FBI Looking For Moles For GOP Convention Protestors
By Nicole Belle Sunday May 25, 2008 8:00pm
This gets complicated. According to - City Pages (Minneapolis/St. Paul), Moles Wanted, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is recruiting people to infiltrate anti-GOP protest groups in the run-up to the upcoming Republican convention.
The law is clear that police may attend public meetings undercover to see what people are up to. And of course undercover operations in private settings are also legal, although there should be guidelines as to when they are appropriate. And of course it’s good citizenship for private citizens to report crimes when they witness them.
But this story raises a number of serious questions.
First, there’s this: the FBI told the potential informant that he “would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.”
In other words, the FBI is recruiting unpaid volunteers to become infiltrators. And they get paid only if they give information leading to an arrest. Which creates a serious incentive for agents provocateurs. This is not a sensible policy at all. It is in fact a very bad idea.
Second, there’s the weird description of the targets — “vegan potlucks” — and the general sense of massive overkill, which contributes to the chilling effect discussed in the article.
I also wonder whether a similar effort is underway for the Democratic convention (not that two wrongs make a right). If it is not, would that be because of a political bias in the FBI, or a considered judgment that McCain is more likely to be a target of violence than the first Black (or female) major-party Presidential candidate?
Now, maybe the vegans we've got here in Michigan are dramatically different from those infesting Minnesota. But where I'm from, vegans tend to be fairly peaceful people. If they're unwilling to steal a bee's honey, I figure, they're going to be unwilling to use force to make their point. So I'm really curious how this operation got beyond the "mere speculation that force or violence might occur" that the US Attorney's own guidelines demands. And if you're really intent on infiltrating groups of vegans in anticipation of a bunch of violence-loving Republicans coming to town, why use the JTTF? Last I heard, we were so threatened by terrorists that we had to give up all our phone data to AT&T. But now we've got time to infiltrate vegans.
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Why doesn't these gestapo tactics surprise me?
Don't they have work to do in the "war on terror?"
They have this much time to push the Republican agenda?
Can the non-vegans amongst us protest too?
Even better, why don't we infiltrate the moles? Kind of non-vegan double agents.
why dont they hire moles to infiltrate the repug groups who will be organizing and training on how best to troll public bathrooms
when nixon was impeached, we were all promised that what occured then would never happen again
30 years doesnt seem like forever...does it?
The Vegans are coming! The Vegans are coming! Hide your war criminals. Hide you carrots and turnips. Flee the city.
Good grief, spying on potential terrorists as piece work.
They want to infiltrate the vegans and not the violent Anarchists clubs?
Ugh. The FBI is run by morons!
If another terrorist attack happens, I'm pointing the finger at the FBI. Why? Because they waste too much time on stupid shit like this.
I've heard about this story... Unfortunately, the story hasn't yet been convincingly authenticated, as far as I know. As scary as the thought of the FBI using moles at a political convention in 2008 is, my inclination is to believe right now that this is just a bogus conspiracy theory write-up in the vein of the "9/11 Truth" conspiracy theory movement.
Sounds like COINTELPRO all over again.
Empty Wheel has a brilliant post
Any protest will be met with Homeland Security measures and billed as an emergency situation, providing Bush with just the excuse he needs to suspend the elections and round up the usual suspects. I truly hope the ACLU is ready for this.
Maxwell Smart lives!! "Missed it by THAT much!"
Vegans. Vegans riding whales. Vegans riding whales smoking pot. Vegans riding whales smoking pot wearing Che Guevara T shirts. Vegans riding whales smoking pot wearing Che GuevaraT shirts quoting Chomsky.
The stuff of Republican nightmares.
This is beyond simple infiltration. To get paid to infiltrate - but only if an arrest occurs - is in the realm of agent provocateur.
This is the kind of situation which will create violence and that violence will be blamed on dems.
This is bullshit.
If you haven't yet read this, please do. Bush Administration officials have been charged with war crimes.
I saw a major crackdown on Vegans a few years back. They were protesting outside Stephens Corporation because the company had just bailed out a bankrupt beagle-torture chamber for the pharmaceutical testing industry (you can't make this stuff up)
The hundreds of cops, sheriffs, ATF, swat teams, etc, started a riot and shot a rubber bullet at the head vegan's face (he happened to be wearing a teddy bear hat with ears, it was not pretty.) The whole thing was so pathetic, I walked three blocks to city hall and cussed out the city manager. I didn't get arrested tho, because all the cops were down the street chasing vegans!
