The documents, coming after the Bush administration's confirmation
that President Bush had authorized some spying without warrants in
fighting terrorism, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that
the government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and
acts of civil disobedience and lawful protest.

One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in Indianapolis planned to
conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community Project."

Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's
"semi-communistic ideology."

A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of
a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals.

The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week, came
as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by
the American Civil Liberties Union.

For more than a year, the A.C.L.U. has been seeking access to
information in F.B.I. files on about 150 protest and social groups
that it says may have been improperly monitored.

The F.B.I. had previously turned over a small number of documents on
antiwar groups, showing the agency's interest in investigating
possible anarchist or violent links in connection with antiwar
protests and demonstrations in advance of the 2004 political
conventions.

And earlier this month, the A.C.L.U.'s Colorado chapter released
similar documents involving, among other things, people protesting
logging practices at a lumber industry gathering in 2002.

The latest batch of documents, parts of which the A.C.L.U. plans to
release publicly on Tuesday, totals more than 2,300 pages and centers
on references in internal files to a handful of groups, including
PETA, the environmental group Greenpeace and the Catholic Workers
group, which promotes antipoverty efforts and social causes.

Many of the investigative documents turned over by the bureau are
heavily edited, making it difficult or impossible to determine the
full context of the references and why the F.B.I. may have been
discussing events like a PETA protest.


From The New York Times, 12/20/05:

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 -

Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have
conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations
that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse
as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed
agency records show.

___________________________________________________________

What's next?

Harry