A Federal Eye on the Raging Grannies?(TIME)

[struggle4progress]

The ACLU wants to know why the FBI is monitoring non-violent antiwar groups
By ELI SANDERS/SEATTLE

Posted Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2006


The Raging Grannies, an organization of aging activists whose chapters across the U.S. and Canada used sit-ins, songs and satire to protest the war, might not seem like the most obvious target for government surveillance. But the ACLU of Washington State filed a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests early Tuesday that demanded more information from the FBI and Department of Defense about what the ACLU claims is overreaching government surveillance of this group and 10 other non-violent political organizations in Washington State.

Concerns about the group are connected to an annual maritime festival called Seafair, which draws a flotilla of Navy ships — and, increasingly, antiwar protesters — to this port city each year. Documents released through an earlier, more narrow Freedom of Information Act request by the local ACLU chapter and first reported on in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer showed that the Raging Grannies had been monitored by the FBI in 2003 out of concern that the Grannies, usually passive protesters, might be connected to a more aggressive group suspected of planning to chain themselves to navy ships as an act of civil disobedience.

In filing a battery of FOIA requests on behalf of the political groups, the ACLU is opening another front in its nationwide fight to discover the extent of government spying on domestic activists under the Bush administration. The ACLU of Pittsburgh announced last week that it had obtained documents showing that the FBI there had monitored the Thomas Merton Center, a religious group devoted to peace. Members of the group engaged in some antiwar leafleting in 2002, and the Pittsburgh documents reportedly show that FBI agents took photos of the leafleters and conducted other surveillance. <snip>

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1175429,00.html

[yellowcanine]

1. So THAT'S whay they search old ladies at airport security. Looking for

contraband underwire bras that could be used to tie themselves to Navy ships.

[Maat]

2. They spied on the Raging Grannies!

That's as low as one can get!

On a sarcastic note, it's so obvious what a terrorist threat they are!

[UpInArms]

3. Grannies, Quakers and Vegans -

wow!

This is what 100 Billion Dollars gets for terrorist security :eyes:

These gubmint agents need to get a clue, Barney Fife would do better.

[Dhalgren]

16. Your list, there, makes me think of the Wizard of Oz...

"Grannies, Quakers, and Vegans! Oh my! Grannies, Quakers, and Vegans! Oh my!" :rofl:

[bvar22]

4. Go Granny...Go Granny..Go Granny...GO!

K&R
because this is to good not to share with the rest of DU,
:dem:

[prolesunited]

5. Oooh, I'm so scared. Please protect me Daddy George from these scary women

[struggle4progress]

7. !

[Voltaire99]

6. Instead of donating to the Do-nothingcrats, consider an ACLU donation.

Organizations outside the duopoly are the only ones fighting for us. Bravo, ACLU!

[salin]

8. How much money is the govt wasting

on these types of surveillences? Why is exercising a constitutional right a legitimate "trigger" for coming under target of a surveillence? Just what happens with this information? These are the questions I hope people who read TIME magazine, start asking.

[tanyev]

9. And how much time is being wasted on this kind of surveillance

when the FBI agent in the Moussaoui case just testified that he tried 70 times to get authorization to take a closer look at Moussaoui. Shameful.

[salin]

11. great point... what real threats to security are NOT being

pursued because of all of the manpower spent on these 'surveillance as intimidation' forays?

[Dhalgren]

17. No. The point is that these groups are the ones considered a

threat to the Fascist States of America. There is no "terrorist" threat to the US; if there were our whole security apparatus would be arranged and functioning differently. The fact that grannies and Quakers and Vegans are the targets of our security organizations tells you exactly who is considered a threat. Domestic dissent is the biggest threat faced by our fascist government, not external "terrorists" who could just walk across our borders any time they wanted to - or send bombs or chemical agents into our ports any time they wanted to. The fascist government of the US is at war with its own people, it's just that most of the people don't know it yet...

[ConcernedCanuk]

10. Welcome to your New America -

.
.
.

"Land of the Free" ??

I think not

As for any personal privacy . .

forget it

You might as well just videotape yourselves 24/7 and send it to your gubment

If YOU don't - THEY will.

(sigh)

[mikeytherat]

12. Hell's Grannies

They're next on the list!



mikey_the_rat

[OKNancy]

13. Kick

[Mrs. Overall]

14. ACLU Wants Answers In Government Snooping On Peace Groups (WA State)

SEATTLE - The American Civil Liberties Union is filing federal "Freedom of Information Act" requests for any documents maintained on 11 Washington State peace groups. The request announced in Seattle Tuesday is one of 13 filed across the country. One FOIA request, in the words of the ACLU, suggests that in the Pittsburgh area, anti-war groups are being monitored as a result of those groups' anti-war beliefs.

The requests in Washington follow an earlier FOIA request by a local activist that resulted in him receiving documents that included references to the Raging Grannies, NION, and Ground Zero. Several of the groups specifically mentioned in the FOIA request were at the Seattle news conference, including the Raging Grannies who sang: "Oh, we're a gaggle of grannies, urging you off of our fannies. We're raising our voice. We want a new choice. No more war."

Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Project, said of the FOIA request filed with seven federal agencies: "We are trying to preserve American freedoms at a time when they are under relentless attack -- a relentless attack that has proven so far to be of no security benefit." The Raging Grannies and other local groups say if the Feds are watching them, it will just increase their resolve to fight for peace.

more:http://www.komotv.com/stories/42514.htm

[AnneD]

15. They are a threat....

they have that punk blue hair, they don't work-so they have all this free tine to organize, they are fearless (they have see it all, survived their children's puberty and have grandkids), they wear depends which can be used as a biological weapon, and they have canes, handbags, knittting needles, grocery carts, and orthopedic shoes which are useful in old lady ass whipping techniques. Be afraid, be very afraid. :scared:

[EVDebs]

18. Anyone speaking 'Truth to Power' is now a threat to national insecurity !

Raging grannies, anti-globalizationists who are simply fighting against the corporation's anti-labor agenda, dissenters of any stripe.

See The Corporation movie. The pathology that is being promoted by these corporate 'citizens' at everyone else's expense,

""THE PATHOLOGY OF COMMERCE: CASE HISTORIES
To more precisely assess the "personality" of the corporate "person," a checklist is employed, using actual diagnostic criteria of the World Health Organization and the DSM-IV, the standard diagnostic tool of psychiatrists and psychologists. The operational principles of the corporation give it a highly anti-social "personality": It is self-interested, inherently amoral, callous and deceitful; it breaches social and legal standards to get its way; it does not suffer from guilt, yet it can mimic the human qualities of empathy, caring and altruism. Four case studies, drawn from a universe of corporate activity, clearly demonstrate harm to workers, human health, animals and the biosphere. Concluding this point-by-point analysis, a disturbing diagnosis is delivered: the institutional embodiment of laissez-faire capitalism fully meets the diagnostic criteria of a "psychopath."""

http://www.thecorporation.com/index.php?page_id=2

Facism based upon corporate 'persons' requirements soon makes flesh and blood people's requirements secondary.

[Beaverhausen]

19. The Raging Grannies ROCK!!!

http://www.raginggrannies.com/

[lovuian]

20. LOL!!! They are Bush's worst nightmare ... How much prison

time is a Old Lady going to do and she can always plead Senility!!!
And yet they have tons of free time they are retired!!!

Bush ticked them off when he went after Social Security and Medicare!!!

LOVE THEM!!!