She made another failed attempt to enter the country. After further inquiries, the Czech police announced on national television that Morrison had committed a misdemeanor on a previous trip to the Czech Republic; she had been fined for smoking a cigarette in the main train station. (It later turned out that the "receipt" the police gave her was false and that they overcharged her for the offense.) Though Czech authorities did not say so, Morrison believes she was put on the list because of her arrest in Seattle at last November's mass protests of the World Trade Organization.

Morrison is one of 300 activists barred from the Czech Republic in advance of the so-called "S26" demonstrations. Another American, Lee Sestar of Chicago, was told by customs officials at the Prague airport last Sunday that he was also on the unwelcome list because he was arrested at the Seattle protests. Sestar, who insists he was swept up with a group of peaceful protesters, was eventually convicted of failure to disperse, a misdemeanor offense. Charges against Morrison in Seattle were dropped. But both were "persona non grata" in Prague last week.

Czech authorities have been praised for successfully containing violent demonstrators who tossed Molotov cocktails and bricks at police and delegates during the IMF/World Bank summit. But authorities' efforts to prevent demonstrations by keeping demonstrators out of the country reflect an approach to dealing with the global protest movement that does not bode well for civil liberties.

Over the past month, Czech authorities have sought to bar hundreds from the country. An American and three Dutch cooks with the vegetarian collective Rampelpaln were kept out of the country, and a trainload of 1,000 Italian anarchists affiliated with the militant Zapatista-support group Ya Basta! was surrounded by riot police and held at the border until four group members targeted by police agreed to get off.

Czech police, acting in concert with American and European police officials, have tried to prevent known activists from entering the country. Their most controversial means of doing so involves a list of activists allegedly provided to Czech authorities by the FBI.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the FBI told Salon that he "had not heard" of any FBI lists of activists or persons arrested in the U.S. being turned over to Czech police. "I have no information on that matter, nor can I confirm or deny published reports," FBI Special Agent Steven Berry said.

Reports of the list emerged after Czech officials discussed information they had about unwelcome foreign activists with the press. Czech Republic Chief of Police Jiri Kolar told Agence France Presse on September 15 that authorities possessed lists of "undesirable individuals" who are "suspected of abusing their stay to threaten state security, public order, or undermine other protected interests." Czech Interior Minister Stanislov Gross added that many are "under investigation for crimes committed during violence in the United States," most notably during the anti-WTO demonstrations in Seattle and the IMF/World Bank protests in Washington last April.

According to the British newspaper the Guardian, Scotland Yard also provided photographs and information on the alleged "ringleaders" of the May Day demo in London this year, when numerous bank and store windows were smashed and monuments desecrated.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy in Prague said Tuesday that "inexperienced" public affairs officers with the Czech police had mistakenly sourced the lists to the FBI. "There is no blacklist or watchlist that the FBI gave to Czech police concerning American activists," U.S. press attaché Victoria Middleton told Salon. "Whatever lists [the Czech police] have came from publicly available documents," she said.

Middleton acknowledged that FBI officials, as well as local and state police from Seattle and other U.S. cities, "shared information with Czech police officials" about the role of activists in previous mass demonstrations, as did police from other European countries. But Middleton added, "I have been assured by law enforcement officials at the highest level that this information is in the public domain."

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