Erris's Journal: FBI Abuses Criminal Database for Political Purposes.

Peace protesters were unable to leave the country because their names were added to a database of criminals.

"The FBI's placing of peace activists on an international criminal database is blatant political intimidation of US citizens opposed to Bush administration policies," says Colonel Wright, who was also Deputy US Ambassador in four countries. "The Canadian government should certainly not accept this FBI database as the criteria for entering the country."

"The list is supposed to be for felony and serious misdemeanor offenses. We don't qualify-- it's for sex offenders, foreign fugitives, gang violence and terrorist organizations, people who are on parole, a list of eight categories all together."

There's a serious due process violation here because a listing in this database is equivalent to an "infamous" conviction. Having your organization labled "terrorist" is equally damaging and almost as arbitrary.

Updates

Discussion is here.

• Strangely, guards must obey this US generated list, " The border agents at the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls who barred Medea and Ann said the mere fact that they were listed on the NCIC was sufficient to bar them from entry." The US tells Canada who can cross their border, how insulting.
• By law, they will be kept out for five years, The peace activists met Thursday afternoon with immigration officials at the Canadian embassy in Washington. The women were informed they could not enter Canada until they completed a lengthy application detailing their "criminal rehabilitation."
• The same source quotes outraged Canadian MPs. The women received support Thursday from several New Democrat MPs, including Toronto's Olivia Chow, who wrote Canadian diplomats in the U.S. to request the activists be admitted into Canada. "In Canada, peaceful protest is not a criminal activity, despite how some U.S. agencies may regard it," Chow wrote in the letter to Stephen Brereton, Canada's consul general in Buffalo. Decisions on admitting visitors to Canada should be made "based on appropriate standards decided by the Canadian government, and not by any other foreign body.
• One of the victims explains what happened in detail. Regardless of what you think about Iraq, please sign their petition.