by TChris

What do John Kerry, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe have in common? The FBI spied on all of them.

Kerry attracted the FBI's attention when, as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, he exercised his First Amendment right to protest the war.

The Los Angeles Times reports FBI files just now coming to public light show Kerry was watched closely by the FBI in 1971 and 1972: following him everywhere he went, recording his speeches, and taking pictures of the future politician and others involved in the VVAW.

An FBI memo in 1972 recommended that the surveillance end. The author concluded that no evidence linked Kerry to any violent activity, and that Kerry's interest in politics was "apparently legitimate."

Kerry requested his FBI file 17 years ago, after he was elected to the Senate. The FBI withheld much of the information that has now been made public. Kerry is understandably perturbed.

"I'm surprised by extent of it," says the Democratic presidential candidate, in an interview with the L.A. Times. "I'm offended by the intrusiveness of it. And I'm disturbed that it was all conducted absent of some showing of any legitimate probable cause. It's an offense to the Constitution. It's out of order."

The abusive use of police power to monitor protected political action eventually persuaded Congress to restrict the FBI's ability to spy on American citizens. As much as John Ashcroft may believe that such restrictions hamper a war on terror, Kerry's experience serves as a reminder that the government should not be permitted to spy upon any American's legitimate exercise of the right to protest.