Who was the Maryland State Trooper infiltrating Silver Springs area peace groups? Unmasked by an ACLU case which represented several dozen activists labeled by “Lucy” as terrorists, even the LA Times article would not reveal her true identity. But certainly there should remain photographs of the undercover officer participating in actions from 2005-2007…

The agent’s cover name “Lucy Shoup” was accidentally left un-redacted from records made public by the Maryland State Police. An activist at Red Emma’s bookstore suspected that an “Ann Shoup” on their email list might be the agent in question. Now 32 activist groups in the area have confirmed that “Lucy,” going by “Shoup” or “McDonald,” pretended to participate in their activities in order to keep tabs on their members.

She used the email addresses ann_378@hotmail.com and shoupy_shoup@yahoo.com. The ACLU of Maryland is asking other activist groups to check their records for traces of this agent, and urging all to file FOIA requests to disclose the breadth of this eavesdropping.

Among the major groups targeted: the ACLU, the American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International, the Campaign to End the Death Penalty, the International Socialist Organization, the NAACP, and United Catholic Charities.

Among the 57 individuals labeled as “terrorists” by this agent are the Dominican sisters who perpetrated the Colorado nuclear missile silo Plowshare action, Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert.

Here is a sample of one of the infiltrator’s email:

July 28, 2005

Due to a change in marital status, my name and e-mail have changed and I will no longer be using or checking my old address.

Please send anything to me (pledge, Save Vernon Evans, etc) at shoupy_shoup@yahoo.com.

Whoops, forgot to tell you my name is Lucy Shoup, has a nice ring, doesn’t it?

Thanks, I will see you soon.

She used the same pretext to avoid giving a physical address:

August 2, 2005

That would be great to be on the list serve for progressive news, alerts, etc., as well as the Baltimore activists’ alert.

I’m in the process of moving, so I will give you my snail mail soon.

I may just get a p.o. box to make life easier.

See you soon, Lucy.