Catholics and the FBI

by Dennis Coday

View Author Profile

dcoday@ncronline.org

Join the Conversation

Send your thoughts to Letters to the Editor. Learn more

Did you see the two stories in the news this week about Catholic peace activists and the FBI?

I noted this story in today's Morning Briefing: FBI misled Congress on 2002 probe of Thomas Merton Center anti-war rally.

And this story from Iowa:

The FBI's surveillance of a protest group in Iowa City prior to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., two years ago was far more extensive than initially reported, newly obtained FBI documents show.

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.

David Goodner is a member of the Des Moines Catholic Worker.

Latest News

Advertisement

1x per dayDaily Newsletters
1x per weekWeekly Newsletters
2x WeeklyBiweekly Newsletters