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For Immediate Release
April 28, 2006
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Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691
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FBI RESPONDS TO OIG REPORT ON FBI ACTIVITIES CONCERNING
POTENTIAL PROTESTORS AT THE 2004 CONVENTIONS
Results show FBI
acted appropriately
Washington, D.C. - The FBI today released the following statement
in response to today’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) report:
We appreciate the work of the Office of Inspector General in examining the
FBI’s investigative activities concerning potential protestors at the
2004 Democratic and Republican national political conventions. We welcome this
scrutiny and are pleased with the results. The findings essentially refute
many published allegations and claims that the FBI engaged in misconduct. In
the course of their 10-month review, the OIG conducted dozens of interviews
of FBI Headquarters and field personnel and reviewed thousands of documents.
The OIG found that the FBI’s investigative activity during this time
was related to addressing threats that fall directly within the FBI’s
domestic terrorism program and were conducted for a legitimate law enforcement
purpose. Additionally, all actions were in accordance with Attorney General’s
Guidelines on General Crimes as well as FBI policy.
With respect to protestor-related interviews, the OIG found that the FBI’s
contacts with these individuals were appropriate and necessary in furtherance
of criminal investigations into specific threats of violence.
As FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, stated earlier this week in New York, “The
FBI will be measured not only by our ability to protect the nation from terrorism.
We will also be measured-as we should be-by our commitment to protecting the
rights and freedoms we enjoy as Americans. If we accomplish the first goal,
but fail in the second, it will indeed be a pyrrhic victory.”
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The OIG report
is available on the web at: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/new.htm
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