So I was sitting in class last week, and a friend ran up to me to tell me that Greenpeace was put on the FBI’s domestic terrorist list?! Not the first group I would choose to put on that, to be honest. I did a little digging to see what the deal was, and this is what I found.
Apparently from 2001-2006, the FBI ran domestic terrorism investigations on activists of both Greenpeace and PETA (believe it or not), but the FBI really had weak reasoning to conduct the investigations. Some of the investigation said that the actions taken by the groups were “Acts of Terrorism.” It might be just me, but I am pretty positive that Greenpeace’s mission is to “use non-violent confrontation to raise the level and quality of public debate.” But perhaps someone just missed that. There was also an inaccurate testimony given to Congress about it by FBI Director Robert Mueller because apparently he was given false information.
But wait a second…this is isn’t the first time. According to a 2009 article by the New York Times, in May just last year the DoJ released a report saying that FBI terrorist watch list had 24,000 names on the list with a basis of outdated or irrelevant information. 24,000?! It seems the FBI has been under scrutiny for doing such things over the years, and the “list” doesn’t even contain some of the people that should be on there based on relevant information.
Alright I am done rambling. But a whole mess of things occurred for this to happen. The Department of Justice was the department to say the investigations were wrong. Well, the FBI is a the principal investigative arm of the Department of Justice! Not going to lie, that makes me a little nervous. Where is the communication here? The FBI tells you right on their website that they have the “authority and responsibility to investigate specific crimes assigned to it.” So was this an assignment from the DoJ? Why is it that our government organizations are/have been targeting nonviolent nonprofit organizations, when I am sure there are other investigations that are in need of some assistance? I make no assumptions here, I need some facts…I’m off to do some more digging. Anyone care to join?
