FBI Investigating Anti-War Protestors - GoFuckYourself.com

news.for.you · 11-23-2003, 12:27 PM

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGG53925E1.DTL

Bureau wants anti-terror units to review suspicious activities

Eric Lichtblau, New York Times Sunday, November 23, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Washington -- The FBI has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.

The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law enforcement agencies last month in advance of antiwar demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco, detailed how protesters have sometimes used "training camps" to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money, and gas masks to defend against tear gas. The memorandum analyzed lawful activities such as recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal activities such as using fake documentation to get into a secured site.

FBI officials said in interviews that the intelligence-gathering effort was aimed at identifying anarchists and "extremist elements" plotting violence,

not at monitoring the political speech of law-abiding protesters.

In San Francisco -- site of some of the nation's largest protests against the war in Iraq -- a source in the police department told The Chronicle on Saturday he had no knowledge of such a memo. But in March, San Francisco police acknowledged conducting undercover surveillance of protesters,

including videotaping by plainclothes officers at three demonstrations, and said the practice was commonplace, especially if there were a possibility of violence.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued guidelines in July specifying that state and local law enforcement agencies shouldn't spy on political protesters without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. He said the guidelines were needed after U.S. Attorney General John Ashhahahahaha authorized federal agents to monitor political and religious groups without evidence of criminal activity, something Lockyer said is prohibited by California's constitution.

The FBI initiative has won the support of some local police, who view it as a critical way to maintain order at large-scale demonstrations. Indeed, some law enforcement officials said they believed the FBI's approach had helped to ensure that nationwide antiwar demonstrations in recent months, drawing hundreds of thousands of protesters, remained largely free of violence and disruption.

But Bay Area peace activists said the tactic will discourage ordinary citizens from voicing dissent against their government.

"The intent is to have a chilling effect on free speech and the right to demonstrate,'' said Richard Becker, a member of the steering committee of Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, the large coalition of peace groups that has organized many of the protests against the Iraq war. "We believe they intend to use this information to disrupt social movements. They're trying to make a connection between terrorism and people exercising their First Amendment rights.''

Jason Mark, an organizer for San Francisco-based Global Exchange, said the FBI memo is "terrifying and highly disturbing.''

Particularly chilling, he said, was the use of the phrase "training camps'' to describe instruction on nonviolence given to demonstrators. That phrase is often used to describe terrorist training sites.

"What we do is sit people down and teach them how to engage in nonviolence, in the manner of Gandhi and Martin Luther King,'' he said. "The phrase 'training camps' is loaded and nothing short of a slur campaign.''

Some civil rights advocates and legal scholars said the monitoring program could signal a return to the well-documented abuses of the 1960s and '70s, when J. Edgar Hoover was the FBI director and agents routinely spied on political protesters like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and musician John Lennon.

A Chronicle investigation last year documented the FBI's surveillance of Free Speech Movement activists and other politically engaged students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s.

"The FBI is dangerously targeting Americans who are engaged in nothing more than lawful protest and dissent," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The line between terrorism and legitimate civil disobedience is blurred, and I have a serious concern about whether we're going back to the days of Hoover."

The abuses of the Hoover era, which included efforts by the FBI to harass and discredit Hoover's political enemies under a program known as Cointelpro, led to tight restrictions on FBI investigations of political activities.

Those restrictions were relaxed significantly last year, when Attorney General John Ashhahahahaha issued guidelines giving FBI agents authority to attend political rallies, mosques and any event "that is open to the public."

Ashhahahahaha said the Sept. 11 attacks made it essential that the FBI be allowed to investigate terrorism more aggressively. The bureau's recent strategy in policing demonstrations is an outgrowth of that policy, officials said.

"We're not concerned with individuals who are exercising their constitutional rights," one FBI official said. "But it's obvious that there are individuals capable of violence at these events. We know that there are anarchists that are actively involved in trying to sabotage and commit acts of violence at these different events, and we also know that these large gatherings would be a prime target for terrorist groups."

Civil rights advocates have complained for months that federal officials have surreptitiously sought to suppress the First Amendment rights of antiwar demonstrators.

Critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, for instance, have sued the government to learn how their names ended up on a "no fly" list used to stop suspected terrorists from boarding planes. And the New York Police Department this year questioned many of those arrested at demonstrations about their political affiliations, before halting the practice and expunging the data in the face of public criticism.

The FBI memorandum, however, appears to offer the first corroboration of a coordinated nationwide effort to collect intelligence regarding demonstrations.

The memorandum, circulated on Oct. 15 -- just 10 days before many thousands gathered in Washington and San Francisco to protest the U.S. occupation of Iraq -- noted that the bureau "possesses no information indicating that violent or terrorist activities are being planned as part of these protests" and that "most protests are peaceful events."

