Apparently a man’s suggestion at a Corp of Engineers hearing about how to help fish were misreported and then forwarded to the FBI as evidence of a possible terrorist threat:

Within days, the FBI had Bensman on the phone, asking whether he was any threat.

“To think I’m a terrorist is utterly ridiculous,” Bensman, 46, said from his home in Alton, just north of St. Louis. “How could any reasonable person think a terrorist is going to come to a public meeting held by the Army Corps, let them know who they are and announce their terror plot? It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

I actually agree with that. The man was engaged in a civil conversation, and a newspaper report about the meeting was the real cause of alarm, rather than comments at the meeting:

During the 90-minute hearing that included on the agenda whether to build a fish channel, Bensman says, he reiterated he’s no fan of dams, contending they’re environmentally destructive and amount to billions of dollars in corporate welfare for boating interests.

He urged that the dam be torn out. He said he never mentioned blowing the dam up, though the corps’ presentation of possible options included a picture of a dam being dynamited.

So if the Corp’s own presentation included a dam being dynamited, shouldn’t they have turned themselves into the FBI as possible terrorists? Or would that only happen if a newspaper article reported that the Corp was considering blowing their own dam up? Hard to understand why the Corp did not just contact Bensman directly. Certainly shows how alienated and unresponsive the government agencies can get from the people they are supposed to be serving, using fear of extremists as a convenient excuse.