Pseudo-Orwellian

Upon waking up today and checking my livejournal friends list (yes, I have one of those), PZ Myers brought something interesting to my attention. Namely this interesting little article:

Moles Wanted
What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

This interests me in paticular as one of my best friends is an active member of Socialist Alternative, both in the Madison and Minneapolis branches. Continuing the chain, one of her closest friends helps maintain the aforementioned Madison branch, but also is a founder and an active player in the Youth Against War & Racism (YAWR) movement. YAWR constantly campaigns and has very successful turnouts at their protests. I certainly won’t be surprised if they have something in the works for the Republican National Convention.

It feels somewhat pathetic that I feel that I will have to pass this news to them as not only are they peaceful, they are probably groups that the FBI might label under these new “terrorist group” guidelines. I won’t call this one Orwellian yet, but its certainly not a step in the right direction. I also finally get to add an “Orwellian” to my blog! Heck yeah.