FBI Subjected Protesters to 'Pretext Interviews'

(WPost) - New FBI documents to be released today show that anti-terrorism agents who questioned antiwar protesters last summer in Denver were conducting 'pretext interviews' that did not lead to any information about criminal activity.

The memos were obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union as part of ongoing litigation and provide a glimpse of the FBI's controversial efforts to interview dozens of members of leftist protest groups before the party conventions last year in Boston and New York.

One heavily censored memo from the FBI's Denver field office, dated Aug. 2, 2004, characterized the effort as 'pretext interviews to gain general information concerning possible criminal activity at the upcoming political conventions and presidential election.'