These R the Terrorists? NYT has evidence FBI spied on Environmental Groups

[stop the bleeding]

Does this sound like foreign terrorist?!?!?
:grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr::grr:
that is all we have heard the last few days is the WH use wiretaps for "FOREIGN TERRORISTS"!!!!

Counterterrorism agents at the FBI have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show, the NEW YORK TIMES is set to splash in Tuesday's papers...

#
FBI officials said Monday that their investigators had no interest in monitoring political or social activities and that any investigations that touched on advocacy groups were driven by evidence of criminal or violent activity at public protests and in other settings.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, John Ashcroft, who was then attorney general, loosened restrictions on the FBI's investigative powers. The bureau has used that authority to investigate not only groups with suspected ties to foreign terrorists, but also protest groups suspected of having links to violent or disruptive activities.




But the documents, coming after the Bush administration's confirmation that President Bush had authorized domestic anti-terrorism spying without warrants, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest.

One FBI document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's "semi-communistic ideology." A third document indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week, came as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has sought access to FBI files on about 150 protest and social groups that it says may have been improperly monitored.

"You look at these documents," said Ann Beeson, associate legal director for the ACLU, "and you think wow, we have really returned to the days of J. Edgar Hoover."




The American Civil Liberties Union has accused the FBI of misusing terrorism investigators to monitor some domestic political organizations, despite apparently disparate views within the FBI whether some groups supported or committed violent acts, the Associated Press is set to reveal, RAW STORY has learned.

Citing hundreds of pages of heavily-censored documents it obtained from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act, lawyers for the ACLU described this disputed use of terrorism resources as the latest illustration of intensified surveillance aimed toward Americans. "Using labels like domestic terrorists to describe peaceful protest activity can chill robust political debate in this country," ACLU lawyer Ben Wizner said in New York. The ACLU said it will publish the FBI reports it obtained on its Web site Tuesday.

In one case, government records show the FBI launched a terrorism investigation of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in Norfolk, Va., despite acknowledgment by one FBI official that, "The FBI does not consider PETA a terrorist organization." The FBI responded that it conducts its investigations appropriately - subject to U.S. laws and Justice Department guidelines. It said the ACLU mischaracterized some passing references to political groups in FBI files to suggest those groups were under investigation; in other cases the FBI confirmed it was acting on tips tying groups to alleged illegal activities. The FBI documents indicate the government launched its terrorism investigation of PETA because the group was "suspected of providing material support and resources to known domestic terrorism organizations," including the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front. Advertisement

The ACLU said the FBI documents also suggest that federal terrorism investigators infiltrated the Washington-based American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. One document, sent to an FBI counterterrorism unit in Los Angeles, describes a list of attendees from the group at a conference in Stanford, Calif., to protest sanctions against Iraq in May 2002. Other FBI documents obtained by the ACLU describe efforts in May 2001 by Greenpeace and the Los Angeles-base
Text

Warning page does not display correctly for some reason today?

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/FBI_watched_array_of_environmental_animal_1220.html



P.S. if you would ike to do something go here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5644526
or here:
http://www.worldcantwait.org /

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. I'm getting "Coming Soon!" on almost every page

:grr:

[stop the bleeding]

3. I copied the article out of the page for you check original post. n/t

[Norquist Nemesis]

7. Thanks! It looks more and more that 'after September the 11th'

and the look on GWB's face when he was told, that his bravado is merely a facade for scared shitless. His recklessness and willingness to 'do whatever it takes' isn't because he's tough. It's because we have a scaredy cat with his finger on the nuclear button. He's chicken shit!

[hwmnbn]

2. Yep, Raw Story redesigned their website.....

when I click on a story, the page opens but there is an unremovable ad that hides the text of the story. Also the text disappears into the right margin both on IE and firefox.

Their new layout as they say, is developing.

[stop the bleeding]

4. I copied the article out of the page for you check original post. n/t

[flyarm]

5. has raw story been hacked..for 2 days i get nothing but red screen!! n/t

[stop the bleeding]

10. original post updated. n/t

[dutchdemocrat]

6. Homeland Security? Same thing...

This story is older, but relevant.


Animal Rights Groups and Ecology Militants Make DHS Terrorist List, Right-Wing Vigilantes Omitted
By Justin Rood, CQ Staff

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not list right-wing domestic terrorists and terrorist groups on a document that appears to be an internal list of threats to the nation’s security.

According to the list — part of a draft planning document obtained by CQ Homeland Security — between now and 2011 DHS expects to contend primarily with adversaries such as al Qaeda and other foreign entities affiliated with the Islamic Jihad movement, as well as domestic radical Islamist groups.

It also lists left-wing domestic groups, such as the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and the Earth Liberation Front (ELF), as terrorist threats, but it does not mention anti-government groups, white supremacists and other radical right-wing movements, which have staged numerous terrorist attacks that have killed scores of Americans. Recent attacks on cars, businesses and property in Virginia, Oregon and California have been attributed to ELF.

DHS did not respond to repeated requests for comment or confirmation of the document’s authenticity.

The conspirators behind the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people and wounded more than 500, were inspired by radical right-wing movements. Eric Rudolph, the man charged with carrying out the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, which killed one woman and injured more than 100, was a member of the radical anti-abortion group Army of God. Initially, Rudolph was the object of a massive North Carolina manhunt in connection with a Birmingham, Ala., abortion-clinic bombing that killed a police officer and seriously maimed a nurse.

Another Army of God member, James Kopp, was convicted in the 1998 shooting of a doctor who performed abortions.

SNIP

http://www.cq.com/public/20050325_homeland.html

[stop the bleeding]

15. thanks DD -

love the research and work that you do!

