ACLU discovers FBI is labeling peace activists as 'potential terrorists'

[garybeck]

ACLU reveals FBI labeled peace, affirmative action group 'terrorist'

RAW STORY

The American Civil Liberties Union today released an FBI document that designates a Michigan-based peace group and an affirmative action advocacy group as potentially "involved in terrorist activities," RAW STORY has learned. The ACLU release follows.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/ACLU_reveals_FBI_labeled_peace_affirmative_action_group_terrori_0829.html

[etherealtruth]

1. Chilling

I don't have anything else to say except that chills me to the bone!

Recommended upon edit

[KG]

2. people who want peace have always been enemies of a

fascist state...

[NorCalDem]

3. This is a surprise?

I wouldn't expect anything less from our pseudo-fascist government

[mike_c]

4. we've been here before....

This is not at all surprising. Same shit, different decade.

[libodem]

5. along with the homeless

you never know what these subversives will try to disquise themselves as next!

[omega minimo]

37. Shoeshiners!

:yoiks:

[ck4829]

6. And Pat Robertson is still a 'private citizen'

[me b zola]

7. This is exactly what we've all suspected

They have been working overtime on their rhetoric that makes everyone who disagrees with them a terrorist. :grr:

[tnlefty]

8. Wow!

I'll have to pass this around. Thanks. :dem:

[htuttle]

9. Always check the shoes, people!

And if somebody seriously suggests something obviously illegal and destructive (and/or dangerous to persons) in a group meeting, look upon them with great suspicion.

[titoresque]

34. We have a couple of the "shoes" here in

Az.......am keeping a close eye! It's absurd! We're a peace group for christ sake!!!!

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

10. What did Frank Zappa say?

When the illusion of democracy and freedom stop being profitable in America, all the props will be thrown aside, the curtain will rise and you will see a huge brick wall.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

11. Anyone remember what happened to Peace Fresno?

LOCAL PEACE GROUP INFILTRATED BY GOVERNMENT AGENT
By Mike Rhodes
October 4, 2003

Peace Fresno was infiltrated by an agent working for the Fresno Sheriff’s Department. Aaron Kline, known by Peace Fresno activists as Aaron Stokes, attended several Peace Fresno meetings. Peace Fresno activist Nicholas DeGraff remembers him taking voluminous notes and several members say they saw him at peace vigils held at Shaw and Blackstone. He was also on the bus local anti-globalization activists took to attend the WTO ministerial-level conference on Agricultural Science and Technology demonstration in Sacramento in June 2003.

Aaron Kline died in a motorcycle accident on August 30, 2003. In his obituary in The Fresno Bee he was identified as a member of the Fresno County Sheriff’s department. The obituary went on to say that he was “assigned to the anti-terrorist team.” Local activists believe that this “anti-terrorist team” is, in fact, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) that has recently been formed in this area.. When members of Peace Fresno saw the picture and read of Kline’s association with law enforcement they began piecing the story together.
<snip>

There have been several meetings between law enforcement and groups concerned about civil liberties, in the wake of September 11, 2001. One such meeting was held with Lt. Pat Farmer of the Fresno Police Department. Lt. Farmer told this group of community activists that there is nothing to prevent the police or JTTF members from investigating and interrogating community members. He suggested that the person being investigated might not even know he was talking to a police officer. “If the person doesn’t want to talk with us, they don’t have to,” Farmer said. At an earlier meeting, immediately after 9-11, an FBI agent told a group, of mostly immigrant rights activists, that anyone helping a group identified as a “terrorist group” by the United States government would be investigated as a potential terrorist. That was interpreted to mean that if you are working, for example, to support the Zapatistas in Chiapas, you might be investigated as a supporter of international terrorism. This FBI agent said that every agent in this area was now focusing on stopping the terrorist threat.

Detective Aaron Kilner was a member of the FCSD Anti-Terrorism unit. This unit collects, evaluates, collates, analyzes, and disseminates information on individuals, groups, and organizations suspected of criminal or terrorist activities. This information meets the stringent federal and state guidelines for intelligence gathering and civil rights protections in order to prevent crime and protect the health and safety of residents of Fresno County and the State of California.

http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/10/1650550.php

[me b zola]

19. Thanks for posting that article

The OP made me think of that, but I didn't have it on file. I do now!

[Lone_Star_Dem]

22. You're welcome

I had to do some digging since I no longer had it in my bookmarks. This was a good opportunity to add it to my current list.

