ACLU, Greenpeace Sue FBI for Release of Surveillance Records (moved from ATSNN)

The organizations Greenpeace and the ACLU are sueing the FBI to force the release of records concerning the two groups. The FBI has collected over 3000 pages of documentation regarding the two groups, a fact admitted by the Justice Department. The groups contend that the FBI is abusing its anti-terrorism powers by using terrorism task forces to spy on them. The FBI has responded by saying it acted within the law, and will need time to fulfill the request for documents.



Do I sense a late night shredding session coming on? It certainly wouldn't surprise me. I think the documents will likely show the FBI ignored DoJ guidelines, and investigated some groups and individuals purely on the basis of political dissent. Until that can be considered a crime, the FBI was way out of line.

It will be interesting is to see is what comes of this, and it will be especially interesting to see what sort of information is contained in the documents.

If it's true that the government spent taxpayer money to investigate political opponents, it will be just another example of government incompetence and waste, nevermind rampant selfishness and a disregard for decency. Nevermind the malicious politics involved in categorizing the save-the-whales folks as dangerous and kin to Al-Qaeda. Nevermind the possibility that the FBI has passed incompetence and arrived at criminal negligence. Then again, maybe the ACLU and Greenpeace are real dangers..to the government. Nevermind...

Hopefully the case will be viewed on its merits and not through partisan glasses. If there has been no unjustified invasion of privacy or misallocation of government resources then there will be no harm in an enquiry. The light of honesty is the best device for alleviating the darkness conspiracy theories and partisanism cast over governments.

I can't figure out why the FBI would need data on peace activists, unless it planned on interfering with their activities or building webs of known accomplices.

This is save the whales stuff, not death to America stuff.

The FBI of all people should recognize that.

And if they didn't do anything wrong, I still want to know why they wasted X man hours compiling useless information on a bunch of harmless hippies.

Good judgement is what federal law enforcement officers need the most of. Good judgement has been SORELY lacking for at least the last decade. In that time it's gotten so egregious that we'd be safer without them. They've got a list of screw-ups as long as a horse's pride, and still they have the audacity to collect a paycheck.

I say bring back ritual sepuku for government officials who fail their nation.

The folks in charge of screwing up Waco should have shown some dignity, by showing some of their own intestine. You know, really PROVE they had guts.

Incompetence has routinely been ignored or even promoted. They destroy evidence and people just sort of shrug and go on about their day. They falsify evidence and get people killed, ala OKC, and still people just sort of snort and return to their regularly scheduled programs.

Either we're living in upside down world, where bad performance is good, or, we're a nation of zombies with servants unaccountable for their actions who use that leeway to lord over us.

[edit on 20-7-2005 by WyrdeOne]

Here we go again.

The ACLU and Greenpeace causing more trouble as usual.

IMHO, both of these groups and their members should be labeled terrorists organizations.

They haven't done any good since their formation so why should they exist.