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Mistletoe Angel
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0 posted 2005-07-18 06:33 PM


http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/07/18/news/protest.php

The Justice Department has admitted today that the FBI has recorded thousands of pages of records in monitoring civil rights, environmental and anti-war groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Greenpeace.

The FBI has recorded 1,173 pages ACLU-related and 2,383 pages Greenpeace-related among others.

Anti-war groups also have been monitored, including United For Peace & Justice (one I have volunteered for) which has six pages.

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These actions are beneath contempt in all my heart.

Diverting funds from the war on terror and using the nation's top domestic intelligence agency to spy on voices of dissent which promote not terrorism or violence, but pure civil disobedience, is disgraceful.

These people responsible for this sort of monitoring not only have no ethics, they have no shame.

First we hear about a California National Guard monitoring on CODEPINK, now this.

This pattern of behavior I've seen in this post-911 climate, from the Patriot Act to now, just convinces me further that those in power just can't stand dissent and are making many impure efforts to stamp it out in many effective forms.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton


"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other"

Mother Teresa

© Copyright 2005 Nadia Lockheart - All Rights Reserved
Juju
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since 2003-12-29
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In your dreams
1 posted 2005-07-19 01:14 PM


Noah?  C'mon. THey are just doing there job.  I mean antigovernment people ae probably going to linger in antigovernment kinda of things.  I am sure the government is only making sure they are not terrests.  Not saying your groups are terrest groups.  

Juju - 1.) a magic charm or fetish 2.)Magic 3.)A taboo connected woth the use of magic

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Alicat
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since 1999-05-23
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Coastal Texas
2 posted 2005-07-19 02:24 PM


http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162941,00.html

I agree with O'Reilly about the ACLU files....I'd love to have a good look at those and agree they should be released.  As well as groups like Greenpeace, left wing radicals, right wing radicals...let it all come out.  I know, however, that whatever papers the ACLU gets, they will hold all those very close to the vest, not allowing the general public any disclosure.  If they do, through website files, I'm very sure the material will be heavily edited, if not a complitation based upon several different documents edited to appear as one specific document.  Though I know they'd never ever never stoop to that level of deception.  Not a pack of ultraliberal lawyers.  Nope.

And why shouldn't the FBI and CIA have files on all these groups?  Someone gets picked up, drops a name or group, and it gets put in a file.  Someone turns evidence and implicates others to deflect personal blame, and it gets put in the files.  Those things add up, especially with a group as visible and controversial as the ACLU, since many of their lawyers have represented, pro bono, the worst felons out there.  In case any forget, the FBI investigates felons.  Yanno, like ecoterrorism (tree spiking, arson activity in housing developments), riots and violent threats and/or activity against other groups, pedophiliatic stalker groups (NAMBLA), domestic terrorism (including militias, hate groups, bomb makers).  The FBI is just doing their job: investigating.

Midnitesun
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3 posted 2005-07-19 05:45 PM


Noah, none of this should surprise anyone. They have monitored anti-war activists since Viet Nam, and probably before then.
But they are also being actively monitored.

Mistletoe Angel
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4 posted 2005-07-20 01:40 PM


I understand where you're getting at, and that this is not necessarily anything new, but I hope you can understand my outrage here on two levels; 1) that they appear to be using counterterrorism funds against peaceful Americans that don't associate themselves with terrorism by any means, and 2) the FBI is violating Americans' right to peacefully assemble and oppose government policies without being branded as terrorist threats.

Look, I agree there are nuisances out there that should be monitored; I simply believe the FBI is going after so many of the wrong people and I can't help but believe this is all a political manuever.

Sincerely,
Noah Eaton

"If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other"

Mother Teresa

Midnitesun
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Gaia
5 posted 2005-07-20 04:33 PM


Noah, did you know that I was on someone's "watch" list many years ago? I always thought is was funny, since I never participated in any overt (or covert) acts of treason. But I did march against the war, I did meet with Jane Fonda at a rally, I did write letters to the editor, I did send letters to the government protesting our mis-guided involvement(s). Actually, I would have been dis appointed if I hadn't been watched. LOL, but that's just me. And every administration has spent our dollars foolishly, often chasing its own tail. Of course, I agree with you that to waste this money is wrong. Our government spends millions on investigations that yield little positive impact on our day-to-day safety, money that should be spent on healthcare and education, and on things that would REALLY help stop poverty, terrorism, stop the oil barons and drug cartels that rule so much of the world. All that money would be better spent assisting indigenous populations around the world with the basics for survival, and with keeping our citizens healthy, educated, and employed.
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