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FBI Targets US Palestine Activists
Searches, subpoenas, but no charges for anti-war activists 'providing support to terrorists' in Colombia and Palestine.
Tracy Molm sometimes has a hard time paying rent, so it came as a surprise when American security forces banged on her door at 7am one morning, and searched her apartment under suspicions she provided material support to a terrorist organisation.
Warrants indicate that investigators believe Molm and at least seven other activists from the Minnesota anti-war committee and other groups provided material support to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), groups the US considers terrorist organisations.
"My assumption is that material support means money and guns, but they [police] wouldn't explain anything," Molm told Al Jazeera. "I think the real thing is that they are trying to intimidate those of us who are standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine and Colombia."
Activists from Minneapolis and Chicago have been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury investigation in October, after coordinated police raids on September 24.
Activists say they are trying to educate the public about suffering caused by US foreign policy (GALLO/GETTY) No charges
Despite the searches and seizures of computers, cheque books, mobile phones, documents and photographs, Molm and other activists have not been charged with committing a crime.
"The searches were conducted pursuant to a warrant issued by a federal judge," Royden Rice, a special agent with US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Chicago, told Al Jazeera.
"No arrests have been made or charges filed in connection with this investigation," he said, leading activists to call the searches a trolling expedition targeting Americans who object to their government's foreign policy ventures.
More than 200 people demonstrated in Minnepolis on Monday, denouncing the raid, according to the Minnesota Daily, while at least 100 rallied in Chicago on Tuesday to support the anti-war activists. More demonstrations are planned in other American cities and activists expect the numbers to increase drastically, as they only had three days to plan the first round of protests.
"The FBI does not investigate any person or group because of their political views," said agent Rice. "We investigate allegations that federal criminal law has been violated."
'Suppressing political activity'
Bernardine Dohrn, a law professor at Northwestern University in Chicago, thinks the police are trying to do one of two things. "Either it is a fishing expedition, as there is not enough evidence to indict [formally charge] anyone; or it is an attempt to suppress political activity. Neither are good news," she said.
As a legal scholar, Dohrn worries about the vague nature of national security laws instituted after the September 11, 2001 attacks on US targets.
"If you write articles, is that material support [for terrorists]? If you contribute resources for computers or healthcare clinics in occupied territories, or territories resisting government control, is that material support?"
She says grand jury investigations, the legal manoeuvre activists are facing, represent a way to "circumvent other constitutional protections."
People who appear before a grand jury "cannot bring in a lawyer. It is the prosecutor, you [the person being investigated] and a group of grand jurors ... in short it is a coercive method to get information."
Jessica Sundin, a clerical worker at the University of Minnesota, also had her belongings taken by security forces in the coordinated searches and seizures. Like Molm, she denies providing material support to any group and says she has done nothing illegal or unethical.
She believes that the "biggest task of our anti-war movement [in the US] is to educate our own people."
Visit to an occupied country
In that spirit, Molm and other American activists travelled to Palestine in 2004 to see the conditions there for themselves. "Every day people [in occupied lands] go through checkpoints with guns pointed at their heads and they have this horrendous situation, but they continue to live and laugh," she said.
"The occupation of Palestine is as brutal as it is because US tax dollars, my tax dollars, support that. Sending people there to bring back [personal] accounts and pictures is important to building solidarity."
Israel, the power responsible for occupying Palestinian land, received $2.55bn in American military aid in 2009, according to the US State Department. That number is expected to increase to $3.15bn per year from 2013 to 2018.
"I don't know why it would be a crime to have a scarf with the Palestinian flag on it, but they [police] took that," she said.
As for Colombia, the country has received at least $5bn in US military aid since 1999.
Amnesty International USA, a human rights group, said it "has been calling for a complete cut off of US military aid to Colombia for over a decade due to the continued collaboration between the Colombian Armed Forces and their paramilitary allies."
Justifying terror cash
Rather than a vast attempt by security forces to intimidate critics of US foreign policy, the searches may have a simpler motive: an excuse for police to justify the massive infusions of federal cash they received under the pretext of 'fighting terrorism.'
"In Minnesota [the state containing Minneapolis where most searches took place] a lot of money was put into anti-terrorism efforts," says Sheila Regan, a reporter with the TC Daily Planet who has been covering issue for a local audience.
"It has one of the biggest terrorism bureaucracies anywhere; they [security forces] need something to do to justify their salaries," she told Al Jazeera.
Like other subpoenaed activists, Molm works for a group called Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), which had been critical in organising major demonstrations against the US war in Vietnam back in the 1960s and 70s.
