One of my sisters, the one that lives in Portland, is a pretty serious leftist--thinks the world of Michael Moore, etc. I was talking to her last night, and she told me something that isn't completely implausible. She says the CIA is present at antiwar rallies in Portland, photographing everyone's faces.
Now, before you call this paranoid, we do have a long history of "Reds Squads" whose job it was to keep track of radical groups. Cities, such as Los Angeles, had something called the Public Disorders unit, and a number of different federal intelligence agencies kept track of antiwar protesters during Vietnam. There's a story (perhaps apocryphal) of how after one rally in Wisconsin, all the different agencies exchanged notes and concluded that the undercover intelligence agents outnumbered the protesters.
Now, I'm pretty sure that if there are any government agencies doing such photography, it is not the CIA. That's outside their legal jurisdiction; the FBI would be doing this, if anyone. But I am curious: have you been to antiwar rallies? Have you seen anyone who is obviously photographing not crowd shots (such as a newspaper or a blogger might use), but individuals?
If intelligence agencies are doing this, there's no need to be obvious about it--unless the goal is to intimidate. If that's the goal, it is wrong. As examination of the antiwar movement's activities show, it is utterly ineffective, and just aggravates the paranoia.
UPDATE: Here's some more information on the subject.
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