Our government has done lost its mind.
Potluck at my house tonight...please bring only vegetarian dishes.
My God...our country become so utterly ridiculous. Either the rest of the world hates us, or are laughing their asses off at us.
.
IS THE FBI INFILTRATING THE GOP?
.
Once again, anything is OK if you're a nutjob screw-loose a.j. squared away robot jarhead Roger Ramjet Jesus Shouting freak Republican. You can molest children and murder prostitutes after you're done using them on the taxpayer dollar while you're planning the assassination of a prominent politician so long as it's in Jesus' name with a flag pin on your lapel.
Carry on, citizens.
Isn't it illegal to spy on Americans?
I realize surveillance is common, but that's generally of known offenders or those of which there is clear reasonable suspicion.
After all those arrests of low intelligence people being egged on by plants to talk of commiting violent crimes against the nation, but never beyond the talk stage, have come to our attention, how do they expect to get away with it.
They still have much to answer for for the NSL controversy.
Sounds like those who fanned the flames of fear are now experiencing the backdraft.
Had the occasion to watch the old Warren Beatty film "The Parallax View", sent a chill down my spine. Well worth a watch in these times, what with all the talk of assassinations and infiltration. Sure it's all just Hollywood BS but it's downright eerie just how current this 1974 film has remained.
Well, hopefully not.
Shouldn't the FBI be looking for moles to infiltrate FAUX news?
Afterall, they got people like Liz Trotta advocating assassinating domestic political opponents.
ysbaddaden @ 17:
4th to be precise.
Just a rehash of the uber lengths the LE will go to to protect their masters in the GOP.
Wasnt it back in 04 that the NYPD were sending people to Europe to infiltrate possible protest groups who planned to travel to NY.
The JTF I believe is run from Maricopa county Arizona that non haven of human rights, the place where they burn your house down and shoot your dog for parking tickets. And let unparked APCs run down hills driverless to endanger life and destroy parked cars.
ysbaddaden @ 20:
that old GOP CIA quote "they are evil baskets, but they are our baskets"
ysbaddaden @ 20:
Those are Republicans shooting off their mouths, you silly ass. Perfectly harmless!
BTW it's days like this that I wonder if the FBI is engaged in doing one goddamn thing of value to our society.
PHIL @ 7:
It is Turbo COINTELPRO. Hoover looks like Mother Teresa compared to these fuckers.
This is nothing new...
Also, the FBI has been doing this for years and years against anti-war groups. They infiltrate a group with a provocateur who actually instigates some illegal activity so they can arrest the whole group.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0315-03.htm
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9c07e4df103bf930a15752c1a...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/02/AR200704...
22 ferrofluid (waiting for shiny rabbids) Says: ysbaddaden @ 20:
Shouldn’t the FBI be looking for moles to infiltrate FAUX news?
Afterall, they got people like Liz Trotta advocating assassinating domestic political opponents.
that old GOP CIA quote “they are evil baskets, but they are our baskets“
________________________________________________________________
The Easter Bunny is an evil basket?
23 slippy hussein toad
Those are Republicans shooting off their mouths,
______________________________________________________
Must be why they insist on the right to own guns.
What Now? Harrassing blue haired ladies at antiwar protests? Christ! The Who song comes to mind. . " Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss"
I must away
The Scarlet Widow is splitting her stolen chunk of kryptonite, stolen by her sniveling Cockney accomplice Sniggers into four equal chunks at a million dollars each
To sell to four mob bosses she sprung from prison: The Vulture, The Lightening, Der Teufel (the Devil), and one I can't seem to catch but sounds like Petrushka.
And it's time to eat my Shepherd's Pie washed down with Bass Ale
(Trust me, it doesn't taste like deep water fish.)
Non-vegans will be easy to spot. They will have some color to their skin, will be wearing shoes with laces, and likely be less than 20 lbs. underweight. You could not pick a worse place to go undercover.
"The law is clear that police may attend public meetings undercover to see what people are up to. And of course undercover operations in private settings are also legal, although there should be guidelines as to when they are appropriate."
The first is obviously clear, as the meeting is public, the second cannot be true, as it would be against the 4th Amendment.
