_
From: Paul Kneisel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 20:04:18 -0400
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [proletarism] The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 3 Aug 2001 -- 5:61
(#583)
BE SURE TO INFORM US OF ANY CHANGE IN YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS
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The Internet Anti-Fascist: Friday, 3 August 2001
Vol. 5, Number 61 (#583)
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Reduced Summer Publication:
Announcements:
Anti Nazi League, "Home Office Bans ANL Carnival ," 1 Aug 01
COINTELPRO Revisited: FBI Continued Spying
Jonathan Dann and J. Michael Kennedy (Los Angeles Times), "At FBI, a
Traitor Helped in Search for Subversives: Even as he was selling
secrets to the Soviets, Robert Hanssen was a supervisor in an '80s
program to monitor U.S. citizens' activities," 29 Jul 01
AP, "Report: Hanssen Key Leader in Spy Unit," 29 Jul 01
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REDUCED SUMMER PUBLICATION:
We will be publishing reduced issues throughout the rest of the Summer to
permit us to catch up on other anti-fascist research and writing.
Have a nice summer and be sure to inform us of any changes in your address.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Home Office Bans ANL Carnival
Anti Nazi League
1 Aug 01
An order has been obtained by Lancashire Borough Council at the request of
the Chief Constable of Lancashire Police banning the ANL Carnival in
Burnley on 1 September 2001.
The Anti Nazi League are fighting this ban.
The Carnival is being organised to bring people together. Anti racists are
in the majority in Burnley, not the Nazis and that is what we want to
celebrate.
This ban has caused outrage in Burnley:
"I was in town last Saturday helping leaflet for the carnival and people
were stopping to say what a good idea, sign the petition and offering help.
The response was extremely positive." Councillor Alice Thornber
"The carnival in Towneley Park aims to unite local people, the anti-racist
majority who want no truck with groups such as the BNP and NF who want to
exploit racial tension." Councillor Andrew Holder
"The carnival is important because people do not want Burnley to be known
as a centre for racial hatred. The carnival is a perfect vehicle to show
how the majority feel" Stuart Marsden ANL organiser for Burnley.
There will be a Press conference at the Home Office, 50 Queen Anne's Gate,
London SW1 at 11am on Friday 3 August 2001 to protest to the Home
Secretary.
We demand that the Carnival is allowed to go ahead.
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CONINTELPRO REVISTED: FBI CONTINUED SPYING
At FBI, a Traitor Helped in Search for Subversives: Even as he was selling
secrets to the Soviets, Robert Hanssen was a supervisor in an '80s
program to monitor U.S. citizens' activities
Jonathan Dann and J. Michael Kennedy (Los Angeles Times)
29 Jul 01
At the same time he was selling U.S. secrets to the Soviet Union, former
FBI special agent Robert Philip Hanssen was a key supervisor in a 1980s
domestic-spying program questioning the loyalty of American citizens and
monitoring their activities, newly obtained FBI documents show.
Under this program, federal agents filed reports on teachers, clerics and
political activists who primarily were affiliated with liberal causes. FBI
domestic spy operations under the Reagan and Bush administrations first
came to light a decade ago, prompting congressional rebukes. But the role--
and historical irony--of confessed traitor Hanssen has not been reported
before. The documents also offer some of the richest information to date
about FBI domestic surveillance during the 1980s.
Hanssen's initials appear on numerous files among 2,815 pages of formerly
classified documents recently obtained under a federal Freedom of
Information Act request submitted nearly 15 years ago. Former co-workers
confirmed his handwriting. "It's astonishing that the very guy who was
going after dissenters was in fact working for the Soviets," said Michael
Ratner, vice president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional
Rights, a left-leaning political group that has been monitored by the FBI
in the past.
The program, which lasted for more than a decade, monitored peace and
antinuclear activists and other groups that the White House worried could
be manipulated by Soviet propaganda. Its stated goal was to uncover Soviet
attempts at altering U.S. policy by influencing targeted groups.
As a result, the FBI invested thousands of hours collecting political
intelligence, even as insider Hanssen was delivering the FBI's most closely
held secrets to the KGB.
For example, agents noted the movements of a woman who eventually became a
high-ranking official in the State Department with the Clinton
administration. In another instance, it warned that Philadelphia was ripe
for Soviet infiltration. And an FBI memo signed by Hanssen raised the
possibility that Russian agents were seeking the help of U.S. physicians
and astronauts for subversive activities in the United States.
