Fight the Power!
This is the full-page ad run by Blue America, Firedoglake, and Color of Change in today’s Washington Post. Click the photo to see it full-size. [pdf]
The debate on the FISA bill begins today, with the vote scheduled for tomorrow. Call your Senators today, and tell them to stand up for the Constitution.
We are asking Senators to vote IN FAVOR of the Dodd-Feingold-Leahy Amendment (S.A. 5064 to H.R. 6304). We’re asking for a NO vote on cloture, and a NO vote on the final bill as well. [my emphasis – Jenn]
Why do we need to oppose this deeply-flawed bill?
Because it is a violation of our Fourth Amendment rights, allowing the government to spy on Americans and their phone calls, emails, and text messages.
Because it legalizes government and corporate law-breaking.
Because it says, “If the President does it, it’s not illegal.”
Because it is a violation of all that we celebrated just four days ago.
Like I Said…
Remember the whole ‘nukes over America’ mess?
Remember me saying there was no way in hell this was an accident because just getting a nuke out of storage took layers of paperwork and dealing with special procedures?
Of course, I also said, at the end of this post, that this wasn’t just a fuck-up, but a chain of them.
Turns out Minot (and perhaps the Air Force, in general) are so fucked up that nuclear missiles are actually stored with conventional ones.
At least, that’s the story now: The airmen who started this whole nightmare simply grabbed the wrong ones. Oopsie!
Well, not simply. According to the WaPo, speaking to unnamed sources, no one followed procedure – not until a sharp-eyed airman at Barksdale happened to notice these weren’t normal missiles and called a supervisor.
From the Washington Post:
Just after 9 a.m. on Aug. 29, a group of U.S. airmen entered a sod-covered bunker on North Dakota’s Minot Air Force Base with orders to collect a set of unarmed cruise missiles bound for a weapons graveyard. They quickly pulled out a dozen cylinders, all of which appeared identical from a cursory glance, and hauled them along Bomber Boulevard to a waiting B-52 bomber.
The airmen attached the gray missiles to the plane’s wings, six on each side. After eyeballing the missiles on the right side, a flight officer signed a manifest that listed a dozen unarmed AGM-129 missiles. The officer did not notice that the six on the left contained nuclear warheads, each with the destructive power of up to 10 Hiroshima bombs.
That detail would escape notice for an astounding 36 hours […]
[snip]
A simple error in a missile storage room led to missteps at every turn, as ground crews failed to notice the warheads, and as security teams and flight crew members failed to provide adequate oversight and check the cargo thoroughly. An elaborate nuclear safeguard system, nurtured during the Cold War and infused with rigorous accounting and command procedures, was utterly debased, the investigation’s early results show.
The incident came on the heels of multiple warnings — some of which went to the highest levels of the Bush administration, including the National Security Council — of security problems at Air Force installations where nuclear weapons are kept. The risks are not that warheads might be accidentally detonated, but that sloppy procedures could leave room for theft or damage to a warhead, disseminating its toxic nuclear materials. [emphasis mine]
Read the whole article here.
The whole system collapsed, and why? Because the first step was making sure you were grabbing conventional missiles. From the moment those airmen reached for the wrong ones, everyone involved simply assumed they were not nuclear-equipped.
And what happens when we assume, boys and girls?
Okay, you can sort of see how it could happen. I mean, we’ve all grabbed the can of spinach off a shelf, thinking we were grabbing the green beans, so… okay.
Except for one thing, pointed out by sjm12561 in the comments at the WaPo: [sorry, WaPo apparently doesn’t know how to link individual comments… *sigh*]
Let’s say Minot does store conventional and nuclear munitions together which I don’t believe as the career fields supporting the two are different and the security requirements are completely mismatched.
Anyway, if the two are stored together whenever you access an igloo you would follow the procedures you have for nuclear weapons, not conventional. Two man rule would always be in effect until that igloo was closed and it had been clearly shown all nuclear weapons accounted for. [my emphasis]
A special security detail would have been set up; the fire department would have been on scene, the wing leadership would have been briefed that conventional weapons were being removed for shipment and told how the nuclear weapons would be protected.
The answer given to the Post stinks.
Army in Trouble
How do you know when your Army is f*cked? There are several questions wannabe-Kings should ask when it comes to wars. The answers can point toward an Army – and a quest for empire – that’s headed straight into FUBAR territory, if it’s not already there.
