• Domestic Spying is harmless if you are not a terrorist. Innocent people have nothing to worry about.
  
• Domestic Spying started as a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
  
• Domestic Spying has made America safe
  
• The FBI is the only agency spying in America.
• They don't torture Americans
• Torture is used to get information

The principle goal of the intellegance community is to protect the interests of transnational corporations. Members of Congress, journalists, lawyers and government officials give the impression that domestic surveillance is harmless and limited to the investigation of terrorism, but the truth is that federal, state and local governments are working in cooperation with corporations and private associations to investigate and disrupt Americans opposed to the policies of the Obama administration and their corporate friends. They are spying on grandparents, students and other regular Americans just like you and me.

The common narative about the use of covert intellegance activities to spy on American citizens will remind the public that the F.B. I. had a program called COINTELPRO but that it stoped in 1971. After the COINTELPRO program was closed down the F.B.I. respected the civil rights of all Americans and this lead to the tragic events of September 11, 2001.

The website describing the March 5, 2004 PBS Program NOW states that Some fear that something like COINTELPRO may again be at hand. There are undercover agents infiltrating peaceful protests in America. Pretending to be political activists, local law enforcement officials are monitoring the activities of advocacy and protest groups based on what one judge calls those organizations' "political philosophies and conduct protected under the First Amendment." The tactic has come about as a result of the relaxation of guidelines first put into place after the COINTELPRO scandal investigation.

But as you will see in this article "the guidelines first put in place after the COINTELPRO scandal investigation " were ignored from the start. Those of us that have been organizing peaceful protests in America during the 70s, 80,s and 90,s experienced the same infiltration, monitoring and dirty tricks used during the COINTELPRO program. We didn"t 'fear that someting like COINTELPRO may again be at hand.' It was clear that the COINTELPRO program had never stopped. The only thing that changed with COINTELPRO in 1971 was it's name. All other aspects of the program continued right up 9/11 and beyond. Right up to today. Domestic spying didn't start after 9/11 nor did it begin with George W. Bush. We faced domestic spying under Carter, Ford, Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton. And this spying hasn't limited to the F.B.I. and Homeland Security. The military has been involved in surveillance and disruption of non-violent community groups for decades. Military intelligence coordinates with the F.B.I., Homeland Security, and local law enforcement agencies first with one version of the Joint Terrorism Task Force or another and now at a network of Fusion Centers located all across the United States. A host of corporations and associations also work with government intelligence organizations to infiltrate, wiretap and conduct covert actions against legal non-violent community organizations. The government's domestic surveillance has as much if not more to do with silencing opposition to Obama's corporate agenda, as it has to do with fighting terrorism.

Spying is not limited to surveillance and the collection of names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses or the taking of photographs and videos. It is also not limited to the monitoring of bank records, ATM transactions or phone and email conversations which are accumulated and placed in a folder on an agents computer. This information is used to help organize campaigns of disruption and sabotage. The techniques include discrediting organizers, instigating infighting between members or organizations, framing perceived leaders on criminal charges, confiscation of materials, closing of bank accounts and websites, breaking up of marriages and the killing of activists. Those of us that have survived decades in the struggle to bring democracy to the United States have seen these and even more tragic methods used against us.

When Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act on December 31, 2011 a new even more dangerous era of domestic repression was introduced. Secret panels connected with the intelligence community can order the military to detain any American at anytime and hold them without trial indefinitely. They can also order the murder of any American. While the government and corporate intelligence groups have been surveilling, disrupting, killing and disappearing opponents for years the NDAA provides the additional impression that the people of America has given their approval since it was popular with congress.

Currently, billions of tax dollars are being spent to monitor groups of Americans that oppose the policies of the Obama administration and their corporate sponsors. Non-profit agencies, peace activists, and pacifists have been targeted, including Food Not Bombs.

This article is dedicated to shairng information about the network of government and corporate campaign to silence the message and activities of Food Not Bombs. Much of what I will describe will be difficult for most Americans to believe so I add links to documents and mainstream media reports to provide evidence. As our name indicates we are dedicated to nonviolence. We are an all volunteer movement that recovers food, prepares vegan and vegetarian meals that are shared to the public on the street or to protesters and the families of striking workers. While many people assumed any survallence of American citizens was limited by law to non-military law enforcment agencies we recived evidence that Food Not Bombs was also subject to scrutiny by Defense Intelligence. In August 2009 Food Not Bombs volunteer Brendan Maslauskas Dunn discovered that Olympia Food Not Bombs volunteer and good friend John Jacob was really John J Towery II, an Army Informant and Infiltrator. He brought his son out to Food Not Bombs and other community events and gatherings. Infiltration of domestic political groups by the military was illegal. When the Federal government was confronted by news that the military was spying on Food Not Bombs we were told that John J Towery II was not violating the law since he was working out of a Fusion Center in coordination with local and Federal intelligence organizations. The following history should encourage the reader to question the war on terror. MSNBC also disclosed documents shwoing that the Pentagon had been moninoring protests for a number of years. Food Not Bombs has been a target of the intelligence community for over 30 years even though its volunteers have not participated in any activisty that could honestly be considered a act of terrorism. If Food Not Bombs has been the focus of such a campaign it is likeley that most of the other people and organizations accused of being connected to terrorism are also innocent. The history of disruption faced by the volunteers of Food Not Bombs also shows that the point of waging a war on terror has more to do with silencing opposition to corporate domination then concern for the use of violence on the civilian population by a terrorist group.