The FBI now is dealing with a series of embarrassments, including the loss
of hundreds of its weapons and laptop computers, the late disclosure of
thousands of pages of material in the Oklahoma City bombing case that
delayed the execution of convicted bomber Timothy J. McVeigh, and missteps
in the investigation of nuclear physicist Wen Ho Lee, who at one point was
accused of spying for China.
President Bush's choice to run the FBI, Robert Mueller, is expected to be
given the task of overhauling the agency's cumbersome and, critics say,
unaccountable bureaucracy.
U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), a leading Reagan critic whose
correspondence found its way into the FBI files, called the surveillance
effort a "Cold War hangover" and "a waste of time."
But former FBI Director William H. Webster, who guided the bureau during
the '80s, said the surveillance was warranted to thwart Soviet spy
activity.
"We kept very close tabs on the intelligence activities of the Soviet Union
in the United States," he said. "We monitored the embassies, the consulates
and other places to see if contacts were being made that were out of the
norm. We wanted to make it hard for them to function in this country."
Hanssen's former boss, David Major--now retired from the FBI and working as
a counterintelligence consultant--confirmed that Hanssen was "one of a
handful of experts" on Soviet political influence operations inside the
U.S.
According to an FBI affidavit filed in connection with Hanssen's arrest,
the secrets he disclosed to the Soviets in return for more than $1 million
included the identity of three KGB double agents, two of whom subsequently
were executed. He also allegedly revealed how the United States was
intercepting Soviet satellite transmissions and the means by which the U.S.
would retaliate in the event of a nuclear attack. In a plea deal that
spares him from possible execution, Hanssen faces life in prison in
exchange for providing full details of his spying to investigators.
"He was beautifully placed to pass along this trade-craft to the Soviets,"
said Webster, who is heading a team examining how to shore up security
breaches in the FBI. "He was able to say, 'Here's what they know about you
and here's what they're doing to keep track of you.' "
Hanssen declined to be interviewed and the FBI declined to comment further
about the confessed spy's activity within the bureau.
Hanssen's assignment to the bureau's Soviet counterintelligence unit has
been reported previously, but the newly disclosed documents show that he
also was a key supervisor in the political intelligence operation. The
Freedom of Information request sought FBI files concerning Soviet attempts
to influence the U.S. peace movement. After Hanssen's arrest in February,
an examination of the files revealed his initials on a number of documents.
The files repeatedly cite the role of the Soviet Analytical Unit, which had
responsibility in the bureau for not only evaluating information collected
about Soviet spies in the United States, but also to digest raw
intelligence reports regarding alleged subversion. The unit would analyze
the data, then provide conclusions to the intelligence community, the White
House, Congress, and occasionally, the public.
Major said Hanssen, who was deputy chief of the unit from 1987 to 1990,
"played a fundamental role in producing the final product. He was
significantly involved in the process."
Major also said that, although Hanssen was not the head of the unit, he
often was left in charge when its chief was supervising other matters.
Indeed, in two instances the documents reveal Hanssen signing off for his
boss.
Paul Moore, a former FBI analyst who knew Hanssen for 20 years, shared a
carpool with him and considered him a friend. Moore said Hanssen went
undetected for so many years because he played the role of the consummate
counterintelligence man: "Bob was on the leeward side with all the guns
pointing outward to sea. It was set up to catch other people. It takes a
Bob Hanssen to catch a Bob Hanssen."
The heavily censored files, with many portions deleted "in the interest of
national defense or foreign policy," were first requested in the mid-1980s.
The FBI did not deliver them until April of this year, citing the large
amount of material that had to be examined and censored. While much of the
material is serious in nature, some entries appear quirky, or even trivial.
The files contain information on domestic peace groups from the era,
ranging from SANE/Freeze antinuclear organizers to seniors' rights
advocates the Gray Panthers. Among the intelligence transmitted to FBI
headquarters:
* Agents in Philadelphia were concerned that it was "a fertile region" for
Soviet influence operations. Among the causes: "the decaying industrial
base, high blue-collar unemployment, homeless[ness], racial tensions,
influential religious community, and concentrated liberal academic
environment of the region."
* Nebraska agents collected information on an ex-priest in Omaha who was
"opposed to military training for the young" and had criticized the Junior
Reserve Officer Training Corps program there.