What a waste of taxpayers dollars. Republicans are such losers. I can't wait to hear what the mole says about the peace protesters from the local churches. What a joke. The republicans are making a big deal out of nothing. There won't be any violence in MN unless they bring it with them and I've seen them do that in the past.
OK - so no $$$ unless someone's convicted. Got it.
But do I at least get a Brown-shirt and pair of jackboots?
If Dubya's lackeys (and our "government") want me to be a Nazi-fascist, I want to be compensated like one.
So, what we gotta do is.... Volunteer, and document all they instruct us to do, and turn it into the ACLU.
VOILA' problem gone.
Oh, then we infiltrate the GOPers meetings on our own and cause all sorts of shit for them.
This can be done two ways you know.
This is simply what Bush meant when he said you are either with us or with the terrorists.
Jeanne @ 32:
At that intergov summit in Canada last year there were undercover LE pretending to be anarchists, they got called out and rescued by the riot police, but not before one of the APs got bundled to the ground and roughed up a bit by accident, rather funny.
rush limbaugh incites racial violence while vegans incite sustainable consumption . . . guess the vegans really are a greater threat to the american way of life
I am tempted to infiltrate and set up these FBI ass-hats for humiliation.
How to spot a vegan terrorist: http://english.pravda.ru/photo/report/lettuce_bikini-1503
That is probably why the FBI is so hot to invade vegan potlucks. (Hate to tell you, being vegetarian myself, that not very many of us look like that....)
seevee @ 11:
one better! Gay Vegans riding whales smoking pot wearing Che GuevaraT shirts quoting Chomsky.
two better!! Married Gay Vegans riding whales smoking pot wearing Che GuevaraT shirts quoting Chomsky.
Th Repugs need and deserve such high security. They are, after all, war criminals, war profiteers, child molesters and religious pro-genocide movers and shakers. I hear they'll be muzzled this year, too.
These "gestapo tactics don't surprise" bloggers (as in the first repsonse to this entry) because liberals continue to sit on their asses, thinking "Well I'll just wait Bush out," instead of agitating for his arrest, impeachment or any punishment whatsoever. As if the damage can be reversed after he's out of office. Wrong. Politics has been irreversably changed by the things you allowed yourselves to sit through for 8 years, to respond to passively, you-know "liberal complacency." Whine all you like about him, but save some of the credit for yoursleves. You witnessed it and did nothing, because you were too busy shopping, working, raising the kids, playing with the Wii, and (my favorite...) blogging.
The next president will claim every dubious right you allowed Bush to have, in his civil rights grab. Give yourselves a big round of applause!
Tom @ 18:
What the hell are you talking about?Your post makes no sense.The ideaology of vegans is totally non-violent.By fan the flames do you meanpeaceful protest of the Republican War Machine?
JerryO @ 14:
A bit of both along with the whole cringing bit because the nation is the most armed in history.
Shlomo @ 30:
You know who's vegan? Carl Lewis, winner of 9 Olympic Gold Medals in track and field. Scott Jurek, one of the top Ultra Marathon runners in the world. There are countless other top athletes who are vegan, as well as some pretty healthy looking celebrities like Lenny Kravitz, Pamela Anderson, Tobey Maguire, and Paul McCartney, just to name a few. Oprah's going vegan this month based on her interest in living with more consciousness in her diet. In this day and age, when study after study has shown a plant-based diet is not only healthier (and kinder to animals) but key to reducing global warming, I'm surprised when people in the progressive community perpetuate these kinds of old-fashioned, prejudicial and inaccurate stereotypes. Read the United Nations report on Livestock's Long Shadow, which determined that animal agriculture is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions that all forms of transportation combined:
http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm
The sad truth is that nobody will have any color to their skin when we can no longer grow any food due to the destruction of our planet from animal agriculture.
ysbaddaden @ 17:
That sounds awfully funny coming from someone who's choice for president actually voted for the patriot act...what gives?
dont you know that both Hillary and Obama gave Bush the patriot act...Hillary voted 2wice! *&@$%
What about the Quakers? Did the Feds ever stop infiltrating them? I have to admit it doesn`t seem fair for guys with guns to be spying on people without guns.And the part about not getting paid unless an arrest is made; a set up for a crime itself.This is unreal lame.
milquetoast @ 44:
Repugs fall in line, and Dems fall in love. And you know what they say: love is blind.
I was planning a summer solstice potluck party this year. Most of the folks around here bring whatever, vegans bring vegan food, vegetarians and omnivores likewise, and everyone eats what they feel like. The rule is just to have your own ass covered if you're picky.
