ACLU: Protesters placed in terror files
By Anslee Willett
The Gazette
Anyone who has participated in an anti-war protest lately should not be surprised by Anslee Willett's article in the Colorado Springs Gazette:
"The names and licenseplate numbers of about 30 people who protested three years ago in Colorado Springs were put into FBI domestic-terrorism files, the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado said Thursday."
Nor should they expect that the story will be reported any time soon by the mainstream media. Such is the country we live in.
The same thing happened during the Vietnam era. Anti-war protesters found their names listed in government files, later uncovered by the Freedom of Information act. The end of the Vietnam war, we hoped, would bring the end of government surveillance of citizens exercising their constitutional right to protest. But such was not the case.
As for me, I choose to think of it as a patriotic honor to have my name listed in an FBI file. Not for being labeled a "domestic terrorist", but for precisely the opposite: for protesting peacefully and legally against the perverse, illegal, terrorist policies of our neo-con crazed government.
PHOTO: The FBI monitored this peace rally at Palmer Park in February 2003. Photo By File Photo.
See also:
• Judge orders police to turn over reports By John C. Ensslin, Rocky Mountain News
• CSIndy: Unusual suspects - FBI targeted political protesters in 'domestic terrorism' cases (December 8, 2005)
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