FBI Is Intimidating An Academic?

This is just the sort of thing we supposedly despise when other governments do it.

A U.S. academic accused the FBI on Friday of trying to silence his criticism of Bush administration policy toward Venezuela, further straining ties between Washington and the major oil supplier.

Venezuela seized on agents' questioning of the professor, condemning it in a statement as "a violation of the freedoms of expression, thought and academic inquiry, and ... a desperate attempt to link Venezuela to terrorism."

Guess what triggered the questioning. Come on...guess.

Tinker Salas said two agents of an FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force [JTTF] questioned him this week at his offices about his contacts with the Venezuelan Embassy.

"The intent was to intimidate," the Venezuelan-born American citizen told Reuters.

An American citizen who was born in Venezuela, a country of no threat to us, visits the embassy of his birth nation and gets a visit from the FBI. And, not just any old FBI agents, but ones from the JTTF.

Like many U.S. political analysts critical of the Bush administration's policy toward Latin America, Tinker Salas believes the United States is stoking tensions with Venezuela by seeking to create the impression it is a threat.

I don't consider myself a political analyst, but came to the same conclusion quite a while ago.

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