FBI Targeted Freelance Journalist Covering FTAA Miami Talks

May 5
Newly-released documents reveal that the FBI spied on freelance journalist David Lippman as he was covering the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in Miami in 2003. The documents indicate Lippman was under surveillance for being a "known protestor w/history." The American Civil Liberties Union is filing a lawsuit on his behalf.

AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask Dave Lippman in our studio, you were working for Free Speech Radio News, which provides news for community radio stations in Pacifica around the country, covering the FTAA protest in November of 2003. What happened?

DAVE LIPPMAN: I had just parked my car in a municipal garage, and it was about two hours later I happened to be standing on a corner when I saw my truck go by behind a tow truck, and then I realized that the street that I had seen that was blocked off was blocked off because they were examining my truck and breaking the windows in it. It took me two days to get it back, and I found padlocks on the back broken and everything quite disordered, so the ACLU came into the case, the ACLU of Florida, and eventually they discovered documents indicating that several different law enforcement agencies have been involved, in not entirely clear ways, including the Miami police the Broward County Sheriffs, the neighboring county and the F.B.I. It's not clear what the exact motive was of taking that vehicle. It was not the only vehicle taken or damaged, but it does say in the documents that the vehicle was followed from North Carolina, where I live, to Miami, because I'm a protester with a known history.

AMY GOODMAN: A protester with a history?

JUAN GONZALEZ: Right, and the incident report actually does admit that the Broward County Sheriffs, F.B.I. and Miami Dade were involved in the damage, right? But it doesn't give a reason?

DAVE LIPPMAN: Only the reason that I'm a protester with a known history.