DENVER — The FBI has been interviewing people in several states as part of an investigation into possible plans to disrupt upcoming national events.
Several political activists who have been questioned in Colorado said agents asked whether they knew about plans to disrupt the Democratic or Republican national conventions.
FBI spokesman Joe Parris said yesterday that the agency's Joint Terrorism Task Force was charged with interviewing people who might have details about people or groups planning criminal acts at such events. In a statement e-mailed from the agency's Washington headquarters, Parris said the interviews were conducted in several states but he did not specify which ones.
Two of those questioned — Paul Bame, a 45-year-old software engineer from Fort Collins, and Sarah Bardwell, a 21-year-old intern with the American Friends Service Committee — said they believed they were targeted because they had participated in political protests.
Officials with the Colorado chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union say they fear such interviews could discourage people from exercising their First Amendment rights and participating in such protests in the future.
"The FBI does not conduct investigations or interviews designed to discourage anyone from exercising their First Amendment right to assemble and peacefully protest," Parris said. "However, violent criminal acts are not protected by the Constitution and the FBI has a duty to prevent such acts and to identify and bring to justice those that commit them."
Last year, Denver settled a lawsuit brought by the ACLU over the so-called "spy files" it kept on about 10,000 peaceful protesters for decades. The city agreed to stop gathering information on groups or individuals based solely on political, social, religious views, race, gender, age, ethnicity or their support for unpopular causes.
A separate lawsuit filed by the ACLU in October seeks to determine whether two city police officers assigned to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force are bound by the settlement.