No F.B.I. Intimidation Found at Conventions

[Judi Lynn]

No F.B.I. Intimidation Found at Conventions

By DAMIEN CAVE
Published: April 30, 2006
The Justice Department's inspector general has found no evidence to support claims that the Federal Bureau of Investigation interrogated political demonstrators before the 2004 Democratic and Republican Conventions to keep them from protesting.

The inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, concluded in a 37-page report that federal agents were pursuing 17 credible threats of violence at the conventions when they questioned dozens of protesters and, in a few cases, even subpoenaed them.

"Our review did not substantiate the allegations that the F.B.I. improperly targeted protesters for interviews in an effort to chill the exercise of their First Amendment rights," Mr. Fine wrote. "We concluded that the F.B.I.'s interviews of potential convention protesters and others that we reviewed were conducted for legitimate law enforcement purposes."

Mr. Fine's review of the F.B.I.'s tactics began in 2004 after news organizations described the interrogation. Several Democratic members of Congress requested the investigation, saying the questioning amounted to a form of political harassment that violated the First Amendment.

The report said F.B.I. officials had identified 74 people who were probable convention demonstrators with possible knowledge about "planned criminal acts."
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/washington/30fbi.html

[Selatius]

1. I condemn both parties for those "free speech zones"

I especially condemn what happened in Boston in 2004.

Those free-speech zones for the Boston convention looked like concentration camps with all that fencing and barb wire and security guards. It's a fucking insult to freedom of speech in a nation that claims to be free.

[truthisfreedom]

2. freedom's just another name for nothing left to lose.

fuck freedom. we got elections to win.

[goforit]

3. Bullshit!!! The FBI is Cheney's last standing Army.