FBI Monitored Web Sites for 2004 Protests: "washingtonpost.comFBI Monitored Web Sites for 2004 ProtestsGroups Criticize Agency's Surveillance for Terror Unit

By Michael DobbsWashington Post Staff WriterMonday,

July 18, 2005;

FBI agents monitored Web sites calling for protests against the 2004 political conventions in New York and Boston on behalf of the bureau's counterterrorism unit, according to FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.The American Civil Liberties Union pointed to the documents as evidence that the Bush administration has reacted to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States by blurring the distinction between terrorism and political protest. FBI officials defended the involvement of counterterrorism agents in providing security for the Republican and Democratic conventions as an administrative convenience."