[Seattle-editorial] Big Brother Comes to Town: LEIU & the New Surveillance Society t his Sunday

[Devon Abdallah]

Big Brother Comes to Town:
LEIU & the New Surveillance Society


Sunday 1 June 7:30pm
Town Hall, Seattle
$5 - $15 suggested donation


SPEAKERS
Sheila O'Donnell -- Private Investigator who's done research on the LEIU
Larry Gossett -- King County Councilmember targeted by Red Squad
Surveillance
Mickey Gendler -- an ACLU speaker

MUSIC & POETRY
Jim Page, Mother Zosima, Santiago, Bassam Bishara, Isangmahal Arts
Kollective

Brought to you by:
American Civil Liberties Union of Washington
Arab American Community Coalition
National Lawyers Guild
Not In Our Name Project

Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit

The Law Enforcement Intelligence Unit (LEIU) is a loose secretive
intelligence network that links the intelligence squads of most major public
law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada with some from
Mexico, Australia, and South Africa as well.  Since it is a private agency,
it is not held accountable to government officials or freedom-of-information
laws.  LEIU files are closely guarded with no one having accessing to them
but members, thus LEIU can assist local authorities in storing information
that they do not want divulged to the public.  

In the early 1960s, the LEIU increased their scope beyond criminal
activities and began to monitor political activists, community organizers,
and demonstrations.  With the information gathered from their illegal
wiretapping, breaking and entering, and spying on people, LEIU keep detailed
information on the individuals that they monitor.  Moreover, the majority of
LEIU's information has been found to be incorrect.

While the LEIU may have kept a low profile for the past 20 years, with
Seattle's conference focusing on the  'War against Terrorism" and possibly
supporting Tom Ridge, Director of Homeland Security, one can only assume
that the LEIU will revamp their efforts in illegally investigating
individuals.


Devon Alisa Abdallah
Community Organizer
American Civil Liberties Union of Washington
705 2nd Avenue, Suite 300
Seattle, WA 98104-1799
206-624-2184 ext 202
www.aclu-wa.org