Wired News delivered to your inbox or hand-held device. Everybody's got issues in Politics Claims of surveillance surfaced late last month after two men in plain clothes were seen photographing members of a group called the R2K committee as they arrived for a downtown meeting near the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The committee consists of activists who plan to take part in civil disobedience protests aimed at disrupting the convention, which runs July 31 to Aug. 3. Protest organizers have since reported half a dozen similar incidents, saying the two men have refused to answer questions when confronted. Police initially declined to comment on the claims, suggesting privately that surveillance could be the work of the FBI or other law enforcement agencies.
Organizers also suspect that police have infiltrated some of their meetings.
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union advised organizers that it was legal for police and government agencies to take photographs in public. The surveillance also did not violate a 1987 court settlement banning city police from using infiltration tactics. Tens of thousands of demonstrators, representing causes ranging from environmental protection and AIDS research to women's rights and social justice, are due in Philadelphia this month for what organizers say could be the largest protests ever seen at a U.S. political convention. Philadelphia police said they were keeping an eye out for extremists who have been blamed for violence during protests at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle last year and the World Bank meetings in Washington in April. The Philadelphia Inquirer , which first reported the police admission on Friday, said police acknowledged involvement only after the newspaper informed them that the registration of a car driven by the two men had been traced to the police department.