Dominican nun Sister Ardeth Platte, 72, says she just wants to find out who’s been spying on her organization.

On Thursday, Platte, along with other protesters and the American Civil Liberties Union, filed suit in Baltimore City Circuit Court, alleging the Maryland State Police department is hiding information about the surveillance of peaceful protesters.

“It’s essential for us to hold on to our rights,” Platte said.

Documents disclosed after the arrests of two people in 2003 at a protest at the National Security Agency indicated that a “Baltimore Intel Unit” had been monitoring protesters.

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State police refused to disclose more information, claiming its release “would disclose the identity of a confidential source and would also disclose investigative techniques and procedures of the Maryland State Police.” 

Greg Shipley, Maryland State Police spokesman, said the agency has received the suit and declined further comment.

The plaintiffs include the American Friends Service Committee, Jonah House, Baltimore Pledge of Resistance, and the Baltimore Emergency Response Network.

To discover the identity of this “Intel unit,” the Maryland ACLU helped the groups file requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act with several federal agencies, including the NSA, in August of 2006 and Maryland Public Information Act requests with six state agencies, including the state police, the ACLU said.

In February 2007, the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged that it had responsive records concerning the surveillance, but has not determined what records to release, according to the ACLU.   

Also last year, the state police refused to disclose the record about the surveillance, the ACLU said, leading to the filing of the suit.

Platte, of Jonah House, a faith-based community activist group, said she’s been arrested about 100 times in her life for protesting.

“Is this supposed to threaten us into not speaking out?” she asked of the surveillance. “Since the 1960s, I have worked very hard to stop the Vietnam War, counter racism, stop new power plants and diligently to remove all nuclear weapons. We’re always nonviolent.”

lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com

sjanis@baltimoreexaminer.com