Antiwar.com Sues FBI for 'Threat Assessment'

[douglas9]

Editors of the Antiwar.com news site claim in court that they learned from a FOIA request that the FBI conducted a "Threat Assessment" of them, but won't tell them any more about it.
Editors Dennis Joseph Raimondo aka Justin Raimondo and Eric Anthony Garris sued the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the San Francisco Federal Court.
The editors describe their site as an "an anti-interventionist website that publishes news and opinion articles about U.S. foreign and military policy."
Garris says he founded the online magazine in 1995 to oppose U.S. intervention in the Balkans.
The editors learned in August 2011 that they were under federal surveillance, when another FOIA requester posted documents about them on Scribd.com.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/05/23/57889.htm

[leveymg]

1. This was reported at length by Marcy Wheeler in 2011. Pretty interesting, link>

http://www.emptywheel.net/2011/08/23/the-fbis-file-on-antiwar-com/

This appears to be related to several FBI probes in which antiwar.com editors were the subject of a preliminary investigation or antiwar.com was mentioned in other Bureau files. It's very wide-ranging from FBI interest in stories published about Mossad's involvement in the 9/11 "Movers case" to the Bureau obtaining a copy of one of the editors hard-drives when he returned from Malaysia to allegations that antiwar.com may have published the names of Pakistanis that were under surveillance. Very interesting.

[FSogol]

2. Fuck Ron Paul. n/t

[hootinholler]

3. Whilst I agree with the sentiment...

It doesn't apply in this case, unless you mean that libertarian organizations should receive fewer protections of their rights than other groups.

Even if you did mean that, it still doesn't apply.

[FSogol]

4. Anti-war.com is a mouth piece for Ron Paul and other mouthbreathers. n/t

[hootinholler]

5. So?

Do they not deserve equal protection under law? I think they do.

[FSogol]

6. What is wrong with a threat assessment? How is the FBI supposed to analyze threats if they

are not allowed to look at any group?

Magical thinking?

[hootinholler]

7. That's very different than Fuck Ron Paul.

Nothing is wrong with the FBI doing a threat assessment, but that is not what they are suing about. The suit is about the FBI being non-responsive to a valid FOIA request.

I have no idea what you are on about with the magical thinking comment, should I be insulted?