[Ansteorra] Group status changes

Chris Zakes dontivar at gmail.com
Thu Jul 17 08:10:31 PDT 2008


At 08:39 AM 7/17/2008, you wrote:

(snip)

>As far as the terrorist "thing," I once heard that every member of the SCA
>has a file at the FBI because the SCA is listed as a "subversive
>organization," for no other reason than that our organization structure is
>modeled on a mundane political structure (we've set up kingdoms and
>principalities in the United States).  I've never been able to confirm that
>claim, so I wouldn't say for sure whether it's true or not.  Some people
>just get really uncomfortable when they see something unusual, and the
>kneejerk response is to conclude that something unusual automatically means
>something wrong.

This came up in "Tournaments Illuminated" some years ago. The fellow 
who wrote the article started out as a newspaper reporter who'd been 
assigned to do a story about Pennsic and ended up joining the 
SCA.  He filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see what files 
the FBI actually had on the SCA.

The result was (quoting from his comments on the Rialto):

"As I wrote in TI a few years ago, after filing a Freedom of 
Information request with the FBI, there were, at the time, TWO of 
them - both requests for any information on the SCA from military 
folks to the FBI, and two replies:

#1 stated that the SCA was an educational not-for-profit group with 
an interest in history,

#2 said "we have no derogatory information about the SCA on file."


So... it's a nice urban legend, but there's nothing factual behind it 
(unless you're the rabid conspiracy theorist-type who just *knows* 
that the government is always lying to and spying on you. <G>)

         -Tivar Moondragon




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