[dutchdemocrat]

16. Cheers STB

Come by and see Chris and I at http://www.chris-floyd.com/">Empire Burlesque once in awhile! Poke yer' nose in and say hello. He's an excellent writer and very nice guy - who has penned some important works. I will PM you a PDF version of his book at http://www.cafepress.com/chrisfloyd.26201529 that I published in October...

[dutchdemocrat]

17. Right Wing Groups are welcome then?

Right Wing Groups are welcome then?

I am starting to wonder now that the US vis a vis Bolton voted against this UN resolution...

Russia introduces anti-Nazi resolution at UN - US/Japan vote against it

Russia concerned about rise of Nazism

RBC, 19.12.2005, Moscow 19:03:32.The UN General Assembly has adopted an anti-Nazi resolution, initiated by Russia. Some 114 countries supported the document, with 4 states against and 57 abstentions. The resolution expresses a serious concern about the growing activity of extremist, racist and xenophobic organizations in the world. The Russian Foreign Ministry is concerned that some countries (i.e. the US and Japan) voted against the document, while many countries (all EU members) abstained. States such as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia abstained as well, although these nations suffered a lot during World War II, the ministry's information and press department claimed.

http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20051219190332.shtml

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

INFORMATION AND PRESS DEPARTMENT
_______________________________

32/34 Smolenskaya-Sennaya pl., 119200, Moscow G-200; tel.: [phone], fax: [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail], web-address: www.mid.ru



Unofficial translation from Russian
PRESS RELEASE

Adoption in Third Committee of the 60th Session of the UN General Assembly of a Resolution on the Inadmissibility of Certain Practices Which Contribute to Fuelling Contemporary Forms of Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance
2437-18-11-2005

On November 17, in New York, the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, at the Russian Federation's initiative, adopted a resolution on the inadmissibility of certain practices which contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Our draft was cosponsored by Belarus, Tajikistan, Cuba, Venezuela, the Republic of South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan and the DPRK. The vote was 97 in favor, 4 against and 63 abstentions.

The resolution, citing the Nuremberg Tribunal Judgment and the outcome documents of the World Conference against Racism (South Africa, 2001), expresses serious concern over the rise of extremist movements and political parties advocating racism, ethnocentrism and xenophobia and engaging in the dissemination of ideology of fascism and racial superiority.

The resolution condemns the glorification of the Nazi movement and of former members of the Waffen SS organization, inter alia through the and by public demonstrations to glorify the Nazi past, the Nazi movement and neo-Nazism. In the document adopted by the Third Committee, it is especially stressed that the erection of monuments in honor of SS men, the holding of their marches and other such actions are an outrage upon the memory of the innumerable victims of fascism, have an adverse effect on the rising generation and are absolutely incompatible with the obligations of the UN member states.

In addition, the resolution stresses that such actions do not represent the exercise, but a clear and obvious abuse of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, as well as of the right to freedom of belief and to freedom of expression. Moreover, in the opinion of the General Assembly, such acts may fall within the purview of Article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which requires that all the states party to the Convention prosecute them criminally.

It is stressed that such practices fuel contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia and aid the spread and multiplication of various extremist parties, movements and groups, including neo-fascists and skinheads.

Thus, following the UN Commission on Human Rights the General Assembly adopted an important thematic resolution on the problem of contemporary forms of racism. At the same time, any theme unfolds not in a vacuum, but in particular countries, which should take appropriate measures. Unfortunately, in a number of cases this does not occur, but quite the opposite takes place. We hope that this resolution will give a clear signal that the appropriate measures must be taken. It seems that genuine solidarity at the international, regional and bilateral level must consist in joint efforts to remove such manifestations, not in attempts to hush them up and to so present matters as if nothing happens. The resolution orients states towards cooperation and dialogue. Democratically mature countries should be ready for such dialogue and cooperation.

It is extremely bewildering and regrettable that some countries (the United States, Japan, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands)
voted against this document, and a number of countries, including all members of the European Union, abstained in the vote on the draft resolution, supported by an overwhelming majority of the UN member states.

http://www.diplomacymonitor.com/stu/dm.nsf/dn/dn50927D832DC4BB83852570BD0057C895

[stop the bleeding]

18. did you start this on it's own thread??? It is really interesting and DU

would have some comments on this.

I am looking down the rabbit hole and the twilight zone is becoming a reality....

[HereSince1628]

8. Also PETA, and Quakers. They are as guilty of abuse as one can be

Hopefully there is a real media that will have a chorus of legal experts all singing the same hymn...Bush broke the law. Bush's assertion of authority is only that. His argument is provided by ideological members of his own staff. The premise that the "Commander in Chief" is somehow unrestrained from normal law is a shakey radical view that is completely untested.

[stop the bleeding]

11. Here is the thing - on NPR this morning the legal experts were saying

that in 2001 Congress authorized the President to use as much force as needed to "Fight the war on Terra"

and these legal experts say that as long as were are in the "War on Terra" then this may be a good arguement for the WH.


So this arguement doesn't hold water with this kind of evidence???

I thought I was mad yesterday and the day before, now I am livid.

[HereSince1628]

12. Of course they will bring forward ideologues to argue their view

But, the interpretation of a document in a manner that generates entirely new and different meaning is simply evidence of abuse of power. And the vaste majority of legal and constitutional scholars will argue so.

[stop the bleeding]

13. I totally agree with and thought the same thing

all I am saying is to the sheeple out there who say this about monitoring "possible terrorist during the war on terra" is: How in the world are Quakers, Vegans ect.. terrorist???

Better yet don't ask a sheeple that question....


The WH's argument was weak and shaky before now it is downright ABSURD

[robbedvoter]

9. Vegans surely are dangerous! Glad someone sees it! I feel safe now.

[Nordmadr]

14. I'm starting a save the asparagus campaign!!!

:sarcasm:

Olafr