"These documents confirm that the FBI's anti-terrorism force has been collecting information about peaceful protesters and dissenters and targeting people for attention on the basis of constitutionally protected association and advocacy," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU's Colorado chapter. "It lends credence to what a lot of critics have said: that the FBI is starting to regard some forms of dissent as potential terrorism."
FBI officials said the interviews stemmed from specific threat information, but they declined to provide details.
"The interviews reflected in these isolated documents were based on a specific and credible threat received by the FBI regarding potential violent criminal activity that could have caused death or serious bodily injury and was to occur during the Democratic National Convention," the bureau said in a statement. "It is the FBI's top priority to prevent any act of terrorism, which requires special agents of the FBI to thoroughly investigate every credible threat received."
I swear if you give the FBI an inch they will trample you every time. No matter what administration is in charge.
The problem with government secrets is you have to trust the government. If the liberals are in charge the conservatives don't trust the government. if the conservatives are in charge the liberals don't trust it.
The problem with government secrets is you have to trust the government. If the liberals are in charge the conservatives don't trust the government. if the conservatives are in charge the liberals don't trust it.
My point is that no matter if it is liberals in charge or conservatives, agencies such as the FBI have an ongoing internal culture that is predicated upon the violation if individual freedoms from the so called "greater good".
It is their bread and butter. The FBI was created under the influence of J. Edgar Hoover and the tendency of the agency is to stray back into a method of "g-man" thuggery no matter how well intentioned.
Some administrations are better at reigning in or thinking they are reigning in the natural tendency of the FBI and some are worse. Putting a man such as Ashcroft at the head of the Justice Dept. invites the oppressive nature of the FBI. Add to that the abomination that is the "Patriot" Act and you end up with Orwellian tactics.
I agree Klast. If one could create an institution that was uncorruptable and fully trustworthy, there are many tactics and strategies that could be implemented to make our lives much easier and efficent.
But there is none and given human nature, there never will be.
So I read that article and really don't see what the FBI did wrong. They didn't interfere with anyone's right of association, requested a few interviews (which you can legally refuse) and went fishing for possible terrorists. Until they start locking people up without charges, or threatening them, or interfering with their associations, the worst I can say is that maybe they were chasing red herrings. That happens a lot in crime prevention though.
If you don't think that's the entire gambit here, Jecks, you're blind. That's the entire game the right wing is playing with the press. To cow, suppress, and control it, where they haven't bought it themselves. This is one of their most obvious ploys. Ask yourself why the entire right wing spin machine is on the exact same message, and an obviously flawed one - it's not the reporter's fault, he's a good reporter, it's obviously the editor's fault.
If you don't think that's the entire gambit here, Jecks, you're blind. That's the entire game the right wing is playing with the press. To cow, suppress, and control it, where they haven't bought it themselves. This is one of their most obvious ploys. Ask yourself why the entire right wing spin machine is on the exact same message, and an obviously flawed one - it's not the reporter's fault, he's a good reporter, it's obviously the editor's fault.
Vast Rght Wing Konspiracy! 