Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Are You Sleeping Better at Night?

While the National Security Agency has been busy spying on Americans, the FBI has doing its part in the War on Terror, too.

The Washington Post, New York Times and NBC News report that FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring U.S. advocacy groups that would seem to have tangential or no connection to Al Qaeda and other Islamic fundamentalist terror groups.

The American Civil Liberties Union contends in a lawsuit against the FBI that the agency and government Joint Terrorism Task Forces have expanded the definition of domestic terrorism to people who engage in mainstream political activity, including nonviolent protest and civil disobedience.

They include:

* People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

* Greenpeace, the militant environmental group.

* The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

* The Catholic Workers civil rights group, which works with the homeless.

* The Vegan Community Project. (I’m not making this up.)

* Anti-Iraq war demonstrators.

* And the ACLU itself.

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