I hope this doesn't disqualify us. I think on the invite now I should state "welcome moles!"
For them, in fact, we could prepare special "mole" dishes made from actual moles, caught on the farm here. Of course they would reflect "elitist" culinary leanings, such as organic moles, sauteed in olive oil, and mole nori rolls!
YourMom @ 3:
Great post.New book title. Bean Kurd Paranoia,The Confessions of a Double Vegan.
"Vegans tend to be fairly peaceful people", except to the Bush Cabal which sees them as a real threat to Monsanto and it's mission to force the public to eat their Frankenfood. Remember Monsanto is a big contributor to the Republican Party.
This should not surprise anyone. The GOP believes in the power of free markets. They're going to let the market decide who should be arrested. This is how they filled up Guantanamo - they offered bounties (I heard it was US$500) in Afghanistan for Taliban/AQ supporters. Lots of people got turned in. No-one seems to care too much if they're actually guilty of anything, besides getting on someone's bad side. It's a lot of money in that part of the world.
It's also the same approach they used to gin up 4-5 domestic terror plots that they managed to "thwart". Paid informants (can you say "provocateurs". I knew you could) inciting some ragtag group to talk tough, they get it on tape, arrests are made, informants get paid, and BushCo has another "victory" in the War on Terror.
Since both the press and most of the public have attention spans that would make an Irish Setter with ADD look focused; they don't look past the ominous headline or the crawl on Fox. Thank you, Mr. Bush, for keeping America safe from the melanin-enhanced terrorists who live among us. Even if you created them.
Nothing to see, move along...
yill @ 47:
Just don't add any Arugula to the mix. Then you'll be quartered and hung for being "elitist".
The pay-per-arrest model is a bad one, but don't go overboard on ridiculing the whole vegan potluck thing. Turns out a lot of animal rights extremists are vegan, and tend to use potlucks as organizing events to plan attacks on companies or individuals. And their attacks are, more often than you would like to believe, quite violent:
"Brian Cass was getting out of his car at his home in England on a clear night in February 2001, when he was surrounded by three masked men wielding heavy, wooden objects. Some news reports describe them as baseball bats, others as pickaxe handles. Whatever their weapons, they started to beat the 53-year-old Cass on the head and body without any warning. In a few short moments, his hair and jacket were soaked through with blood.
A neighbor tried to intervene and help him, but was immobilized by a spray of CS gas, in the face, by one of Cass’s attackers. Months later, when the lead attacker was arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, Cass’ marketing director Andrew Gay was attacked on his doorstep with a chemical spray to his eyes, leaving him temporarily blinded and writhing in pain in front of his wife and young daughter. "
I don't mind if the whack jobs that do this kind of stuff get put away. It would be good for society and, frankly, good for the cause of better treatment for animals, to take violent criminals out of the animal rights movement.
To understand this you have to put this in context of who is instituting these tactics. Never once have they done exactly they have said. It's usually the opposite, but damn if that little difference doesn't make the rich, richer. They are targeting the people THEY think are dangerous. That means anyone who might oppose their EMPIRE. Put it in that context and every one of these incomprehensible infiltrations, botched raids, are tragic arrests all fit the pattern. You are not to be allowed on the club grounds without a membership.
Pretty funny that you're advertising "The Mole" on the same page as this post. Anyway, the FBI is targeting Vegans now?? Oh, yeah, that's right, I forgot - they hate us for our cheesburgers and therefore are a security threat to be taken very seriously. I can't wait for the new Democratic administration to take over. It will have to sweep out every psycho running every agency within the Department of Homeland Security. Shit, get rid of that even, but I may be expecting too much. Vegans - Jesus Fucking Christ!!
Wanted: "Free speech suppressors. Lost your job in the GOP economy? Become a fascist enabler and help the Republicans suppress two rights at once, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly! That's right, you can now help the GOP trample on the constitutional rights of other law abiding Americans. Act now and if your car hasn't been repossessed we'll even through in a "Support Freedom vote Republican" bumper sticker! (** bumper stickers are limited and may be substituted with a yellow "support the troops" ribbon if supplies run out**)"
One of their moles is bound to stir up some shit, entrapment type operations.
Too bad the Repugs have contaminated the (in)Justice Department with those Pat Robertson college "graduates."
