Who is really the Bush Administration's "Most Wanted"?
The ACLU and Greenpeace filed a lawsuit in federal court
charging the FBI with wrongfully withholding information about its
investigations of peaceful organizations. The FBI has thousands of
pages on Greenpeace, the ACLU and other organizations, but to date
less than 20 pages have been received under Freedom of Information
Act requests.
The lawsuit seeks to compel the Justice Department to comply
with requests that the ACLU filed last year for records kept on a
wide range of organizations, including Greenpeace, the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, United for Peace and Justice, Code Pink, the
Muslim Public Affairs Council, the National Lawyers Guild and the
ACLU itself.
The controversial Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) creates
partnerships between the FBI and local police, in which local
officers are "deputized" as federal agents. This allows police to
target peaceful political and religious groups with no connection
to terrorism. It's pure coincidence, of course, that targets for
investigation tend to be vocal opponents of George Bush's
environmental and social policies.
A classified FBI memorandum disclosed publicly
in November 2003 revealed that the FBI has actually directed police
to target and monitor lawful political demonstrations under the
guise of fighting terrorism. Under policies put in place by former
Attorney General John Ashcroft, the FBI - working with local police
through JTTFs - can now gather information about people who express
their disagreement with U.S. government policies - for no better
reason than that they disagree.
Ivan Blokov, campaign director for Greenpeace Russia, is
familiar with the model. "This looks exactly like the mandate that
the KGB had in Soviet times in my country."
John Passcantando, Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, says
"America will have no credibility as an advocate of democracy
abroad if we can't conduct democracy at home. A government that
can't maintain a distinction between terror and non-violent dissent
is not a healthy government."
Suppressing dissent
In July 2003 the Bush administration brought an unprecedented
legal case against Greenpeace in an attempt to shut us down. It
was the first time ever in the United States that an organization
was criminally prosecuted for the free speech activities of its
supporters; in this case, a non-violent direct action against a
shipment of mahogany which was itself illegal. Despite massive
resources and truly strained legal maneuvering by the Justice
Department, which attempted to prosecute Greenpeace under a
century-old law barring prostitutes from boarding ships in port, a
federal judge threw out the charges during trial in May
2004.
Having failed to shut us down via the courts, it appears the
Bush administration has decided that, given how hard it is to find
terrorists abroad, the investigative resources of the fight against
terror should go into spying on Greenpeace. This is a bit like
looking for a coin across the street from where you lost it because
the light is better.
It's also an absurd and criminal waste of time and money.
As Rainbow Warrior captain Pete Willcox said
recently, "We're pretty open about what we're doing and don't have
many secrets. Infiltrating Greenpeace is like infiltrating the
YMCA."
The FBI has better things to do than ensure George Bush is
insulated from criticism. A government that wants to promote
democracy has to practice it.
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