Dohrn was a national leader of the group from 1966-70 and has direct experience with the grand jury subpoenas which a new generation of activists is now facing.
"When I was called before a grand jury and refused to collaborate ... I went to jail and was released eight months later by the same judge, who said 'apparently there is no evidence against you.' It is a strange way to have to prove your innocence."
Back in the anti-war movement of the 1960s, a few US activists did travel to Vietnam to see the affects of B52 bombers, toxic Agent Orange and support for the western-backed government in South Vietnam.
Jane Fonda, the former activist and work-out video queen, famously stood next to an anti-aircraft gun with North Vietnamese communists, and decried the US for what she called its "illegal" bombing campaign against the country.
New activist tools
But today, travelling to places which face foreign military interference - Palestine or Colombia, Iraq or Afghanistan, Somalia or Yemen - is far easier, due in part, to technological innovations and the cheap prices for transportation fostered by global capitalism.
Travel makes human connections easier. And activists in the US say they are struggling to educate average people about injustices committed, in their name, in places far from Minnepolis or Chicago.
When Molm went to Palestine in 2004, she says the American media were not at all interested in the public talks she gave or the "injustices" she witnessed. "Now I have major media stations asking what I saw there. Now I can talk about home demolitions and [Israel's separation] wall."
On this front, she says, the grand jury subpoena may prove helpful in the battle for the hearts and minds of average Americans.
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Show AllFBI Rounding Up Peace Activists – Blog for Peace and Freedom
Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) issued this statement. It “encourages all anti-war activists to follow the example of the targeted activists if you are confronted by the FBI or other police agencies.” ANSWER reminds us:
It is important for all activists and organizers to know your civil rights. People have the right to remain silent and to consult with an attorney. Even if the FBI shows up at someone’s home or office with a warrant, you are not required to engage in conversation. It is better to say to FBI or other law enforcement agents, “Let me have your contact information and my attorney will call you.” People will gain nothing by engaging in discussions with FBI officers.
http://peaceandfreedom.org/blog/?p=3814
"A friend reminded me that, just as Nixon was thought to be the only U.S. president that could have pulled off the “opening” to China, based on his well-earned reputation as an arch anti-communist, so the First Black President might be the one that unleashes the 21st century police state in all its techno-horror. A Black president with a degree in constitutional law, who can still no do no wrong in the delusional eyes of strong majorities of African Americans, some of whom would remain in his corner even if Obama, himself, knocked down their doors in the wee hours of the morning."
-by BAR executive editor Glen Ford
“Grand juries are places where rights are butchered, and we can clearly see the broad outlines of a mass prosecution strategy unfolding, in which grand juries are the engines of political destruction.”
Last week’s FBI raids in the Twin Cities, Chicago and Durham, North Carolina amount to a declaration of war on the activist Left, in which grand juries are deployed as omnibus weapons of political persecution under an infinitely expandable anti-terrorism rationale. The constitutional lawyer in the White House has tossed the founding document into the National Security State shredder, as he prepares for global capitalism’s High Noon encounter with – anyone and everyone that resists.
A government that claims the right to kill U.S. citizens without even a whiff of due process and for reasons that are secret to the public and to the victim, has broken with every notion of the rule of law since the Magna Carta. The Obama Justice Department has spent every available hour since Inauguration Day building upon George Bush’s fascist logic in an attempt to fashion a flawless Orwellian police state doctrine in which secrecy and security are entwined like a strand of DNA. For targets not marked for oblivion, there awaits a grand jury with boundless powers to ensnare anyone,absolutely anyone.
The scope of information demanded of some of last week’s FBI victims – demands with which no one can fully comply, such as all records of domestic as well as foreign travel since the year 2000, or a list of all “contacts” that might somehow have bearing on the conflict in Colombia or the Mideast – is naked proof that the intent is to smother, entangle and utterly demobilize the target. The Obama administration is constructing a legal minefield in which any honest activist can be charged with lying to federal officers or a grand jury by commission or omission – each count of which is punishable by years in prison.
“The intent is to smother, entangle and utterly demobilize the target.”
It is not brave, but prudent and self-protective, to refuse to discuss one’s political work or opinions or much of anything at all with FBI agents, as was reportedly the case with all of the recently targeted individuals. But grand juries are places where rights are butchered, and we can clearly see the broad outlines of a mass prosecution strategy unfolding, in which grand juries are the engines of political destruction. As Ron Jacobs wrote inCounterpunch, “There is a grand jury being convened in October 2010 with the intention of perhaps charging some of the people (and maybe others) subpoenaed on September 24. These raids are an attempt by the federal government to criminalize antiwar
“."
