Report: FBI Probed Foes of U.S Policies

The FBI conducted a six-year investigation of hundreds of people and organizations opposed to the Reagan Administration’s policies in Central America, a New York-based lawyers’ group said today.

The Center for Constitutional Rights released about 50 pages of the 1,200 pages of FBI files it collected under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Center attorney Margaret Ratner said the documents, many of which were partially blacked out before being turned over to the group, showed that the FBI used wiretaps, undercover agents and informants to gather information on the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES).

Surveillance Began in ’81

The FBI’s surveillance began in 1981 with CISPES and branched out to include other organizations opposed to U.S. policies in Central America. Among those organizations, the center said, were the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta, the Roman Catholic Maryknoll Sisters in Chicago and the United Auto Workers in Cleveland.

Ann Mari Buitrago, director of F.O.I.A. Inc., who analyzed the documents, described the FBI investigation as “an old-fashioned domestic security investigation we thought had been restricted” in the late 1970s.

She was referring to revelations following the death of J. Edgar Hoover that the agency, under his directorship, had been involved in the surveillance of U.S. political and religious leaders in the 1960s and early 1970s.

The FBI, in a statement, denied that the reason for its investigation was the political leanings of CISPES.

“The predication for and focus of these investigations is alleged criminal activity rather than the motives and beliefs of those being investigated,” spokesman Gregory Jones said today. “The FBI is sensitive to the constitutional rights of the American public and the bureau has no interest in interfering with the exercise of these rights.”

‘Odor of Harassment’

But Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights, said, “This investigation has an odor of harassment about it.”

Ratner said the center had not established whether such FBI surveillance was continuing and was drafting a lawsuit asking that the activities, if persisting, be stopped.

While the center released FBI documents dated 1981 through 1985, it said it was continuing to receive complaints, some of which charged that such activities occurred through 1987.

Buitrago said the FBI pursued groups on college campuses. She gave an example of one state university in Kansas, which she did not name, where an FBI agent or informer removed a flyer announcing a meeting from a bulletin board, then tracked down the addresses of people named on the brochure.