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Title: FOIA Shows Bush Admin. Spied On AntiWar.com
Source:
RAWSTORY
URL Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/08/ ... sh-admin-targeted-antiwar-com/
Published: Aug 22, 2011
Author: Stephen C. Webster
Post Date: 2011-08-22 14:31:58 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 3185
Comments: 5
During the Bush-era, a great many Americans were swept up in the spying dragnet laid after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 by federal officials hoping to prevent another major terrorist attack -- people like pacifist Christians, liberal activists, families with members overseas and even street-level falafel sellers. Now Americans can add another group to the list of those unjustly viewed as a potential threat: the staff of AntiWar.com. Documents produced by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by an obscure conspiracy blogger show that in 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assigned an analyst to dig into the website's staff and financial contributors to determine whether they were "engaging in, or have engaged in, activities which constitute a threat to National Security on behalf of a foreign power." The investigation of AntiWar.com was launched after the site published a list of suspected terrorists (PDF) that the Bush administration had sent around to government agencies and major private sector employers, to help screen potential new workers. The list contained the names and contact information for several men detained after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, often cited by conspiracy theorists as the "dancing Israelis." One of the men, not named by the FBI, had apparently visited AntiWar.com in the past. According to a search of a hard drive seized by investigators, one even wrote an essay about foreign aid from the U.S. to Israel, citing a report published by AntiWar.com. After an investigation that included polygraphing the men multiple times and searching their place of business, the FBI concluded it had no evidence showing or even implying that the men had participated in or had foreknowledge of the attacks. Despite this, the agency still sought a secret warrant through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to look into AntiWar.com. The FISA court is empowered to issue a special type of warrant that permits federal law enforcement to conduct highly intrusive spying operations largely without oversight. Apart from searches of public databases, the FBI's analyst did not go into great detail and information produced was heavily redacted for reasons unknown. The results of searches for business records, phone records, credit information from Dun and Bradstreet, AntiWar.com's Wikipedia page and even the collected knowledge of LexisNexis were mostly blanked out in the final report. It is not clear what sort of threat information could be gleaned through such avenues of investigation. Other methods may have been used and simply redacted, as the memos bear numerous large, blank spaces. The analyst also includes a string of Internet messaging board criticisms of AntiWar.com, and even references a discussion held by the Jewish Defense League chapter of New York -- an organization the FBI has previously called a "right-wing terrorist group." The FBI's assessment ends with a recommendation to "further monitor the postings on website www.antiwar.com." It is not clear if the FBI is still monitoring the site or its contributors. An agency spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
An excerpt from the FBI memos.
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
Way to go BushCo!
Have these jackasses ever bothered to investigate AIPAC?
Look at what has happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Don't you see the pattern? Statist on the Right comes in - moves the bar toward less freedom and liberty. Right wing statists are silent, Left wing statists piss and moan. Statist on the Right gets thrown out and Left wing statist comes in. He not only builds on what the right-wing statist did, he moves the bar even further away from freedom and liberty. Left wing statists are happy, but Right wing statists piss and moan. In 2012 the pattern may repeat. Wanna write the rest of the script?
__________________________________________________________________________________________ I do see a pattern. Barack Obama is President today because George Bush was a big spending moron. Obama campaigned on saving us from Bushes "extreme free market policies". Of course Bush didn't have any free market policies. This is why a liberal Republican is worse than a liberal Democrat. We don't have any defense against a liberal Republican because no matter what they do, the "free market" gets blamed.
#2. To: Brian S (#0)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) assigned an analyst to dig into the website's staff and financial contributors to determine whether they were "engaging in, or have engaged in, activities which constitute a threat to National Security on behalf of a foreign power."
#3. To: Brian S (#0)
This small group of terrorists [Tea Party members] have made it impossible to spend any money. -- Mike Doyle (D-PA)
#4. To: jwpegler (#3)
Look at what has happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave.
HA! The tea-party, INDEED! They're so . . . ah . . . common
#5. To: Get Outta Dodge! (#4)
I will work every day to try to make Washington, D.C. as inconsequential in your life as I can -- Rick Perry. believe him or not, it's a hell of quote in a country looking to D.C. for answers.
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