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F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
12/20/05 "New
York Times" -- -- WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 -
Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have
conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering
operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in
causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty
relief, newly disclosed agency records show.
F.B.I. officials said Monday that their investigators had no
interest in monitoring political or social activities and that any
investigations that touched on advocacy groups were driven by
evidence of criminal or violent activity at public protests and in
other settings.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, John Ashcroft, who was then
attorney general, loosened restrictions on the F.B.I.'s
investigative powers, giving the bureau greater ability to visit and
monitor Web sites, mosques and other public entities in developing
terrorism leads. The bureau has used that authority to investigate
not only groups with suspected ties to foreign terrorists, but also
protest groups suspected of having links to violent or disruptive
activities.
But the documents, coming after the Bush administration's
confirmation that President Bush had authorized some spying without
warrants in fighting terrorism, prompted charges from civil rights
advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line
between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest.
One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to
conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community Project." Another
document talks of the Catholic Workers group's "semi-communistic
ideology." A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining
the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week,
came as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits
brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. For more than a year,
the A.C.L.U. has been seeking access to information in F.B.I. files
on about 150 protest and social groups that it says may have been
improperly monitored.
The F.B.I. had previously turned over a small number of documents on
antiwar groups, showing the agency's interest in investigating
possible anarchist or violent links in connection with antiwar
protests and demonstrations in advance of the 2004 political
conventions. And earlier this month, the A.C.L.U.'s Colorado chapter
released similar documents involving, among other things, people
protesting logging practices at a lumber industry gathering in 2002.
The latest batch of documents, parts of which the A.C.L.U. plans to
release publicly on Tuesday, totals more than 2,300 pages and
centers on references in internal files to a handful of groups,
including PETA, the environmental group Greenpeace and the Catholic
Workers group, which promotes antipoverty efforts and social causes.
Many of the investigative documents turned over by the bureau are
heavily edited, making it difficult or impossible to determine the
full context of the references and why the F.B.I. may have been
discussing events like a PETA protest. F.B.I. officials say many of
the references may be much more benign than they seem to civil
rights advocates, adding that the documents offer an incomplete and
sometimes misleading snapshot of the bureau's activities.
"Just being referenced in an F.B.I. file is not tantamount to being
the subject of an investigation," said John Miller, a spokesman for
the bureau.
"The F.B.I. does not target individuals or organizations for
investigation based on their political beliefs," Mr. Miller said.
"Everything we do is carefully promulgated by federal law, Justice
Department guidelines and the F.B.I.'s own rules."
A.C.L.U officials said the latest batch of documents released by the
F.B.I. indicated the agency's interest in a broader array of
activist and protest groups than they had previously thought. In
light of other recent disclosures about domestic surveillance
activities by the National Security Agency and military intelligence
units, the A.C.L.U. said the documents reflected a pattern of
overreaching by the Bush administration.
"It's clear that this administration has engaged every possible
agency, from the Pentagon to N.S.A. to the F.B.I., to engage in
spying on Americans," said Ann Beeson, associate legal director for
the A.C.L.U.
"You look at these documents," Ms. Beeson said, "and you think, wow,
we have really returned to the days of J. Edgar Hoover, when you see
in F.B.I. files that they're talking about a group like the Catholic
Workers league as having a communist ideology."
The documents indicate that in some cases, the F.B.I. has used
employees, interns and other confidential informants within groups
like PETA and Greenpeace to develop leads on potential criminal
activity and has downloaded material from the groups' Web sites, in
addition to monitoring their protests.
In the case of Greenpeace, which is known for highly publicized acts
of civil disobedience like the boarding of cargo ships to unfurl
protest banners, the files indicate that the F.B.I. investigated
possible financial ties between its members and militant groups like
the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front.
These networks, which have no declared leaders and are only loosely
organized, have been described by the F.B.I. in Congressional
testimony as "extremist special interest groups" whose cells engage
in violent or other illegal acts, making them "a serious domestic
terrorist threat."
In testimony last year, John E. Lewis, deputy assistant director of
the counterterrorism division, said the F.B.I. estimated that in the
past 10 years such groups had engaged in more than 1,000 criminal
acts causing more than $100 million in damage.
When the F.B.I. investigates evidence of possible violence or
criminal disruptions at protests and other events, those
investigations are routinely handled by agents within the bureau's
counterterrorism division.
But the groups mentioned in the newly disclosed F.B.I. files
questioned both the propriety of characterizing such investigations
as related to "terrorism" and the necessity of diverting
counterterrorism personnel from more pressing investigations.
"The fact that we're even mentioned in the F.B.I. files in
connection with terrorism is really troubling," said Tom Wetterer,
general counsel for Greenpeace. "There's no property damage or
physical injury caused in our activities, and under any definition
of terrorism, we'd take issue with that."
Jeff Kerr, general counsel for PETA, rejected the suggestion in some
F.B.I. files that the animal rights group had financial ties to
militant groups, and said he, too, was troubled by his group's
inclusion in the files.
"It's shocking and it's outrageous," Mr. Kerr said. "And to me, it's
an abuse of power by the F.B.I. when groups like Greenpeace and PETA
are basically being punished for their social activism."
Copyright 2005The New York Times Company
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