Democracy Now! | Government Spy Infiltrated Antiwar Groups Before FBI Raids

Transcript © Democracy Now! 2011 | Headlines for January 13, 2011

There are major new developments in the case of the peace activists targeted by FBI raids last September. Lawyers for the activists in Minnesota and St. Paul have learned a government agent infiltrated their group and conducted extensive spying. Going by the name “Karen Sullivan,” the agent began attending organizing meetings of the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee in the lead-up to the Republican National Convention. Sullivan then took an active role in the group, chairing meetings, handling bookkeeping, and communicating with dozens of other organizations. Anti-War Committee activist Jess Sundin spoke to Democracy Now! on Wednesday.

Jess Sundin: “Karen came to weekly meetings. We’re all volunteers, and so we make decisions together at those meetings, and she participated in those discussions, sometimes even chairing the meetings. Karen had a key to our office, a key which she later used—or the FBI used—to raid the office on September 24th and let themselves in. And she also at times assisted with our bookkeeping and had full access to our financial records, our membership lists and everything else we’re involved in.”

Sullivan even accompanied two activists when they tried to visit the Occupied Territories in 2009. But upon landing in Israel, Israeli agents were already aware of their trip and refused to grant them entry. The activists’ attorneys have also learned prosecutors are focusing on a small donation the two activists wanted to give to their host in the Occupied Territories, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees. The group is not listed as a terrorist group by the U.S. and is a registered NGO with the Palestinian Authority. Sullivan left the Twin Cities last fall, shortly before the raids of September 24th.