The Register could not confirm the FBI informant’s identity, but the paper quotes activists who say that they believe it was a man named “Jason.” I can confirm now that the man suspected by activists of informing to the FBI is Jason Munford, who gave a fairly sincere-sounding presentation early last year at the University of Iowa about becoming a conscientious objector.

The Iowa Independent’s Adam Burke interviewed Munford on camera at the time:

In January of this year, Munford contacted the Iowa Independent via a YouTube message. Citing threats that he considered serious, he asked us to take down the video. (We declined.) Munford also firmly denied the allegations that he was an FBI informant:

A few months ago, I was falsely accused of giving sensitive information from an anarchist group to the FBI, that resulted in charges against members. Because of the threats I received and such due to those claims, I’ve been forced to move and I’m changing my name and taking other steps to protect myself. In the comments on the video from my talk, a lot of people have reconnected the claims against me to a video record of my appearance.

In the Register’s story, activists say that Munford admitted to them that he had informed to the FBI — a fact that the paper could not confirm. Here’s the relevant reporting from that story:

Political activists [Robert "Ajax"] Ehl and [David] Goodner said they believe they know the identity of the FBI informant who spied on the Iowa City protesters.

They say it was a young man from Michigan named “Jason” who claimed he was a U.S. military conscientious objector. He told people he had been discharged from the Air Force after he objected to being deployed to Iraq.

The man hung out with Iowa City activists for months, sharing beers and meals with them while expressing solidarity with their political beliefs.

Goodner and Ehl said “Jason” later admitted that he provided information to the FBI in exchange for money.

“It is my understanding that he just took money because he was unemployed,” Ehl said.

Looking back, the surveillance in Iowa City may have begun as early as the fall of 2007, Goodner said. He and three others from Iowa City traveled to St. Paul for a meeting with the RNC Welcoming Committee. A few weeks later, “Jason” started coming to their meetings in Iowa City.

If Munford was an informant, it remains unclear whether information he provided led to arrests or disrupted protests. The Iowa City activists told the Register that only one member of their group had been arrested in connection with protests in St. Paul, and that the charges against that person were subsequently dropped.

The Des Moines Register reported yesterday that the crowd numbered about 1,000.  In the version of the story up today, that number has been increased to 3,000.  Radio Iowa reports the same number.

Neither story cites an official source for the number, though it has never been clear to me that official sources are much better at counting the size of an outdoor crowd than journalists, unless there are controlled entry and exit points or heightened security measures in place.

In the Iowa Independent’s story, I pegged the crowd at about 700, which is a significantly lower number than the other reports.  In the interests of transparency, I should explain my methodology:

At about 12:30 p.m., when the protest was in full swing and the crowd was clustered near the stage, I walked up the steps of the capitol and took an approximate head-count.  First, I counted the farthest-away row of protesters, who were facing the stage (and me, since I was standing behind the stage).  Then, I counted the closest row of protesters, who were standing right in front of the stage.  Then I approximated the number of rows of protesters between the first and last row.  Once that was finished, I averaged the number of people in the first and last rows and multiplied by the number of rows I counted.

If that sounds easy, I assure you, it is not.  And I’ll be the first to admit that I could be wrong.

The crowd, numbering around 700 people, brandished placards of all kinds, ranging in subjects from immigration to global warming to the Federal Reserve. One moment, the crowd was chanting “Let Us Vote,” the mantra of same-sex marriage opponents in Iowa. The next, they were booing a proposal to eliminate Iowans’ ability to deduct federal income taxes from state income taxes.

Many attendees wore t-shirts with slogans from talk show host Glenn Beck and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s failed 2008 bid for the Republican presidential nomination, but there were few footprints of the state’s elite GOP establishment. Elected officials were few in number, and the crowd seemed less interested in boosting any party or candidate than they were in simply “throwing the bums out.”

Despite the lack of involvement from the party establishment, the event did seem thoroughly planned. Organizers scheduled brief speeches from everyday Iowans who had complaints about their elected officials, and time limits were enforced. There was a large, plywood sign labeled “Declaration of Independence,” to which protesters were encouraged to affix their names.

