Truth is Dead: More on Wacko FBI and Targeting Legal Animal Rights Groups: New Files Show FBI Watched Peaceful Domestic Activist Groups

This article is even more clear about pointing out the ridiculous nature of the Administration and the FBI and their little spy fun plan (you can picture the administration having fun with the cool new gadgets the FBI dreams up. Maybe even playing spy games in the whitehouse).

I went on enough in my last post about this issue, so I won't say more, but just look at this quote: "…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."

All I can say is ha ha. What a freaking joke. What the hell is "semi-communistic ideology"? And boy, I bet the Vegan Community Project was a real threat. Right up there with back woods militants and neo Nazis. Yep, any vegan or group with the v word in their name MUST be plotting a terrorist activity (sarcastic for those who didn’t' get it). Don't they know veganism is a peaceful ideoolgy? I mean, that's the whole purpose of it! And a protest over llama fur was a threat? To who? Oh, I get it, a threat to their friends who make millions in Llama fur.

Yikes! The idiots are definitely running the mad house.

If I sound mad, it's because I am. I'm angry about anyone or any group who is so blatantly against the truth.


http://articles.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id
=20051220042209990021&cid=

New Files Show FBI Watched Domestic Activist Groups

By ERIC LICHTBLAU, The New York Times

WASHINGTON (Dec. 20) - 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.
F.B.I. 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 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.
"You look at these documents," Ms. Beeson said, "and you think, wow, we have
really returned to the days of J. Edgar Hoover, when you see in F.B.I. files
that they're talking about a group like the Catholic Workers league as having a
communist ideology."
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."