"Pa. activist unsure why surveilled by state"

By Bernard Harris, Scranton Times-Tribune/Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era, November 17, 2010:

Lancaster, Pa. (AP) -- Until recently, Virginia Cody's community activism extended to being president of the arts council in Wyoming County.

That was before she found her rural north-central Pennsylvania home surrounded by land leased to natural gas drilling companies. That was when she began asking questions and trying to get information.

That led to her and her husband writing letters to the editor of the local paper, posting those letters and other information on an Internet blog and posting comments on Facebook.

Handing out brochures at a picnic was the most direct action she took, she told a group of about 30 people at a public meeting Tuesday evening in Lancaster city's Southern Market Center.

"We merely spoke our minds," she said.

Yet, on Aug. 31, a whistle-blower leaked a confidential bulletin from the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security that listed her and her activities as subversive and under surveillance.


She posted the bulletin, based on information compiled by a state contractor, the Institute for Terrorism Research and Response, on her blog. Most people thought it was so ludicrous it must be a hoax, she said.

Then five days later, she got an e-mail that apparently was sent unintentionally by state Homeland Security Director James Powers, urging recipients not to disclose the bulletins and warning of potential violence posed by anti-drilling activists such as herself.

"I was afraid for about 24 hours after I got that e-mail. Then I got angry. Then I got loud," Cody told the group. The public release of the e-mail and bulletin and subsequent hearings in Harrisburg prompted the resignation of Powers, a formal apology from Gov. Ed Rendell and his promise that the state contract would not be renewed.

"That apology is not the end of the issue," Paul Sayko said. He is coordinator of the Lancaster Coalition for Peace and Justice, which, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania, held the meeting. Information about surveillance by the contractor ITRR showed that it also watched organizations across the state. Among those on the list were the Lancaster YWCA and the Lancaster County Council of Churches.

When ACLU attorney Valerie Burch asked people at the meeting to stand if they were among those watched, more than half did.

Cody, who had a career in the U.S. Air Force before becoming a teacher, urged people in the audience to take action. She called on them to petition their Congressional representatives for a Constitutional amendment that would deny corporations the same rights as citizens. She also called for the repeal of the USA Patriot Act, which suspends Constitutional protections to anyone accused of terrorism.

Burch urged people to be aware if they are being watched. She called on them to file federal Freedom of Information Act requests to learn whether information has been compiled about them. She also urged them to file requests under the state's Right to Know law. . . .