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When she received notice last week that a certified letter from the state police was waiting for her, Nadine Bloch wondered if she had committed a traffic violation.

The next morning, the Takoma Park woman went to the post office, only to find a letter from Maryland State Police Superintendent Terrence B. Sheridan.

"And then I had to laugh when I actually read it," she said.

The letter was to be mailed to 53 peaceful activists whose activities were classified as "terrorism" in a state police database.

"You are one of the individuals whose name was placed in the Case Explorer system under this designation," Sheridan's letter said. "Accordingly, I am writing to you to provide the opportunity for you to review the relevant entries before the Maryland State Police begins to purge these entries."

Anti-war activists say they are using humor to cope with revelations that they were wrongly labeled as terrorists by the state police.

"You might say it's deathbed humor," Bloch said.

But, the activists add ominously, a report that police were spying on them could have a chilling effect on some citizens.

The letter from Sheridan stemmed from recommendations in a report by former state Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs. Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) appointed Sachs to investigate in July after the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland released 46 pages of documents showing that state police officers spied on anti-war and anti-death penalty groups between March 2005 and May 2006.

Police officials now admit that the activists should not have been classified as terrorists in state and federal databases.

Bloch, an organizing director for Oil Change International whose 30 years of direct action include organizing protests nationally, is convinced that police went much further.

"I think that we have to be really clear that this did not go on for only one or two years, that it's not a limited number of people, and it's not a limited number of groups," she said.

The ACLU of Maryland has filed additional public information requests on behalf of 32 advocacy groups and more than 250 individuals associated with those groups who are concerned that their activities have also been monitored.

About 70 people gathered Saturday at the Takoma Park Presbyterian Church for a forum sponsored by the Washington Peace Center. They discussed how to respond to the offers to review files.

"That was not a chilled crowd at Takoma Park on Saturday," said Patrick Elder, who has organized protests of the war and of military recruitment in high schools. "That was [an upset] crowd."

But Elder, of Bethesda, said he wonders about the chilling effect the spying revelations could have on "rank-and-file" activists' willingness to get involved.

"Activism is a very fragile thing," said Barry Kissin, an attorney from Frederick who was a Democratic candidate for Congress in 2006.

Kissin believes that he and his wife were listed in the database because of their activities with the Frederick Progressive Action Council (FredPAC) to oppose the expansion of the Army's biodefense laboratory at Fort Detrick in Frederick.

"We're going to continue to be activists," Kissin said.

Sachs' investigation found that undercover police officers infiltrated intimate gatherings of activists. That led Gary Staples, a co-founder of FredPAC, to wonder why his group would be targeted.

"We're a public group," said Staples, of Frederick. "So it's kind of strange that they would say terrorists are acting in a public forum."

Malgo Schmidt of Frederick said the state police actions reminded her of the 1980s, when she was a target of authorities in her native Poland for opposing the Soviet regime.

Schmidt, a FredPAC member, said she wants "evidence of the nonsense" behind the spying.

She revealed that she was on the terrorism list at a recent forum for congressional candidates in Frederick.

"People said, ‘Congratulations! Maybe we are getting a letter too,'" she said.

Elder, a high school teacher at the Islamic Education Center in Rockville, was not particularly concerned about injury to his reputation in the community or professionally.

"It's been destroyed for a long time," he said, smiling.

But the terrorism label affects more than just the activists named in the database, they said.

Elder's daughter Cassey, a 17-year-old senior at Walt Whitman High in Bethesda, said that while her father is known in the school community, her classmates would be likely to believe the state police and take the terrorist label seriously.

"They would think, ‘You're dad's Osama bin Laden,'" she said. "Some people aren't going to read into the thing."

That is why Elder, who considers himself a pacifist, said he has made an appointment to review his file.

He has been told that he will have unlimited time to review it. He can make notes, but not photocopies. He has been told that he cannot have a lawyer present, but says he will bring one anyway.

Last week, the ACLU sent a letter to O'Malley requesting that activists be allowed to have a lawyer present and to make copies.

"I think anyone who doesn't go with a lawyer and get a copy is making a huge mistake," said David Rocah, staff attorney for the ACLU.

"I want to know the genesis of it," Elder said of the spying. "When did it start? Why did it start? Was my family involved? Was it a matter of phone tapping? It's unnerving.

"We have a hard time not to make jokes of it," he said. "But it's serious as hell."