But it pointed to violence at protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as evidence of potential disruption. Law enforcement officials said in interviews that they had become particularly concerned about the ability of anti-government groups to exploit demonstrations and promote a violent agenda.

"What a great opportunity for an act of terrorism, when all your resources are dedicated to some big event and you let your guard down," a law enforcement official involved in securing recent demonstrations said.

The memorandum urged local law enforcement officials "to be alert to these possible indicators of protest activity and report any potentially illegal acts" to counterterrorism task forces run by the FBI. It warned about an array of threats, including homemade bombs and the formation of human chains.

The memorandum also discussed "innovative strategies" used by demonstrators, like the videotaping of arrests as a means of "intimidation" against the police. And it noted that protesters "often use the Internet to recruit, raise funds and coordinate their activities prior to demonstrations."

Officials said the FBI treats demonstrations no differently than other large-scale and vulnerable gatherings. The aim, they said, was not to monitor protesters but to gather intelligence.

Critics said they remained worried. "What the FBI regards as potential terrorism," Romero of the ACLU said, "strikes me as civil disobedience."

directfiesta · 11-23-2003, 12:31 PM

They will be labelled " commies"...

Oh shit, that doesn't exist anymore....

How about "Evil Protesters" ????

doober · 11-23-2003, 12:32 PM

is anti-american to be anti-war

goBigtime · 11-23-2003, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by directfiesta
They will be labelled " commies"...

Oh shit, that doesn't exist anymore....

How about "Evil Protesters" ????

domestic terrorists or terrorist sympathizers? Why can't they just be called what they are - democrats against bush who aren't sitting on their ass watching FOX news waiting for the next hook & sinker to appear before them

Gemini · 11-23-2003, 12:48 PM

Any news that isn't dated 1968? Different names is all that article has.

Freeway · 11-23-2003, 12:52 PM

Looks like that 2nd Amendment is going to come in handy after all.....

