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Under consent decree,FBI still violates order December 7, 1998 For years, the FBI put the names of several Chicago residents on its list of suspected terrorists, long after a judge had ordered the agency to stop. These so-called terrorists supported a group called the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, which opposed U.S. policy in that country. Last year, after more than 15 years of litigation, the FBI finally admitted it had been in error when it continued to spy on members and supporters of this "subversive" group. Under a consent decree, the agency pledged to give FBI agents training on how to conduct investigations without violating the First Amendment rights of individuals. The case began when a group of Chicagoans discovered that between 1983 and 1985 the FBI had spied on them because of their affiliation — even though a 1981 court decree had ordered the agency to stop. Lawsuits were filed in 1988 and in 1991, and U.S. District Judge Ann C. Williams ruled that members of the organization had been subjected to wide-ranging violations of the 1981 consent decree. As part of a systematic covert investigation into the lives and activities of the organization’s supporters, agents had analyzed phone, utility and banking records, none of which produced any evidence of wrongdoing. Even so, the FBI had continued to list several of its targets on the federal registry of suspected terrorists. "It’s a great day; after all this time, our names are finally going to be deleted from the FBI’s terrorist files," said Phyllis Hasbrouck, a former Chicago leader of the group. "Americans ought to be able to criticize their government’s policies without being branded terrorists."
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