Here’s one that got a couple dictators: “Is it winter, and are you determined to attack Russia anyway?” Things didn’t go so well for Napolean or Hitler after answering yes to this one.
Another is: “Is your technologically-superior and extremely large army going to attack a small country whose populace has a history of rebelling against their ‘liberators’?” Romans in Scotland, Russia in Afghanistan, the US in Vietnam, and Britain in India, the Middle East, the Far East, several places in Africa, and [though it doesn’t quite meet the criteria] the good ol’ USA.
I’m fairly sure the next question would be, “Is your Army so stretched that the ‘ready brigade’ isn’t?”
From the New York Times:
For decades, the Army has kept a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division on round-the-clock alert, poised to respond to a crisis anywhere in 18 to 72 hours.
Today, the so-called ready brigade is no longer so ready. Its soldiers are not fully trained, much of its equipment is elsewhere, and for the past two weeks the unit has been far from the cargo aircraft it would need in an emergency.
[snip]
Army officials concede that the unit is not capable of getting at least an initial force of several hundred to a war zone within 18 hours, a standard once considered inviolate.
[snip]
Since President Bush ordered reinforcements to Iraq and Afghanistan in January, roughly half of the Army’s 43 active-duty combat brigades are now deployed overseas, Army officials said. A brigade has about 3,500 soldiers.
Pentagon officials worry that among the just over 20 Army brigades left in the United States or at Army bases in Europe and Asia, none has enough equipment and manpower to be sent quickly into combat, except for an armored unit stationed permanently in South Korea, several senior Army officers said.
“We are fully committed right now,” said Col. Charles Hardy of the Forces Command, which oversees Army training and equipping of troops to be sent overseas. “If we had a fully trained-up brigade, hell, it’d be the next one to deploy.”
[snip]
In effect, the Army has become a “just in time” organization: every combat brigade that finishes training is sent back to Iraq or Afghanistan almost immediately. Equipment vital for protecting troops, like armored vehicles, roadside bomb jammers and night vision goggles, is rushed to Iraq as quickly as it is made, officials say.
If They Can Do This To One American…
Jose Padilla is incompetent to stand trial, according to doctors testifying on his behalf, because of his years in isolation and his treatment at the hands of authorities.
From the AP, via The Chicago Tribune:
Accused Al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla suffers from intense stress and anxiety stemming from his isolated years in military custody and cannot adequately help his lawyers prepare for trial, two defense mental experts testified Thursday.
[snip]
“He is immobilized by his anxiety,” said Patricia Zapf, a forensic psychologist from New York who did tests in October. “He believes he will go back to the brig and he will die there.”
[snip]
Dr. Angela Hegarty, a New York forensic psychiatrist, said she concluded that Padilla is mentally incompetent for trial because he has post-traumatic stress disorder. Zapf reached the same diagnosis.
The symptoms are most acute when Padilla is asked to talk about his 31/2 years in the brig, including interrogation techniques, or to review evidence in his criminal case, including transcripts from telephone surveillance, Hegarty said.
“He doesn’t want to because it hurts so much, and because it hurts so much he shuts down,” Hegarty said.
What is important to note about this trial is that Padilla is an American citizen. Americans are supposed to enjoy specific rights when charged with a crime.
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.
Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
And the Ninth Amendment states:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
At least, those used to be our rights, before El Pollo Loco became King and changed the rules with his signing statements and use of the phrase “enemy combatants” which means “anyone we don’t like.”
The problem with life in America these days is that it seems like a movie, and we’re all waiting for the good guy to come along and tell the Administration and its torturers and liars and syncophants and toadies and bed-wetting enablers that they are violating the Constitution.
The very same Constitution that President BrainDamage, Vice-President DeathStar, Attorney General Abu, and all the rest of the mindless minions, have gutted with a few strokes of a pen.
What we needed in the beginning of this national nightmare was a Denzel Washington character, someone willing to stand up and tell Bush and the rest that committing torture or allowing it, starting a war based on lies, fear-mongering, preventing those accused of terrorist acts from knowing the charges against them, being able to confront their accusers, having access to counsel, etc, is wrong.
Morally, spiritually, ethically wrong. It is deeply, deeply wrong on every possible level.
