By DPA,
Washington: US federal law enforcement agents improperly investigated Greenpeace and other left-wing activist groups under the guise of counterterrorism in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks, an internal government inquiry found.
The investigations by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) ran from 2001-06. They included animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the anti-war Thomas Merton Centre, according to the Justice Department’s inspector general report, released late Monday.
Individuals from some of the groups were placed on terrorism watch lists. While the inspector general says the FBI never purposely targeted activists in a bid to limit free speech, the report finds the FBI’s case against many of these groups was “factually weak”.
The FBI improperly “classified some investigations relating to nonviolent civil disobedience under its ‘Acts of Terrorism’ classification”, the report found.
Michael German of the American Civil Liberties Union, a civil rights group, slammed the FBI for a “long history of abusing its national security surveillance powers”.
The ACLU called for more safeguards to ensure US citizens are not “added to terrorist watch lists for doing nothing more than attending a rally or holding up a sign”.