"Report raps FBI investigations of activist groups; But IG concludes free speech rights were not targeted" by Jerry Markon, Washington Post | September 21, 2010
WASHINGTON — The FBI improperly opened and extended investigations of some US activist groups and put members of the environmental group Greenpeace USA on a terrorist watch list, even though they were planning only nonviolent civil disobedience, the Justice Department said yesterday.
A report by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine cited what it called other troubling FBI practices in its monitoring of domestic groups between the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and 2006. In some cases, Fine said, agents began investigations of people affiliated with activist groups, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, for “factually weak’’ reasons.
Justifying one surveillance, that of an antiwar rally by the Thomas Merton Center in Pittsburgh, FBI Director Robert Mueller III gave inaccurate information to Congress and the public when he claimed in 2006 a possible terrorism link to the rally, the report said.
Translation: HE LIED!
Relying on information from other FBI officials, Mueller testified that the FBI had information that “certain persons of interest’’ in international terrorism probes were expected to be present at the 2002 antiwar event, Fine’s office said.
An FBI agent from the Pittsburgh Field Division attended the rally and was told by his supervisor to look for terrorism suspects, but Fine’s investigators found no evidence that the FBI had information that any terrorism suspects would be there.
FBI Deputy Director Timothy Murphy, in a response included in the report, said the FBI “regrets that inaccurate information was provided,’’ but he does not explain how that happened. Lying to Congress is a federal offense that the FBI investigates.
How ironic, huh? FBI going to investigate itself?
The inaccurate statements may have been inadvertent, but the inspector general said it is more likely that the document reflected an effort to state a stronger justification for the surveillance.
This government stinks.
In other cases, the report said, the FBI extended probes “without adequate basis’’ and improperly kept information about activist groups in its files.
They never throw anything away even when they say they did.
Murphy, in his response, said the FBI was pleased that Fine “concludes the FBI did not target any groups for investigation on the basis of their First Amendment activities.’’ He said the FBI inquiries were based on information about potential criminal activities.
The FBI was known for using questionable domestic spying tactics against antiwar demonstrators and others in the 1960s under longtime director J. Edgar Hoover.
Yes, it was called COINTELPRO!
Why leave that out, WaPo?
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