Like I said before. Suspected terrorists in Guantanamo today. You and I tomorrow.
You have no idea who you are dealing with. These neocons are deadly serious.
As described above.
Montebello summit late last summer.
"Peaceful protesters stop police provocateurs from starting a riot at the Stop the SPP protests in Montebello Quebec. The police admitted they were thier officers. CEP President Dave Coles confronts men with rocks and sticks."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow
Here is a good video of police infiltrators working at a SPP protest march in Canada!
watch and see the peaceful protesters positively identify some police provocateers who were about to start throwing rocks!
at the end, the police pretend to arrest the infiltrators/fellow police and throw them down on the ground where you can see they wear the exact same boots ...(as the cops who arrest them) are wearing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow&eurl=http://www.prisonplanet....
Bobby @ 52:
you cite a couple of animal rights motivated attacks in england as proof that vegan potlucks are hotbeds of violent conspiracy in the united states, that those attending them are somehow a threat to the republican convention, and that counter terrorism resources should thus be diverted to those events
maybe you're the next sherlock holmes, and your deductive powers are simply beyond me, but i think that this leap of logic is not only wrong but dangerous . . . one could make similar leaps to justify spying on anyone and everyone . . . even you!
milquetoast @ 58:
Amazing. What anyone attending these demonstrations should do is pull the masks off of suspected cops and film them. At least it may accomplish what this demonstration did.
Otay @ 60:
Cool ...here is a Canadian news follow up on that same incident!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWbgnyUCC7M&feature=related
Well, looks like we ALL gotta volunteer...
That would be fun.
lol the justification for vegans being peaceful by nature isn't very logical. its like saying pro-lifers are automatically peaceful because they wouldn't even kill a fetus, let alone blow up an abortion clinic.
milquetoast @ 61:
It was obvious even to a right-winger when they showed the shoes. Like I said, I would have pulled the masks off and filmed the faces.
Putting out bounties on the opposition is exactly how they filled up Gitmo and the black sites.
Littering is a federal crime?
AgentX @ 6:
Every time I take my shoes off in an airport, I swear Osama is looking over my shoulder, laughing.
Certainly only Republicans do this.
A democrat would never ever do such a thing. Just ask Rage Against the MAchine what happened to them when they played the DNC a few years back.
Just ask the people turned away from HRC rallies.
Only republicans are capable of doing evil things right? Democrats are perfect.
They totally aren't playing the peasants against each other. Nope, not at all.
Its not like all Congressman make 6 figure salaries and recieve free medical insurance for life or anything. No no no, only Republicans get that.
Hypocritical ideologues. Im anxiously awaiting your ad hominem responses.
Conservative Fascist Republicans are so predictable.
One has to wonder how many more "sub-contractor" (ala Blackwater) paid informants the FBI (Bush administration) have roaming around, trying to collect bounties on unsuspecting "targets" (liberals, progressives, independents), maybe even going so far as to "manufacture" an arrest, because the paid informant won't get paid otherwise.
We all know how well this works. GITMO was filled with "suspects" turned over to U.S. military authorities in Afghanistan by warring tribal leaders anxious to collect on the bounty that Bush had placed on the head of al Qaeda "suspects." Of course, these warring tribal leaders often used this Bush bounty system to settle grudges against people who weren't allied with al Qaeda at all. Thus, the several hundred "al Qaeda suspects" at GITMO who've been released.
But this is a favorite Conservative Fascist Republican practice, you see. Screw niceties like legal process, evidence and the rule of law. Throw out a net, catching a whole lot of minnows while trying to get the sharks (i.e. those considered a threat to conservatives, whether imagined or real). We've seen this all before. South American juntas. Franco's Fascist Spain. Stalin's Communism. Hitler's Nazi Germany. Pinochet's Chile. Conservative Fascists are so, so predictable.
So, Bush's FBI (now the Fascist Bureau of Investigation) is going to pay people to spy on other U.S. citizens, infiltrate "leftist" organizations, misrepresent who they really are, going so far as to manufacture "convictions" because otherwise these infiltrators (or the company they work for) will not be paid the bounty being offered by the Conservative Fascist Republicans. Sound familiar? Remember some of the more specious "terrorist cell" arrests in recent years, the ones where some Muslims (and others) in the U.S. were "turned" by an undercover informant? Apparently, none of these Muslims (or others) would have been arrested if some paid informant had not first infiltrated their group of friends and started offering them money to do something. (With the paid informant forgetting to inform the "targets" that he had to produce an arrest or he wouldn't get paid himself.
