this IS NOT new. we've read about it before

and i'm sure we will continue to read about it. if protesters GET violent, i do believe they SHOULD be treated accordingly (i.e. .ARRESTED by LOCAL police). to expend the time and energy of the fbi on groups feeding vegetarian meals to the homeless is LUDICROUS (and i don't mean the singer either)

FBI casts 'overly broad net' in war against terror
RAW STORY Published: Sunday March 26, 2006
The FBI casts an "overly broad net" by including antiwar and environmental protesters in its investigations "while waging a highly publicized war against terror," according to a story slated for the front page of Monday's edition of the L.A. Times, RAW STORY has learned.
Excerpts from the article written by Nicholas Riccardi:

The FBI, while waging a highly publicized war against terrorism, has spent resources gathering information on antiwar and environmental protesters, and activists who feed vegetarian meals to the homeless, the agency's internal memos show.
For years, the FBI's definition of terrorism has included violence against property, such as the window smashing during the 1999 Seattle protests against the World Trade Organization. Those activities have led the FBI to investigate the online chat rooms, organizing meetings and demonstrations of a wide range of activist groups. Officials say that international terrorists pose the greatest threat to the nation, but they cannot ignore crimes committed by some activists........

(NOTE: the article is NOT up in the la times yet. once it is i will post a link)

UPDATE: here is the la times story

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

DENVER —
.....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.ACLU attorneys acknowledge that the FBI memos are heavily redacted and contain incomplete portraits of some cases. Still, the attorneys say, the documents show that the FBI has monitored groups that were not suspected of any crime."It certainly seems they're casting a net much more widely than would be necessary to thwart something like the blowing up of the Oklahoma City federal building," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado.........