Obama’s newest assault on the Left has generated new demands for the October 2 rally. The San Francisco Labor Council, after resolving that the FBI raids “are reminiscent of the Palmer Raids, McCarthy hearings, J. Edgar Hoover, and COINTELPRO, and mark a new and dangerous chapter in the protracted assault on the First Amendment rights of every union fighter, international solidarity activist or anti-war campaigner, which began with 9/11 and the USA Patriot Act,” put forward a demand to choke the pep rally out of labor’s Democratic cheerleaders: “that this Council urge the AFL-CIO to ensure that denunciation of the FBI raids is featured from the speakers' platform at the October 2, 2010 One Nation march in Washington, DC, possibly by inviting one of those targeted by the raids, for example the SEIU chief steward whose home was raided, to speak at the rally.”
Will the NAACP and Big Labor allow it to happen? By their cowardices and betrayals, ye shall also know them.
BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com.
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/president-barack-%E2%80%9Cmidnight-raid%E2%80%9D-obama-end-your-wars-home-and-abroad
Thanks for posting this, Rangoon. And so it begins....
Great post, thanks. President ObambyaBush being a Constitutional lawyer exposes the danger to the American public, as he knows how to circumvent the Consitition legally and illegally. This exposes the danger of the Grand Jury system, which allows the legalized illegal Grand Jury system to operate. Going to jail for 8 months for not cooperating with a Grand Jury which was convened that resulted in no evidence of a crime because their was no way to cooperate for that which didn't exist except in the minds of someone, somewhere. The Stalinist's and the fascists had nothing on what is and will be happening in the USA.
It's getting like "Hocus Pocus" by Kurt Vonnegut or a Facist Police State...
There is not enough evidence in this article to justify a response other than the murky waters of terrorism is ripe for abuse.
Is it coincidental that these raids came at the same time as DOJ criticism of FBI raids in Pennsylvania against anti-war critics was made public?
"The FBI does not investigate any person or group because of their political views," said agent Rice.
Wow, bald faced lies don't get any balder than that.
Actually, what the FBI does not investigate (at least not honestly) is the crimes of our Zionist shadow government, which include 9-11, and the anthrax letters -- in fact, they actively participated in covering up both of these crimes. They gave us the 19 Arabs with box cutters fiction, and they also framed the lone, conveniently suicided scientist, Bruce Ivins, in the anthrax case after unsuccessfully attempting to hang it on physician/virologist, Steven Hatfill.
So, Mr. Obama...
The gloves are coming off and what I and some others have posted recently concerning the 'state secrets' privileges you've claimed for yourself and your executive branch as concerns your 'right' to commit assassination of Americans and non-Americans, as well as the FBI raiding peace activists, and your intent to control the internet in the U.S. the way China and N. Korea does, as well as your intent to install surveillance 'back doors' into all of our internet communications (in spite of the fact that you've been doing it illegally for decades), is turning out to be correct.
Your bullshit 'global war on terror' is now being directed at Americans in a corporate/globalist class war. You are waging war on 'we the people', and against justice itself. You are a traitor, a criminal, a murderer, and a terrorist. You are worse than the Chimp and his Sith master, because you lie with a straight face, pretending to be honorable and reasonable. Today it is proven that paying federal taxes is a crime. It is material support for terrorists.
Yep, everything changed after 911 and this exactly how they planned it! " You lie with a straight face pretending to be honorable and reasonable ". That is the definition of a con man, but Obama is sooooo good, I have called him the consummate con man for a long time. His theme song should be: THE GREAT PRETENDER!
"The FBI does not investigate any person or group because of their political views," said agent Rice.
__
No, of course they don't. On the other hand, they do investigate threats to "national security", and any recognition of the realities certainly does threaten USA Incorporated and its Zionist partners in crime. In fact, even questioning the motivations and injustices underlying those realities may provide "material aid" to the "terrorist groups" attempting to oppose them.
No decent American would think of indulging in such "anti-Semitic" activity that could undermine the efforts of "greater Israel" to gain all of the territory that was allegedly awarded to them by their divine real estate agent in the book that their illustrious ancestors wrote on the subject a few millenia ago.
I saw that statement, and I had a moment of cynical hysteria at the blatant and obvious falsity of it. It's a good thing my mouth was empty or I'd be cleaning my monitor. The history is clear about the political use of the DoJ against 'communists', anti-war groups, environmentalists, etc.
They do their work well. Most people I know with any sense are seriously distrustful of joining any justice groups, for fear of agent provocateurs/infiltrators. Any quick study will show how often a perfectly peaceful group is branded as 'terrorists' because of the criminal actions of FBI infiltrators.