So, the FBI is being asked to use the same tricks it used back during the 1960s (and 1950s, and 1970s, etc), which means any "leftist" groups must be very, very wary of any new members (possible paid FBI informants) who may just be fascist plants, who are there to incite (not inspire), to promote violence (not promote peace).
Like I said, Fascist Conservatives are so predictable. And the Republican Party has embraced fascism under Bush and Cheney, thus becoming an abomination in our freedom-loving, democratic society. And although I respect John McCain, I doubt that any Republican succeeding Bush and Cheney will be able to stop or undo what the Fascist Republicans under Bush and Cheney have done to our nation...only a complete change in leadership will suffice...which is why I will definitely vote only for members of the Democratic Party in November. Our freedom-loving, democratic nation is at stake.
Like so many others, I saw this broad definition of terrorism coming. Had it been in place during the sixties, ever football stadium in America would have been filled with incarcerated 'terrorists'. Have any of you read the Huston Plan? It details many of the administration strategies being used today. It came from the Nixon WH, but has been greatly expanded upon, and the legal protections against its many illegal tactics, trampled on by W.
I've got a mole for them. It's the commie posing as a presidential candidate. Witness:
U.S. Peace Council executive committee member Frank Chapman (http://www.uspeacecouncil.org/index.html) wrote this letter to the People's Weekly World (Newspaper of the Communist Party USA http://www.pww.org/) :
After Iowa
Happy New Year and congratulations on a job well done. These have been trying times when the hyenas of war have again been turned loose on humanity by a greedy ruling class.
Now, beyond all the optimism I was capable of mustering, Mr. Obama won Iowa! He won in a political arena 95 percent white. It was a resounding defeat for the manipulations of the ultra-right and their right-liberal fellow travelers. Also it was a hard lesson for liberals who underestimated the political fury of the masses in these troubled times.
Obama’s victory was more than a progressive move; it was a dialectical leap ushering in a qualitatively new era of struggle. Marx once compared revolutionary struggle with the work of the mole, who sometimes burrows so far beneath the ground that he leaves no trace of his movement on the surface. This is the old revolutionary “mole,” not only showing his traces on the surface but also breaking through.
The old pattern of politics as usual has been broken. It may not have happened as we expected it to happen but what matters is that it happened. The message is clear: we can and must defeat the ultra-right, by uniting the broadest possible coalition that will represent an overwhelming majority of the people in a new political dynamic. We must quickly shed yesterday’s political perspective and get in step with the march of events.
Frank Chapman
Via e-mail
http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/12302/1/405
The Oracle @ 73:
I got news for you!...our freedom loving democratic presidential nominees Obama/Clinton both voted for the patriot act...which "legalised" the FBI tactics above which are the subject of this thread.
...which candidate for president are you voting for?
Hillary? ....who voted twice for the patriot act...
or Obama? ...only voted once for the patriot act...
P.D. @ 29:
Have you watched the Code Pink grannies being violently arrested by the police for
the crime of reading the Constitution in a DC public park ? Youtube et al
seevee @ 12:
Lol! May I have your baby? :)
March 15, 2006:
"Newly released files show the FBI has been monitoring and possibly infiltrating a Pittsburgh peace group because of its opposition to the war in Iraq.
On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union released a series of once secret FBI files that show the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted a secret investigation into the activities of the Thomas Merton Center beginning as early as November 2002, and continuing up until at least last March.
According to the ACLU these documents are the first to show conclusively that the rationale for FBI targeting is the group’s opposition to the war.
One memo describes the Merton Center as a “left-wing organization advocating, among many political causes, pacifism..."
http://www.democracynow.org/2006/3/15/newly_released_files_reveal_fbi_spied
yill @ 50:
I'll bring the guaca mole
"...the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force..."
Do you mean the Gestapo?
Whoa! What is going on here?
Shouldn't the FBI fully patrol the Craig's Rooms at the GOP Convention?
If you see ANYONE buying tofu, report them immediately the the FBI. They could be suicide bombers, or worse, making nu-ku-lar wepaons in their compost heap. Don't trust anyone that doesn't like the taste of fresh animal BLOOD. ...Degenerate scum. ;)
My vegetarian neighbour sometimes doesn't shave her legs, especially in winter. Maybe she's a terrorist. She grows beans in her garden too. What's the # for the FBI hotline?
