a comment I left at the Harvard Democrats' blog...

Oh I see... Today's Crimson clarifies everything! The FBI is looking to protect protestors. And I imagine that includes counterprotestors like the "Support the troops" folks who show up at peace rallies, or 9/11 truthers who show up at, say, pro-Palestinian rallies. So what's the issue then? Do we or do we not demonstrate in order to be seen and indeed photographed? I'd like to think that someone going over my own FBI file might learn a thing or two. And from what I hear from my elders getting a copy of said file decades later makes for a marvelous trip down memory lane, a personal scrapbook including transcripts of conversations, photos (and these days video no doubt) collected at no cost to oneself and handed over with a smile once the state-sponsored paranoia has become outdated! Anyway, don't blame me--all of this hysteria came out of the 9/11 fraud against America and the world. So long as you don't question the premise that there is a global arab muslim jihadist conspiracy to overthrow democracy and establish a global caliphate then you will have to accept that many people will consider these measures quite acceptable!

From the Crimpson:

Both Catalano and the FBI declined to say whether Harvard has appointed someone to a Boston joint terrorism task force.

Special agent Gail A. Marcinkiewicz said, however, that the FBI does not film protests.

“The right to protest is protected under the First Amendment,” she said. “What we are interested in are the people who are thwarting or interfering with people who are protesting.”