The Office of Legal Policy, that wacky Justice Department office that said the government should feel free to torture whomever they please as part of a war on terror, is at it again. This time, the OLP has given the DoJ the authority to send federal agents to interrogate Bush critics who might protest at this month’s Republican National Convention.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been questioning political demonstrators across the country, and in rare cases even subpoenaing them, in an aggressive effort to forestall what officials say could be violent and disruptive protests at the Republican National Convention in New York.
This is far more disturbing than it may appear at first blush. If the FBI had learned of a violent scheme protestors were planning for the GOP convention and wanted to question those involved, that’s just proper law enforcement. But, instead, the FBI is going around talking to Bush critics — and how the Justice Department knows who the critics are is unknown — just to see what they’re up to.
In a free country, federal agents shouldn’t show up at your door, asking a bunch of questions about activities you may not even participate in, just because you disagree with the president.
[S]ome people contacted by the F.B.I. say they are mystified by the bureau’s interest and felt harassed by questions about their political plans.
“The message I took from it,” said Sarah Bardwell, 21, an intern at a Denver antiwar group who was visited by six investigators a few weeks ago, “was that they were trying to intimidate us into not going to any protests and to let us know that, ‘hey, we’re watching you.'”
Like Michael Froomkin, I found this paragraph truly startling. As Michael put it:
It seems the FBI has nothing better to do than to send six — SIX! — special agents to interview one 21-year-old anti-war group intern. Of course, that could never be seen as in any way intimidating.
No, of course not.