electroNic writes:

UT Watch Membership Questioned by Feds
Jonathan York, The Daily Texan

Watch members are on edge after hearing that federal terrorism investigators asked a student whether he was a member of their activist group.

UT and federal officials, however, aren't saying why the group's name allegedly came up when physics freshman Mark Miller was investigated in January for filing an open records request for maps of steam tunnels under the campus. Miller told the Texan that FBI and Secret Service agents from the Austin Joint Terrorism Task Force asked if he was a member of "student activist organizations" with anti-government agendas. The agents specifically asked about UT Watch.

UT Watch closed a portion of its online forums after group member Forrest Wilder posted a comment citing the agents' questions.
"We need to make these forums private," Wilder wrote on the forum. "The FBI thinks we're trying to bring down the government by filing open records requests!"
The activists asked UT open records coordinator Annela Lopez last week why FBI and Secret Service agents mentioned UT Watch to Miller, who is not a member of the group. Lopez told them what officials already have said: Federal agents learned about Miller when UT System officials asked them to study vulnerabilities of the tunnel system. UT officials used the agents' opinions to prove their case to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott that the maps should not be released. He agreed.
"The AG wasn't simply going to accept the University of Texas saying, 'This is our critical infrastructure,'" Lopez said. "We had to go outside to get a better opinion."

UT officials with knowledge of the federal agents' visits didn't return phone calls.
"The main concern is that we're just caught in the middle of this thing that we've got nothing to do with," said Wilder. "But we're not going to hide in our homes or anything."UT Watch has been the most visible student group to oppose such Board of Regents' plans as tuition increases and a bid to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory. Edna Perry, resident agent-in-charge of the Austin Secret Service office, said the terrorism investigation probably started with a callto the FBI from the UT open records office. Lopez disagreed.
"We did nothing," Lopez said.

Carol Longoria, System public information coordinator, said she processed Miller's request as she would any other. She referred questions to System spokesman Anthony de Bruyn. De Bruyn referred questions to the agents, who would not comment.

The closed forums also contain a map of the tunnels, which connect campus buildings to provide water, steam, coaxial cables, compressed air and fiber optics.

Kevin, a UT alumnus who asked to be identified by only his first name, mapped out the tunnels when he attended the University. He removed the map from his personal Web site after UT Watch posted it.

"Back before 9-11, it was a lot easier to get around down there," Kevin wrote in an e-mail interview. "Gates were left unlocked on aroutine basis, so over the course of the next couple of years, I managed to explore a large portion of the network."
Kevin even gave "tours" of the tunnels.
"It was quite fun," he wrote. "Recent attempts to head down there have been less successful, probably due to 9-11 (new locks, locked locks).