FBI MONITORED ACTIVIST GROUPS

The FBI has monitored advocacy groups involved in causes including the environment, animal rights, and poverty relief, The New York Times and The Washington Post report. According to agency records first obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the FBI has opened a preliminary terrorism investigation into People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, in Norfolk, Va., planned to conduct surveillance of a “Vegan Community Project” in Indiana, and and expressed concerns about the Catholic Workers’ group’s “semi-communistic ideology.” FBI officials said that they were not looking into political or social activities and that any investigations concerning activist groups were sparked by evidence of their involvement in criminal or violent activity at protests.