Posted on 12/20/2005 12:10:43 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
WASHINGTON (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union 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.
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 website 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.
"You end up in FBI files with your name and your group's name because you're doing stuff," Assistant Director John Miller said. "By and large, the FBI has done a pretty good job sticking to those rules."
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.
The PETA investigation began in August 2003 and lasted at least 12 months, according to documents. Miller could not say whether the investigation was concluded.
The FBI reports also linked PETA to the government's investigation of a bombing outside the Shaklee Cosmetic Corp. in Pleasanton, Calif., in September 2003. The FBI said Shaklee conducted animal testing of cosmetic products and its parent company was a frequent target of campaigns by PETA and another group, Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty.
Separately, the FBI files said PETA protested a rodeo in Las Vegas in December 2003 with representatives from the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front.
PETA's lawyer, Jeffrey Kerr, denied his organization has provided support or resources to the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front, calling such claims "tired old allegations." Kerr said any terrorism investigation was "a scurrilous waste of resources."
"This is really an abuse of power," Kerr said. "PETA and other groups are really being targeted because we are being social activists and engaging in free speech. This is un-American and unconstitutional and contrary to the interests of any definition of a healthy democracy."
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-based Catholic Workers Group to disrupt missile tests in California. The FBI said the Catholic Workers Group "advocates a communist distribution of resources."
The FBI may not consider PETA a terrorist organization, but they sure do ELF (Earth Libration Front, ecoterrorists). PETA and ELF have lots of overlaps, including that PETA funnels some money to ELF.
What does FBI stand for, anyway?
ELF's IT guy is named Zak Exerly. What a coincidence, so was the Kerry campaign's.
Surely a coincidence. Why every Tom, Dick, or Harry is named Zak Exerly.
PETA are known terrorists! They'd probably even admit it (and say they have just cause)
You nailed it. IIRC PETA has also paid the legal expenses of ELF members caught & charged with property damage, arson, etc.
I agree. Many PETA members are also ELF members and ELF is a KNOWN terrorist organization.
I keep hearing that they investigated peace activists, and I say GOOD. I have run into some people on the internet who are working to overthrow the government and have a workers revolution, and they were around Cindy Sheehan. Check out Frontpagemag.com. Your may find out that some don't accept that the cold war is over. I remember 1968, and I don't want to go through all that again, though I understand that moveon.org is conducting a last gasp effort.
PeTA spokesman Bruce Friedrich told participants in the 2001 animal rights conference:
"If we really believe that animals have the same right to be free from pain and suffering at our hands, then, of course we're going to be, as a movement, blowing things up and smashing windows ... I think it's a great way to bring about animal liberation ... I think it would be great if all of the fast-food outlets, slaughterhouses, these laboratories, and the banks that fund them exploded tomorrow. I think it's perfectly appropriate for people to take bricks and toss them through the windows. ... Hallelujah to the people who are willing to do it."
They know it alright but just like every other left wing lunatic terrorist organization they want to do the crime, they just cry like little girls when it comes to doing the time.
The nature of civil disobedience is that you can stand against the law if you're so committed but guess what? You have to pay the price.
I'll assume all of these liberal morons have read Socrates, they just probably chose to skip over the part about the Hemlock.
I didn't realize that Al Queda had a political presence in the US. Oh! My bad... Al Queda = Liberal Democrat!
Would this not be the PETA whose menbers have
used bombs and arson in their eco-terrorist
actions against labratories and companies that
were engaged in research that used animal test
subjects? against housing developments?
Pardon me, but it is the ACLU who should have been monitored as a terrorist organization. After it is they who defend terrorists and employ the likes of Lynne Stewart, terrorist supporter.
This is the law:
4th Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Gee, you think it would be hard to get a warrant against PETA based upon probable cause?
How do you spell that ? I can't seem to find him on google.
PING
Where were they during the 8 years Toon was in office?
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