[Vision2020] Files Raise Fears of FBI Monitoring

[Tom Hansen]

>From today's (March 15, 2006) Spokesman Review -

"An FBI report dated Nov. 29, 2002, identified the center as 'a left-wing
organization advocating, among many political causes, pacifism.'"

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has uncovered
an anti-war organization that is advocating pacifism.

Book 'em, Dano.

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Files raise fears of FBI monitoring 
Agents infiltrated anti-war group
Jonathan S. Landay 
Knight Ridder
March 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - An FBI counterterrorism unit monitored - and apparently
infiltrated - a peace group in Pittsburgh that opposed the invasion of Iraq,
according to internal agency documents released on Tuesday.

The disclosure raised new questions about the extent to which federal
authorities have been conducting surveillance operations against Americans
since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Previous revelations include FBI monitoring of environmental and animal
rights organizations, scrutiny of anti-war organizations by a top-secret
Pentagon program and eavesdropping by the National Security Agency on
domestic communications without court authorization.

 
Federal officials insist that the efforts are legal.

The documents released on Tuesday were obtained by the American Civil
Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act. They showed that the
Joint Terrorism Task Force of the FBI's Pittsburgh office conducted a secret
investigation into the activities of the Thomas Merton Center beginning as
early as Nov. 29, 2002, and continuing as late as March 2005.

William J. Crowley, a spokesman for the FBI's Pittsburgh office, said that
the monitoring of the center was legal and related to an ongoing
investigation. He said that when the FBI found no link between its
investigation and the center, it ended the surveillance.

The ACLU contended that the documents are the first to "show conclusively"
that an anti-war group was targeted for "its anti-war views."

"These documents show that Americans are not safe from secret government
surveillance, even when they are handing out fliers in the town square, an
activity clearly protected by the Constitution," said Marty Catherine Roper,
an ACLU staff attorney.

The center, founded in 1972, describes itself as a group of people from
diverse faiths who believe in "nonviolent struggle" for peace and justice. 

An FBI report dated Nov. 29, 2002, identified the center as "a left-wing
organization advocating, among many political causes, pacifism."'

"The TMC holds daily leaflet distribution activities in downtown Pittsburgh
and is currently focused on its opposition to the potential war in Iraq,"
said the report. "According to these leaflets, Iraq does not possess weapons
of mass destruction and that, if the United States invades Iraq, Saddam
Hussein will unleash bio-chemical weapons upon American soldiers."

Four heavily redacted documents - one dated Nov. 5, 2004, another Feb. 28,
2005, and two dated March 23, 2005 - appeared to be reports from an FBI
informant who had infiltrated the group.

The documents all contained the phrase: "Source, who is not in a position to
testify, provided the following information." They also say that the source
observed and reported on the group. The information reported was blacked
out.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


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"In America, anybody can become president.  
That's one of the risks you take . . ."

- Adlai Stevenson

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