On May 17, 2009, the Des Moines Register reported that they obtained confidential documents that show an FBI informant infiltrated an anti-war group that met in Iowa City before the September 2008 Republican National Convention (RNC). Additionally, an undercover sheriff's deputy from Minnesota travelled to Iowa to attend an anti-war conference and collect information on a group planning to protest at the RNC in St. Paul. The documents raise concerns about whether the FBI was attempting to suppress political dissent and activism. 

Even as the catastrophic human tragedy unfolds in Sri Lanka, the island's government is refusing to allow aid workers or journalists into the country, banning the delivery of humanitarian relief outside of the official camps. With at least 50,000 civilians unable to escape the exchange of gunfire and shelling between the military and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) along the northeastern coast of Sri Lanka, a UN spokesman described the disintegrating situation as a "bloodbath." The Sri Lankan government's actions have directly jeopardized the lives and security of tens of thousands of citizens, violating long accepted standards for humanitarian aid.