SCN: FBI

[Steve]

x-no-archive: yes

=============================


Is the FBI tracking online protesters? 

(Amy Standen, Salon.com)---On April 21, protesters from across the 
U.S. and Canada were gathering in Quebec to protest the Free Trade 
Area of the Americas summit meeting. While police amassed tear 
gas and riot gear, protesters hatched plans to take down a two and a 
half mile-long fence erected to keep them out of sight and sound 
during the meeting.  

At the same time, thousands of miles away in Seattle, activities at 
the Independent Media Center were winding down after a long day of 
coordinating a joint protest in Blaine, Wash. Only around three 
people were left in the office at 7 p.m. when a knock came at the 
door.  

"FBI agents came in and flashed their badges," recalls Devin 
Theriot-Orr, an IMC volunteer and legal team co-coordinator. "They 
wanted to ask us some questions. You don't get visits from the FBI 
every day, so people were definitely pretty freaked out."  

The FBI agents wanted to see "all user connection logs" from the 
IMC's Web site from a period between April 20 and 21. Within that 
time, the agents charged, someone had posted secret, stolen 
documents -- one of which was said to contain details of President 
Bush's travel itinerary in Canada -- on the IMC's News Wire bulletin 
boards.  

The sealed demand to turn over the logs also contained a gag order: 
If news of the FBI demand made it out of the IMC office, the 
organization faced being held in contempt of court. Somehow, the 
entirely volunteer-run organization, with dozens of offices around 
the world and a busy network of online message sites, would have 
to keep the secret.  

IMC volunteers searched the site for the offending documents in 
vain. "We were unable to find anything that met their description," 
says Devin. "What they told us was false -- that it had to do with 
travel documents for the president." What the IMC volunteers did 
find were two documents, purportedly stolen from a Quebec police 
car, that contained instructions given to Quebec police on how to 
deal with different protest scenarios, and crib sheets that described 
which protest groups were expected to be in action in Quebec and 
how they might be identified. One excerpt reads:  

A first group of demonstrators may take Laurier Boulevard and 
Grande Allee street, while others may take Rene Levesque 
boulevard. The demonstrators will split into groups of 20 or 30 
people in order to carry out different actions depending on the 
choice of their affinity groups. The signal to disperse will be 
releasing balloons into the air. The two groups may meet at 
Salaberry Street (or it could be another street) to continue via Rene 
Levesque towards the Grand Théatre.  

Despite IMC efforts to keep the order a secret, word got out and soon 
enough IMC visitors were posting anxious messages on the 
message boards, calling the FBI order a "raid" and worrying that the 
media organization had been "taken over" by Secret Service agents. 
IMC's attempts to remove these posts had the adverse effect, as a 
report released by the organization later conceded, of "seemingly 
confirming the worst suspicions of independent journalists who 
posted brief articles announcing or speculating about mysterious 
and terrible things going on at the Seattle IMC, then finding their 
posts removed from view minutes later."  

Barred by the gag order from putting rumors to rest, IMC volunteers 
had no choice but to wait it out. Six days later, on April 27, the gag 
order was lifted. Now IMC and its attorneys are preparing to fight.  

"The IMC is making plans to challenge the subpoena," says Lee 
Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Now that the gag is lifted, 
we can go in and say the subpoena is invalid or unjustified, or all 
sorts of things."  

But oddly, points out Theriot-Orr, there has been no request by the 
FBI to remove the documents in question, which are still posted on 
the IMC site. "[The FBI agents] came down Saturday night when the 
information, technically, could still have been relevant. But they 
never asked us to remove it." Now that the protests are over, the 
information isn't as subversive as it seemed a week ago. At the IMC, 
the general feeling is that the FBI's order was intended mainly to 
intimidate volunteers and posters on the Independent Media sites.  

"I don't think it was about the stuff that was posted," says Theriot-
Orr. "I'm certain they've been monitoring us for some time; we've 
been on their radar for a while, in my opinion, and I am very curious 
about whether this was taken to discourage association with the 
IMC."  

If the FBI was trying to intimidate the IMC, the tactic appears to be 
working, says Theriot-Orr. "We've had significantly less posts on 
our Web site. And I think that's partially because people are 
nervous. There's a history of this type of COINTELPRO activity 
against activist organizations that stretches back 30, 40 years. It's 
nothing new. And we don't really know -- maybe there's a bona fide 
investigation -- but it sure seems suspicious."  

Calls to Stephen Schroeder, the assistant U.S. attorney who filed the 
application for the court order, were not returned.  

Whether or not intimidation is at issue in this instance, the IMC case 
has broad significance for the future of online media and freedom of 
speech, says EFF's Tien. "There's a lot of law about how the First 
Amendment protects membership lists of political groups. Freedom 
of association, anonymous political speech -- all these different 
threads weave together in this case."  

Copyright 2001 Salon.com





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