[Mb-civic] FBI Monitored Web Sites for 2004 Protests - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

<>FBI Monitored Web Sites for 2004 Protests
Groups Criticize Agency's Surveillance for Terror Unit

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 18, 2005; Page A03

FBI agents monitored Web sites calling for protests against the 2004 
political conventions in New York and Boston on behalf of the bureau's 
counterterrorism unit, according to FBI documents released under the 
Freedom of Information Act.

The American Civil Liberties Union pointed to the documents as evidence 
that the Bush administration has reacted to the Sept. 11, 2001, 
terrorist attacks on the United States by blurring the distinction 
between terrorism and political protest. FBI officials defended the 
involvement of counterterrorism agents in providing security for the 
Republican and Democratic conventions as an administrative convenience.

<>The documents were released by the FBI in response to a lawsuit filed 
by a coalition of civil rights, animal rights and environmental groups 
that say they have been subjected to scrutiny by task forces set up to 
combat terrorism. The FBI has denied targeting the groups because of 
their political views.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/17/AR2005071700889.html?referrer=email 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20050718/4576b320/attachment.htm