The FBI’s monitoring of domestic protests and its sophisticated development of informants – often invoking the terrorism - apparently is growing all around us, all the time, out of sight, out of mind. A September 2010 report by DoJ’s Inspector General found a number of issues with the FBI’s handling of such investigations. Here are a few prominent examples from the IG’s report:
* “in some cases, we found that the FBI extended the duration of investigations involving advocacy groups or their members without sufficient basis. This has practical impacts on subjects, whose names were maintained on watchlists as a result and whose movements and interactions with law enforcement were tracked.”
* “we found instances in which the FBI used questionable investigative techniques and improperly collected and retained First Amendment information in FBI files.”
· “In some cases, the FBI classified some investigations relating to nonviolent civil disobedience under its ‘Acts of Terrorism’ classification:
Want to keep up with the cops’ latest kinks? The AntiDefamation League has a training session every year for America’s Finest. Yes, law enforcement officers are being schooled by the Mossad. And you thought they came up with this stuff all on their own…
And it isn’t the only thing ‘out of mind’: Bradley Manning and other prisoners of the political kind are subject to America’s Torture Lite. The Department of Justice’s Inspector General warned against the practice as early as 2003. Techniques begin with increasing isolation…and where they end nobody knows.- KBOO