From the link above, the one that mentions that fringe network ABC:

"...the FBI domestic spy program resembles nothing so much as the notorious STASI of communist East Germany, where as many as one out of every 50 citizens signed up as "unofficial collaborators" to spy on each other.

But the FBI doesn't have to go so far back for plans on getting citizens to rat on fellow citizens. Saddam Hussein, for instance, had a very effective network of government spies, called the Mukhabarat. Or the FBI could set up the American equivalent of Saudi Arabia's religious police, a few of whom were arrested last week for beating a man to death after finding a bottle of alcohol in his apartment.

Whatever they call it, the horde of FBI collaborators is one more assault by the Bush administration on the right of privacy. Unless Congress intervenes to stop it, the FBI domestic spying program will join the Patriot Act, the NSA phone taps and the Pentagon's secret "TALON" data base as one more assault on our basic liberties - all justified under the guise of Bush's so-called war on terror.

ABC reports that there may be one consolation. Originally, the FBI considered putting domestic spies through the same training courses used by the CIA to recruit spies in foreign countries. According to Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, it's a good thing they dropped that plan: "U.S. intelligence officers abroad can use bribery, extortion and other patently illegal acts to corral sources into working for them. You're not supposed to do that in the United States." Which, of course, doesn't mean they won't.

What's even more disturbing than the idea that the FBI would set up a huge domestic spying program is the fact that most Americans will probably accept this latest manifestation of the price we have to pay for fighting terror. In fact, the opposite is true. Every time we give up one inch of freedom, the terrorists win.

Don't you feel safer knowing the FBI will soon have a plan in place to spy more effectively on the ACLU, PETA, Quakers, Moveon.org. and other suspicious characters?..."