FBI monitored activists, files show
By Eric Lichtblau The New York Times
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2005
WASHINGTON Counterterrorism agents at the FBI 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.
FBI 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.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, John Ashcroft, who was then the U.S.
attorney general, loosened restrictions on the FBI's investigative powers,
giving the bureau greater ability to visit and monitor Web sites, mosques and
other public entities in pursuing 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.
The release of the FBI records, coming after the Bush administration's
confirmation that President George W. Bush had authorized domestic
anti-terrorism spying without warrants being issued, prompted charges from
civil rights advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line
between terrorism and acts of civil disobedience or other lawful protest.
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 ACLU has sought access to
information in FBI files on about 150 protest and social groups that it says
may have been improperly monitored.
The documents, parts of which the ACLU planned to release publicly on
Tuesday, totals more than 2,300 pages and centers on references in internal
files to a handful of groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals, the environmental group Greenpeace and the Catholic Workers group,
which promotes anti-poverty efforts and social causes.
Many of the investigative documents turned over by the bureau are heavily
redacted, making it difficult or impossible to determine the full context of
the references and why the FBI may have been discussing events like a
demonstration in support of animal rights. FBI officials said that many of the
documents offer an incomplete and sometimes misleading snapshot of the bureau's
activities.
"Just being referenced in an FBI file is not tantamount to being the
subject of an investigation," said John Miller, a spokesman for the bureau.
"The FBI does not target individuals or organizations for investigation
based on their political beliefs," Miller said. "Everything we do is carefully
promulgated by federal law, Justice Department guidelines and the FBI's own
rules."
Officials from the ACLU said the documents indicated that the FBI was
interested in a broader array of activist groups than had previously been
thought. In light of recent disclosures about domestic surveillance activities
by the National Security Agency and military intelligence units, the ACLU
charged that 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 NSA to the FBI, to engage in spying on Americans," said
Ann Beeson, associate legal director for the ACLU.
The documents show that in some cases, the FBI used employees, interns
and other confidential informants within groups like PETA and Greenpeace to
develop leads on potential criminal activity and had downloaded material from
the groups' Web sites, in addition to monitoring their protests.
The groups that are mentioned in the newly disclosed FBI files questioned
both the propriety of characterizing such investigations as related to
terrorism and the necessity of diverting counterterrorism personnel from more
pressing investigations.
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