What Really Happened to Phish?

From the NYT:

One internal F.B.I. message, sent in October 2003, criticized the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review at the Justice Department, which reviews and approves terrorist warrants, as regularly blocking requests from the F.B.I. to use a section of the antiterrorism law that gave the bureau broader authority to demand records from institutions like banks, Internet providers and libraries.

"While radical militant librarians kick us around, true terrorists benefit from OIPR's failure to let us use the tools given to us," read the e-mail message, which was sent by an unidentified F.B.I. official. "This should be an OIPR priority!!!" [emphasis added]

Radical militant librarians!!! In our communities, OMG!!! Well, frankly, if the FBI can't take them, I'm not sure OIPR is going to have any better luck. Sounds like the RML have already won. († Joy Garnett)

And from yesterday's WaPo:

FBI counterterrorism investigators are monitoring domestic U.S. advocacy groups engaged in antiwar, environmental, civil rights and other causes, the American Civil Liberties Union charged yesterday as it released new FBI records that it said detail the extent of the activity.

[. . .]

The papers offer no proof of PETA's involvement in illegal activity. But more than 100 pages of heavily censored FBI files show the agency used secret informants and tracked the group's events for years, including an animal rights conference in Washington in July 2000, a community meeting at an Indiana college in spring 2003 and a planned August 2004 protest of a celebrity fur endorser.

[. . .]

John Lewis, the FBI's deputy assistant director for counterterrorism, told a Senate panel in May that environmental and animal rights militants posed the biggest terrorist threats in the United States, citing more than 150 pending investigations.

The FBI now knows the precise location of every patchouli vendor on campus—and hardly coincidentally, there have been zero terrorist attacks since 9/11. The consequences for the nation's civil rights and grilled-cheese sandwich consumption may be grave indeed, but Americans must make sacrifices for the global war on terror—especially dirty lefties and "readers."

Posted by Kriston at December 21, 2005 12:14 PM