ARGUMENT: Domestic surveillanceDHS Authorizes Domestic Surveillance to Protect Statues and Monuments

Published 21 July 2020

You might not imagine that the U.S. intelligence community would have much stake in local protests over monuments and statues, Steve Vladeck and Benjamin Wittes write, but you’d be wrong. An unclassified DHS memo, provided to Lawfare, makes clear that the authorized intelligence activity by DHS personnel covers significantly more than protecting federal personnel or facilities. It appears to also include planned vandalism of Confederate (and other historical) monuments and statues, whether federally owned or not. “[W]e do not accept that graffiti and vandalism are remotely comparable threats to the homeland [as attacks on federal buildings] — or that they justify this kind of federal response even if, in the right circumstances, such activity would technically constitute a federal crime,” Vladeck and Wittes conclude.

You might not imagine that the U.S. intelligence community would have much stake in local protests over monuments and statues, Steve Vladeck and Benjamin Wittes write in Lawfare. You’d be wrong. A document provided to Lawfare on 19 July from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) describes personnel as “collecting and reporting on various activities in the context of elevated threats targeting monuments, memorials, and statues”—and it gives legal guidance concerning the “expanded intelligence activities necessary to mitigate the significant threat to homeland security” posed by such activities.

Vladeck and Wittes note that the document, titled “Job Aid: DHS Office of Intelligence & Analysis (I&A) Activities in Furtherance of Protecting American Monuments, Memorials, Statues, and Combatting Recent Criminal Violence,” is not classified.The document clearly indicates that at least parts of the intelligence community are being tasked with monitoring and collecting information on some protest activities.

Although DHS official Ken Cuccinelli stated on CNN that DHS “got intelligence about planned attacks on federal facilities,”

the memo makes clear that the authorized intelligence activity covers significantly more than just planned attacks on federal personnel or facilities. It appears to also include planned vandalism of Confederate (and other historical) monuments and statues, whether federally owned or not.

They conclude:

Of course, if there are groups plotting more serious violence, we wouldn’t dispute for a second that such plotting is appropriately within the purview of I&A and other federal intelligence components—or that existing authorities allow the federal government to act aggressively to preempt and deter such criminal conduct. But we do not accept that graffiti and vandalism are remotely comparable threats to the homeland—or that they justify this kind of federal response even if, in the right circumstances, such activity would technically constitute a federal crime. A memo like this leaves the unfortunate impression that, once again, the White House and the Department of Homeland Security are using disagreements over monuments as an opportunity to send a much larger message—in this case, that the current administration sees dissent itself as a threat to homeland security.