FBI targeted "non-violent" activitists for years and improperly placed some of them on terrorism watchlists.
The FBI in recent years opened investigations into some U.S. activists with little basis, unjustifiably extended the duration of the probes, improperly retained information about activist groups in its files, and classified its investigations of “nonviolent civil disobedience” as investigations into “acts of terrorism,” according to a report released today by the Justice Department’s Inspector General.
The report by the Justice Department watchdog didn’t find that the FBI targeted these groups on the basis of their free speech activities — which would be a serious violation of FBI guidelines — but did fault the agency for other reasons, most notably a “factually weak” basis for opening investigations.
“FBI agents and supervisors sometimes provided the Office of the Inspector General with speculative, after-the-fact rationalizations for their prior decisions to open investigations that we did not find persuasive,” the report said.
The report also found that that the FBI unnecessarily classified its probes as domestic terrorism investigations, even though some of the potential crimes were trespassing or vandalism — acts not normally considered to be terrorism. This classification resulted in several individuals improperly being placed on terrorism watchlists.
Links: http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/s1009r.pdf
http://www.propublica.org/blog/item/watchdog-faults-fbi-for-factually-weak-basis-for-investigating-activists