dang terrorist vegans.....

[Guest guest]

shades of nazi germany and 1984 all rolled up into one....

 

 

FBI watched array of environmental, animal, and poverty groups

 

RAW STORY

 

Counterterrorism agents at the FBI have conducted numerous surveillance

and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least

indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment,

animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show,

the NEW YORK TIMES is set to splash in Tuesday's papers...

 

FBI officials said Monday that their investigators had no interest in

monitoring political or social activities and that any investigations

that touched on advocacy groups were driven by evidence of criminal or

violent activity at public protests and in other settings.

 

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, John Ashcroft, who was then

attorney general, loosened restrictions on the FBI's investigative

powers. The bureau has used that authority to investigate not only

groups with suspected ties to foreign terrorists, but also protest

groups suspected of having links to violent or disruptive activities.

 

But the documents, coming after the Bush administration's confirmation

that President Bush had authorized domestic anti-terrorism spying

without warrants, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that the

government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts

of civil disobedience and lawful protest.

 

One FBI document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to

conduct surveillance as part of a " Vegan Community Project. " Another

document talks of the Catholic Workers group's " semi-communistic

ideology. " A third document indicates the bureau's interest in

determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People

for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

 

The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week, came

as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by

the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sought access to FBI

files on about 150 protest and social groups that it says may have been

improperly monitored.

 

" You look at these documents, " said Ann Beeson, associate legal

director for the ACLU, " and you think wow, we have really returned to

the days of J. Edgar Hoover. "

 

 

More from the AP (advanced):

 

The American Civil Liberties Union has accused the FBI of misusing

terrorism investigators to monitor some domestic political

organizations, despite apparently disparate views within the FBI

whether some groups supported or committed violent acts, the Associated

Press is set to reveal, RAW STORY has learned.

 

Citing hundreds of pages of heavily-censored documents it obtained from

the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act, lawyers for the ACLU

described this disputed use of terrorism resources as the latest

illustration of intensified surveillance aimed toward Americans. " Using

labels like domestic terrorists to describe peaceful protest activity

can chill robust political debate in this country, " ACLU lawyer Ben

Wizner said in New York. The ACLU said it will publish the FBI reports

it obtained on its Web site Tuesday.

 

In one case, government records show the FBI launched a terrorism

investigation of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in

Norfolk, Va., despite acknowledgment by one FBI official that, " The FBI

does not consider PETA a terrorist organization. " The FBI responded

that it conducts its investigations appropriately - subject to U.S.

laws and Justice Department guidelines. It said the ACLU

mischaracterized some passing references to political groups in FBI

files to suggest those groups were under investigation; in other cases

the FBI confirmed it was acting on tips tying groups to alleged illegal

activities. The FBI documents indicate the government launched its

terrorism investigation of PETA because the group was " suspected of

providing material support and resources to known domestic terrorism

organizations, " including the Animal Liberation Front and Earth

Liberation Front. Advertisement

 

The ACLU said the FBI documents also suggest that federal terrorism

investigators infiltrated the Washington-based American-Arab

Anti-Discrimination Committee. One document, sent to an FBI

counterterrorism unit in Los Angeles, describes a list of attendees

from the group at a conference in Stanford, Calif., to protest

sanctions against Iraq in May 2002. Other FBI documents obtained by the

ACLU describe efforts in May 2001 by Greenpeace and the Los

Angeles-based Catholic Workers Group to disrupt missile tests in

California. The FBI said the Catholic Workers Group " advocates a

communist distribution of resources. "

 

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/FBI_watched_array_of_environmental_animal_1220.htm\

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What God had done for peace on earth, what man destroyed from day of birth

They are concerned with feelings; they're just ashamed to cry

And one mans plan to push the button makes other sacrifice

The serenade is dead and now the only question's why?