Environmental Protesters Targeted

The FBI said Connole was their man. His lanky frame resembled one of the videotaped suspects, and an anonymous source had reported suspicious activity at the co-op. This proved to be "there's young people with environmental bumper stickers on their cars and it doesn't look like they have jobs", says William Paparian, Connole's lawyer. It seemed a flimsy basis for round-the-clock surveillance.
Indeed, the FBI was mistaken. Last November, William Cottrell, a 24-year-old California Institute of Techonology physics student, was found guilty of the arson attacks. He faces up to five years in jail. Two alleged accomplices remain at large.
Connole, who is suing the FBI, believes the raid on the co-op was a fishing expedition. "They weren't looking for bombs or explosives [the activists used Molotov cocktails]. They didn't even search the garage. They went for everyone's computers and phone address books. A couple of days later, they started calling people from the phone books." He believes the FBI wanted to infiltrate the environmental and anti-war protest movements.