Re: Government Wire Taps (nbc)

Sonsabitches.

http://tinyurl.com/cybod

F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show


By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: December 20, 2005
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of
Investigation 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.


After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, John Ashcroft, who was then
attorney general, loosened restrictions on the F.B.I.'s investigative
powers, giving the bureau greater ability to visit and monitor Web
sites, mosques and other public entities in developing terrorism leads.
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 some spying without warrants in
fighting terrorism, 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 F.B.I. 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 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. For more than a year, the A.C.L.U.
has been seeking access to information in F.B.I. files on about 150
protest and social groups that it says may have been improperly
monitored. The F.B.I. had previously turned over a small number of
documents on antiwar groups, showing the agency's interest in
investigating possible anarchist or violent links in connection with
antiwar protests and demonstrations in advance of the 2004 political
conventions. And earlier this month, the A.C.L.U.'s Colorado chapter
released similar documents involving, among other things, people
protesting logging practices at a lumber industry gathering in 2002.

The latest batch of documents, parts of which the A.C.L.U. plans to
release publicly on Tuesday, totals more than 2,300 pages and centers
on references in internal files to a handful of groups, including PETA,
the environmental group Greenpeace and the Catholic Workers group,
which promotes antipoverty efforts and social causes. Many of the
investigative documents turned over by the bureau are heavily edited,
making it difficult or impossible to determine the full context of the
references and why the F.B.I. may have been discussing events like a
PETA protest. F.B.I. officials say many of the references may be much
more benign than they seem to civil rights advocates, adding that the
documents offer an incomplete and sometimes misleading snapshot of the
bureau's activities.

"Just being referenced in an F.B.I. file is not tantamount to being the
subject of an investigation," said John Miller, a spokesman for the
bureau.

"The F.B.I. does not target individuals or organizations for
investigation based on their political beliefs," Mr. Miller said.
"Everything we do is carefully promulgated by federal law, Justice
Department guidelines and the F.B.I.'s own rules."

A.C.L.U officials said the latest batch of documents released by the
F.B.I. indicated the agency's interest in a broader array of activist
and protest groups than they had previously thought. In light of other
recent disclosures about domestic surveillance activities by the
National Security Agency and military intelligence units, the A.C.L.U.
said the documents reflected a pattern of overreaching by the Bush
administration."It's clear that this administration has engaged every
possible agency, from the Pentagon to N.S.A. to the F.B.I., to engage
in spying on Americans," said Ann Beeson, associate legal director for
the A.C.L.U.

The documents indicate that in some cases, the F.B.I. has used
employees, interns and other confidential informants within groups like
PETA and Greenpeace to develop leads on potential criminal activity and
has downloaded material from the groups' Web sites, in addition to
monitoring their protests.
In the case of Greenpeace, which is known for highly publicized acts of
civil disobedience like the boarding of cargo ships to unfurl protest
banners, the files indicate that the F.B.I. investigated possible
financial ties between its members and militant groups like the Earth
Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front.

These networks, which have no declared leaders and are only loosely
organized, have been described by the F.B.I. in Congressional testimony
as "extremist special interest groups" whose cells engage in violent or
other illegal acts, making them "a serious domestic terrorist threat."

In testimony last year, John E. Lewis, deputy assistant director of the
counterterrorism division, said the F.B.I. estimated that in the past
10 years such groups had engaged in more than 1,000 criminal acts
causing more than $100 million in damage.

When the F.B.I. investigates evidence of possible violence or criminal
disruptions at protests and other events, those investigations are
routinely handled by agents within the bureau's counterterrorism
division. But the groups mentioned in the newly disclosed F.B.I. files
questioned both the propriety of characterizing such investigations as
related to "terrorism" and the necessity of diverting counterterrorism
personnel from more pressing investigations.

"The fact that we're even mentioned in the F.B.I. files in connection
with terrorism is really troubling," said Tom Wetterer, general counsel
for Greenpeace. "There's no property damage or physical injury caused
in our activities, and under any definition of terrorism, we'd take
issue with that."

Jeff Kerr, general counsel for PETA, rejected the suggestion in some
F.B.I. files that the animal rights group had financial ties to
militant groups, and said he, too, was troubled by his group's
inclusion in the files.

"It's shocking and it's outrageous," Mr. Kerr said. "And to me, it's an
abuse of power by the F.B.I. when groups like Greenpeace and PETA are
basically being punished for their social activism."

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