“Through the Naked Eye: The History of FBI Surveillance of the War Resisters League and

Current Matters of Privacy Issues”

Katherine A. PerrottaInstructor of History

Georgia Perimeter College- DunwoodyMarch 23, 2011

What is the War Resisters’ League?• The War Resisters’ League is the first secular

antiwar organization in the United States– Nonviolence to settle social, economic, and

political problems of the 20th and 21st centuries

– Supports civil disobedience in antiwar protest and social justice movements

– National branch in NYC with local chapters in 30 states

• Jessie Wallace Hughan founded the WRL in 1923– Hughan a target of FBI surveillance since 1915

as a pacifist and New York City public school teacher during World War I

– The WRL was a target of FBI surveillance since 1923

A Brief History of the FBI• The Federal Bureau of Investigation was

founded in 1908 to investigate national banking, bankruptcy, naturalization, antitrust, and fraud violations

• The FBI acquired responsibility for enforcing the Espionage, Selective Service, and Sabotage Acts during World War I– More governmental power to censor

and investigate those against US involvement in WWI

• J. Edgar Hoover appointed head of the FBI in 1924– Worked for the Department of Justice

investigating suspected communists during World War I and the first Red Scare of the 1920s

FBI Surveillance of the WRL, 1938-1945• Eight major investigations of the WRL by the FBI

1938-1945 for violations of the:– Foreign Agents Registration Act: illegal to enroll

members of “German, Italian, and Communist sympathies” into civilian and government agencies

– Selective Training and Service Act– Smith Act: illegal to advocate the overthrow and

destruction of the US government by force• In 1939, 1942, and 1943, the Justice Department

recommended WRL investigations cease due to lack of evidence it was a Communist front organization or violated any of the above laws

• The FBI continued surveillance of the WRL using the Foreign Agents Registration Act and Smith Act as its justification from 1930s-1960s

FBI Surveillance of the WRL, 1945-1968• FBI counterintelligence programs

(COINTELPROs) established in 1956 to monitor suspected “radical” organizations

• Surveillance tactics included:– Interviews of group members, families– Intercepting mail– Wiretapping– Infiltration with plain clothes informants– Stake outs and break-ins

• COINTELPROs of the WRL did not begin until 1968 with COINTELPRO-New Left, which was against “student protest, or…any organization or campaign opposed to the war in Vietnam”

• WRL participated in protests, draft card turn-ins, and income tax withholding in objection to US involvement in the Vietnam War

FBI Surveillance of the WRL, 1968-1973• FBI had “few limits” on power with

COINTELPRO operations• May 1969: FBI allegedly broke into WRL

headquarters in Manhattan– ACLU challenged the Justice Department’s

wiretapping and infiltration policies in federal court

– FBI never implicated in the WRL break-in• March 1971: the Citizens’ Commission to

Investigate the FBI broke into Bureau offices in Pennsylvania, stealing classified documents revealing COINTELPRO operations– The Senate concluded COINTELPROs

exemplified “unchecked government power”

– Hoover disbanded COINTELPROs in April 1971

An End to Surveillance, 1973-1981• The IRS seized WRL bank accounts in 1974 for

unpaid taxes from 1969-1971 totaling $2,259.77 plus interest• WRL threatened legal action but did not

when another antiwar group’s suit over tax evasion was denied

• FBI surveillance continued until FBI Acting Director L. Patrick Gray III halted WRL investigations in 1973 pending future violations of federal law

• The WRL sent requests for its FBI files via the Freedom of Information Act in 1974– Also requested a fee waiver

• The WRL received its files after paying a reduced FOIA fee in 1981, but much of 662 pages of files were omitted, including the alleged FBI break-in of WRL headquarters in 1969

The WRL Today• In an interview with former WRL field secretary

David McReynolds in 2009, he stated that “bureaucracies rarely give up a function”

• The WRL continues its mission of nonviolent action against military recruitment, tax contributions for military spending, and avocation of human and civil rights – Organized events in Washington D.C and NYC

protesting the War in Afghanistan since 2001, War in Iraq since 2003, and violence in the Middle East

– Supports the January 25, 2011 nonviolent revolution in Egypt, and a peaceful end to civil war in Libya

The FBI, 1989-Present• Investigates white-collar crimes, drug

trafficking, chemical warfare, cyber crimes, terrorism since the end of the Cold War– WTC Bombing, New York City, 1993– Oklahoma City Bombing, 1995

• Change of mandate of FBI investigations and function since September 11, 2001– The PATRIOT Act was passed almost

unanimously by Congress and signed into law in October 2001 to expand the powers of the Department of Justice and National Security Agency to prevent future terrorist attacks

– Provisions renewed in 2005, 2010, 2011

Current Surveillance Legislations• The PATRIOT Act aka “Uniting and Strengthening

