Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Friday, May 20, 2005
Intellectual Guantanamo?
Excerpted from Democracy Now headlines, May 19, 2005:
FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force Criticized For Questioning Activists:
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is coming under new scrutiny for a series of interviews it conducted ahead of last year’s political conventions. Dozens of activists and antiwar protesters were questioned by local and federal authorities. At the time FBI officials and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft said that the interviews were based on indications that protesters may be planning violent disruptions. Authorities said one specific threat involved plans to blow up a media van in Boston. But now the FBI has begun releasing documents connected to the conventions and they tell a different story. According to the Washington Post, the new memos provide no indication of specific threat information.
ACLU Seeks FBI Spy Files on Activist Groups & Individuals:
Meanwhile the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts has requested the FBI hand over its spy files on several activist groups including the American Friends Service Committee, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the International Action Committee. In addition the ACLU is seeing FBI records for 10 inviduals including Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky. The ACLU has alleged that all of the groups and individuals have been under FBI surveillance.
FBI: Environmental & Animal Rights Activists Are Top Domestic Threat:
On Capitol Hill a top FBI official told the Senate Wednesday that environmental and animal rights activists are the nation’s top domestic terrorism threat. John Lewis - the FBI’s deputy assistant director for counterterrorism - cited groups such as the Animal Liberation Front, the Earth Liberation Front and Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. Lewis said “There is nothing else going on in this country over the last several years that is racking up the high number of violent crimes and terrorist actions.”
For more on domestic surveillance: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/may2005/aclu-m20.shtml
For an inside look at the REAL Guantanamo, please click here:
http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/2005_alerts/etn_0519_det.htm
Copyright © 2005-2007 Mickey Z.