* The New York field office observed that a condom package sold in New York
City replicated "the shape of and markings of a Stealth bomber."
Those examples aside, the files indicate that the FBI had some success in
exposing Soviet disinformation operations, which included spreading fake
U.S. government documents. For example, when racist letters apparently
distributed by the Ku Klux Klan appeared before the 1984 Olympics in Los
Angeles, the FBI established that they really were Soviet forgeries
concocted to stimulate anti-U.S. sentiment.
In another instance, the FBI uncovered a plot designed to convince Central
Americans that couples in the United States were adopting children from
Guatemala and Honduras to harvest their vital organs.
There is no doubt that the Soviets made many other attempts--some obvious,
others less so--to manipulate public opinion through spokesmen and various
front groups. Such political influence operations were routinely detailed
in a series of official U.S. government reports made public throughout the
1980s.
But the newly released files reveal a tendency by the FBI during this
period to include in its net almost anyone involved in political activism
opposing administration defense or foreign policy and having contact with
the Soviets during the Reagan-Bush era.
For instance, one document included is the entire list of U.S. delegates to
the 1987 World Congress of Women convention in Moscow. They ranged from the
likes of former Texas legislator and human rights activist Frances "Sissy"
Farenthold to the Rev. Nan Brown, a Baptist minister from Palmyra, Va.
Brown said she went to Moscow simply because she wanted to look at the
Soviet education system.
"I'm astounded, really," she said when informed that her name was in the
files. "I only went because I wanted to go to the conference."
Another of those named in the documents is Erwin Salk, a prominent Chicago
businessman and civil rights activist. Salk, who died last year, was
somewhat disparagingly described by an informant as someone who "attempts
to be in the forefront among the individuals dealing with various Soviet
delegations visiting Chicago in order to satisfy his personal need for
attention. Although Salk appears to be genuine in his efforts to develop
U.S.-USSR relationships, he is easily manipulated due to naivete."
To which his widow, Evelyn, retorted: "I wonder who that person is who said
that. That is so grossly wrong. He was a very strong person with a very
strong will. Nobody manipulated him."
Then there is John Black, a retired Pennsylvania union organizer whose name
was dropped into the files because he wrote an opinion piece for his local
newspaper calling on the U.S. to accept a Soviet proposal to eliminate all
nuclear weapons. Black, now 80, took a certain pride at his inclusion.
"I've been a member of political organizations they don't like since I was
10 years old," he said in a recent interview. "I'm a Marxist and a union
man."
Melvin Beckman, the former priest living in Omaha, was somewhat perplexed
at being in the files. He has worked for years advocating nonviolent
tactics to further peace causes. His wife works for Catholic Charities.
"It seems like they went overboard," he said. "I sure don't think they had
anything to worry about from our group."
Other examples abound. There are four letters marked "Secret," and signed
by then-labor organizer Ignacio de la Fuente, who was urging that the U.S.
government lift a ban on union meetings with Eastern Bloc labor groups.
These days, de la Fuente is president of the Oakland City Council.
Another document identifies a woman named Tobi Trister Gati as a guide for
Soviet dignitaries visiting the U.S. in the mid-1980s. She now is an
advisor on international affairs for a Washington law firm and was
assistant secretary of State for intelligence and research in the Clinton
administration.
"It's pretty surprising to have something like this come back from your
past," she said recently.
Then-President Reagan repeatedly claimed that his political opponents were
guilty of being manipulated by the Soviets. After 750,000 antinuclear
activists thronged New York in 1982--the largest peace rally of the decade-
-Reagan suggested that the KGB had helped foster the movement.
While in office, Reagan made the battle against Soviet subversion a
priority. Soon after he was elected, administration officials loosened
post-Watergate restrictions on the FBI, pardoned former bureau officials
convicted of authorizing illegal break-ins, and launched a new initiative
aimed at identifying disinformation, forgeries, front groups, and other
political influence operations by the Soviets inside the U.S. and abroad.
The Soviets termed such efforts "active measures."
In the late 1980s, Congress criticized the FBI for several of its domestic
spying operations, including the investigation of a group opposed to
Reagan's policy toward El Salvador, as well as another that monitored
public libraries in the search for Soviet agents.