[wli]

12. COINTELPRO back in force... "Homeland Offense Gestapo" with reason n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

13. Another thread on this Raw Story blockbuster is on the Greatest Page now:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1735413
Thread title: ACLU: FBI labeled peace, affirmative action group 'terrorist'
Posted by rawstory LBN Forum Mon Aug-29-05 04:18 PM

[FreedomAngel82]

14. This is disgusting

Sometimes now days I don't recognize my country.

[tlsmith1963]

15. I'm Sorry, But...

...peace groups are not terrorists. It's a contradiction in terms. Why doesn't Bush get the *real* terrorist--bin Laden? He seems to spend time trying to get everyone *but* bin Laden. It really makes me wonder...

Tammy

[FreedomAngel82]

21. I think

the word "peace" is a key word here to these groups. Bush just doesn't like it that he can't control us.

[newswolf56]

16. Absolutely predictable -- and it will get much much worse.

Bush was chosen specifically to make the world safe for oligarchy -- which means increasing (and eventually total) oppression for the rest of us: anyone who has to work for a living, anyone who is low-income elderly, disabled or otherwise impoverished. Homeland Security is not just about "combating terrorism." It is also the secret police that will suppress any outcry against the ever-more-savage realities of capitalism.

[Festivito]

27. I wish I did not agree with you.

One man's conspiracy is another man's business plan.

[omega minimo]

38. Why didn't people who saw this coming stop it?

:hi:

[Cats Against Frist]

40. Damn. That was a very bleak, and accurate way of putting that.

I agree with you, as well. Your last sentence was chilling.

[FreedomAngel82]

17. If you haven't you should

try to check out the film "UnConstiutional." It's about the "Patriot Act" and talks about this briefly and one guy tells how he was talking to someone in the local gym about everything going on and he got a visit from the FBI!

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

18. Crushing domestic political...

...dissent is high on the Bushco agenda. Fascism is here, people---as a matter of fact it's downright "fashionable."

http://www.karlandkinggeorge.com/Fascism_is_Fashionable.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. Contielrpro, any qeuestions

[Solly Mack]

23. Under apartheid protestors against the racist and brutal

government were labeled terrorists as justification for torture and murder..as long as those who dissent can be painted as crimnals, then the corrupt power base maintains control - and far too many people not only accept the lie as true, they applaud the effort.

[Rex]

24. Prepare for the Great Purge!

All you naysayers better get ready! Bush ain't leaving office peacefully.

[omega minimo]

39. How does Congress sleep at night?

[bobbieinok]

25. in 60s SF and LA police depts had groups that monitored all protest groups

there were lots of 'observers' watching those in attendance at a speech by Gus Hall of the communist party at a college on the SF peninsula.........it was really eery

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

26. Chanelling Richard Nixon......

Are you there, Dick?

Motherfuckers.

[EVDebs]

28. Time Magazine some yrs ago had a story

in the issue with the cover "Mormons, Inc." August 4, 1997, article 'Kingdom Come'

http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,986794,00.html

In that main article, it says that the FBI and CIA have Mormon hiring preferences.

I thought that was interesting and, as this story mentions 'affirmative action group', it begs the question of how the Mormons got their hiring preference. Hmmmm.

[Wizard777]

29. Move to Fla. and take flying lessons.! That invokes the protection of

the FBI's First Commandment. Thou Shalt Not Investigate Brother Bush's Terrorist Training Camps in Florida. Then there is the Second Commandment. Thou Shalt Not Detain The Terrorist's Brother Salem Bin Laden. O'Brother!

[orleans]

30. damn! what do they do about REAL terrorists??? n/t

[garybeck]

31. we should thank the ACLU n/t

[Douglas Carpenter]

32. God Bless the ACLU

Become a card-carrying member today -- see this link:

https://www.aclu.org/contribute/contribute.cfm?BNR=1

[sundog]

33. peace terrorists? oxymoron alert

:wtf:

[Mabus]

35. Ironic, same week that AIM members visit Sheehan

the ACLU releases this document. Talk about COINTELPRO. Russell, Dennis and the rest of the know about that. There were hundreds of felony charges brought against the brave AIM members who occupied Wounded Knee in 73. In the end, there were just a few misdemeanor convictions. Kept them fighting in court for quite a while.

[omega minimo]

36. Ignorance Is Strength. Greed Is Good. Peace Is Terror.

Now it is 1984
Knock knock at your front door