'Fahrenheit 9/11' Prompts State Investigation

[Robbien]

. . .

Some of the people in the audience are in the film. They're part of an anti-war group called Peace Fresno. The group is featured in the movie because a Fresno sheriff's deputy infiltrated the group for 6 months in 2003 and is seen at a protest in the film. The group discovered he was an undercover anti-terrorism officer after he died in a motorcycle crash.

. . .

California Attorney General Bill Lockyear has opened an investigation into the surveillance of the group.

Peace Fresno and the American Civil Liberties Union believe the surveillance was illegal.

"California's constitutional right to privacy says that law enforcement cannot infiltrate or spy on an organization engaging in constitutionally protected activity if they don't have reasonable suspicion to believe there's some kind of crime," said Mark Schlosberg, attorney for the ACLU.

http://www.nbc11.com/news/3505576/detail.html

[Momof1]

1. LOL....let the investigations begin....

I love you Michael Moore

[psychopomp]

2. Yeah, that type of surveillance is WRONG

It reeks of COINTELPRO tactics and is a throwback of forty years. Just one more positive consequence of that movie!

[gatorboy]

3. It was the cookies!

They hate the cookies! :D

[AndyTiedye]

9. No, They REALLY LIKED the Cookies!

Much better than those awful doughnuts.
Their undercover was on the verge of absconding with the secret cookie recipe....

[iconoclastic cat]

16. Yeah, I have a feeling that cop was just slacking.

"So, have you uncovered any illegal activities? Terrorists? Anything?"

"Oh, yesh (munch, munch), awl knds of stuff (slurp of milk) going on."

[WindRavenX]

11. they could be WMD!

Damn those cookie lovin' peace freaks...DAMN THEM!!! :D
(ps., those cookies DID look damned good)

[0007]

15. I bet they were those yummy oatmeal cookies with walnuts -

The kind that produces devastating gas.

The government was right on target with this group.

[kayell]

18. They need to have a bake sale ... or a cookie recipe sale

Those cookies did look really good.

[livinginphotographs]

29. Don't forget

about the rape rooms, mass graves, hating freedom, etc. etc. etc.

[Syrinx]

4. go Mike!!!

:party:

[truthspeaker]

5. I'm not sure if it was illegal or not, but it was definitely STUPID

All it would take is a couple visits to the group to figure out what they are about. Running an investigation for six months, legal or not, was a waste of manpower.

[pschoeb]

28. Very true, also the investiagtion only lasted 6 months

Because the infiltrator died, if he hadn't, who knows how long it would have been maintained, talk about total waste of tax dollars.

[aquart]

6. Don'tcha love how they just noticed?

[physioex]

7. What....It took a movie to do this? Pathetic

I am voting this for front page...come on folks vote!!!

[truthisfreedom]

8. yay Mike... put the fear into them! commie bastards. 8^)

think they can take away our freedoms. THEY HATE FREEDOM.

[Hekate]

10. It's about damned time

The Los Angeles Times reported this back when it happened, and I made sure to post it to our local peace groups list to educate the younger ones and to alert the older ones that the forces of darkness were back to their old tricks. As I said at the time: know your companions, and be aware that anyone who advocates violence or otherwise breaking the law may be a plant (as was the case during the 1960s).

By "forces of darkness" I do not mean to tar all law agencies with the same brush. My community's police department behaved with admirable restraint during our year of Saturday peace marches, and we have the mayor on our side. But do I trust the feds under the Bush junta?

Hekate

[jamesinca]

12. I live in Fresno and know some of those people in the movie

Some were at the showing of F9/11 that I went to. From what I understand the Sheriff was given a grant if he could show that he had somebody infiltrate a "suspect group". The Sheriff was bought! When he was questioned about this he played stupid, coy and denied such things. When it came out in the news he finally said why and it irritated him to do this. There are members on the city council, that have recently been in the news here, that accidentally sent to the wrong people e-mails calling for liberals to be taken out in the street and shot, Ann Coulteresque. Were these people investigated, or infiltrated? No. But they did go after the Human Rights Commission and Peace Fresno. The mayor was looking to cut their funding out of the budget and this place is the home of Free Republic.

[kayell]

13. Duh! *slaps own forehead*

You know, I remeber hearing the Fresno was freep headquarters. I remeber hearing about all the other incidents too, seperately. Somehow I never connected the dots. Thanks for your post.

[Robbien]

14. The sheriff was given a grant? A grant by the Feds?

Was it disclosed who funded this grant?

[opihimoimoi]

17. A Grant to find the Cookies of Mass Destruction? OMG

I saw the movie and I thought this is pure Pub absurdity. Where do they get their nerve to do this?

[jamesinca]

24. From what I understand it was a Federal grant

I was told by the Peace Fresno person that it was. I don't know where she found that out and I completely missed that whole thing in the news (if it was covered at all ).

[UpInArms]

19. it is disgusting that only by being

exposed in a documentary causes these things to be investigated.

*Co hates us for our freedoms.

[tinanator]

20. thats probably not the case

but it is unfortunate that Lockyears announcement was preceeded by the movies opening. There are a number of very interesting related and/or anecdotal facts that weave a much larger and more disgusting tapestry. As citizens concerned with democracy and freedom, you have to put as much effort into your local government as you would your national. Ours is filled with crooked buffoons riddled with right wing hatreds and guilty of the worst sorts of treacherous corruption.

[daa]

21. Can anybody say Nixon-Bush infiltration nt

[Robb]

22. A dear friend of mine is involved in a project with

the Fellowship of Reconciliation, going through the file the FBI has been keeping on them for decades. It's so big they had to get grants just for the photocopying. :eyes: Absolutely useless stuff from a law enforcement perspective, but FOR is delighted because of the historical archive aspect -- tons of photos of the people who were involved over the years. :)

[D-Notice]

23. To quote Nelson Muntz

"Ha! Ha!"

[struggle4progress]

25. Lockyer might want to broaden his investigation

Here's an article from last summer:

Article Last Updated: Sunday, June 01, 2003 - 2:32:10 AM PST

State monitored war protesters
Intelligence agency does not distinguish between terrorism and peace activism
By Ian Hoffman, Sean Holstege and Josh Richman, STAFF WRITERS

<snip>
The April 2 bulletin from the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center (CATIC) arguably offered more innuendo than actual evidence of protesters' intent to "shut down" the port and possibly act violently.

CATIC spokesman Mike Van Winkle said such evidence wasn't needed to issue warnings on war protesters.

"You can make an easy kind of a link that, if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that (protest)," said Van Winkle, of the state Justice Department. "You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act."

In fact, CATIC -- touted as a national model for intelligence sharing and a centerpiece of Gov. Gray Davis and Attorney General Bill Lockyer's 2002 re-election bids -- has quietly gathered and analyzed information on activists of various stripes almost since its creation.
<snip>

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82%7E1865%7E1400012,00.html


<edit: sp>

[Garage Queen]

27. Sooooo.... if protesting *against* war is a terrorist act ....

then Demonstrating FOR the war is really a demonstration for Peace?

Oh my stars...I need to sit down - my head is spinning.

:crazy:

[Barrett808]

26. Read "Protectors of Privilege" by Frank Donner

Protectors of Privilege: Red Squads and Police Repression in Urban America
by Frank Donner

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0520080351/qid=1089305093/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/103-9622877-1583869?v=glance&s=books

Publishers Weekly blurb:

Donner documents the history of local countersubversion efforts on the part of city police forces, detailing their abuses of power.