THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, May 16, 1995 TAG: 9505160309
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Short : 42 lines
The FBI has been spying on AIDS activists and gay rights organizations out of fear that some might be throwing infected blood and used condoms during protests, the Daily News reported today.
Twenty-two pages of FBI files on New York gay groups were obtained by the Center for Constitutional Rights and reviewed by the newspaper.
The FBI has a file on the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, the Gay Men's Health Crisis, the Coalition for Lesbian and Gay Rights, and Senior Action in a Gay Environment, the News reported.
The records show agency activity in 1990 and 1991. The FBI refused to release 177 pages of the 199-page file on ACT UP, claiming ``ongoing law enforcement activity,'' the newspaper said.
One memo shows agents were worried about protesters throwing ``infected blood and used condoms.'' ACT UP leaders said that has never occurred in any protest, according to the News.
After a 1990 ACT UP protest outside the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., the FBI's office in Silver Spring, Md., issued a memo saying: ``No infected blood or used condoms were exhibited or thrown,'' the News said.
Another ACT UP incident involved a demonstration on Oct. 1, 1991, when group members poured red dye in a fountain near the Capitol in Washington.
An FBI memo, as released, contains blacked-out material from an informant and describes ACT UP members throwing ``theatrical blood over the fence in protest,'' according to the News.
ACT UP leader James Learned claims that during the protest, a man he believes was a law enforcement plant posed as an ACT UP member and torched an American flag, according to the News.
FBI spokesmen would not comment, the newspaper said. by CNB