Thursday, May 22, 2003

US Intelligence Agency Does Not Distinguish Between Terrorism and Peace Activism
'It "shines light on the kind of (U.S. Attorney General John) Ashcroft mentality that's seizing this country," he said. "Anyone internal with a dissenting view is lumped in with the people who drove the planes into the towers, which couldn't be further from the truth..." Terrorist attacks on U.S. soil are rare. Some anti-terror experts have wondered when new terror-fighting agencies would begin justifying their existence by broadening their roles.'

'"It is safe to say there is an enormous temptation to expand surveillance and information gathering. And unless there is an effective system of checks and balances sooner or later this kind of surveillance is going to get out of control," said Steven Aftergood, head of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists. "This particular example is quite disturbing because it erodes the obvious distinction between terrorism and dissent," he said.'

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