael McPhearson, Executive Director of Veterans for Peace; as well as activists who were put under FBI surveillance prior to last summer's presidential conventions and others whose home was raided prior to protests of the World Agricultural Forum in 2003.
The FOIAs seek two kinds of information: 1) the actual FBI files of groups and individuals targeted for speaking out or practicing their faith; 2) information about how the practices and funding structure of the task forces, known as JTTFs, are encouraging unwarranted spying. The FBI has rejected our requests for expedited processing both initially, and on administrative appeal (as they have done with regards to the filings by other affiliates and National). We have not received any actual files. To date we have received several responses from the FBI asserting they have no files regarding particular individuals. We are considering next steps including a court challenge to the determination on expedited processing. Most of the documents we received are available for viewing on our national site.