Do Terrorists Hand Out Leaflets?

More Spying on Americans just for exercising their American rights…

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) -FBI anti-terrorism agents spied on a peace group simply because it opposed the
Iraq war, part of an “unprecedented campaign” to spy on innocent citizens, the American Civil Liberties Union said on Tuesday.

FBI documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act and provided to reporters show the FBI conducted surveillance of the Pittsburgh-based Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice at anti-war demonstrations and leaflet distributions in 2002 and 2003.

One of the FBI documents, unveiled at a news conference by the two groups, carried the headline “International Terrorism Matters” and referred to the FBI’s work with an anti-terrorism task force that includes several agencies.

Another FBI document said the Pittsburgh Joint Terrorism Task Force had learned that “The Thomas Merton Center … has been determined to be an organization which is opposed to the United States’ war with Iraq.” [“FBI spied on Pittsburgh pacifists, papers show” (Yahoo!News)]

I like lambert’s response on Corrente:

They’ve been calling us traitors for years, so why not take them at their word? Although the logic is a little odd: There aren’t a lot of committed pacifists who turn into terrorists, and most terrorists I’ve heard of don’t want to draw attention to themselves by handing out leaflets. Still, who expects logic from these guys?

tags: FBI, politics, anti-war, protest, spying on Americans, Freedom of Information Act, Thomas Merton Center

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