"[CA] monitored war protesters"

"State monitored war protesters: Intelligence agency does not distinguish between terrorism and peace activism" describes a CA state agency that collects information on terrorist and "terrorist" groups. It includes plenty of damning quotes:

"You can make an easy kind of a link that, if you have a protest group protesting a war where the cause that's being fought against is international terrorism, you might have terrorism at that (protest)," said Van Winkle, of the state Justice Department. "You can almost argue that a protest against that is a terrorist act..."

...Said Van Winkle: "I've heard terrorism described as anything that is violent or has an economic impact, and shutting down a port certainly would have some economic impact. Terrorism isn't just bombs going off and killing people."

The ACLU is on the case. Oh, by the way:

In fact, [the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center] -- touted as a national model for intelligence sharing and a centerpiece of Gov. Gray Davis and Attorney General Bill Lockyer's 2002 re-election bids

(via Hit and Run)