CDR: Domestic surveillance: infilatration

[A. Melon]

State police infiltrated protest groups, documents
               show 

               Search-warrant affidavits reveal an undercover operation
               aimed at activists in Philadelphia for the GOP convention.

               By Linda K. Harris,, Craig R. McCoy and Thomas Ginsberg 
               INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS 

               State police undercover agents posing as demonstrators infiltrated activist
               groups planning the protests at the Republican National Convention,
               search-warrant documents made public yesterday showed.

               The undercover operation was detailed in legal documents filed Aug. 1
               by Philadelphia police seeking search warrants for a raid that day on a
               so-called "puppet warehouse" at 4100 Haverford Ave. in West
               Philadelphia. The documents were under a court seal until yesterday.

               About 75 people were arrested in the raid at the warehouse.

               The infiltration was immediately condemned yesterday by the state
               chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the city public
               defenders office.

               "Its worse than sleazeball," said Stefan Presser, the ACLUs legal
               director. "This is an outrage."

               Presser and other critics said dissenters needed the right to rally and to
               organize without fear that police were spying on them. They said they
               feared that police undercover officers could cross the line from
               intelligence-gatherers to provocateurs.

               "The legality and propriety of this potentially unconstitutional police
               conduct will certainly be an issue at the time of trial in all of these cases,"
               said Bradley Bridge, a senior lawyer with the defenders office.

               During the convention, Police Commissioner John F. Timoney
               repeatedly denied that police had engaged in infiltration. 

               "We had not infiltrated any group," he said the day after police raided the
               warehouse that had become one of several gathering spots for
               demonstrators during the convention.

               A spokeswoman for the commissioner said yesterday that he would have
               no comment. Lt. Susan Slawson, commander of the police public-affairs
               unit, said the commissioner could not talk because "its in litigation," a
               reference to a civil suit filed by demonstrators challenging their arrests
               during the protests.

               The use of state police as the undercover operatives took place as the
               city itself was restricted from using its own officers for such infiltration
               under a long-standing mayoral directive. The directive says the police
               may not infiltrate protest groups without the permission of the mayor, the
               managing director, and the police commissioner. 

               Mayor Street and City Solicitor Kenneth Trujillo declined comment
               yesterday.

               In seeking search warrants, police cited the work of the undercover
               operatives and detailed the intelligence gathered as the convention
               approached. The information is sketched out in affidavits of probable
               cause seeking warrants to search the warehouse, a U-Haul van, another
               van, and a pickup that police deemed suspicious.

               "This investigation is utilizing several Pennsylvania state troopers in an
               undercover capacity that have infiltrated several of the activist groups
               planning to commit numerous illegal direct actions," said one affidavit,
               signed by Detective William Egenlauf of the Philadelphia Police
               Department.

               It says the state police undercover operatives arrived at the warehouse on
               July 27, four days before the convention began. 

               Once there, the agents assisted "in the construction of props to be used
               during protests," the affidavit says.

               It says agents observed demonstrators building street barriers and "lock
               boxes," devices used by protesters to lock arms together when blocking
               streets. The papers say they overheard discussions that indicated
               protesters planned on "using the puppets . . . as blockades."

               The operatives also reported that "persons indicated they would be
               throwing pies, bottles and cardboard boxes filled with water at the
               police," the affidavits stated.

               Timoney held a news conference after the convention to display items
               seized during the raid, including two massive slingshots and chains
               wrapped in kerosene-soaked rags. Such devices were not used during the
               protests. Police also displayed seized "lock boxes." 

               Protesters have claimed the facility was nothing more than an art studio
               to fashion the puppets, floats and other props that were a hallmark of the
               demonstrations.

               Demonstrators also said their protests would be nonviolent, with illegal
               actions limited to the blockading of streets. Their lawyers have
               complained that numerous people were arrested in the warehouse
               without any proof they had any connection to illegal items.

               A key subject of controversy has been the raid on the warehouse.

               The request for the search warrants for the warehouse and lengthy
               affidavits detailing police intelligence-gathering was made yesterday, a
               month after Municipal Court President Judge Louis J. Presenza approved
               the searches.

               At the request of the District Attorneys Office, the warrants were sealed
               - barred from public inspection - for a month as soon as they were
               issued. The legal request for the warrants maintained that premature
               "disclosure of this affidavit could endanger the lives" of the undercover
               operatives.

               The affidavits cite sweeping police intelligence-gathering before the
               convention. This included monitoring of unspecified "electronic
               messages" sent among demonstrators, an apparent reference to police
               scrutiny of Web sites and electronic mailing lists.

               The police documents identified what investigators viewed as the key
               protest groups and their goals. Funds for one group "allegedly originate
               with Communist and leftist parties and from sympathetic trade unions" or
               from "the former Soviet-allied World Federation of Trade Unions,"
               according to the affidavits. 

               The affidavits go on to identify a handful of leaders of the various
               groups. Among those cited by name are John Sellers and Kate Sorensen,
               who were later arrested during demonstrations in Center City. The two
               were held in jail for days in lieu of $1 million bail - a sum critics said was
               extraordinary. In recent interviews after their release from jail, people
               who were inside the warehouse said that they had suspected early on that
               four undercover officers were working among them. Four men - known
               as Tim, Harry, George and Ryan - showed up together at 41st and
               Haverford about a week before the convention, introducing themselves
               as union carpenters from Wilkes-Barre who built stages, several
               demonstrators said.

               They were big, burly men who were older than most of the people
               working in the warehouse. They did not seem particularly political or
               well-informed, according to demonstrators. All four, however, were
               considered hard workers.

               Soliman Lawrence, 20, of Tallahassee, Fla., worked closely with the four
               on a massive satirical float built for a protest march.

               "They gained our trust," Lawrence said. "The fact that we didnt know
               them very well wasnt a big deal.

               "I remember thinking to myself, Why does everyone who looks like that
               have to be a cop? " Lawrence said. "I didnt like that I thought like that."