ACLU asks California to monitor FBI spying

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union has urged state Attorney General Bill Lockyer to prevent FBI spying on political dissidents after recent revelations the agency had done so in the past.

In an open letter to Lockyer the ACLU's three state chapters urged Lockyer to enforce the state's right to privacy, adopted by voters in 1972.

The ACLU cited a recent story by the San Francisco Chronicle which detailed that the FBI had spied on student activists at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1960s.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced guidelines May 30 allowing FBI agents to conduct surveillance in places that are open to the public, without evidence that those being watched have committed or are planning to commit crimes.

"California has drawn a line with respect to privacy, political and associational rights that government must not cross even with the best of intentions," the ACLU letter said. "Yet, some of the intelligence practices now openly encouraged by the new federal guidelines cross that long-standing state line."

The guidelines repealed rules imposed by President Gerald Ford that allowed FBI surveillance only during criminal investigations and after evidence of wrongdoing. President Bush claimed that those restrictions gave terrorists and advantage and pledged that the new FBI powers would not stifle speech or dissent.