When the President and his minions and the right-wing justify the use of torture – even as they tell the world that America doesn’t use torture – then we have become just like the enemy we fear.
And so, in a moment of movie prophecy, Denzel’s character in The Seige was proven right. They’ve already won.
Anthony ‘Hub’ Hubbard: Are you people insane? What are you talkin’ about?
General William Devereaux: The time has come for one man to suffer in order to save hundreds of lives.
Anthony ‘Hub’ Hubbard: One Man? What about two, huh? What about six? How about public executions?
General William Devereaux: Feel free to leave whenever you like, Agent Hubbard.
Anthony ‘Hub’ Hubbard: Come on General, you’ve lost men, I’ve lost men, but you – you, you *can’t* do this! What, what if they don’t even want the sheik, have you considered that? What if what they really want is for us to herd our children into stadiums like we’re doing? And put soldiers on the street and have Americans looking over their shoulders? Bend the law, shred the Constitution just a little bit? Because if we torture him, General, we do that and everything we have fought, and bled, and died for is over. And they’ve won. They’ve already won!
What we need now is someone willing to stand up to the President and the Veep, and everyone else who condoned the use of torture, and say, “No more!” In fact, here’s a little more dialogue from The Seige for use as a template:
Anthony ‘Hub’ Hubbard: William Devereaux, you are under arrest for the torture and murder of Tariq Husseini, an American citizen.
General William Devereaux: Is this some kind of a joke?
Anthony ‘Hub’ Hubbard: You see me laughing, general?[…]
Anthony ‘Hub’ Hubbard: [to General Devereaux] You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to a fair trial. You have the right not to be tortured, not to be murdered, rights that you took away from Tariq Husseini. You have those rights because of the men who came before you who wore that uniform. Because of the men and women who are standing here right now waiting for you to give them the order to fire. Give them the order, General.
General William Deveroux: Do you think that I would hesitate to kill you, or every Federal Agent in this room, if I thought it was in the best interest of my country?
Anthony ‘Hub’ Hubbard: No, no, no, you wouldn’t hesitate, I know that. But they might.
[motions to soldiers in room]
You Did What With Google?!
Just when you think you’ve heard it all, comes this report from the Washington Post:
When the State Department recently asked the CIA for names of Iranians who could be sanctioned for their involvement in a clandestine nuclear weapons program, the agency refused, citing a large workload and a desire to protect its sources and tradecraft.
Frustrated, the State Department assigned a junior Foreign Service officer to find the names another way — by using Google. Those with the most hits under search terms such as “Iran and nuclear,” three officials said, became targets for international rebuke Friday when a sanctions resolution circulated at the United Nations. [emphasis mine]
Gee whiz….why would the CIA be worried about State learning of its ‘sources and tradecraft’? Oh, right. Valerie Plame was on a team that was publicly named, despite her covert status. And their focus was….? Yep, Iran.
Policymakers and intelligence officials have always struggled when it comes to deciding how and when to disclose secret information, such as names of Iranians with suspected ties to nuclear weapons. In some internal debates, policymakers win out and intelligence is made public to further political or diplomatic goals. In other cases, such as this one, the intelligence community successfully argues that protecting information outweighs the desires of some to share it with the world. [emphasis mine]
Probably by arguing that it lost a valuable asset when Brewster-Jennings was outed with Valerie Plame?
But that argument can also put the U.S. government in the awkward position of relying, in part, on an Internet search to select targets for international sanctions.
None of the 12 Iranians that the State Department eventually singled out for potential bans on international travel and business dealings is believed by the CIA to be directly connected to Iran’s most suspicious nuclear activities.
And here’s the meat:
That may be why the junior State Department officer, who has been with the nonproliferation bureau for only a few months, was put in front of a computer.
An initial Internet search yielded over 100 names, including dozens of Iranian diplomats who have publicly defended their country’s efforts as intended to produce energy, not bombs, the sources said. The list also included names of Iranians who have spoken with U.N. inspectors or have traveled to Vienna to attend International Atomic Energy Agency meetings about Iran.
It was submitted to the CIA for approval but the agency refused to look up such a large number of people, according to three government sources. Too time-consuming, the intelligence community said, for the CIA’s Iran desk staff of 140 people. The list would need to be pared down. So the State Department cut the list in half and resubmitted the names.
