VAAPCON part 3

National Task Force on Violence Against Health Care Providers
http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/tfreppub.php

"...In August 1994, the Attorney General established the Task Force on Violence Against Abortion Providers (often referred to as "VAAPCON"). VAAPCON was charged with determining whether there was a nationwide conspiracy to commit acts of violence against reproductive health care providers. While the evidence gathered did not support a definitive conclusion as to the existence of a nationwide conspiracy, VAAPCON played an important role in the early implementation of FACE and also reinforced to law enforcement officials the availability of other federal criminal statutes to address clinic violence. Indeed, VAAPCON's coordinated activity resulted in a great increase in the flow of information concerning risks faced by providers and in the number of criminal and civil cases successfully prosecuted by the Department, and its work generated much information that is relevant to current investigations.

In January 1995, President Clinton directed each of the 93 United States Attorneys to establish a local task force to coordinate law enforcement efforts relating to clinic violence. These working groups have remained in place since that time, and include representatives from state and local law enforcement as well as representatives from the FBI, ATF, and US Marshals Service. They are designed to maximize the level of coordination and communication among law enforcement officials in the field. They are also intended to improve communications between providers and law enforcement to assess and address threats and other security risks more effectively.

As VAAPCON was phased out in 1996, the responsibility for coordinating the law enforcement response to clinic violence was transferred to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. Cases were worked according to normal procedures in the Criminal and Special Litigation Sections in cooperation with United States Attorney's offices and investigative agencies. To help ensure effective communication, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights established a Working Group on Abortion Violence with participants from the Criminal and Special Litigation Sections, the FBI, ATF, the USMS and the Executive Office for the United States Attorneys. The Working Group met monthly to facilitate coordination on a national level...."

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The documents accompanying this story (in GIF format) are in two categories:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010701140524/http://www.insightmag.com/VAAPCON.shtml

Category 1: Three documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, from the FBI and the Justice Department. They show summary snippets on such groups as the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Americans United for Life and Women's Coalition for Life (labeled by the government as "NOT PARTICIPATING IN DIRECT ACTION") and groups such as Operation Rescue and Rescue America (labeled by the government as "DIRECT ACTION GROUPS").
http://web.archive.org/web/20010701140524/http://www.insightmag.com/FOIAdocs.shtml

Category 2: Two FBI documents written in response earlier this year to questions posed by Rep. Charles Taylor, North Carolina Republican, concerning the types of files and such that are or have been maintained by the Bureau on Pro-Life groups.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010701140524/http://www.insightmag.com/FBIdocs.shtml

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Documents on VAAPCON obtained by Insight through the Freedom of Information Act:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010822225328/www.insightmag.com/FOIAdocs.shtml

Document 1
http://web.archive.org/web/20010822225328/http://www.insightmag.com/FOIAdocument1.shtml

Document 2
http://web.archive.org/web/20010822225328/http://www.insightmag.com/FOIAdocument2.shtml

Document 3
http://web.archive.org/web/20010822225328/http://www.insightmag.com/FOIAdocument3.shtml

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FBI Documents obtained by Insight written in response to questions asked by Republican Rep. Charles Taylor of North Carolina:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010822225315/www.insightmag.com/FBIdocs.shtml

Document 1
http://web.archive.org/web/20010822225315/http://www.insightmag.com/FBIdocument1.shtml

Document 2
http://web.archive.org/web/20010822225315/http://www.insightmag.com/FBIdocument2.shtml