Before the Dem convention, Ashcroft-deployed FBI agents harassed and intimidated political activists, their friends and family. Now, even though every anti-war protest since 2001 has been peaceful - even those with near one million protestors - the agency is claiming - sans credible evidence, of course - that it believes there will be violence in NY. How can they be so sure lacking credible evidence unless "agent provocateurs" from within the agency itself are planning to at least try to foment such activities - as they have done in past protests? It would certainly work to Bush's advantage, as he could then have an excuse for a mass round up of dissenters and for claiming "liberal violence." The agency admits it has infiltrated some activist groups, which leads one to wonder if the links some anti-RNC websites supposedly have to "Molotov cocktail" recipes were inserted by said infiltrators. We smell an ASHCROFT/BUSH SET UP

Only Robert Mueller, the guy who worked as a chief coverup toady for Ronald Reagan during the Iran-Contra scandals, wanted the FBI to get involved with the CIA. But Bush-appointee Mueller overrode the entire agency and dragged the FBI into what has become a nightmare for many conscientious agents. FBI officials say that the damage done by the Bush-directed integration of the CIA and FBI has failed to achieve anything but near-irreparable damage to the FBI, to national security, and to US human rights principles. For more about Bush's systemmatic destruction of the FBI and the truth about Robert Mueller, see http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=7506.

Cheryl Seal wrote in 2002, "The lapses in security before 9/11 had more to do with the failure of those in 'high places' to heed intelligence reports than it did with lack of timely reports. John O'Neill, Louis Freeh and others were becoming seasoned experts in monitoring and tracking Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. The NSA was becoming seasoned in the use of the Echelon communications monitoring system and building a team of experienced encryption system crackers. In short, intelligence and security was getting better all the time while Clinton diplomacy was slowly beginning to defuse tensions on the international political scene. So, in comes Bush, breaking treaties, fomenting international tensions, plotting ways to increase his power and scheming to lay claim to Central Asian oil and gas - all while keeping his family's corporate pals- including the Bin Ladens - happy. In the FBI, Bush saw the perfect collective fall guy."

NY Times reports, "Senior F.B.I. officials were told in the early 1990's that a Los Angeles woman accused this week of being a double-agent appeared to be spying for the Chinese, but they continued using her as an informer nonetheless. Around 1991, senior FBI counterintelligence officials met in Washington to discuss evidence that the woman, Katrina Leung, was spying for the Chinese. One F.B.I. supervisor in Los Angeles attending the meeting was James J. Smith, who was having a long-term affair with Ms. Leung after recruiting her to the bureau as an informer in the early 1980's. They were arrested this week on espionage-related charges. An administration official who demanded anonymity said it was also 'common knowledge' for years among senior people in the bureau's Los Angeles office that Mr. Smith and Ms. Leung were having an affair and that F.B.I. officials at headquarters suspected that there might be a Chinese intelligence 'penetration' of the bureau." That's putting it mildly...