WORDS OF WARNING

Annie J. writes a blog called anniej's livejournal, which was brought to my attention by a friend. Subtitled "the moon & antarctica," it lives on a popular online publishing site.

Annie J.'s journal is a pop culture fandom diary about, among other things, "porn, werewolves, wizards, gay boys fucking, and the hotness of David Thewlis" and, not least, Harry Potter. (That's her own description.) Unfortunately, she posted something political not long ago that brought the Secret Service to her door.

If you take a look at her diary (click the link), you'll see it's chatty, very well produced, pretty ordinary fandom stuff, not at all pornographic as far as I could tell, not even the slightest bit kinky.

I know nothing about Annie J. except what she says in her "about me" note -- she was born Nov. 6, 1981, in South Carolina -- and what I can deduce from her postings. I also don't know what she said in the post that got her into trouble. She's taken it down to avoid further investigation, she says, and to protect the privacy of people who commented in response.

Here's her story in her own words, posted on Oct. 27, 2004 (shortly before the election needless to say), which I find entirely credible:

For all my LJ-loving friends, this is a word of warning, a word to the wise, and a word of utter exhaustion after the wringer I've been put through in the last twenty-four hours.

A couple of weeks ago, following the last presidential debate, I said some rather inflammatory things about George W. Bush in a public post in my LJ, done in a satirical style. We laughed, we ranted, we all said some things. I thought it was a fairly harmless (and rather obvious) attempt at humor in the face of annoyance, and while a couple of people were offended, as is typical behavior from me, I saw something shiny and forgot about it, thinking that the whole thing was over and done and nothing else would come of what I said.

I was wrong.

At 9:45 last night, the Secret Service showed up on my mother's front door to talk to me about what I said about the President, as what I said could apparently be misconstrued as a threat to his life. After about ten minutes of talking to me and my family, they quickly came to the conclusion that I was not a threat to national security (mostly because we are the least threatening people in the entire world) and told me that they would not recommend that any further action be taken with my case. However, I do now have a file with the FBI that includes my photograph, my e-mail address, and the location of my LJ. This will follow me around for the rest of my life, regardless of the fact that the Secret Service knows that I am not a threat.

Obviously, I cannot link to the original LJ post that I made, because I have removed it from my LJ to protect myself and those who commented in that thread from receiving any further visits from the FBI. [See point of information below.] I apologized for the miscommunication, though I did not apologize for voicing my opinion of George W. Bush. I will never apologize for speaking my mind. I will, however, apologize when I say something [the] wrong way and for unintentionally offending/threatening someone, because I am an extremely nonviolent person.

After having consulted an attorney to make sure that speaking about what happened to me will not incur another visit from the Secret Service, I am making this public post to tell you all several things.

Annie J. then adds a lengthy statement, couched in terms that sound like legal advice. She repeats that she is a non-violent person, and says 1) she has never had any military or weapons training; 2) she would never harm anyone, let alone the president, and would never encourage anyone else to harm him; 3) she wants to warn people to be careful about what they say on the Internet; 4) she's concerned about having an FBI file because she doesn't know what it will mean for her future.

She emphasizes that the Secret Service did not come looking for her as part of a federal fishing expedition, but because somebody denounced her. The FBI "received a report about my post," she writes, from somebody who had visited her site (whom she suspects she knows). She says she doesn't believe her rights were violated by the Secret Service agents who visited her, and she's not now considering filing a complaint. She also claims she doesn't feel intimidated.

To judge by her statement, however, it's pretty obvious she does feel intimidated. Which is not surprising. I'd bet most of us would feel intimidated if paid a visit by the Secret Service.

Question: Was what happened to Annie J. just a fluke? A friend of mine with a law degree, who regularly writes about the machinations of the U.S. government, says he's not surprised by what happened to her. It's not usual for citizens to be investigated by the FBI or the Secret Service, but it's not that uncommon.

Other questions: In the wake of the election, will a Justice Department led by Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft be freshly emboldened by the religious-right Moral Majority mandate of 59 million voters? Will FBI or Secret Service visits become all too common? Will friendly agent drop-ins become usual? Will denunciations become the norm? Is it paranoid to ask?

Lastly, as a point of information: Annie J. uses the terms "FBI" and "Secret Service" interchangeably, which gives the wrong impression. They are not one and the same. The FBI is the investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, charged with various law-enforcement duties. It's top priority once was to investigate crime. Now it's to protect the U.S. from terrorist attack. The Secret Service is a branch of the U.S. Treasury Department, charged with protecting the president and the vice president.