Top US senator accuses FBI of spying on anti-war groups

Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Robert Mueller takes questions during a full oversight committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. Top US senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont took the FBI to task, accusing the federal agency of spying on groups opposed to the war in Iraq.(AFP/Jim Watson)

This seems to be a breaking story coming out on Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top US senator took the FBI to task, accusing the federal agency of spying on groups opposed to the war in Iraq.

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, complained that there was "evidence" the federal agency was monitoring peace groups, including the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice, a Roman Catholic organization from Pennsylvania, and the "Raging Grannies" group of elderly women activists.

"What possible business does the FBI have spying on law-abiding American citizens simply because they may oppose the war in Iraq?" Leahy, who cited internal FBI reports, asked FBI director Robert Mueller during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Mueller said that surveillance of the Thomas Merton Center was part of an investigation into identifying an individual and that FBI agents "were not concerned about the political dissent."

He also denied that the FBI had monitored Quakers or the Raging Grannies.

That is the extent of this story so far. I'm sure there is more details coming later today.

In one respect, I'm not surprised that the FBI has been spying on anti-war groups. There have been plenty of stories, rumors, and allegations of domestic spying against anti-war and other political opposition groups by the FBI and the Pentagon. We already know that the NSA has been using data-mining techniques to monitor both domestic cell phone and internet use by Americans. In one respect, this is another example of the Bush administration's paranoia and their vindictiveness at any individual or political group their neoconservative policies. So I want to see this latest "evidence" of the FBI spying on peace groups. I want all of these domestic spying activities to be publicly exposed. I want the American people to realize that this Bush White House is systematically destroying their rights and freedoms, creating as close to a dictatorship as Bush and the neoconservatives can create.