Editing Joint Terrorism Task Force (section)

==Criticism==
After the September 2001 terrorist attacks, the FBI began to establish or intensify working relationships with [[campus police department]]s; by January 2003, JTTFs included campus police officers from at least a dozen universities. This prompted some criticism from faculty and student organizations.<ref>Dan Eggen, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2003/01/25/fbi-taps-campus-police-in-anti-terror-operations/c303eb1b-77d3-4bf5-8398-4bc56d76eb2c/ FBI Taps Campus Police in Anti-Terror Operations], ''Washington Post'' (January 25, 2003]</ref>

Documents obtained by various [[American Civil Liberties Union]] (ACLU) affiliates in 2004, 2005, and 2006 in response to [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]] requests showed that JTTF investigations have focused on "peaceful advocacy organizations such as the [[School of the Americas Watch]], [[Greenpeace]], [[Catholic Worker Movement|Catholic Workers Group]], the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center in Colorado, and the [[Thomas Merton Center (Pittsburgh)|Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Justice]] in Pennsylvania, among others."<ref name=ACLUCriticism>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aclu.org/other/more-about-joint-terrorism-task-forces|title=New documents confirm that FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force wastes resources and threatens First Amendment rights by targeting peaceful protest activity as "domestic terrorism"|publisher=American Civil Liberties Union|date=n.d.}}</ref> The ACLU has criticized these investigations,<ref name=ACLUCriticism/><ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.aclu-co.org/news/pressrelease/release_JTTF120705.htm |title=Press Release|publisher=ACLU of Colorado|date=December 8, 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060206165726/http://www.aclu-co.org/news/pressrelease/release_JTTF120705.htm |archive-date=February 6, 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|author=G.W. Schulz|title = Are things any different in Denver?|url=https://publicintegrity.org/national-security/are-things-any-different-in-denver/|publisher= Center for Public Integrity|date=September 3, 2009}}</ref> calling them "inappropriate" targeting of "peaceful political activity having nothing to do with terrorism."<ref name=ACLUCriticism/>

After a detective with the [[Fresno County, California]] Sheriff's Department who was a member of the JTTF attended public meetings of Peace Fresno in 2003, the Sheriff's Department issued a statement saying that "For the purpose of detecting or preventing terrorist activities, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department may visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public, on the same terms and conditions as members of the public generally."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/09/1556226 |title=Peace Group Infiltrated by Government Agent |publisher=Democracy Now! |date=October 9, 2003 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070214091219/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03%2F10%2F09%2F1556226 |archive-date=February 14, 2007 }}</ref>

In June 2008, according to ''[[City Pages]]'', the [[Minneapolis]]-based JTTF approached a source to infiltrate [[Veganism|vegan]] [[potluck]]s and eventually report back to authorities on organized protesting activities in preparation for the [[2008 Republican National Convention]] in nearby [[Saint Paul, Minnesota|Saint Paul]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/06/whackamole.php | title=Whack a Mole | publisher=City Pages | author=Matt Snyder | date=June 3, 2008 | url-status=dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080611154336/http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2008/06/whackamole.php | archive-date=June 11, 2008 }}</ref>

In 2010, the [[United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General|Justice Department Office of Inspector General]] (OIG) issued a report that criticized the FBI for investigating various domestic activist groups from 2001 to 2006, including [[People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals|PETA]], the Thomas Merton Center, and the Catholic Worker. The OIG faulted the FBI for providing the OIG "with speculative, after-the-fact rationalizations for their prior decisions to open investigations that [OIG] did not find persuasive."<ref>Marian Wang, [https://www.propublica.org/article/watchdog-faults-fbi-for-factually-weak-basis-for-investigating-activists Watchdog Faults FBI for 'Factually Weak' Basis for Investigating Activists], ''ProPublica'' (September 20, 2010).</ref><ref>''[https://oig.justice.gov/special/s1009r.pdf A Review of the FBI's Investigations of Certain Domestic Advocacy Groups] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322154533/https://oig.justice.gov/special/s1009r.pdf |date=2020-03-22 }}'', Oversight and Review Division, Office of the Inspector General, September 2010.</ref>

A 2013 report from the [[Brennan Center for Justice]] at the [[NYU School of Law]] argued that, "The most significant oversight problem with assigning police officers to JTTFs is that there is no mechanism geared towards ensuring compliance with state and local laws. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that rules relating to how police officers should act in the event of a conflict between their federal and state/local obligations are sometimes unknown and almost always unclear."<ref name=Price/>