Spying On Peace Activists at Drake University

February 27, 2004

Add another wrinkle to the controversial case of the Des Moines peace activists. Earlier this year, they faced federal subpoenas to testify about an anti-war conference that was held at Drake University in Des Moines last November 15. Under public pressure, the federal prosecutor withdrew the subpoenas against them and Drake.

Turns out that at least two Polk County Sheriff's deputies infiltrated that conference.

"On November 15, 2003, this Senior Deputy Leo along with Senior Deputy Griffiths, both acting in an undercover capacity, attended a Civil Disobedience workshop held at the Olmstead Center at Drake University," reads a document that was released to the protesters in the discovery phase of their trespassing trials.

The document, on the stationery of the "Mid-Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force," is entitled "Anti-War Protest." It is signed "R. Leo."

One of the workshop coordinators identified in the document by the undercover cops is Brian Terrell, the director of the Catholic Peace Ministry in Des Moines.

"It's just really rude" to have undercover agents present during anti-war meetings, says Terrell. "One was supposed to get arrested with us. We trust people. We take people at face value. I'm just disappointed in these two people as human beings."

Plus, Terrell says, "they got lots of things wrong." He points to a passage in the document that says he and the other coordinators "instructed and demonstrated non-compliance techniques to be used, such as locking arms, sitting down, and going limp. These techniques were taught in attempts to make it difficult for law enforcement to control the group or make arrests."

Terrell says he never discussed locking arms: "We talked about people holding hands, as a way of showing they were not being aggressive."