King of Zembla: That '60's Show

Courtesy of our rumbustious colleague the Heretik: As you know from previous reports (here, here, and here), the California National Guard is under investigation for dabbling in domestic surveillance -- specifically, collecting intelligence on a Mother's Day antiwar protest organized by Gold Star Families for Peace. John S. Friedman reports in The Nation that the National Guard, the FBI, and the FBI-managed Joint Terrorism Task Forces are engaged in "a coordinated federal effort" to spy on American citizens -- including, in an acid flashback to the bad old days before Frank Church, the infiltration of campus activist groups:

Democratic State Senator Joseph Dunn, whose budget subcommittee oversees funding for the California Guard and who is conducting the state investigation, said financial improprieties may have occurred, as state and federal laws forbid such activities. Dunn told The Nation that he is looking into reports that the Guard in some ten other states, including New York, Colorado, Arizona and Pennsylvania, may have set up its own intelligence units and conducted similar monitoring of antiwar groups. Such controversial directives could be coming from the Pentagon, he speculated . . . .