11-23-2003, 12:27 PM	#1
news.for.you Registered User Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 36	FBI Investigating Anti-War Protestors http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NGG53925E1.DTL Bureau wants anti-terror units to review suspicious activities Eric Lichtblau, New York Times Sunday, November 23, 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Washington -- The FBI has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum. The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law enforcement agencies last month in advance of antiwar demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco, detailed how protesters have sometimes used "training camps" to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money, and gas masks to defend against tear gas. The memorandum analyzed lawful activities such as recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal activities such as using fake documentation to get into a secured site. FBI officials said in interviews that the intelligence-gathering effort was aimed at identifying anarchists and "extremist elements" plotting violence, not at monitoring the political speech of law-abiding protesters. In San Francisco -- site of some of the nation's largest protests against the war in Iraq -- a source in the police department told The Chronicle on Saturday he had no knowledge of such a memo. But in March, San Francisco police acknowledged conducting undercover surveillance of protesters, including videotaping by plainclothes officers at three demonstrations, and said the practice was commonplace, especially if there were a possibility of violence. California Attorney General Bill Lockyer issued guidelines in July specifying that state and local law enforcement agencies shouldn't spy on political protesters without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. He said the guidelines were needed after U.S. Attorney General John Ashhahahahaha authorized federal agents to monitor political and religious groups without evidence of criminal activity, something Lockyer said is prohibited by California's constitution. The FBI initiative has won the support of some local police, who view it as a critical way to maintain order at large-scale demonstrations. Indeed, some law enforcement officials said they believed the FBI's approach had helped to ensure that nationwide antiwar demonstrations in recent months, drawing hundreds of thousands of protesters, remained largely free of violence and disruption. But Bay Area peace activists said the tactic will discourage ordinary citizens from voicing dissent against their government. "The intent is to have a chilling effect on free speech and the right to demonstrate,'' said Richard Becker, a member of the steering committee of Act Now to Stop War and End Racism, the large coalition of peace groups that has organized many of the protests against the Iraq war. "We believe they intend to use this information to disrupt social movements. They're trying to make a connection between terrorism and people exercising their First Amendment rights.'' Jason Mark, an organizer for San Francisco-based Global Exchange, said the FBI memo is "terrifying and highly disturbing.'' Particularly chilling, he said, was the use of the phrase "training camps'' to describe instruction on nonviolence given to demonstrators. That phrase is often used to describe terrorist training sites. "What we do is sit people down and teach them how to engage in nonviolence, in the manner of Gandhi and Martin Luther King,'' he said. "The phrase 'training camps' is loaded and nothing short of a slur campaign.'' Some civil rights advocates and legal scholars said the monitoring program could signal a return to the well-documented abuses of the 1960s and '70s, when J. Edgar Hoover was the FBI director and agents routinely spied on political protesters like the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and musician John Lennon. A Chronicle investigation last year documented the FBI's surveillance of Free Speech Movement activists and other politically engaged students at UC Berkeley in the 1960s. "The FBI is dangerously targeting Americans who are engaged in nothing more than lawful protest and dissent," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The line between terrorism and legitimate civil disobedience is blurred, and I have a serious concern about whether we're going back to the days of Hoover." The abuses of the Hoover era, which included efforts by the FBI to harass and discredit Hoover's political enemies under a program known as Cointelpro, led to tight restrictions on FBI investigations of political activities. Those restrictions were relaxed significantly last year, when Attorney General John Ashhahahahaha issued guidelines giving FBI agents authority to attend political rallies, mosques and any event "that is open to the public." Ashhahahahaha said the Sept. 11 attacks made it essential that the FBI be allowed to investigate terrorism more aggressively. The bureau's recent strategy in policing demonstrations is an outgrowth of that policy, officials said. "We're not concerned with individuals who are exercising their constitutional rights," one FBI official said. "But it's obvious that there are individuals capable of violence at these events. We know that there are anarchists that are actively involved in trying to sabotage and commit acts of violence at these different events, and we also know that these large gatherings would be a prime target for terrorist groups." Civil rights advocates have complained for months that federal officials have surreptitiously sought to suppress the First Amendment rights of antiwar demonstrators. Critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy, for instance, have sued the government to learn how their names ended up on a "no fly" list used to stop suspected terrorists from boarding planes. And the New York Police Department this year questioned many of those arrested at demonstrations about their political affiliations, before halting the practice and expunging the data in the face of public criticism. The FBI memorandum, however, appears to offer the first corroboration of a coordinated nationwide effort to collect intelligence regarding demonstrations. The memorandum, circulated on Oct. 15 -- just 10 days before many thousands gathered in Washington and San Francisco to protest the U.S. occupation of Iraq -- noted that the bureau "possesses no information indicating that violent or terrorist activities are being planned as part of these protests" and that "most protests are peaceful events." But it pointed to violence at protests against the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as evidence of potential disruption. Law enforcement officials said in interviews that they had become particularly concerned about the ability of anti-government groups to exploit demonstrations and promote a violent agenda. "What a great opportunity for an act of terrorism, when all your resources are dedicated to some big event and you let your guard down," a law enforcement official involved in securing recent demonstrations said. The memorandum urged local law enforcement officials "to be alert to these possible indicators of protest activity and report any potentially illegal acts" to counterterrorism task forces run by the FBI. It warned about an array of threats, including homemade bombs and the formation of human chains. The memorandum also discussed "innovative strategies" used by demonstrators, like the videotaping of arrests as a means of "intimidation" against the police. And it noted that protesters "often use the Internet to recruit, raise funds and coordinate their activities prior to demonstrations." Officials said the FBI treats demonstrations no differently than other large-scale and vulnerable gatherings. The aim, they said, was not to monitor protesters but to gather intelligence. Critics said they remained worried. "What the FBI regards as potential terrorism," Romero of the ACLU said, "strikes me as civil disobedience." Last edited by news.for.you; 11-23-2003 at 12:31 PM..

11-23-2003, 12:31 PM	#2
directfiesta Too lazy to set a custom title Industry Role: Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Montreal, Quebec Posts: 29,680	They will be labelled " commies"... Oh shit, that doesn't exist anymore.... How about "Evil Protesters" ???? __________________ I know that Asspimple is stoopid ... As he says, it is a FACT ! But I can't figure out how he can breathe or type , at the same time ....

11-23-2003, 12:48 PM	#5
Gemini Confirmed User Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: o-HI-o Posts: 7,183	Any news that isn't dated 1968? Different names is all that article has. __________________ <center><a target="_blank" href="http://dev.datedollars.com/index.php?s=signup&aid=535&cfg=aac"><img border="0" src="http://216.130.172.224/gfy/gsig.gif" width="490" height="100"></a><br><a href="http://dev.datedollars.com/index.php?s=signup&aid=535&cfg=aac" target="_blank"><b><font face="Arial"><font color="#FF99FF"> Buy me away from Slavedriver Smokey!<br>It's May Sig Sweeps!<font></b></center>

11-23-2003, 12:32 PM	#3
doober Confirmed User Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: in yoOoo kitchen Posts: 6,984	is anti-american to be anti-war

11-23-2003, 12:52 PM	#6
Freeway Confirmed User Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: EU Posts: 441	Looks like that 2nd Amendment is going to come in handy after all.....