Quakers Petition Govt for Surveillance Files on Them

Philadelphia -- February 1 -- The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) today joined in a series of Freedom of Information Act requests filed across the country to uncover exactly who the Pentagon is spying on and why.

The FOIA requests, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and its affiliates, come in the wake of new evidence revealing the Defense Department has been secretly conducting surveillance of peace groups and protest activities.

"While thousands are dying in Iraq, here at home our government is waging a new war, a 'war on dissent' that threatens to dismantle the constitution and severely challenge our country's basic democratic principles of free speech and peaceful assembly," said Michael McConnell, director of AFSC's Great Lakes region, which recently found itself under Pentagon scrutiny.

"If the government has avowed pacifists under surveillance, then no one is safe," he adds.