In case you were looking for another reason to start donning a tin foil hat and moving to some forgotten island far away where the government can\’t track you, new documents that were just leaked by the FBI indicate that they have been doing surveillance on Burning Man festival since 2010.
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The 16 page document, released by MuckRock, a site that promotes government transparency to the public by sharing public report records, is unfortunately cryptic as hell due to numerous redactions. From what I can get from it, they basically cite \”crowd control issues\” and \”the use of illegal drugs by participants\” as their reason for the surveillance. There are definitely a lot more sinister things going on in our country than some hippies doing drugs in the desert that the FBI could be focusing their attention on, but I digress.
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Furthermore, the document also refers to \”preventing terrorist activity and intelligence collection.\” EXCUSE ME? According to the National Institute of Justice, the FBI defines terrorism as \”the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.” That\’s a rather grandiose term for some dudes tripping on acid in the desert and questioning the government.
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And how about those redactions, huh? They certainly leave a lot to the imagination. Makes you wonder if there truly was a threat to the safety of the attendees. Perhaps the most tantalizing of all redactions was this one below.
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Who knows. You can view the document in all its mostly-redacted glory here.
