Letters to the Editor
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@Saleem What makes you so sure?
"But this line of government creepiness just doesn't apply to the Briana Waters case. There is no evidence at all that she was pursued by the FBI because she was an activist. There is no evidence that the government obtained evidence against her that would have been illegally obtained were it not for the post-9/11 anti-terrorism laws."
I agreed with much of your letter, but I want to respond to this point.
While the arson occurred before 9/11, the investigation mostly occurred after 9/11. We know that the US specifically identified these types environmentally-motivated acts as terrorism falling under post 9/11 law. We know that the telecoms were allowing the feds to look at all traffic passing through their hubs. Olympia (and Evergreen College) was particularly suspect not only for environmental protest, but for anti-war protest, including protests at its port over naval ships. Seattle of course was the recent site of the WTO protests, and nearby Portland was the home of that Muslim lawyer who was railroaded by the feds for the bombings in Spain.
You may be right to suggest that all that is happening in this case is prosecutorial misconduct. I'm just asking, how would we know? The story of the informant seems a little pat to me, but maybe that's how it all went down. Who knows?