FBI collecting data on anti-war groups: NYT

In a report sourced to several interviews as well as a confidential bureau memorandum, the Times said that the law enforcement agency has also advised local officials that they should report to counterterrorism squads any suspicious activity at protests.

The memorandum, which was circulated to local law enforcement officials on Oct. 15 ahead of antiwar demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco, detailed how protesters have sometimes used "training camps" to rehearse, the Internet to raise funds and gas masks to defend against police use of tear gas, the newspaper reported.

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The memo analyzed legal activities such as recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal ones such as using false documentation to gain access to secured sites, it said.

FBI officials told the newspaper that the intelligence gathering effort was aimed at identifying anarchists and "extremist elements" plotting violence, not at monitoring the political speech of law-abiding protesters.

Asked to comment on the paper's account, an FBI spokesman emphasized that the agency's interest was in potential criminal, and possibly terrorist, activity.

"The FBI is not interested in individuals who are exercising their constitutional rights of protest," FBI spokesman Bill Carter said. "It's only the groups who would be involved in violent or criminal activity where there would be an interest."