Judge Demands US Intelligence Agencies Reveal Details on Occupy Protest Spying

A federal judge has given government agencies 60 days to turn over their data on the surveillance of Occupy protesters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Senior US District Judge Berle Schiller ruled that the FBI, CIA, and NSA must turn over their potential evidence, following a ruling from a judge in a similar right-to-know case in New York City.

The earlier New York City lawsuit was filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund in 2012, and led to the disclosure of FBI documents showing that the agency was sharing information on the protests with banks, businesses and local police.

Speaking to Eugene Puryear of Sputnik Radio, Paul J. Hetznecker, the attorney representing the Occupy Philadelphia demonstrators, suggested that the case can shed light on what the US government is doing in secret.

​“Post 9/11, we have had expansive federal surveillance and government surveillance of the political and private activities of US residents and American citizens,” Hetznecker said. “I think it’s unfortunate that we have lost, in our discussion of what’s really important in our democracy, we have lost sight of the fact that transparency in government is a critical part of that.”

Hetznecker detailed that the Freedom of Information Act is a crucial tool in enabling government transparency, and can provide insight on agencies that are secretly delving into the private lives of US residents. By making this information public, he hopes that judicial oversight will be increased.

“In this FOIA effort, it’s a real effort to try to get judicial oversight of this expanding executive power,” he said. “Surveillance does chill First Amendment rights, because in many ways it says to those who are out there demonstrating that you somehow need to be watched — and people don’t need to be watched when they are expressing their viewpoint. They don’t need to be surveilled, they don’t need to have their phones monitored, or their emails monitored.”

Through this case, Hetznecker is specifically seeking to find out if the agencies spied on income-inequality protesters in New York city in 2011. The FBI has already handed over seven pages of redacted documents.

District Judge Schiller will review information provided by the CIA and NSA, as well as the unredacted FBI documents, to determine if the data should be made public.

“The message to people is don’t participate because you may be considered a threat to the government or the corporate state,” Hetznecker said.

During the eviction and other large Occupy Philadelphia events in 2011, approximately 80 people were arrested but later acquitted. This year, the city agreed to $200,000 in settlements in lawsuits filed by those arrested.