FBI Misled Congressman About Tracking Pro-Lifers
Newsmax.com
Tuesday, June 27, 2000
The FBI told a member of Congress the agency was not spying on
innocent people and groups involved in the pro-life movement when
it was hip deep in running a program tracking pro-lifers.
In responding to a request from Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., for
information on reports that the feds were targeting pro-lifers,
the FBI insisted that it only tracks individuals or organizations
known to be or suspected of being involved in criminal
activities, according to Insight magazine.
Despite the existence of documents that flatly contradict the
Bureau’s assertion, the FBI told Taylor it does not maintain
files on people merely because they are involved in the pro-life
movement.
"The FBI initiates FACE [Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrance
Act of 1994] investigations based upon the receipt of information
indicating that a potential criminal violation has occurred which
meets the … threshold of the law which, essentially, prohibits
any interference or threat or harm to people seeking abortions or
those providing such services," Insight says the Bureau wrote
Taylor.
"For information, when an investigation is initiated by the FBI,
an investigative file is opened and all information obtained
throughout the investigative period is maintained therein. The
FBI does not maintain non-investigative files on individuals or
organizations involved in anti-abortion activities."
This flies in the face of official documents, obtained by
Insight, that show there are "many files on non-violent groups
such as the Conference of Bishops and other organizations – and
prominent people like Cardinal O’Conner – in the forefront of the
pro-life movement with no known ties to criminal actions."
"Besides political and biographical information on such people
and groups, the FBI also appears to have included extensive
telephone, credit card, financial and even lobbying records on
people and groups," Insight said, citing one shocking case
involving the National Right to Life Committee in which "an
extensive investigative file dates back to 1978 on suspected
fraud and other wrongdoing."
As revealed by NewsMax yesterday, documents obtained under the
Freedom of Information Act by the watchdog organization Judicial
Watch and aired in an Insight exclusive report, the federal
government has a hitherto secret program VAAPCON (Violence
Against Abortion Providers Conspiracy), or VAAP, which targets a
host of individuals and groups involved in the pro-life movement,
including America’s Catholic bishops, Concerned Women for
America, the Rev. Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition, the
National Right to Life Committee and other similar groups.
The exposure of the secret spy operation drew an angry response
from the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
David Early, a spokesman for the Conference, told Insight that
neither he nor the group’s general counsel, Mark Chopko, were
aware of the secret database or that the Bishops knew they were
included in it. "If such a database does exist, the attorney
general and the FBI have some explaining to do," Early said,
quoting Chopko. "We were under the impression that the FBI had
ended its surveillance of religious organizations in the 1960s.
So obviously we were not aware of it and are anxious to learn
more," Early added.
According to Insight, however, "not only does the file on the
Bishops’ group exist in the criminal database, but there also is
information on the late Cardinal John O’Conner’s role in the
pro-life movement, as well as information on other groups with no
known ties to criminal types or illegal activities."
Sources at the FBI and the Justice Department told Insight that
VAAPCON was meant to establish a federal database that would
enable the bureau and other law enforcement agencies to track any
criminal elements in the pro-life movement suspected of
committing terrorist-type crimes, including murder, bombings,
arson and harassment.
Objections by some FBI officials that VAAP covers more ground
than it was meant to do were overruled by higher-ups in Janet
Reno’s Justice Department.
"It wasn’t the inclusion of suspected criminals or the infusion
of old files on such activities that we objected to," a senior
FBI agent told Insight. "It was the collection of political and
personal information on people such as the cardinal that many of
us found objectionable. It should not be in the database or
passed over to Justice for general reading – this is obviously
political in nature and something we work hard to avoid."
As a result of the FBI’s failure to admit that VAAP was tracking
innocent members of the pro-life movement, Congressman Taylor
told Insight he and other members of Congress are determined to
dig deeper into the matter.
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