Originally published February 23 2006
FBI program spies on environmental groups
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
National Public Radio's "Big Brother" guest host Jeff Young said he had noticed that the FBI had been depending "pretty heavily" on research done by right-wing think tanks for information on Greenpeace.
As the George W. Bush administration ratchets up its domestic spying capabilities, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is collecting "research" reports on direct-action environmental groups produced by right-wing think tanks.
Ronald Reagan's administration spied on groups opposed to its policies in Central America.
And during the run-up to the Iraq invasion, government agencies were actively collecting information on opponents of the war.
"It's important for people to understand that this programme is so sensitive and so important that if information gets out to how we run it or how we operate it, it'll help the enemy," Bush said at a Jan. 26 press conference.
The Supreme Court disagreed, unanimously ruling that "the Constitution granted the powers he was claiming to judges, not presidents".
Egelko also pointed out that "presidents have approved wiretaps without court orders since the 1940s, but the legality of the practice was thrown into doubt after the Supreme Court ruled in 1967 that electronic eavesdropping was a search, and thus covered by the prohibition on unreasonable searches in the Constitution's Fourth Amendment".
Recently, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) discovered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that the FBI has been collecting information from partisan, ideologically-driven right-wing think tanks that have long had environmental activists in their crosshairs.
Young pointed out that he had noticed -- while examining nearly 2,000 pages of documents -- that the FBI had been depending "pretty heavily on research done by a couple of think tanks that are very conservative, pro-business, anti-regulation in their mindset and their mission" for information on Greenpeace, a longtime environmental group involved in peaceful protest activities.
"I don't know the full extent of the FBI's work, but Greenpeace has always acted non-violently while working to protect the environment," Isac noted.
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