Tales of Big Brother, the FBI's efforts to intimidate protesters

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http://www.alternet.org/rights/19653/

Tales of Big Brother

By Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive. Posted August 25, 2004.


What do a software engineer, an intern, and three young men in Missouri have in common? Each has been the target of the FBI's efforts to intimidate political protesters before the party convention. Story Tools

Editor's Note: Since the 9/11 attacks, many of our Orwellian nightmares have come true: Innocent people rounded up in police sweeps; detainees held without evidence or access to a lawyer for months on end; and the rapid erosion of our most basic right to privacy. We didn't think it could get worse until the FBI decided to target dissent in the name of national security. In the lead up to the Democratic and now Republican conventions, scores of activists have heard the proverbial knock on the door. These are just three of the very many stories of harrasment and intimidation that mark a new low for American democracy.
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A Visit from Agent Faul

Paul Bame is a 45-year-old software engineer in Fort Collins, Colorado. He's also a nonviolent political activist. On the afternoon of July 22, an FBI agent named Ted Faul called Bame's home, he says. "He left a message on my machine saying that he wanted to talk to me about something," Bame recalls. "I was afraid."

Bame went to work the next day and took a break for lunch. "When I got back to work, there was a security guard offering to escort me to the lobby to talk to somebody named Ted," he says.

Bame met Agent Faul.

"He said the visit was not supposed to be embarrassing or accusatory," Bame recalls. "But of course, it seems pretty embarrassing and accusatory to have the FBI visit you at your place of work. At some companies, I might have lost my job. That didn't happen here, thank goodness."

Agent Faul gave some indication of why he was interested in speaking to Bame. "He said my name came up at headquarters as someone who might have information about plans for mayhem at the conventions," Bame says. "He wondered if I had that information. And I responded that I'd be happy to discuss this with him with a lawyer present."

Agent Faul pressed on, according to Bame: "He said, 'Is there any particular piece of this that you think you need a lawyer present for?' "

Bame says he responded: "Whenever questioned by the FBI, I think it's wise to have a lawyer present."

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[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. FBI's efforts to intimidate<< Is this....

the same FBI that was seeking council after 911 in order to protect themselves... from this administration... cuz they knew what they knew.. and they knew they would have a hard time remaining silent?

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&theme=saudi
“We gave them a sampling of the documents and put them on the table,” says his lawyer, “but the agents refused to accept them.” The documents include “details of the $7 billion the Saudis gave to Saddam Hussein for his nuclear program—the first attempt to build an Islamic Bomb.” But FBI agents were “ordered not to accept evidence of Saudi criminal activity, even on US soil.”