Kelley B. Vlahos has a deeply troubling story up on TAC today. There’s evidence that the US Government has been monitoring Antiwar.com, a popular website critical of national security policy. Excerpt:

The all-seeing eye may be putting the chill not only on privacy and free speech but also oninvestigative national-security journalism and the public’s right to know. And this is not limited to the high-profile cases affecting big mainstream players like Fox News, theAssociated Press or the New York Times, which have received most of the attention.

In May, with considerably less fanfare, Antiwar.com announced it was suing the FBI, demanding the release of records the editors believe the agency has been keeping on founder and managing editor Eric Garris and editorial editor Justin Raimondo. The suit stems from a 2004 memo a reader found through an unconnected FOIA request and passed along to Antiwar.com in 2011. The heavily redacted 94-page document clearly states the FBI had secretly investigated and monitored the website and declared—despite acknowledging there was no evidence of any crime—that further surveillance of Antiwar.com was necessary to determine if “[redaction] are engaging in, or have engaged in, activities which constitute a threat to national security on behalf of a foreign power.”

When contacted by this writer—who is also a regular contributor to Antiwar.com—the FBI press office declined comment, citing pending litigation.

More:

“There are several unanswered questions regarding www.antiwar.com,” the [FBI] memo says. “It describes itself as a non-profit group that survives on generous contributions from its readers. Who are these contributors and what are the funds used for?”

Reporting on this document in August 2011, Antiwar.com raised concerns about government overreach and intimidation of critics of the country’s wars and national-security policy. Even disclosing the memo’s existence proved hazardous: the site began to lose major funders—to the tune of approximately $75,000 a year, according to Garris—who now feared that donating would draw unwanted attention from the feds.

Garris says Antiwar.com’s experiences are no different from the government obtaining phone and email records of top journalists or compelling writer James Risen to testify about his sources in court. “They’re getting away with systematic intimidation and sabotage” of those who seek to dig deeper into the goings-on of the national-security state, he told TAC.

So, without any evidence that Antiwar.com had committed any crime, but had only questioned and criticized US national security policy, the FBI investigated the readership of the website. The fact that the journalistic website drew the critical attention of the FBI was enough to scare off lots of donors. If that happens often enough, poof, no more Antiwar.com. Problem solved.

Read the whole thing.  Pass it around. People need to know.