Some anti-war activists in good Old Iowa City. The Press-Citizen is leading with an article today detailing a somewhat surprising level of surveillance that the FBI slapped on a local group of anti-war activists in the run up to the 2008 Republican Convention in St. Paul. The article names specific sites (the Library, New Pi, Red Avocado and Deadwood) and alleges that local law enforcement agencies cooperated with the FBI and with the Ramsey County, MN Sheriff's Office (who had an undercover deputy down here to attend an anti-war conference sometime in 2008.)
It's kind of unsurprising. I remember Twin Cities Law Enforcement was on high alert in the run-up to the Convention and claimed to have broken up an Anarchist Ring in St. Paul. (Just how much of a threat anarchists are these days to anything but the windows of your local Starbucks is debatable, but it's worth noting that Leon Czolgosz was an anarchist. **Bonus to anyone who knows the latter name without the use of Google/Wikipedia**) Was the surveillance justified? That's debatable, of course- and it will be debated no doubt, but a national party convention is a high profile event with international media coverage. You have to take security for that seriously, whether this small little anarchist group was a serious threat or not. At the very least, you've got to do your due diligence and actually see...
I can appreciate the desire of law enforcement to dot every 'i' and cross every 't' but also can't help but feeling uneasy at how easy and how unnoticed this apparently was. Were it not for a Freedom of Information Act request, we might never have known all the details. Is there any such thing as privacy anymore? Kids, discuss.
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