[snip]
U.S., French and British officials came to agree that it was better to stay away from names that would have to be justified with sensitive information from intelligence programs, and instead put forward names of Iranians whose jobs were publicly connected to the country’s nuclear energy and missile programs. European officials said their governments did not rely on Google searches but came up with nearly identical lists to the one U.S. officials offered.
Read the whole thing here.
Is It A Civil War Yet?
I decided to cut the last post in two. Going from my post-holiday trauma to the mess in Iraq was kind of a train of thought thing, and while most intelligent readers would know I wasn’t comparing them, I wouldn’t want the last remaining dregs of Bush supporters to become confused.
* * *
I read this morning that Chimpy McFlightSuit called 10 servicemembers to wish them a Happy Holiday. I guess the zookeepers decided it might just be a little dangerous to pull another ‘Eat and Run’ visit in Iraq this year.
Not that Chimpy’s aware of the danger going to Iraq might pose to his life. After all things are going great! Really. Democracy, freedom, blah blah 9/11 blah, win if we don’t quit, blah blah support the troops blah, we were attacked, blah blah hate our freedoms blah, terr’ists, blah blah blah, ……. ad nauseum.
It was a great day in Iraq. As we sat on our (over-sized) behinds watching football or “It’s a Wonderful Life” more than 215 Iraqis died in the worst violence since the start of the war.
From the Washington Post:
A barrage of car bombs, mortar attacks and missiles battered the Shiite Muslim slum of Sadr City on Thursday afternoon, killing around 200 people and injuring as many more in the single deadliest assault on Iraqi civilians since the start of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
The highly orchestrated attacks on the stronghold of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr threatened to unleash yet another cycle of reprisal killings and push the country closer to all-out civil war. The attacks, targeting the heart of Baghdad’s Shiite community, seem designed to stoke the sectarian rage gripping Iraq.
Even as mourners gathered Friday for a heavily guarded funeral procession the attacks continued. Local authorities reported that 17 people died when a car bomb exploded near an auto dealership in Tal Afar, 260 miles northwest of Baghdad. The Associated Press reported that several mortar rounds exploded near the Abu Hanifa mosque, a site important to Sunni Muslims.
Following Thursday’s bombings, plumes of black smoke, and anguished screams, rose above a chaotic landscape of flames and charred cars, witnesses said. Bodies littered the streets and the smell of burned flesh filled the air. Relatives searched for loved ones as strangers helped the wounded reach hospitals overflowing with victims.
Meanwhile, angry Shiite residents and men from Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, wielding guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers, roamed the streets, hurling curses and vowing revenge against Sunni Arabs.
“Our bellies are full of blood,” declared Ibrahim Tabour, a resident. “We’re going to fight the terrorists until the last breath.”
[…]
Shiite and Sunni leaders delivered statements on state television Thursday night, with some urging Iraq’s two main sects to leash their fury.
[…]
The dead included women and children, witnesses said. “I saw a child who was totally burned,” Abu Mohammed said. “I saw another child who was carried by an old man.”
The carnage spoke of the deepening sectarian divide and the dread that has engulfed the capital. “No one believes that any Shiite would kill their Shiite brothers. It’s the Sunnis and the Americans who did this,” said Kareem Hendul Miyahem, 40, a driver.
Tabour, like so many other Shiites, was thinking about revenge.
“If I catch a terrorist, I will not kill him with a weapon. I will not turn him over to the government,” he said. “I’ll catch him and cut him to pieces and drink his blood until the last drop.” [emphasis mine]
Okay…so now the Sunni and Shia factions have picked up the “War on Terror” theme. Great. Can we call it a civil war yet?
Meanwhile, Bob Novak – *snort* – tells us Rummy’s firing indicates something being terribly wrong with Chimpy’s presidency:
Donald Rumsfeld, one week after his sacking as secretary of defense, was treated as a conquering hero, accorded one standing ovation after another at the conservative American Spectator magazine’s annual dinner in Washington. The enthusiasm may have indicated less total support for Rumsfeld’s six-year record at the Pentagon than resentment over the way President Bush fired him.
