The War Against Dissent
by TChris
Is the FBI fighting a war against terror or a war against dissent? The LA Times reports on FBI documents showing that the agency "has spent resources gathering information on antiwar and environmental protesters and on activists who feed vegetarian meals to the homeless" -- not exactly prime targets in a "war" designed to protect the country from terrorist attacks.
The FBI justifies this war against protest by defining "terrorism" to include crimes against property, at least if the crime is politically motivated (a caveat that might save shopliter Claude Allen from being labeled a terrorist). As TalkLeft argued here, that definition distracts federal law enforcement from a meaningful attack on terror. But even accepting that any politically motivated crime constitutes terror, the FBI has shown less interest in true domestic terrorists who are motivated to bomb abortion clinics and gay bars, choosing instead to spy on Americans who are merely exercising their right to protest.
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