Over time, the FBI reports on Soviet influence within U.S. borders grew
more dire. One 1988 FBI report from the recently declassified files--
bearing Hanssen's telltale initials of approval--warned that Moscow
specifically had targeted U.S. doctors, astronauts and congressmen, among
others, and suggested that Moscow even might play a role in the upcoming
presidential campaign.
"It is possible that the Soviet Union will institute a new series of
active-measures operations designed to discredit those candidates who have
platforms that are not as acceptable to the Soviet government as those of
other candidates," the report says.
Two years later, another FBI report ominously stated: "The Soviets conduct
campaigns in cities throughout the United States. The rewards from active-
measures campaigns are tremendous: the ability to alter U.S. foreign and
domestic policy. Classical espionage operations remain a threat to national
security; however, they do not have the ability to alter the course of a
nation."
At that time, about 1990, Hanssen still was moving forward with his own
espionage operation on behalf of the KGB.
What has happened to the FBI's political spy program in the intervening
years? Major said that, after the 1991 abortive coup against Mikhail S.
Gorbachev, "we walked away from active-measures investigations" as part of
a wholesale de-emphasis on counterintelligence. But three years after the
coup attempt, the telltale initials "RPH" reappear, indicating that Hanssen
apparently authorized an FBI letter to the U.S. Information Agency
requesting that it continue to participate in the bureau's effort to combat
political subversion.
If the FBI's program for rooting out subversives continues today, it is
almost impossible to determine. One reason: Like the newly released FBI
files, many of the bureau's guidelines concerning counterintelligence
remain secret.
Asked for details of the operations described in the files, bureau
spokesman Steven Berry characterized the active measures as being from the
"Cold War era."
"The FBI conducted lawful investigations . . . into Soviet government and
KGB efforts to . . . undermine U.S. political, military, economic and
social interests" through disinformation, front groups and other tactics,
he said.
- - - - -
Report: Hanssen Key Leader in Spy Unit
AP
29 Jul 01
LOS ANGELES-- While former FBI (news - web sites) agent Robert Hanssen
(news - web sites) was selling secrets to Moscow, he also was a key
supervisor in a 1980s domestic program that questioned the loyalty of
Americans in an effort to thwart Soviet spy activity, according to a
newspaper report.
The program monitored peace and anti-nuclear activists and other groups
that the White House worried could be manipulated by Soviet propaganda. Its
stated goal was to uncover Soviet attempts at altering U.S. policy by
influencing targeted groups.
Hanssen's initials appear on numerous files among 2,815 pages of formerly
classified documents recently obtained under a Freedom of Information Act
request, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.
"It's astonishing that the very guy who was going after dissenters was in
fact working for the Soviets," said Michael Ratner, vice president of the
New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights, a left-leaning political
group that has been monitored by the FBI in the past.
As federal agents spent thousands of hours collecting political
intelligence over a decade, Hanssen was giving his Soviet and Russian
handlers a host of U.S. secrets on defense plans, nuclear weapons systems
and American intelligence gathering.
In a plea agreement reached this month, Hanssen, 57, admitted to 15
criminal counts, including 13 of espionage and one of attempted espionage.
Under the agreement, Hanssen will give a full confession of his spying
activities in exchange for a life sentence without parole, thus avoiding
the death penalty.
Hanssen's former boss, David Major, confirmed that Hanssen was "one of a
handful of experts" on Soviet political influence operations inside the
United States. Major is retired from the FBI and works as a
counterintelligence consultant.
Hanssen's assignment to the bureau's Soviet counterintelligence unit has
been reported, but the documents disclosed in April show that he also was a
key supervisor in the political intelligence operation.
Hanssen declined to be interviewed and the FBI declined to comment further
about the confessed spy's activity within the bureau.
According to the files, the Soviet Analytical Unit would evaluate
information collected about Soviet spies in the United States, analyze raw
intelligence reports regarding alleged subversion and provide conclusions
to the intelligence community and government officials.
Major said Hanssen, who was deputy chief of the unit from 1987 to 1990,
"played a fundamental role in producing the final product. He was
significantly involved in the process."
And even though Hanssen was not head of the unit, he often was left in
charge when its chief was supervising other matters. Some documents confirm
this by showing Hanssen signing off for his boss.
* * * * *
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only.
__________________________________________________________________________
FASCISM:
We have no ethical right to forgive, no historical right to forget.
(No permission required for noncommercial reproduction)
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