Surprise, surprise, surprise

Remember how, in the aftermath of 9/11, some civil liberties groups were afraid that - in the effort to ramp up "homeland security" - the government might take to spying on political action groups and other non-violent protests? And remember how Dear Leader kept (and keeps) assuring us that that would never happen? I can remember hearing a conservative coworker argue that there was no way Dubya and Co. would waste precious national security dollars investigating anything other than genuine terrorist threats. Yeah. Well, I guess that depends on how you define "genuine terrorist threats." Inside Higher Ed reports:

Documents released by the Michigan branch of the American Civil Liberties Union ... suggest that some campus groups that have never engaged in terrorist activities have been monitored as if they were terror threats.

Using the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU obtained a Federal Bureau of Investigation report on a 2002 meeting involving the FBI, the Michigan State police and other law enforcement agencies to discuss groups in Michigan “thought to be involved in terrorist activities.”

Among the groups monitored was By Any Means Necessary, a University of Michigan group (also active elsewhere) devoted to defending affirmative action. [...] In the FBI document, a detective whose identity was redacted reported on rallies organized by By Any Means Necessary. The report also noted that past activities by the group “have been peaceful,” and did not explain why the group was included in a report about groups that could be terrorist organizations. Another group in the report, the Direct Action Group, has many student members opposed to U.S. foreign policy.

Well slap my ass and call me Sally. Georgie told a fib!?!?