She's silently carried a coffin on the National Mall to protest the Iraq War. She's held a sign reading "DC Votes No" in Congress' viewers gallery to protest Washington's lack of voting rights. She's sought to help refugees of war-torn Central American countries, taught conflict resolution in maximum-security prisons, and been arrested more than a dozen times for acts of civil disobedience.

But Bette Hoover, a lifelong peace activist, never imagined any of those activities could be considered a terrorist threat.

Nonetheless, that's the label Maryland State Police have hung on the Dayton resident.

Hoover was one of 53 activists characterized as suspected terrorists by state police engaged in covert surveillance operations.

Now, she and others, with help from the American Civil Liberties Union, are seeking to clear their names and prevent what they believe to be improper and misguided police spying.

"Terrorist is a pretty horrible word," Hoover, 61, said. "It's that label that bothers me most. The label offends me deeply."

In October 2008, Hoover received a letter from the state police informing her that her name was among those in a police database described as "suspected of involvement in terrorism but as to whom MSP (Maryland State Police) has no evidence whatsoever of any involvement in violent crime."

Hoover said she was outraged.

"I just got incensed," she said. "This is a waste of my time, to try to get my name expunged from this. They used my tax dollars to spy on me  -- me? They should be looking for terrorists, not non-violent activists."

Exactly why Hoover is on the police list is a mystery.

Since taking her case to the ACLU, which filed requests through the state's public information act to review state police files, Hoover has received only four pages of her file -- all heavily redacted -- along with a photo of her from an old driver's license.

The legible sections of her file, however, inaccurately describe her as an animal rights activist and a member of the "Ruckus Society," an activist training organization. Of all the causes she's taken up -- hunger, immigration, women's rights, domestic violence and peace -- animals and causing a ruckus aren't among them, she said.

"I'm scratching my head and thinking, 'Between these dates, what was I doing?' It certainly wasn't these things," she said. "I was taking care of my grandchildren. I was finishing my degree."

Greg Shipley, a spokesman for the Maryland State Police, declined to comment on Hoover's case or that of any other individual, but said that the department is continuing to work with the ACLU regarding its requests for information under the state's public information act.

Since they came to light last year, the state police actions have caused a ruckus of their own.

In a September 2008 report, requested by Gov. Martin O'Malley, former Maryland Attorney General Stephen Sachs described the police actions as having "significantly overreached" in intruding upon citizens' First Amendment rights of association and expression.

He said the 14 months of covert police surveillance of anti-war and anti-death penalty groups, which took place in 2005 and 2006, was "not predicated on any information indicating that those individuals or groups had committed or planned any criminal misconduct."

Sachs' report also states that the officers involved did not appear to be motivated by a desire to suppress political expression, but rather appeared to believe they were protecting public safety.

No stranger to protests

Prior to the dates of the state police investigation, Hoover, who teaches conflict resolution and mediation classes at Howard Community College, said she was more heavily involved in protests.

In the decade between 1994 and 2004, she ran the Washington office of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker social justice organization.

She has been arrested on several occasions for acts of civil disobedience, including an incident in 2000 when she and others petitioned for Washington, D.C. statehood as the federal budget moved to a vote in Congress.

While she works to clear her name, Hoover also is supporting state legislation aimed at reining in police spying.

One set of bills, supported by the O'Malley administration, is close to final passage, with versions passing both the Senate and the House last week.

The bills, dubbed the Freedom of Association and Assembly Protection Act of 2009, were amended to address concerns presented by the ACLU, according to Cindy Boersma, the organization's legislative director in Maryland.

The bills require "reasonable, articulable suspicion of illegal activities to justify covert infiltration of political organizations," Boersma said.

At a recent panel discussion on the issue in Columbia, David Rocah, an attorney for the ACLU, said police were misguided in tracking the activities of those like Hoover and Nadine Bloch, a Montgomery County resident who makes puppets used in peaceful protests.

"None deserve to be in a state police intelligence database at all, let alone be falsely described as terrorists and safety threats," he said. "There's this idea that demonstrating is inherently dangerous."

'In the eye of the storm'

Another panelist, Pat Elder, a Montgomery County resident who believes his name wound up on the police database because of his efforts to ban military recruitment in public high schools, described Hoover as being well-known for her work. But none of that work, he said, constituted a threat to national security.

"She was in the eye of the storm for years," Elder said. "They know Bette, they know who she is. Because she's effective at what she does, she's a threat."

Hoover believes the effects of landing on the state police database are lingering.

She has been subjected to unusually stringent security checks at airports and believes her telephone has been tapped.

More distressing, she said, is the newfound sense of fear she experiences when alone.

"I've never been paranoid before this. Something shifted in me," she said.

"Unless I'm doing something that appears dangerous, then I don't want to be spied on," she said. "I don't appreciate my tax dollars being used to spy on me and my non-violent friends. I don't think it's a healthy democracy that does that."

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