[GeoStL] Re: NCR: I made the New York Times today: A Man, a Plan, a Dam. Then, an F.B.I. Call. - New York Times

  • From: "Eric East" <christianherper@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 21:19:01 -0500

-
I have been banned for posting my religous and political views on the list.
I had to promise to keep my views on these subjects off of the free list in 
order to be allowed to  post, so I believe it's only right to ask you to 
keep your political agenda off of this list as well.

Eric


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Bensman" <junkmailno@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <geocaching@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 12:57 AM
Subject: [GeoStL] NCR: I made the New York Times today: A Man, a Plan, a 
Dam. Then, an F.B.I. Call. - New York Times


> -
> There is something in the Post Dispatch today too, have not seen it yet.
>
>
> The reporter did not get everything right, but I like the story.  And it 
> is
> not everyday you get in the NY Times (only the 4th time for me).
>
>
>
> It certainly gives new context to Bush's claim that they are only spying
> without warrants on "suspected terrorist" when you can get labeled as a
> suspected terrorist this easy for exercising your 1st amendment rights.
>
>
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/us/22dam.html?ex=1156910400
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/22/us/22dam.html?ex=1156910400&en=fb1037510b
> 65c233&ei=5070&emc=eta1> &en=fb1037510b65c233&ei=5070&emc=eta1
>
>
>
> August 22, 2006
>
>
>
> A Man, a Plan, a Dam. Then, an F.B.I. Call.
>
>
>
> By CORNELIA DEAN
>
>
>
> On July 25, Jim Bensman of Alton, Ill., attended a public meeting on the
> proposed construction of a bypass channel for fish at a dam on the
> Mississippi River. Less than a week later, he was under investigation by 
> the
> F.B.I. - the victim, depending on how you look at it, of either a comedy 
> of
> errors or alarming antiterror zeal.
>
>
>
> The meeting was organized by the Army Corps of Engineers, which maintains
> Mississippi River navigation systems, including the Melvin Price Lock and
> Dam in East Alton, Ill., where it is considering construction of a fish
> passage.
>
>
>
> At the meeting, Mr. Bensman, a coordinator with Heartwood, an 
> environmental
> organization, suggested the corps simply destroy the dam. It was an idea 
> the
> corps itself had considered. In fact, a photograph of an exploding dam was
> included in the corps' PowerPoint presentation, explosive demolition being
> by far the most common method of dam removal.
>
>
>
> Mr. Bensman said he had long criticized the system of locks and dams as
> environmentally damaging and an unfair government subsidy benefiting boat
> traffic over railroads. "I've been fighting these things for decades," he
> said.
>
>
>
> But news accounts of the hearing did not put it quite like that. One
> newspaper said simply that he "would like to see the dam blown up."
>
>
>
> And on July 31, he said, he got a telephone call from someone who 
> identified
> himself as Matt Federhofer, an agent of the Federal Bureau of 
> Investigation.
> There is such a person at the agency's office in Fairview Heights, Ill., a
> St. Louis suburb, but he did not respond to a voicemail message yesterday. 
> .
>
>
>
>
> When Mr. Bensman learned what the call was about "it was just kind of
> disbelief," he said. "How could anyone be so utterly stupid as to think 
> that
> was a terrorist threat?" For one thing, he said, it would be ridiculous 
> for
> a would-be terrorist to announce explosive intentions at a public meeting,
> much less a meeting sponsored by an arm of the military.
>
>
>
> But when the agent said he wanted to visit him at home, Mr. Bensman became
> frightened. "I was thinking, I need to talk to an attorney," Mr. Bensman
> recalled. "And he said, 'Well, O.K., I will put you down as not
> cooperating.' "
>
>
>
> That was when Mr. Bensman got angry. "I know what Bush is doing with all
> these secret programs spying on the so-called terrorists, all these
> provisions in the Patriot Act that I think crosses the line, being able to
> spy on a suspected terrorist without the check and balance of a court or a
> judge," he said. "That's just something that really worries you."
>
>
>
> He said he also remembered that the F.B.I. had a history of spying on 
> civil
> rights, antiwar and environmental activists. He said one reason he knew 
> his
> caller was a genuine agent was that he could cite items in Mr. Bensman's 
> own
> F.B.I. file.
>
>
>
> Mr. Bensman said the agent had told him that someone from the corps had
> asked the F.B.I. to investigate him. "I was saying, 'What in the world?'
> There is no way anyone in the corps could reasonably think I was a 
> terrorist
> threat. They know me."
>
>
>
> Kevin Bluhm, the corps official who moderated the meeting, said he doubted
> the call came from the corps. Though he conceded that Mr. Bensman has long
> been a thorn in its collective side, "he's not malicious, oh no," Mr. 
> Bluhm
> said. "This was just Jim. He comes to a lot of our meetings, and he is 
> anti
> a lot of the stuff that we do."
>
>
>
> Mr. Bluhm, who leads the corps' public communication efforts along the
> Mississippi, said he could understand why the F.B.I. felt obliged to check
> Mr. Bensman out, but "if they would have asked me first, I would have said
> no, there's not that kind of risk there."
>
>
>
> Marshall Stone, a spokesman for the Springfield, Ill., office of the 
> F.B.I.,
> said, "A lot of things we look into turn out to be things we don't have to
> be concerned about."
>
>
>
> Mr. Bensman, who wrote an account of his experience which is circulating 
> on
> the Internet, said he had been informed that he is not now suspected of
> anything. But he worries that his phone may be tapped and wonders what 
> will
> happen if he is pulled over for a traffic violation: "Are the cops going 
> to
> think I am a terrorist? You never know what is going to happen nowadays."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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