I recall the words of Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young...
paranoia strikes deep
into your heart it will creep
it starts when you're always afraid
step out of line
the man comes and takes you away
You'd better stop, children,
what's that sound
everybody look what's going down
There is no question that there has been a severe cooling effect with regard to the ability of people to sustain solidarity and to organize thanks to the efforts of the DoJ and other govt. organizations.
Fear is the mind killer. The prospect of prison and homelessness is hard for anyone with a heart, much less with dependent children. But then I've seen a whole lot of people willing to choose fascism over justice and liberty when they start counting their 'assets'. Don't expect help from anyone who has been a 'success' in this country - as success is defined in this culture.
Well, leaving responsibilty of picking targets of the long long war of Humans vs Machines to computer software is a great way for the ruling class (owners of the computers and political class) to avoid any direct responsibility for the carnage.
I don't know, I just got a feelin that they are not called the "Ruling Class" for nothin.
Well, we have preemptive wars, so why not preemptive arrests of potential American terrorists. " The system works by detecting hatred and deep resentment towards government ". Gee Miggy, isn't that just about everyone? From the Tea Party people; the Fox News watchers and militias on the right to the tree huggers and environmentalists on the left!
I am so glad that the D majority in both Houses and Obama have restored habeas corpus, posse commitatus, repealed the Patriot Acts, ceased spying on US citizens, do not want powers to monitor internet communications, reversed dozens of executive orders from Bush Jr. and prosecuted Cheney, Bush Jr., Rummie, and the gang for High Crimes and Treason.
What? FBI arrests protesters from the RNC? Harrasses pro-Palestinian groups with arrest and prosecution?
"The searches were conducted pursuant to a warrant issued by a federal judge" I'm shocked, how could this happen? We have the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, right?
And so it continues. When the misnamed Patriot Act was voted in, then amended and up dated time after time, I said that We the People had lost our Constitution and freedom. The argument that I got was, "What are you worried about? If you don't break the law, you have nothing to fear."
My answer was, "What happens when they change the law, and what you have been doing is now illegal?"
We are seeing it daily, and much more upfront than even in the McCarthy era.
Classifications:
Terrorist or insurgent - Any person or persons who objects to the occupation and rape of their country, abduction, torture or disappearance of their relatives or friends by the United States or its puppets.
Homegrown Terrorist or Supporter of Terrorism - Anyone who expresses sympathy for the above oppressed people, wherever they may be. Any person or group who attempts to aid the above oppressed people by contributing to, say, medical relief to the above oppressed people. Anyone who writes, stumps, demonstrates or otherwise opposes any government policy of invasion, torture, incarceration, starving of populace, wanton destruction of people or villages in any of the above, which now encompasses almost the entire planet.
I think there will come a day when such icons as the American Friends Service Committee or the ACLU will be classified by the Attorney General's Office as supporters of terrorism for their legal and humanitarian acts. At that point, anybody who has donated to them in the past will also become "homegrown terrorists" or "supporters of terrorism." Then, we will all be liable to become unemployable, have our property seized, our bank accounts frozen, and either be turned out into the streets, or more likely, sent to one of the KBR Concentration Camps.
As Miggy above has said, we now have "facecrime," which is closely allied with "thoughtcrime."
This reminds me of when the human genome project was nearing completion. Some in law enforcement thought it was great. They would be able to get the DNA patterns of everyone, down to children, analyze what characteristics are found in a "criminal" and dispose of them or incarcerate them before they could commit any crimes. Sort of like the guy with the red Ferrari that parked in front of a coffee shop for a snack. When he came out he found a ticket on his windshield for "Intent to Speed."
This is not a laughing matter, however. I read an article about a lady who was trying to board a flight to see a relative. She found herself on the "No-fly List." Nobody could or would tell her why. Eventually it was found that she had talked with a friend on the phone about her trip. They also talked about their kids and she had told her friend that, "Jimmy really bombed his test in history yesterday."
"Flight" plus "bombed" equals a terrorist. No-Fly!
This is nothing new. I had a friend many years ago who had fought with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain, fighting Franco's Fascists during the Spanish Civil War.
He was a brilliant and accomplished man, but found himself unemployable. He would apply, everyone was impressed, he would be hired, then, "Sorry, our mistake, the position has already been filled," or some other excuse.
He finally found out what the problem was. A little visit from the FBI to the potential employer. He was a security risk. The AG even had a classification for him.
He was a "Premature anti-fascist!" He had been antifascist before that was US policy. Apparently all the Brigade members were placed on that list and none of them could be meaningfully employed, though, like the blacklisted writers, they could work for little pay under an pseudonym.
