The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected some 3,500 pages of files on civil rights, environmental and antiwar groups, US media reported Monday. The FBI has monitored web sites and compiled correspondence and other documents on several groups over the past years, said The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other US news media.
The targets included the environmental group Greenpeace, which has led acts of civil disobedience in protest over the administration policies and the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the leading critics of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies.
"I'm still somewhat shocked by the size of the file on us," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, told the New York Times.
"Why would the FBI collect almost 1,200 pages on a civil rights organisation engaged in lawful activity?" he said.
The groups accuse FBI counterterrorism officials have used their expanded powers since the September 11 terrorism attacks to blur the line between legitimate civil disobedience and potential terrorist activity in an effort to stifle political opposition.
The FBI compiled records on another group, United for Peace and Justice, which led wide-scale protests over the Iraq war at last year's Republican National Convention in New York City, and a group called the American Indian Group in Colorado.
"We always assumed the FBI. was monitoring us, but to see the counterterrorism people looking at us like this is pretty jarring," Leslie Cagan, a spokeswoman for the group, told the Times.