FBI Targets Antiwar Rallies

Posted by: on Nov 23, 2003 | No Comments

NYT Story [via Yahoo]:

The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law enforcement agencies last month in advance of antiwar demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco, detailed how protesters have sometimes used “training camps” to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money and gas masks to defend against tear gas. The memorandum analyzed lawful activities like recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal activities like using fake documentation to get into a secured site.

F.B.I. officials said in interviews that the intelligence-gathering effort was aimed at identifying anarchists and “extremist elements” plotting violence, not at monitoring the political speech of law-abiding protesters.

Extremist elements? Training camps? Oh man. What, not enough people in the Middle East to satisfy our totalitarian bloodlust?