WHY DOMESTIC SPYING IS EASILY ABUSED
Keeping Tabs on the Peaceniks

From AlterNet:

On March 8, 2006, FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent G. Charles Rasner, delivered a guest lecture before professor Ronald Sievert's U.S. Law and National Security class of approximately 100 students. Accompanying his lecture was an "unclassified" PowerPoint presentation titled "Counter-Terrorism Efforts in Texas."

According to UT law student Elizabeth Wagoner's account of Rasner's lecture on Austin Indymedia:

"On a list of approximately ten groups, Food Not Bombs was listed seventh. Indymedia was listed tenth, with a reference specifically to IndyConference 2005. The Communist Party of Texas also made the list. Rasner explained that these groups could have links to terrorist activity. He noted that peaceful-sounding group names could cover more violent extremist tactics."

Wagoner has made a Freedom of Information Act request for Rasner's PowerPoint presentation.

Click here for the rest.

I think it's safe to say that none of these groups are terroristic in nature: it's obvious that the FBI, a federal agency, is spying on them because they oppose the White House. That is, the Bush administration is abusing its power, using the office of the Presidency to harass political foes. That's exactly what Nixon went down for. It's clearly unConstitutional, clearly illegal, clearly a threat to democracy itself. That's why this NSA wiretapping scandal is so extraordinarily outrageous. Bush says the spying has to be done to fight terrorism, and that the FISA court, which grants virtually every warrant request that comes before it, often after the fact, moves too slowly. That's bullshit, of course. There's nothing wrong with the FISA process, which already heavily favors government interests. The plain reality is that Bush wants to spy on Americans without any oversight. For political purposes. To borrow a phrase from convicted Nixon legal advisor John Dean, that's "worse than Watergate."

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