Justice Dept.: FBI probes of activists improper

WASHINGTON - The FBI improperly opened and extended investigations of some U.S. activist groups and put members of an environmental advocacy organization on a terrorist watch list, even though they were planning nonviolent civil disobedience, the Justice Department said yesterday.

A report by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine absolved the FBI of the most serious allegation against it: that agents targeted domestic groups based on their exercise of First Amendment rights. Civil liberties groups and congressional Democrats had suggested that the FBI employed such tactics during the George W. Bush administration, which triggered Fine's review.

But the report cited what it called other "troubling" FBI practices in its monitoring of domestic groups in the years between the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and 2006. In some cases, Fine said, agents began investigations of people affiliated with activist groups for "factually weak" reasons.

In others, the report said, the FBI extended probes "without adequate basis" and improperly kept information about activist groups in its files. Among the groups monitored were the Thomas Merton Center, a Pittsburgh peace group; People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA; and Greenpeace USA. Activists affiliated with Greenpeace were improperly put on a terrorist watch list, the report said.

FBI deputy director Timothy Murphy, in a response included with the report, said the FBI was "pleased" that Fine "concludes the FBI did not target any groups for investigation on the basis of their First Amendment activities." He said the FBI inquiries were based on information about potential criminal activities.

Lying to Congress is a federal offense that the FBI investigates. Former baseball star Roger Clemens, for example, was recently indicted after an FBI probe on charges of perjuring himself before a congressional committee when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.