As the government and law enforcement have gained power, they are just coming out in the open about it.
Orwell, London, Lewis are all known as authors. Unfortunately, they are now becoming known as prophets.
Oops! I wonder if this would be classified as "resentment of government?"
Miggy, I am on chapter nine of Core of Corruption and this is an incredible documentary... of real media recordings and videos that are worth a thousand wikileaks.
This is the best investigation of what was behind the attacks and how the Bush and even Clinton before him slowed and then stopped any investigating the CIA connected and Mossad infiltrated and funded sources of the bosses of the hijackers in mainly, Bush Loving, Saudi Arabia.
If you want a new investigation like me, ya gotta see this first.... it even has the dynamite with investigative reporter, Greg Palist.
I will pass on that link to my friends...
Thanks
The first halve is great linking Bush and the company to the hijackers money and cover-ups which justice has helped them escape so far......
The second half gets into how many bombs were used and all the buildings wired and then ends with the latest X-File, before 9/11, although I don't deny the tricks of Hollywood ties to the CIA and the Mob...
It ends up getting the Bush gang off the hook they uncovered in the beginning by saying everything now was remote controlled, so there were no pilots needed in this new scenario, so then, we can forget about the cover up because the answer is remote control and we know Bush is too stupid to know how to pull that off.
Something is not right about this picture.... forget about the cover-up and blame the machines.....
This is too Hollywood even for me. The first half was real and the 2nd was mostly speculations.
Let me just say kindly it was too long and i spoke too soon.
sorry.
Well, this is a perfect example of what happens when folks get paid to do this.
These guys probably think Hoover was too wimpy.
When did the Zionists take over our government?
1948
Has anyone fantasized about the FBI raiding the offices of AIPAC, Zionist Organization of America and the Jewish Defence League ?
Fat chance ? Maybe, maybe not.
I'm usually content to dream about Wolf Blitzer being perp walked for being an operative of a foreign power.
Maybe this means that we are getting the truth out to too many Americans and they are afraid of us anti-war activists. This happened with the sanctions against Iraq. The peace activist got the truth out to people around the world about the suffering and deaths of 3 to 4 thousand children every month and people all over the world were beginning to protest and violate the economic sanctions against the civilians of Iraq. That is why George W. Bush had to invade Iraq. America was loosing control of the oil production.Now the peace activist are spreading the word about the suffering of the civilians in Palestine and Columbia. The U.S. government cannot afford another overt war so they are going after the peace activists to frighten potential new members along with terrorizing the old members.
Ask yourself,
Who am I really afraid of?
People that live in other countries or
people roaming the streets with weapons
in a country with arbitrary laws
Ummm...I would just like to say that I support wars of imperialist aggression and illegal blockades and war crimes as long as it is us or one of our allies doing it.
Oh, and death from above. I'm certainly in favor of that.
And spying on people without warrants then later getting warrants even though we already know what we'll find. I support that too.
And I think sometimes my neighbor, who I am sure is anti-Government, sneaks into my house and posts things using my id. Bad anti-government things.
So investigate him.
I'd be happy to testify at his trial.
Dear FBI:
I belong to the ACLU, Ammnesty International, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, Wilderness Society, NRDC, NOW, and lots more, even including the Auto Club! Would you feel more kindly towrds me if I joined the NRA?
I also feel that the U,S and Israel are treating the Palestinians horribly. and very much like nazis. I believe that corporate America should be investigated for money laundering and you still haven't arrested all of those people involved in arms smuggling and IRS fraud. You really need to OUT those INSIDER trading people.
I really do believe that America could be a country that lived up to its PR, but i don't think that's happening now. I also think that political people who use words like "lock and load, need to be put in front of a grand jury, and at the very least, asked why this is not the same as yelling 'fire in a theatre."
However, I am annoyed, disappointed, and discouraged that so many of your group have been found CHEATING on exams.
Until you can get this BIG internal problem under control, I really think that it's silly of you to harrass the public. You really have no credibility, if so many have to cheat to pass a test. How would any citizen know if an agent who fingered them was a certified FBI agent, or merely a pretender to the zone?
I'm sorry, but next to the financial thieves and the military ones, it does seem that the third biggest, Clear and Present Danger, is you.
We will need to change our flag. 50 stars are not right.
We just need one star, because we are now all in
the " Police State".
I'm not so sure the Left should be rushing to join these activists. I wrote a leftist critique of the protests against the FBI raids for precisely this reason:
http://rosswolfe.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/a-leftist-critique-of-the-protests-against-the-recent-fbi-raids-on-peace-activists/