The FBI goes to Iowa City.

• Position: McCarthyism Watch

He was very well dressed. He claimed he'd been in the military but that he refused to go to Iraq and was granted conscientious objector status.

That's how activists in Iowa City are now recalling a person they believe was working undercover for the FBI. He went by the name of "Jason," and later changed his name to "Val," they say. And he joined their group as they were planning protests for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul last year.

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"He was an active organizer," says David Goodner, of the University of Iowa Anti-War Committee. "He gave speeches with other Iraq vets against the war and played a very high-profile role in our group."

He even served as moderator for at least one of their meetings, a web search shows. The meeting was held at the Iowa City Public Library on August 21, 2008, just ten days before the Republican convention. He then went to St. Paul with the group, ostensibly as a medic.

"He knew the activist lingo," Goodner says. "He could speak the slang. And he had instant credibility because he said he was a CO."

Another Iowa City group, the Wild Rose Rebellion, first publicly aired the accusation that "Jason"/"Val" was informing to the FBI in an Infoshop News posting of December 17. "The purpose of this statement is to warn all radical organizations and people," read the posting.

The Des Moines Register then busted the story wide open on May 17.

Robert Ehl, who goes by the name Ajax, was one of the founders of the Wild Rose Rebellion. The alleged informant "was at the very first meeting at the library," says Ehl, adding that he didn't have an inkling that he might be undercover. "We would go and hang out with him--me and him and a couple of people at a bar or somebody's apartment."

Ehl was imprecise about how he found out about the alleged informant.

"Through a series of events that I can't go into, it became apparent" that he was a snitch, Ehl says. "I confronted him. He admitted it."

I reached the alleged informant by e-mail. He gave his name as Valvilis Cormaeril. "The 'official' story is way off," he said, and the activists know that, he added. As for his side of the story, he said, "I'm afraid I can't give it." By way of explanation, he said, "The real story would not only cause me a lot of grief, but also for the people who threw me under the bus. Long story short, no one would get anything out of it, it would cause a lot more problems than this version has, and as it stands now, it's...