Oops. FBI leaves documents behind during raids

[The Straight Story]

Oops. FBI leaves documents behind during raids

On September 24 2010, when the FBI raided five homes of activists in Minneapolis along with two homes in Chicago, they made a critical mistake. In the process of creating complete disarray in the home of Mick Kelly and his partner, Linden Gawboy, they accidentally left an operations order, which outlines the plan for the raid, including surveillance photos and potential interview questions. That operations plan was recently discovered by Kelly and Gawboy.

It may seem difficult to believe that, first of all, the FBI would be inept enough to leave their internal documents behind. It seems even more unbelievable that it would take seven months for these documents to be discovered, but the context of the raid gives some explanation. When they raided Gawboy and Kelly’s home, taking thousands of pages of documents, 11 boxes of books, computers, cell phones, and a passport, FBI agents left the apartment a complete mess, with papers everywhere. Those papers ended up going back in filing cabinets without being sorted thoroughly. On April 30, as Kelly and Gawboy were going through their filing cabinets, they discovered the FBI documents.

Asked about the documents, which were posted online today, FBI Special Agent Steve Warfield refused to comment.

The top of the Operation Order reads: “Dangerous” and says the case was initially predicated on the activities of activists Merideth Aby and Jessica Rae Sundin, who both travelled to Colombia in the past. The order claims that they support the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) because they once travelled to a FARC-controlled territory.

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2011/05/18/oops-fbi-leaves-documents-behind-during-raids