America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism” Act increased the government’s power to:– Obtain warrants for business records of

suspects and roving wiretaps– Increase communication between federal, local

law enforcement and intelligence agencies– Increase penalties for those who commit

terrorist crimes, harbor terrorists, and conspire to commit a terror attacks

– Eliminates statute of limitations to prosecute terror suspects

• The Homeland Security Act of 2002: created the Department of Homeland Security with legal authority to investigate suspected terrorists and tend to matters of national security

Current Matters of Privacy Issues• ACLU has challenged warrantless electronic

surveillance protected by the PATRIOT Act and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978– Allows warrantless wiretapping of churches and

foreign organizations– Supported by Pres. G.W Bush and Senator Obama

in 2005– A federal judge ruled warrantless wiretapping was

illegal in 2010• Since 2008, a 50% increase in the denial of FOIA

requests (466,872 total)• February 2011: Congress approved of 3 month

extension of PATRIOT ACT provisions concerning roving wiretaps and surveillance at libraries and bookstores

• Congressional hearings to evaluate threat of radical terrorism after 2009 Fort Hood shootings

• Privacy issues range from police security cameras to internet searches

What this Means Today• FBI historians David J. Garrow and Athan

Theoharis emphasized that FBI surveillance of groups like the WRL since the Cold War have had “significant damaging effects” on future government measures regarding national security due to “a distinct pattern of indifference to the law and to a constitutional system of checks and balances”– Increased media, public scrutiny (Wikileaks)

• Depending what is perceived by the government as a threat to national security, the debate over federal surveillance versus citizens’ protections under the Bill of Rights will endure throughout the 21st century, as it did in the 1900s

Selected BibliographyUnpublished Primary Sources: • David McReynolds of the War Resisters League, New York New York to Allen H. McCreight, Chief Freedom of Information/Privacy Acts Branch United States

Department of Justice Records Management Division Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington D.C, 28 December 1977, FBI-NYC Branch Files, Boxes 34-37; SCPC.

• Electronic Communication, David McReynolds, 5 March 2009, 7 March 2009.• FBI SAC- New York Report to Acting Director, “Subject: War Resisters League (WRL) IS-RA, RE: Report of SA dated 3/1/73, at New York, 25 April 1973, FBI-

NYC Branch Files, Boxes 34-37; SCPC.• United States Department of Justice Office of the Deputy Attorney General Benjamin R. Civiletti, Acting Deputy Attorney General, Washington D.C to Ed

Hedemann, War Resisters League, New York New York, undated, FBI-NYC Branch Files, Boxes 34-37; SCPC.• United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation- SAC, U.S Secret Service Report, “Re: War Resisters League (WRL), 9 February 1973;

FBI-NYC Branch Files, Boxes 34-37; SCPC.

Published SourcesAssociated Press, “Senate Votes to Extend Terrorism Provisions,” New York Times, 15 February 2011,

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/us/politics/16brfs-SENATEVOTEST_BRF.html?ref=usapatriotact Accessed 19 March 2011Cunningham, David. There’s Something Happening Here: The New Left, The Klan, and FBI Counterintelligence. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.David A. Fahrenthold, David A.; Boorstein, Michelle. “Rep. Peter King Muslim Hearing: Plenty of Drama, Less Substance.” Washington Post, 10 March 2011,

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/peter-king-tempers-rhetoric-on-muslims-as-congressional-hearing-gets-under-way/2011/03/10/ABhV3BQ_story.html Accessed 19 March 2011

Garrow, David J. “Pacifism Treated as Subversion: the FBI and the War Resisters League.” Peace & Change. Vol. 9, No. 1., 1983: 43-54Malcolm, Andrew. “A Little Secret about Obama’s Transparency,” Los Angeles Times, 21 March 2010;

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/21/nation/la-na-ticket21-2010mar21, Accessed 19 March 2011Powers, Richard Gid. Not Without Honor: The History of Anticommunism in America. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995.Powers, Richard Gid. Secrecy and Power, the Life of J. Edgar Hoover. New York: The Free Press, 1987.Savage, Charlies. “House votes to extend Patriot Act Provisions,” New York Times, 13 February 2011;

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/us/politics/15terror.html?ref=usapatriotact Accessed 19 March 2011

Electronic Published SourcesDepartment of Homeland Security, http://www.dhs.gov, Accessed 19 March 2011Department of Justice, http://www.justice.gov/archive/ll/highlights.htm, Accessed 19 March 2011Federal Bureau of Investigation, http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/brief-history/brief-history, Accessed 19 March 2011War Resisters League, http://www.warresisters.org, Accessed 19 March 2011Wikileaks, http://213.251.145.96/ Accessed 19 March 2011