SpyTalk

"The DHS intelligence operations specialist assigned to the Washington State Fusion Center did not know of Towery's report, consequently, the report was not forwarded through any channels," said department spokeswoman Amy Kudwa, in response to a query.

Last January DHS denied it had any knowledge of Maryland State Police spying on nonviolent activists wrongly classified as terrorists. That turned out to be untrue.

Not only was that untrue, it was forwarding reports on a D.C.-area antiwar group to the Maryland State Police.

Out in Washington State, meanwhile, Towery, an Army civilian assigned to a Fort Lewis, Wash., "force protection division," infiltrated a Seattle-area antiwar group in 2007 posing as an anarchist who could steal classified information for it, SpyTalk reported July 30.

Since Fort Lewis is a member of the Washington Joint Analytical Center, which is a partnership of local and state police, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, there was speculation that Towery's reports ended up at DHS's Intelligence & Analysis wing, where they might have been circulated to other intelligence agencies.

A U.S. Army document which surfaced in May, "Concept of Operations (CONOPS) for Police Intelligence Operations (PIO)," suggested that force protection units could get around prohibitions on domestic military intelligence operations.

According a DHS official who discussed the issue only on terms of anonymity, many, but not all, fusion centers have a military representative.

"Membership is a state's decision," the official said.

Kudwa said DHS and federal government privacy guidelines spell out prohibitions against  covert intelligence operations directed at peaceful protest organizations and activities.

"Our policies on privacy and civil rights/civil liberties at fusion centers are in a number of public documents," she said, including the Justice Department's Fusion Center Guidelines.

DHS intelligence personnel "are particularly sensitive to information relating to protected activities, such as the free exercise of religion, speech, assembly, and protest," a department official maintained Tuesday in a written response to a SpyTalk query.

"Where there is reason to question the lawfulness of the partner's collection," the official continued, on condition of anonymity, "intelligence personnel are expected to immediately notify their DHS supervisor of their concern."

A Freedom of Information request filed by Drew Hendricks, a member of the antiwar Port Militarization Resistance group, led to Towery's unmasking.

Hendricks told liberal radio host Amy Goodman that Towery, using the false name John Jacobs, "approached me as somebody who claimed to have base access, which turned out to be true.... and what he was offering me were observations and inside knowledge of operations on Fort Lewis."

Hendricks said he rebuffed the offer, which could have led to his arrest and prosecution.

"I let him know that I wasn't willing to have any classified information from him and that I wasn't engaged in espionage," Hendricks told Goodman.

In January 2009, DHS assured Maryland's two U.S. senators, Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and Benjamin L. Cardin (D) that an "exhaustive review" of its files and databases "found no indication of ever receiving information" from a Maryland State Police spying program targeting antiwar and other peaceful activists.

"The Department of Homeland Security views the protection of the privacy, civil rights and civil liberties of American citizens as a critical priority," DHS legislative liaison official Jim Howe assured the senators.

But Maryland police investigative files subsequently obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union revealed that in 2005 DHS had actually been sending intelligence it collected on the DC Anti-War Network, known as DAWN, to the Maryland police, who had also targeted the group.

"That the Maryland state police could engage in such widespread and intensive surveillanc of purported security threats (including a 14-month undercover operation) without their partner agencies being informed strains credulity, and, if true, raises serious questions regarding the effectiveness of these information-sharing programs," Mikulski and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wrote to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano.

Napolitano, a former Arizona governor, was not sworn in as DHS secretary until Jan. 21, 2009.