[…]
In the two weeks since the election, I have asked a wide assortment of Republican notables their opinion of the Rumsfeld sacking. Only one went on the record: Rep. Duncan Hunter, the House Armed Services Committee chairman. A rare undeviating supporter of Rumsfeld, Hunter told me that “it was a mistake for him to resign.” The others, less supportive of Rumsfeld, said they were “appalled” — the most common descriptive word — by the president’s performance.
The treatment of his war minister connotes something deeply wrong with George W. Bush’s presidency in its sixth year. Apart from Rumsfeld’s failures in personal relations, he never has been anything short of loyal in executing the president’s wishes. But loyalty appears to be a one-way street for Bush. His shrouded decision to sack Rumsfeld after declaring that he would serve out the second term fits the pattern of a president who is secretive and impersonal.
[…]
Bush is no malevolent tyrant who concocts unpleasant surprises for his Cabinet members. Rather, letting the terminated official be one of the last to know of his imminent removal derives from congenital phobia over White House leaks that I have seen exhibited by Republicans dating to President Dwight Eisenhower (and leading to President Richard Nixon’s fateful use of “plumbers” to plug leaks).
News flash, Bob: Bush being elected president was terribly wrong. Everything was downhill from there.
Personally, I think Rummy should go to the Hague and face charges. Not just for being part of the marching band that drummed us into this war, but for thinking it could be done on the cheap. For allowing the military – which he was responsible for – to be ill-equiped for the terrain, the insurgency, for failing to plan for an occupation.
And, let’s not forget this:
This photo has probably gone around the world a hundred million times, but it’s always worth another look.
Yep, that is Donald Rumsfeld and yep, that guy he’s shaking hands with is indeed Saddam Hussein at a meeting on December 20th, 1983. Which would have been around the time that Saddam was busy killing, maiming, and torturing people for whom he would later go on trial.
Back then, you see, we hated the Iranians. And following the ‘an enemy of my enemy is my friend” policy of diplomacy, the US became buddies with Iraq and helped them in their war against Iran. Helped them by giving them all kinds of money and weapons that were not only used in the Iran-Iraq war, but were used by Saddam to kill his own people.
In effect, the United States is an unindicted co-conspirator in the murders for which Saddam was charged, convicted, and sentenced to death.
Doesn’t that just give you the warm fuzzies?
Link Extravaganza!
No. Not really. It’s a bunch, but not enough for an extravaganza.
Sorry for the lack of posting. Not even 24 hours after getting back online, I got food poisoning. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say I’ve spent the last four days in a hell of Biblical proportions. I’m not quite back to normal, so just do the clicky-clicky.
The General proves a picture is worth a thousand words. Three pictures, actually.
Buck at The Blue Herald is confused by a new CNN poll. (Me, too.) When did it become assumed that all Muslims are terrorists?
TRex at Firedoglake wants Britney Spears’ legal team as our foreign policy team.
The Rude Pundit tells us why the UCLA police tasering of Mostafa Tabatabainejad matters.
Sen. Chuck Rangel (R-NE) – a conservative, no less – says McCain’s plan to send more troops to Iraq is ‘not realistic’. ThinkProgress has video and a transcript of Andrea Mitchell’s interview.
The Democratic Veteran talks about Jose Padilla – an American citizen. If this is what is done to one American citizen, what stops the government from treating any and all of us the same way?
Natasha at Pacific Views talks about Hillary Clinton and the Whitewater lies.
Iran – The Irrelevency of Intelligence
Arthur has a great post that should be a must-read for everyone in the United States – especially lefty bloggers. He points out the fallacy of making comments like ‘getting the intelligence right’ on Iran, when the intelligence for Iraq was fixed to fit the goals of the Bush administration.
From Once Upon A Time:
I continue to see many references on political blogs to the “importance of getting the intelligence right.” At the moment, such comments obviously come up most often in discussions about “what to do about Iran.” It’s no surprise that this perspective shows up on conservative and rightwing blogs — but I continue to be astounded that so many liberal and progressive bloggers still fall for this line.
People don’t seem to grasp the necessary meaning of this approach. If you contend that it is crucial for the intelligence to be correct and given how the argument is almost always presented, you are assuming that major policy decisions are made on the basis of that intelligence, at least to a significant degree. This is buying into Bush’s defense entirely: “But everyone thought Iraq had WMD and was a serious and growing threat!” Never mind the lie about “everyone” having thought this, which everyone most certainly did not. The crucial point is that Bush is saying that he only launched the war on Iraq because of what the intelligence indicated. And even liberals still repeat this propaganda.
