Change We Can Believe In?

Hmm, after just seeing a story about the FBI outrageously surveilling anti-war protesters during the Bush administration suddenly they have become fair game here in the enlightened age of O:

The warrant for the raid on Kelly's apartment, in the 1800 block of Riverside Avenue, sought notebooks, address books, photos and maps of Kelly's travels to the Palestinian territories, Colombia and in the United States on behalf of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. It also sought materials on his personal finances and those of the group, on Kelly's "potential co-conspirators" and recruitment efforts for the group.

The warrant also sought any information about efforts to support FARC, a guerrilla organization in Colombia, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Hezbollah, the political and paramilitary organization based in Lebanon.

Meanwhile the DOJ is claiming state secrets privilege to prevent discovery in a case brought against the feds by the father of terrorist leader Anwar Aulaqi, the guy Obama wants to kill without trial (as if we're at war or something). Woodward's new book alleges..

Woodward's book portrays Obama and the White House as barraged by warnings about the threat of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and confronted with the difficulty in preventing them.

Just a few days ago the same FBI Director at the helm in 2002 warned about increasing domestic terror threats related to AQ in 2010:

Also in September of last year, FBI special agents arrested Michael C. Finton in Illinois and Hosam Smadi in Texas for unrelated bomb plots. The FBI used online undercover FBI agents and confidential human sources who continuously monitored the activities of these violent extremist subjects up to the time of their arrests.

There seems to be a conundrum. Obama campaigned against Bush's draconian policies and even toyed with a commission to investigate them after his election, yet he's kept almost all of them in place to date. We're told his election has improved our worldwide image while domestic attacks and recruitment continue to increase, leading the FBI to openly pursue socialist anti-war advocates.

What can be made of this? Is Mueller going rogue? Is it now possible to pursue socialists with connections to terror groups now that a liberal president is in power? Or is this part of a plan to remove a Republican talking point regarding team O's terror toughness? Or are they simply worried that too many barbarians have slipped inside the gate?

MORE 9/25/10

One of the contacts listed on the subpoena for Kelly was Hatam Abuddayeh. From DTN:

“The U.S. and Israel will continue to describe Hamas, Hezbollah and the other Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations as ‘terrorists,’ but the real terrorists are the governments and military forces of the U.S. and Israel. The vast majority of the world sees and understands this, and are in full support of Lebanese, Palestinian and worldwide resistance to Israel and the U.S.’s naked aggression, war, imperialism and occupation.”

Digging around, Abuddayeh was listed as a guest speaker at a Caterpillar shareholder meeting in 2005, with his bio listing an affiliation with a group that protested the Republican National Convention in 2008 (he's on their national steering committee). CAT was under fire due to their selling bulldozers to the Israelis along with the Rachel Corrie death in Israel in 2003.

So he appears a garden variety Palestinian activist with roots in the Marxist peace movement--no surprises there. The president himself has rubbed elbows with people of this nature for years, which is why it's ironic Chicago was included in the raids. Obama's pal Rashid Khalidi (with former ties to the PLO according to Charles Johnson) (also see Audacity of Hope) was also once a Chicago resident and founded the AAAN.

And yes, it's well known that when Obama was in charge of the Woods Fund they gave the AAAN a cash grant, which was dismissed as nothing during the campaign. Those keeping track might wonder if Mr. Abuddayeh attended that secret going away party for Khalidi, a tape of which resides at the LA Times who refuses to release it. Why, apparently yes he was.

All of this was dismissed as slander of the black guy during the campaign, yet now the FBI is executing search warrants at the homes of peaceniks looking for links to Mr. Abuddayeh. Maybe they should contact the LA Times.