A Washington Post report today details how the FBI’s counterterrorism unit monitored several Web sites calling for protests on the 2004 Republican and Democratic national conventions.
“It’s increasingly clear that the government is involved in political surveillance of organizations that are involved in nothing more than lawful First Amendment activities,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “It raises very serious questions about whether the FBI is back to its old tricks.” — Washington Post
It’s one thing, and frightening enough, for the FBI to be monitoring political speech. It’s quite another that the counterterrorism unit was doing it. The FBI claims to have been concerned that the groups in question would attempt to disrupt the conventions somehow.
Groups such as RNC Not Welcome in NYC and United for Peace and Justice were targeted in the investigation. During the convention in New York, over 1,000 innocent people, including members of the press, were herded along side streets, arrested and held for up to several days at Pier 57 downtown.
Update: Irregular Times has an excellent commentary on this situation.
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Ruby
Jul 18, 2005
This really is SO disturbing! It’s easily worse than the era of McCarthyism and COINTELPRO when the government acted in extremely un-American ways. It’s such a shame we never seem to learn from these mistakes.
FYI, the ACLU has a new blog that you might dig and they posted about this issue earlier today.
BTW, I have the exact same problem with Technorati mixing up my entries! Please post if you figure it out.
N. Mallory
Jul 18, 2005
I’ve been saying that this has been going on for some time. It’s amazing how many people just don’t want to believe. My favorite is when people say “Well if you aren’t doing anything wrong, then they won’t investigate you.” Hit them with things like this and Cyrus Kar and they still refuse to see the truth, insisting that there was a valid reason.
Even during the election, when Democrats were forced to sign Loyalty Oaths just to hear the President of their own country speak, and anyone wearing anything remotely non-Republican was “invited” to leave the campaign areas by Secret Service who took down personal info from names to SSNs to email addresses. What about how anyone who doesn’t agree with the President and is vocal about it is called “Unamerican” or “Unpatriotic”?
This administration is out of control and it’s spilling down into the law enforcement agencies. It’s very disturbing. Obviously we are doomed to repeat history because obviously we haven’t learned a thing, but then American Education is not highly regarded, is it?
Jan 02, 2006
Bioterrorist attack in Washington, D.C.? - Homeland Security or Homeland Stupidity
Jan 03, 2006
Give up your freedom for a false sense of security - Homeland Security or Homeland Stupidity