"They Don't Know Where binLaden Is, But They're Spending $$ Watching Me...

[kpete]

FBI Keeps Watch on Activists
Antiwar, other groups are monitored to curb violence, not because of ideology, agency says.
By Nicholas Riccardi, Times Staff Writer
March 27, 2006


The FBI's encounters with activists are described in hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act after agents visited several activists before the 2004 political conventions. Details have steadily trickled out over the last year, but newly released documents provide a fuller view of some FBI probes.

"Any definition of terrorism that would include someone throwing a bottle or rock through a window during an antiwar demonstration is dangerously overbroad," ACLU staff attorney Ben Wizner said. "The FBI will have its hands full pursuing antiwar groups instead of truly dangerous organizations."

ACLU attorneys say most violence during demonstrations is minor and is better handled by local police than federal counterterrorism agents. They say the FBI, which spied on antiwar and civil rights leaders during the 1960s, appears to be investigating activists solely for opposing the government.

"They don't know where Osama bin Laden is, but they're spending money watching people like me," said environmental activist Kirsten Atkins. Her license plate number showed up in an FBI terrorism file after she attended a protest against the lumber industry in Colorado Springs in 2002.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fbi27mar27,0,5815737.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[July]

1. Wizner points out the real problem.

The government is LESS capable of "keeping us safer" when they make the haystack bigger. Of course, perhaps their motive is NOT keeping us safer, but something else?

[savemefromdumbya]

2. This is what Democrats should highlight - where is OBL?

notice no Democrat ever puts things into perspective? why?

[FloridaPat]

3. Look at what's happened over the last 5 years. We The People

have Osama bin Ladina and al Qaeda as an enemy. The gov't says it wants to protect us. But the gov't is doing it's best to make sure no al Qaeda suspect goes to court. It has made sure any information about the 9-11 people has been destroyed or removed from the country or lost somewhere. The patriot act suspends parts of the Constitution. An overall view of all this suggests that the gov't resources are protecting the gov't from We The People - not We The People from any evil out there.

Pakistan & Saudi Arabia - actually involved in the suspected 9-11 hijackers - are our friends. Chevez, Iraq, Iran, Syria are our enemies.

We The People's real enemies is our own gov't.

[mdmc]

4. watching me

should be watching them