Will they be infiltrating and spying on the men's bathroom stalls?
Gee, the Democratic convention is month before the Republican convention. You'd think the story would leak first about the need for moles to protect the Democrats from "bible-thumping rednecks." The FBI _is_ concerned about right-wing terrorism at the Democratic convention, right? Right?
Good God, we've already had our phones tapped, our financial information scattered to the four winds (oh--that was a mistake), and have submitted to "free speech zones," no-fly lists, and National Security Letters. Why wouldn't they ramp it up? Who's stopping them?
And if you've just been laid off, have an ARM and a 72-month contract on an F-250 that has 65 months to go, your kid needs asthma medication and your wife now has to pay ten times as much for her antidepressants--you can get paid to hate those commie hippie pinkos that you and Rush blame anyway. Laws, ethics, morals, human decency? Get real. I got bills to pay.
here's tip for any groups organizing a GOP protest, if anyone among you advocates violence or destruction of property they are likely an FBI mole/agent provocateur. Call the FBI and give them their name.
The FBI pulls them from your group and you're rid of them, if the FBI does nothing tell the ass yourself that he/she is not welcome.
"Laugh while you can, Monkey-Boy!"
Seriously, having lived in NYC for 20 years, I've seen all sorts of Gestapo tactics deployed against non-violent peace activists. At EVERY meeting, the lead organizer ALWAYS asks for the undercover police to identify themselves, it is required by law that they do so! No one ever raises their hands, even though it's a given that SOMEONE in the room is working for the cops.
My wife has worked for non-violent anti-war organizations for her whole life. About once every 10 years, the Congress keeps trying to pass a law that says that everyone she has ever worked for is a 'terrorist' organization. Senator Ted Kennedy always votes FOR that bill, since the Democratic Leadership is owned by the GOP...
And I have seen first-hand, more than once, that it's always the police-planted moles that throw the first rocks. It is so obvious. When the police want to illegally break up a Constitutional and lawful gathering, be it a permitted music concert, or permitted public demonstration, the police have some of their undercover guys enter the crowd and start a ruckus (shoving each other around). While the legal participants are trying to figure out who these people are an what they are doing there, the riot cops then move in.
So it does not surprise me in the least that the FBI is seeking to infiltrate non-violent protests. In the mind of the ruling class of the USA, only those who understand our Constitutional Rights and insist on using them are the biggest threat to their control of political power.
pat @ 88:
Exactly my point! The ones that advocate violence ARE the police agents!!!
Two can play at that game!
Where do I sign up?
I have a lot of friends who would love to make money getting arested and then donating the money to the Democrats.
Right out of Rove's play book.
Same shit, different day.....
The message is that anything that comes out as dissent against a fascist, totalitarian police state is considered criminal.
AgentX @ 6:
Of course they'd rather go after vegans. Vegans are a lot less dangerous than anarchist clubs. With anarchist clubs, there's an element of danger if you get discovered. They might even—perish the thought—be putting their lives on the line.
Perhaps the FBI's worth ethic these days is: work safer, not harder.
And since the FBI is reading this message, let me state they are one heck of an organizatin defending us every gosh darn day!
yill @ 50:
Hey, why crucify the poor moles because some creeps imitate them? I suggest fried sh*t burgers for undercover agents. In fact, I'm sure they'd prefer it as it's their natural food.
Lukily some patriotic groups already have a large number of moles within the FBI taking notes on the nut-cases that come up with un-American shit like this. With a little more luck the un-American gop trolls that infested the FBI and are pushing their sick twisted agent provocateur plans will soon all be rotting in prison cells where their kind belong for the good of the nation.
My mother is convinced this story is a joke due to the names of the officers involved: Swanson (UMPD) and Mazzola (FBI).
Of course, after terror patrols started following around vegetarian activists in the Atlanta area, and the DoD started a file on Quaker bake sales, I am prone to believe anything.
Late to the party but....
Geesh!....
You would think that attempting to infiltrate a vegan get together to expose GOP protesters would be a vast waste of----
Time,
Effort,
Personnel,
& Money....
If there is any shred of evidence that this is true it really does not bode well for the people who are suppose to protecting the rest of us from other more obvious threats (you know like murderers or serial killers or people who don't use paper when they bag their groceries)....
Guided by Voices - "Teenage FBI"
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