[snip]
In fact, I have thought for a few years that the decision to attack to Iran was made some time ago. I am more convinced of that now than I ever was before. The constant stream of scare stories about Iran is designed only to terrify the American public sufficiently, so that when Bush holds a press conference to announce air strikes against Iran that have already begun, enough people will believe that the strikes were necessary — since Iran was about to launch nuclear weapons against us momentarily.
As with Iraq, all the major points will be lies. All of it will be war propaganda. And given our cowardly, inept, and fatally incompetent media and the lack of any significant political opposition — which opposition, if it existed, ought to be making itself known now and not after the press conference — and provided enough people are scared to the required degree, it will work. Again.
As summer approaches, the administration’s war-drumming will escalate. They’ve already declared a nuclear Iraq a threat to America – never mind the fact that the threat doesn’t exist as yet – and will not exist for ten years.
The incompetence of Bush’s foreign policy is obvious to everyone, and as Arthur says, if the left allows them to get away with it this time, we’re all culpable.
But let no one be heard to say that they were taken by surprise, or that they didn’t see it coming, or that they didn’t believe “they really meant it.” We all see it coming and we all know they do mean it, and almost no one is doing a damned thing to stop it. No one is off the hook this time.
No one.
Singing = Terrorist?
Attention! From now on, there will be no singing along with the radio, MP3 player, or CD! You could be mistaken for a terrorist if the lyrics contain certain words.
Think I'm kidding? A man was detained by police in London after a taxi driver reported him for singing The Clash's 'London Calling'.
From CNN:
Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.
The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared — and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected".
Mann told British newspapers the taxi had been fitted with a music system which allowed him to plug in his MP3 player and he had been playing The Clash, Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles to the driver.
"He didn't like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don't think there was any need to tell the police," Mann told the Daily Mirror.
A Durham police spokeswoman said Mann had been released after questioning — but had missed his flight.
"The report was made with the best of intentions and we wouldn't want to discourage people from contacting us with genuine concerns," she said.
I could be wrong, but do you really think a would-be jihadist is going to be singing along to The Clash?!
Activists=Terrorists?
Which ones are terrorists?
Which ones are the FBI watching?
From the LA Times: (h/t Tennessee Guerilla Women)
The FBI, while waging a highly publicized war against terrorism, has spent resources gathering information on antiwar and environmental protesters and on activists who feed vegetarian meals to the homeless, the agency's internal memos show.
[snip]
The FBI's encounters with activists are described in hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union under the Freedom of Information Act after agents visited several activists before the 2004 political conventions. Details have steadily trickled out over the last year, but newly released documents provide a fuller view of some FBI probes.
"Any definition of terrorism that would include someone throwing a bottle or rock through a window during an antiwar demonstration is dangerously overbroad," ACLU staff attorney Ben Wizner said. "The FBI will have its hands full pursuing antiwar groups instead of truly dangerous organizations."
[snip]
"They don't know where Osama bin Laden is, but they're spending money watching people like me," said environmental activist Kirsten Atkins. Her license plate number showed up in an FBI terrorism file after she attended a protest against the lumber industry in Colorado Springs in 2002.
[snip]
An FBI counterterrorism official showed the class, at the University of Texas in Austin, 35 slides listing militia, neo-Nazi and Islamist groups. Senior Special Agent Charles Rasner said one slide, labeled "Anarchism," was a federal analyst's list of groups that people intent on terrorism might associate with.
The list included Food Not Bombs, which mainly serves vegetarian food to homeless people, and — with a question mark next to it — Indymedia, a collective that publishes what it calls radical journalism online. Both groups are among the numerous organizations affiliated with anarchists and anti-globalization protests, where there has been some violence.
Elizabeth Wagoner said she was one of the few students who objected to the groups' inclusion on the list. "My friends do Indymedia," she said. "My friends aren't terrorists."
You Have Spoken
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“I don’t have an agenda, I don’t have a program. I’m not a communist or a socialist. I guess I’m a left-libertarian and a populist, and I believe in the Bill of Rights the way some folks believe in the Bible.”
– Molly Ivins, 1944-2007
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The Lady Speaks 