The ACLU has obtained more documents that show that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force was watching antiwar groups in Denver as part of a domestic terrorism investigation.
The files were released to the ACLU’s Colorado chapter under a Freedom of Information Act request filed in December 2004.
The records show FBI agents spent hours monitoring activist organizations such as Food Not Bombs, and the now-closed bookstore, Breakdown Books in Capitol Hill, among other groups.
FBI agents spent two hours outside the bookstore counting about 40 people who gathered there to carpool to an antiwar demonstration in Colorado Springs on Feb. 15, 2003. The report says agents noted the license plate numbers of a dozen nearby vehicles.
“This report raises more questions about the degree to which the FBI is unjustifiably regarding demonstrations and public dissent as potential terrorism,” said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU’s Colorado chapter.
Some of those groups, such as Making A Difference/Coloradans Opposed to War (MADCOW), have already disbanded since they were surveilled, Silverstein said.
In 2004, Denver activist Sarah Bardwell was questioned by agents regarding her association with Food Not Bombs, a group that the FBI characterized as having ties to the Anarchist Black Cross, a group that the FBI notes in the files as having a history of violence.
A flier for the Anarchist Black Cross was found on the Auraria campus in Denver and agents investigated a meeting that the group had on Lipan Street in 2004, the files show.
Silverstein said only a couple of people showed up for the meeting and ended up eating cookies.
The FBI contends that they do not watch groups or individuals unless agents receive intelligence that violent or disruptive activities are being planned.
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-820-1219 or at fcardona@denverpost.com.
