FBI Snooping on Pro-Lifers

"In August of that same year,[1994] Attorney General Janet Reno established a task force, the Violence Against Abortion Providers Conspiracy (VAAPCON) group to investigate anti-abortion violence and civil disobedience. VAAPCON included representatives from the FBI, the US Postal Inspection Service, the US Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms ­ the thugs who carried out the killings at Ruby Ridge and at Waco. By 2000, it was clear that the VAAPCON task force was investigating many pro-life groups and individuals who had no connection to any crimes against abortionists. Documents released under pressure of lawsuits showed that the FBI had assembled dossiers on Cardinal O'Connor of New York, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, Feminists for Life, Concerned Women for America, the American Life League, the Christian Coalition, and other law-abiding pro-lifers. Some FBI agents objected on legal and ethical grounds against this surveillance, but their objections were overruled by the upper levels of the Justice Department. Attorney General John Ashcroft is keeping the VAAPCON task force in existence."
-Lee Penn

Having an FBI dossier was once a much-trumpeted badge of honor on the left. Outside of WorldNetDaily and FrontPage Magazine, I remember no large outcry when these surveillances were revealed.

Quite worrisome that VAAPCON is possibly still around.