Illegal domestic surveillance is abusing the rights and privacy of American citizens. Local authorities (as per Bill O'Reilly's fantasy) seem to be taking a hand in this function, as in a current case at a California college.
Via John Seery at Huffington Post. For those not familiar with Pomona College, it is a small but significant liberal arts college, certainly one of the best schools in Southern California.
March 7, my Pomona College colleague, Miguel Tinker Salas, was holding his regular office hours....Two grown men came up and started speaking (without identifying themselves) to the students, asking them pointed questions about what Professor Tinker Salas has been teaching in his classes....Professor Miguel Tinker Salas is Arango Professor in Latin American History and Professor of History and Chicano/a Studies. He teaches classes in Latin America history and has special research expertise in the history and politics of Venezuela. ...The men were members of the "L.A. County Sheriff's Department/F.B.I. Joint Task Force on Terrorism."...
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Hugo Chavez has begun to seriously bother the Bush administration. Venezuela has been forming strategic and economic alliances around the world as well as in Latin America. Further, Chavez has taken steps to renegotiate foreign oil leases in his country. Recently, Chavez has purchased large numbers of small arms, and has announced plans to form a huge national militia.
As part of the administration's new view of Venezuela, U.S. defense and intelligence officials have revised their assessment of the security threat Venezuela poses to the region. They say they believe Venezuela will have growing military and diplomatic relationships with North Korea and Iran, and point with concern to its arms buildup. Of equal worry to them is Venezuela's overhaul of its military doctrine, which now emphasizes "asymmetric warfare" - a strategy of sabotage and hit-and-run attacks against a greater military power, much like that used by Iraqi insurgents.
LINKmore on the Pomona intruders:
They explained that they had "come by to have a conversation" with Professor Tinker Salas because they were "interested in his work," and noted that there is a growing Venezuelan population in the Los Angeles area and thought he might be able to tell them more about it.
Professor Miguel Tinker Salas didn't buy that line and asked them point blank why they were really there.
At that point, they opened a folder, revealing that it was a file on Professor Tinker Salas, along with his picture. And, they said, they had some questions for him. Those questions: What is his immigration status? Is he a U.S. citizen? What is the nature of his contact with the Venezuelan embassy or consulate?
...Reporters from various news outlets have lately been contacting Professor ... Salas asking him to provide historical background on the growing tension between Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and the George Bush administration. ... outlets contacted him... after Donald Rumsfeld compared Chavez to Adolf Hitler. Most recently, Professor Tinker Salas was interviewed for ten minutes on CNN en Español about the history of U.S. intervention in Latin America.
Evidently that campaign is now authorizing official jackboots to harass internal voices of dissent. The ACLU of Colorado reports that the F.B.I. Joint Terrorism Task Force has been targeting, in a multi-state campaign, all kinds of peaceful protesters as allegedly "domestic terrorist" threats....
The postings at Huffington Post and elsewhere resulted in a hail of mail to LA county and other elected officials:
Score another for the blogosphere -- all the folks who responded vociferously. Tonight the Los Angeles Office of the FBI released a statement (see below) in an attempt to explain its ham-fisted interrogation of Pomona College Professor Miguel Tinker Salas and his students. Pomona College President David Oxtoby also released a statement saying that earlier in the afternoon he received a phone call from the agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, who reportedly "apologized" for the disruption to the college community. (Note that the written statement includes no such apology.) I'm not sure this FBI statement clears the air. ....The interviewing agents weren't merely seeking "information" -- they were seeking inappropriate information, and to make a point. And they were asking Professor Tinker Salas's students about what he was teaching in the classroom -- that was NOT "routine information"-gathering. The objectionable part of their sordid activity WASN'T the "timing and location" of the interview -- that was bad enough -- but the problem was also the CONTENT of their probe. The FBI statement completely sidesteps the most important issues, an exercise in misdirection. Note that the FBI statement comes on the same day that the Los Angeles Times published a front-page article on the U.S. administration's attempt to block Hugo Chavez's growing influence.
Does it take too much to connect these two dots? Who ordered Professor Tinker Salas's interrogation? On what grounds? Does the Los Angeles Office of the FBI really take all of us to be such gullible chumps? Does the Bush administration, after so many disinformation campaigns, really believe that they can demonize Chavez as a terrorist monster and silence potential critics who dare suggest otherwise?
FBI STATEMENT
LOS ANGELES FIELD OFFICE
FBI - 11000 Wilshire Blvd. - Los Angeles, Ca 90024 - 310-996-3804,3343 - Fax: 310-996-3345
For Immediate Release
DATE: March 10, 2006
FBI STATEMENT REGARDING INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEW OF
POMONA COLLEGE PROFESSOR
Agents of the FBI and its state, local and federal task force partners routinely conduct interviews in the course of daily activity. Being interviewed by FBI Agents or Task Force Officers should not suggest wrongdoing on the part of the interviewee. The FBI takes great pains to avoid publicity when interviews are conducted.
The FBI and its task force partners in state, local and federal agencies are mindful of the need to respect the circumstances that might surround the timing and location of an informational interview. When requested to participate in interviews, individuals are free to indicate a preference regarding these issues.
With regard to the interview of the professor, the purpose of the interview was to seek information. There was no intent on the part of the FBI, regarding the timing or location, to place the professor, his students or Pomona College in an uncomfortable situation.
Obviously the FBI was caught with its pants down here. Their explanation is inadequate and neither justifies their actions nor states that its inquiries will not continue.
Domestic spying and intimidation of peaceful groups and academics must be resisted. I urge Kossacks to contact Sheriff Lee Baca, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, Congressman David Dreier from the 26th District, and Senators Boxer and Feinstein, and sympathetic media like the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and the Claremont Courier.