ACLU Civil Liberties Union of Delaware
Defending Individual Rights and Personal Freedom
Government Spying
Phone Companies’ Cooperation with the National Security Agency in Delaware
Responding to reports that phone companies were turning over private details about Americans’ telephone calls to the National Security Agency (NSA), the ACLU of Delaware joined 19 other ACLU affiliates in filing complaints before their respective states’ public utility regulators or state Attorneys General. On May 24, 2005, we filed our complaint before the Delaware Public Service Commission (PSC), requesting that the administrative body conduct an investigation into whether Verizon and AT&T are cooperating in Delaware with the NSA’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program. The complaint was filed on behalf of several ACLU-DE members and directors. On June 8, 2006, we submitted to the PSC a list of 110 other Delawareans who requested that their names be forwarded to the PSC in support of our request for an investigation.
In our complaint, we argued that if the phone companies shared your “costumer proprietary network information” with the NSA, they likely violated Delaware privacy laws prohibiting the disclosure of the contents of those communications. After a public hearing on June 20, 2006, at which time the PSC questioned attorneys for Verizon, AT&T, and the ACLU of Delaware, the PSC determined it would postpone any decision concerning the requested investigation pending the outcome of several federal cases on the same issue.
Freedom of Information Act Request for Delaware Peace and Justice Groups
On June 8, 2006, we filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of the following peace and justice groups in Delaware: the ACLU of Delaware, Pacem in Terris, Newark Citizens for Peace and Justice, the Lewes Silent Vigil, the Kent County Peace Fellowship, Common Cause of Delaware, Voices Without Borders (Voces Sin Fronteras), Green Delaware, and the Green Party of Delaware. We requested this information on the heels of a nationwide ACLU campaign to expose government surveillance and infiltration of anti-war groups and other social justice organizations around the country.
In May 2003, the Department of Defense (DOD) established a reporting mechanism known as TALON, or the Threat and Local Observation Notice Report, maintained by a DOD agency called Counterintelligence Field Activity Agency, or CIFA. The purpose of the database was to compile information on people with possible links to terrorism. In December 2005, however, NBC News reported that the list was being used to maintain information on law-abiding people engaged in antiwar meetings and peaceful protests, and published an eight page excerpt of 400 page DOD document
Although the FBI and DHS claim they have no responsive documents to our request, previous FOIA requests by other ACLU affiliates have revealed that the FBI is using its Joint Terrorism Task Forces to gather extensive information about peaceful organizations such as the Ft. Lauderdale Friends Meeting, School of the Americas Watch, and the Raging Grannies.