The Associated Press is reporting that documents obtained by the ACLU show that the FBI had plans to conduct surveillance and collect “general intelligence†during an April 2003 speech by animal-rights advocate Gary Yourofsky at the Indiana Memorial Union.
“It’s hard to see how surveillance of animal-rights groups makes us safer from terrorism, but it’s easy to see how it threatens our constitutional rights to free speech and privacy,†said Fran Quigley, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, an ACLU affiliate.
The FBI officially denies having taken any such action. It’s unclear from the article whether it denies having drawn up the plans. The document is here (pdf). It is heavily redacted but says something like, “regarding general intelligence . . . upcoming ‘Vegan Community Project’ scheduled to occur 4/02/03 and hosted by recently appointed ‘official national lecturer’ for PETA, Gary Yourofsky. This gathering is to occur on the Bloomington, IN campus at Indiana University Memorial Union, Maple Room, from 7-10 p.m. A surveillance is planned . . . Occassional spot checks and surveillances are being conducted.”
The FBI says it has to act within Attorney General guidelines. Unfortunately that’s not much comfort these days given that the Attorney General has produced memos condoning torture and, apparently, telling George Bush that he is authorize to conduct warrantless wiretap searches of U.S. citizens.
Leave a Reply