yo yo yo search it!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

you would think it would be the other way around

the fbi monitoring the school and NOT the NON VIOLENT, PEACEFUL PROTESTORS. c'mon now putting them on PRIORITY LEVEL? please

FBI Puts SOA Watch under “Counterterrorism” Surveillances
By Matthew RothschildMay 4, 2006
The FBI has been keeping tabs on SOA Watch, the human rights group that monitors the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.
In fact, the FBI has elevated its concern to “priority” level, claiming that the group is subject to “counterterrorism” monitoring, according to documents released on May 4 by the ACLU and its Georgia chapter.
SOA Watch was founded by Father Roy Bourgeois back in 1990, and it organizes annual protests at Fort Benning that now draw about 10,000 protesters. (The School of the Americas, in a PR stunt, has changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.)....


.............The FBI itself recognizes the nonviolent nature of the group, according to one memo from October 2003. “The leaders of the SOA Watch have taken strides to impart upon the protest participants that the protest should be a peaceful event,” the FBI document states.
The FBI denies doing anything wrong in its investigation of SOA Watch.
“Our reaction is the same to all the other ACLU allegations about FBI spying,” says Bill Carter, a spokesperson for the agency. “The FBI does not investigate individuals based on First Amendment activities. The FBI investigates only when we have information that an individual or a group may be involved either in violent activity or national security issues.”...........

3 comments:

Guerrillas in the Midst said...

Hmm...The lattermost point made by Bill Carter is correct: they investigate anyone who "may be involved...in...national security issues". Sounds like us!

Anyone who thinks is involved in a national security issue. We ARE a national security issue.

Remember that bit on Farenheit 911 where they infiltrated that activist group and they were a cozy cluster of geeky activists? There you go.

The question that Jello Biafra poses is "They know who we are, so why not get worse?"

Graeme said...

I pretty much assume anything anyone does gets watched now days

Unknown said...

as americans we have the RIGHT to certain things and certain freedoms.

i understand the need for intelligence communities (or organizations or whatever the hell they are) BUT i don't understand why certain people and certain groups need to be OBSERVED.