As you've written the above, of course, I would agree that this is a "bad" thing. But now to put this in context. And that is not what you are doing. Members and groups have "threatened" the US Military. That's quite different from simple "dissent", no? Yes, it is.
Not directed at you Alia.
Military, CIA, FBI, IRS what difference is there which division is doing the spying?
Our enemies have been trained well to take advantage of our liberties to bring us down. Charging those attempting to defend us from terrorism with racism, oppression, hate crimes, McCarthyism.
Do I like this situation that we are in? Hell no! But until someone can show me what else we can do, we're kind of stuck.
The next terrorist attack, people will be screaming for heads to roll. Why didn't we stop it? Why didn't we do more? Why are our investigative agencies not doing a better job? What did they know and when did they know it?
I see nothing wrong with the military actions from what I have seen from NBC's report. One entry on their PDF document said something to the effect of "Citizens exercising their constitutional rights to protest" On page 6 I think it was.
If you live with loonies whether left or right wing, you keep your eyes open.
I do have a problem if this was an attempt to find SOMETHING to charge them with so they could be jailed and harassed with whatever law they could dig up.
Federal agents have gone out of their way to encourage law breaking and later charge the person with a crime. These Federal agents are scum. That is not what I see happening in this case.
That would depend on the definitions of "threat" and "dissent."