A coalition of same-sex marriage opponents, including the Iowa Family Policy Center, the Iowa Christian Alliance and Everyday America, will rally at the capitol today with the hope of convincing lawmakers to take up the controversial marriage amendment. The gathering is expected to go from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. A similar rally was held Thursday, after which Republican Rep. Christopher Rants of Sioux City tried and failed to attach the amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage, to the Health and Human Services budget.

Most expect another Republican attempt this week to force a vote on the amendment, although House Minority Leader Kraig Paulsen, R-Hiawatha, told the Cedar Rapids Gazette’s James Lynch that the marriage issue wouldn’t prolong the session.

One Iowa, the state’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, is planning to counter the conservative gathering with a “virtual rally” by asking supporters of same-sex marriage to call legislators.

Iowans for Tax Relief will rally Tuesday at 10 a.m. to oppose proposed legislation that would end federal deductibility, which allows state residents to write off their federal tax burden on their state returns. The change is part of a Democratic tax reform plan that could be debated Tuesday or Wednesday. During a public hearing on the bill last month, a group organized by Iowans for Tax Relief had to be removed from the House gallery after repeatedly ignoring requests to stop booing speakers they disagreed with.

Then, on Wednesday, the second Des Moines Tea Party will be held at the capitol from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. A similar event was held Saturday as part of conservative radio host and Fox News contributor Glenn Beck’s “9-12 Project.” Wednesday’s event is completely separate and designed as an antitaxation demonstration to evoke the memory of the Boston Tea Party. The gathering’s press release says several speakers are scheduled, but their names, as well as the organization behind the gathering, are not listed.

While advertised around the country as spontaneous grassroots gatherings of concerned taxpayers, some observers have pointed out that in many cases the tea parties are organized by corporate lobbyists and conservative groups like FreedomWorks, run by former Republican U.S. House Majority Leader Dick Army.

The group’s Web site does, however, have a list of appropriate signs for the event.

Mona Shaw, Kirk Brown, Ed Bloomer and Chet Guinn outside the Polk County Courthouse.

Methodist minister Chet Guinn, 80, as well as three Des Moines Catholic Workers, Edward Bloomer, 61, Kirk Brown, 25, and Mona Shaw, 57, were arrested at the Wakonda Country Club where Rove was scheduled to speak at a Republican Party fundraiser.They accused him of felony murder, election fraud, conspiracy to commit offense or defraud the United States leading to the war in Iraq, as well as treason, sedition and subversive activities.

Sally Frank, attorney for the defendants, said in court that she will file a motion to set aside the verdict and that the verdict will be appealed if the motion is denied.

Judge Colin Witt sentenced three of the defendants to the minimum $65 fine plus court costs. The fourth, Brown, said he could not in conscience pay the fine and was sentenced to one day in jail instead.

Chief Justice John Roberts

Roberts will deliver the Dwight D. Opperman Lecture in Constitutional Law today at 3 p.m. Protesters, organized by the Des Moines Catholic Worker Community, plan to gather outside the Knapp Center, 2525 Forest Ave., Des Moines, with signs and banners at 2 p.m.

The group is angry with Roberts’ dissenting opinion in the case of Boumediene v. Bush, which found that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay and other US prisons have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

Roberts disagreed with Justice Anthony Kennedy, who writing for the Court, said, “The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times” In his dissent, Roberts characterized the military commissions established by the Bush Administration that accepted testimony gained under torture and the use of evidence kept secret from the accused, “the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants.”

Today’s lecture is free and open to the public.

Former White House adviser Karl Rove

Two members of the group attempted to make a citizen’s arrest of Rove when he visited the University of Iowa in March and were subsequently removed from the hall by university police.

This time around, Rove is speaking at the Wakonda Country Club on Des Moines’ south side, and the Catholic Workers will once again attempt to arrest Rove for war crimes, sedition, felony murder and treason. They are planning on gathering en masse outside the club’s entrance on Fleur Drive at 11:45 a.m., with Rove scheduled to speak at noon.

The program, which is the main fund-raising source for the RPI’s voter turnout program, costs $100 for lunch and $1,000 for a reception with Rove. According to an RPI spokesman, there will be no media allowed into the event and no availability with Rove after he has finished his speech.