FBI files on Iowa peace activists now public

    Earlier this week it was revealed that the FBI had monitored antiwar activists in Iowa City who were planning on protesting the 2008 RNC in Minneapolis far more extensively than was previously thought.

    According to the Iowa City Press-Citizen:

    Agents staked out the homes of political activists, secretly photographed and shot video of them, pored through their garbage, and studied their cell phone and motor vehicle records, according to records detailing the FBI’s counterterrorism investigation.

    Federal agents and other law enforcement officers also watched and documented the protesters’ comings and goings at such places as the Iowa City Public Library; the New Pioneer Co-op natural foods store; the Red Avocado restaurant and the Deadwood Tavern; and the Wesley Center campus ministry of the United Methodist Church.

    The FBI’s nine-month investigation in 2008 is detailed in more than 300 pages of documents obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act by David Goodner, a former member of the University of Iowa’s Antiwar Committee, and provided to The Des Moines Register.

    The Iowa Independent has now posted the FBI files in their entirety on their site. They can be viewed or downloaded by clicking here.



    Recent Stories

    • Feature

    Why India’s farmers are targeting Modi in the elections

    April 23, 2024

    With India’s general elections underway, farmers’ unions remain united in their opposition to the government and demands for economic justice.

    • Analysis

    Climate activists in New England can finally celebrate ‘the end of coal’

    April 16, 2024

    With the last of New England’s coal plants now set to close, the No Coal No Gas campaign is reflecting on the power of fighting together.

    • Feature

    Smuggled protest videos offer a rare glimpse at resistance in occupied Tibet

    April 13, 2024

    Defying a media blackout and severe backlash, Tibetan monks, nuns and residents of a threatened mountain community are showing the world their resistance to a Chinese dam.