August 16, 2004 - Somewhere in a very warm climate J. Edgar’s ghost is surely smiling and Richard Nixon’s shade is chuckling. Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation are fanning out across the country taking pro-active steps to minimize the possibility that the President will be embarrassed by anti-war demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in New York. Just recently six FBI agents visited Sarah Bardwell in her Denver, Colorado home. You wouldn’t think of the 21 year old college student as a terrorist. An attractive brunette with no apparent connection to any Middle Eastern group she was targeted by the Bureau as part of a nation-wide effort to contact and shadow people who have or might in the future participate in anti-war demonstrations, especially at political events in the closing days of the Presidential campaign.

Using the authority that it claims it has under the P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act the Justice Department has launched a campaign to contact potential demonstrators, their families and friends to determine the likelihood of the commission of crimes in any demonstrations that might occur between now and Election Day. It is part of a new program that has enlisted local law enforcement in a cooperative effort to monitor and infiltrate dissenting groups. The same Department of Justice unit that issued its opinion approving of torture has put the stamp of approval on the program.

The program is not targeting terrorism. The program is aimed at domestic dissenting organizations that might be so bold as to seek to publicly demonstrate their disagreement with politician’s policy positions. “Four more years!” is ok. “No more War!” is not. The FBI assures us that the program is designed to meet the possibility of the commission of crimes not to stifle dissent. Disorderly conduct is, strictly speaking, a crime. So is passive resistance to arrest, even should the arrest be patently unlawful. Such crimes are not the subject of Federal jurisdiction. Let Sarah Bardwell describe the effect of an FBI visit, “they were trying to intimidate us into not going to any protests and to let us know that, 'hey, we're watching you.’”.

We have traveled this way before. Douglas McArthur earned one of his stars leading a cavalry charge across Georgetown Bridge. Hubert Humphrey lost the Presidency on the streets of Chicago and the body count at the Battle of Kent State was four. This road always seems to lead in the same direction. For American democracy it is the road to nowhere.