America... Spying on Americans

Re: Tico


Your predictable refusal to answer my question is noted.

FBI documents raise new questions about extent of surveillan
Back to the topic of this thread.---BBB

Posted on Tue, Mar. 14, 2006
FBI documents raise new questions about extent of surveillance
By Jonathan S. Landay
Knight Ridder Newspapers

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, although the Pentagon has admitted that the top-secret TALON program mistakenly retained in its database reports on scores of anti-war protests and individuals as part of an effort to identify terrorist threats against defense facilities and personnel.

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 didn't provide any details of the probe. 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. Merton, an American Roman Catholic monk, author and poet, died in 1968.

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."

The report also noted that the center had cooperated with an Islamic organization in staging an event to promote understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims in Pittsburgh.

An FBI agent photographed center members handing out leaflets, said the report, which added that "one female leaflet distributor, who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, inquired" if the picture-taker worked for the FBI.

A Feb. 26, 2003, FBI report titled "International Terrorism Matters" detailed a schedule that the center posted on its Web site of anti-war rallies in Pittsburgh, New York and elsewhere.

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.

"The documents say they were conducting some kind of investigation," Jim Kleissler, the Thomas Merton Center director, said in a telephone interview. "That implies we were under surveillance simply because we were against the war. Our freedoms are being undermined."

The FBI agent who photographed the pamphlet distribution "was acting with all appropriate investigative authorities" and destroyed the pictures when it was determined that they were of no value to the probe, Crowley said in a statement. The Feb. 26, 2003, report was a draft document and was never made part of an official file, he said.

Americans are giving up our Constitutional Rights from the fear-mongering of Bush and company. We now have a police state, and Iraq is now in a civil war although nobody seems to admit it. If it's not a civil war in Iraq, what will the "civil war" look like after we leave? Same? Worse? Better?

You accuse Bush of "fear-mongering," yet engage in hyperbolic demagoguery yourself.

What have I said that isn't true about Bushco? My so-called "demagoguery" at least is an opinion held by many in this country, and believe it or not is protected by our Constitution.

Or used to be before the Bush regime took over the white house.

We do not have a police state, and nobody has given up their Constitutional rights.



So what? Many people in this country are of the opinion that there is evil in this world that must be fought and not appeased, that Saddam was a threat, that the Iraq War was just and proper, that terrorism is real, that the government should be supported in its efforts to fight terrorism. And their right to hold/state those views is as equally protected by our Constitution. And? Please make a point if you have one.

Let me help out, to educate you:



Absolutely true. However, they do not have the right to abridge my Constitutionally guaranteed rights in order to forward their views or ideas. And this is exactly what has happened; reference the Fourth and Ninth amendments here.

Cycloptichorn

We didn't give them up. They are being taken from us without our consent.

Let me educate you: "They" -- i.e., the people I was referring to in my response to c.i. -- are not abridging your rights, just as the people holding the views c.i. was referring to are not abridging your rights.

Now, if you are referring to the government abridging your rights, please give me the details because I was not aware of this, and maybe you can educate me further.

Tico probably hasn't heard anything about the unauthorized wiretaps of American citizens yet. Trying to explain something to anyone who's brain is calcified to the extent of Tico's, it's hopeless in MHO.

c.i.: I generally refrain from commenting about the lack of intelligence you display in many of your postings, even though the urge is great. You might try the same approach.

Now, I have commented at great length in this thread about the subject matter. Had you been paying attention -- and I understand you probably haven't -- you would understand that I do not believe the NSA program in question (as I understand it) violated anybody's constitutional rights.

And further, had you carefully read my last response to Cyclops, you would see I was asking him which of his "Constitutionally guaranteed rights" have been abridged.

Tico, No need; I've said on many, many occasions on a2kthat I am not "intelligent." I'll say it for you, so you can put yourself on a pedestal.

What you don't seem to understand that when any American's Constitutinally guaranteed rights have been abridged, we have all been injured.

Tico, FYI, I count as friends retired college professors, active college professors, judges, doctors, physicists, scientists, teachers, many different professionals, businessmen/women, managers, engineers, and others too numerous to count. My lack of intelligence hasn't affected my friendships with them.

Tico doesn't worry about those things ... some people have more rights than others!

Anon

c.i.: My comment wasn't about your intelligence or lack thereof. It was about civility between posters on this board.

Tico wrote:
c.i.: I generally refrain from commenting about the lack of intelligence you display in many of your postings, even though the urge is great.

Well, c.i., obviously that's how Tico says "I comment about civility between posters on this board."

<sigh> Again, c.i., the main point of my comment wasn't about your lack of intelligence ... it was about civility between posters on this board. Your comment about the "calcification" of my brain lead to it, and your comment about your intelligence reveals your apparent lack of understanding of what I was trying to say.

My comprehension of the English language is pretty decent; after all, I worked in management most of my working career. I think that's one of the prime requisite to be a "manager."