Schwarzenegger Taskforce Spying on Political Dissenters
by Jonathan Singer, Sat Jul 01, 2006 at 01:13:50 PM EDT
Arnold Schwarzenegger likes to fashion himself as a moderate, but there's nothing much moderate about spying on political dissenters. But according to Peter Nicholas of the Los Angeles Times, this is exactly what the state of California has been doing under Schwarzenegger's Republican administration.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office in charge of protecting California against terrorism has tracked demonstrations staged by political and antiwar groups, a practice that senior law enforcement officials say is an abuse of civil liberties.The Times obtained reports prepared for the state Office of Homeland Security in recent months that contain details on the whereabouts and purpose of a number of political demonstrations throughout California.
For some time we have known about these types of activities in the Golden State. In March one of my professors at Pomona College, John Seery, reported at The Huffington Post that members of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department/F.B.I. Joint Task Force on Terrorism had shaken down a professor of Venezuelan descent after having appeared on CNN talking about Hugo Chavez.
But what we did not previously know was the extent of this program -- that the state of California under Arnold Schwarzenegger's watch had a concerted effort to spy on citizens with whom it didn't agree politically.
Schwarzenegger is in some serious trouble these days. His poll numbers aren't terribly good. His campaign was just fined more than $200,000 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Now, news that his government was spying on Californians -- including people who attended a rally at which Rep. George Miller spoke. If things continue to move in this direction, it's going to be increasingly difficult for Schwarzenegger to defeat Democratic nominee Phil Angelides this fall.
Tags: Arnold Schwarzenegger, CA-Gov, California (all tags)










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