Gone Fishing

As you may recall, last summer there were a number of incidents where the FBI and other assorted "intelligence" agencies went around the United States questioning and intimidating progressive citizens prior ot the conventions. Their pretext was that they had indications that certain "radical groups" were planning violence. Some FBI memos have now come to light which show that they were, at best, on a blind fishing expedition to see if they could find anything on anyone who was considering protesting the war, Bush, or the convention, and at worst, were willfully intimidating people who would dissent.

New FBI documents to be released today show that anti-terrorism agents who questioned antiwar protesters last summer in Denver were conducting "pretext interviews" that did not lead to any information about criminal activity.

FBI officials and then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said at the time that the interviews were based on indications that radical protesters may be planning violent disruptions. Authorities said one specific threat involved plans to blow up a media van in Boston.

But the new memos provide no indication of specific threat information. Instead, one heavily censored memo from the FBI's Denver field office, dated Aug. 2, 2004, characterized the effort as "pretext interviews to gain general information concerning possible criminal activity at the upcoming political conventions and presidential election."

ACLU officials said yesterday that the documents show that investigators from the FBI and the local Joint Terrorism Task Force were on a fishing expedition.

Good to know our government is looking out for us. One of the protest planners had a few choice words to add.

Sarah Bardwell, 21, who helped organize antiwar protests on behalf of a local chapter of the American Friends Service Committee, said she had no plans to attend either of the political conventions and was troubled by the FBI's attempt to interview her and her friends. None of the activists consented to the interviews.

"It's very clear to me that the purpose of those interviews was to intimidate activists in the Denver area from exercising their First Amendment rights," she said.

Gee, ya think? How many times do we have to observe these activities, (as we did and commented on at the time) listen to the government blow it off as a conspiracy theory, and then, months or years later, find out that it was exactly what it looked like at the time? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck... Right now Bush is pushing to expand the patriot act and make it permanent so the government can snoop in anyone's home at any time without a court order. They are already calling us paranoid for worrying about that and claiming that it's all for the "war on terror." If you put up with this, you're signing away your own rights and privacy, folks.