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Anti-War Activists Whose Homes Were Raided To Refuse Orders To Testify
CHICAGO - Anti-war activists whose homes or offices were raided as part of an FBI terrorism funding investigation will refuse to testify before a grand jury as ordered, in a show of defiance that could land them in jail.
Polly Kellogg of Minneapolis held a sign during a rally to protest FBI searches conducted last week at her home and homes of several other anti-war activists, in Minneapolis Minn., Monday, Sept. 27, 2010.
(AP Photo/Craig Lassig) Attorneys for the 14 activists called to testify have coordinated their responses since the Sept. 24 raids and have agreed their clients won't testify, Melinda Power, an attorney for a Chicago couple whose home was searched, said Tuesday. Agents searched seven homes and one office in Minneapolis and Chicago.
"They feel grand juries are now, and have historically been, a tool of harassment against activists", Power said.
Some of the anti-war activists won't testify because they don't want to be complicit in what they see as an attempt to stifle freedom of speech and assembly, said Jess Sundin, whose Minnesota home was raided.
"We feel like the reason we're being called and we're being looked into is because of our very legitimate and constitutionally protected work in the anti-war movement," she said.
About 50 peace activists protested Tuesday outside of the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago, where the grand jury was to convene.
"We will not be silent," Stephanie Weiner told protesters. She and her husband, Joe Iosbaker, were the two activists whose home was raided in Chicago.
Some subpoenas ordered activists to appear before Oct. 5. Sundin, who was subpoenaed to appear on Oct. 12, said activists sent separate letters to prosecutors indicating they do not intend to testify.
Randall Samborn, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago, declined to comment about the case.
Some legal observers say the activists could go to jail.
"There's no chance prosecutors will just let it slide if they keep refusing," said Gal Pissetzky, a Chicago attorney with no link to the case.
As a next step, the government could reissue subpoenas - possibly this time with an offer of immunity. If the activists decline to appear then, a judge could hold them in contempt.
A key issue is whether any of the activists are targets of prosecutors or whether prosecutors merely consider them witnesses against another primary target.
Just after the raids, FBI spokesman Steve Warfield said the bureau was seeking evidence related to "activities concerning the material support of terrorism."
But Sundin said no one has told activists who is or isn't the focus of the investigation. She said that puts them all in jeopardy of self-incrimination, she said.
"It's just you, and the prosecutor and the jury (at the grand jury proceedings)," Sundin said. "So it is a very precarious situation for anyone to put themselves in."
Meredith Aby, a Minnesotan who was subpoenaed to testify Tuesday but did not make the trip to Chicago, also said the grand-jury process was unfair.
"I think they are an incredibly repressive and undemocratic tactic," she said.
Someone who is a target can refuse to testify under their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination without risking a contempt charge, Pissetzky said. If they are granted immunity, however, a grand jury witness is required to answer questions, he said.
Activists who have spoken with reporters have denied giving money to terrorist groups.
The homes of two other longtime Minneapolis anti-war activists, Mick Kelly and Meredith Aby, were also among those searched last month.
The warrant for Kelly's home sought evidence on travel he did as part of his work for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and information on any travel to Colombia, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria or Israel.
Two groups use the name Freedom Road Socialist Organization, one based in Chicago and one in New York. They split several years ago, and the New York group said it was not targeted.
Kelly's subpoena also commanded him to bring records he might have relating to the Middle East and Colombia, along with records of any payment provided to Hatem Abudayyeh.
The subpoena did not further identify Abudayyeh, but FightBack! has interviewed and carried articles by a Hatem Abudayyeh who's the executive director of the Chicago-based Arab American Action Network.
Abudayyeh did not answer his office phone Tuesday and a recorded message said the voicemail was full. A message left on his cell voicemail was not returned. Several activists said their cell phones had been confiscated by the FBI.
Associated Press Writer Amy Forliti in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
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35 Comments so far
Show AllNational security trumps the Constitution. The Constitutional Scholar and his minions have spoken! Tony
So, we were warned the Terrorists would follow us home.
How true!
I thought we fought them over there so we wouldn't have to fight them over here?
I support the grand jury Refusniks 100 percent. Each of the 14 should submit a Ham Sandwich, in stead.
To refresh memories, when disabled activists demonstrated for disability rights - to be captured in some ADA - they threw themselves from wheel chairs and chained themselves to the White House South Lawn fence. Some removed clothing, so embarrassed viewers had to look upon their bodies.
President Obama: You would do well to tell these law enforcement thugs to STAND DOWN. Americans have a right to express antiwar opinion and sentiment. Presidential candidate Hubert Humphrey understood that before during and after the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
Who says people on the left weren't upset? Just about everyone besides maybe some establishment Democratic apologists thought it was outrageous.
Just because you make the claim that the right would care if we did isn't convincing anyone. I've talked to enough right wingers in my life to know that won't happen. I think the reaction would be something closer to: "those stupid socialist deserve what they get! I hope they go away for treason!". Maybe now you, but your average dimwitted righty isn't capable of drawing that connection.
Well said.
Libertarians ARE very upset about this. Unfortunately, progressives and libertarians seem to have difficulty standing together. I think that at this point in time the areas of agreement are more important than the differences. Nader and Ron Paul are closer to 80 than 70, is there anyone of equivalent stature to replace them?
Try this: www.activistpost.com/2010/10/5-key-principles-that-unite-populist.html
One thing I've noticed and will continue to mention in comments is the concerted effort to demonize the "scary Left". Then they link universal ideas like civil liberties and peace to the left so the masses develop negative associations with those ideas. When Ron Paul spoke publicly about peace and constitutional rights he was called a "liberal loon".
It's going to be Obooma's witch hunt.
So go after O'Donnel she has already fessed up.
Bring in the kangaroos.
I support the 14 and agree with all the post so far!
"Franz Kafka. Paging Mr. Franz Kafka. You *WILL* pick up the WHITE courtesy phone!"
"George Orwell. Paging Mr. George Orwell. You *WILL* pick up the WHITE courtesy phone!"
Non Serviam - I will not serve.
In the case of the Puerto Rican Independence supporters from New York who were called by a grand jury in the 70s, some of them spent a while in jail. Not because they committed any crime, but because refusal to answer any grand jury question is punishable by imprisonment for the duration of that grand jury. So if they ask you if you know anyone else who supports Independence, and you refuse to name names, you go to jail. If they ask you to describe your debates, and you will not talk about some foolish statement inspired in an inexperienced person by a provocateur, an idea that was later voted down, you can go to jail. If they ask you about anything that might tend to look incriminating, you cannot plead the Fifth Amendment. And so on.
The grand jury is a fishing expedition, and you and your political colleagues are the fish. Refusal to get involved is a wise and courageous choice. If you nibble, it's hard to disengage from the hook.
Joe
Can we say "McCarthy Hearings" boys and girls?
Here's an article written by Cindy Sheehan for Al Jazeera English:
Dissent in the Age of Obama:
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/10/2010105104959212813.html
Do they still say "hang tough"?
"I don't recall"
"I don't recall" was used by Clinton, Gonzalez, Reagan...
That is the best way to deal with an offer of immunity. Just say I do not remember what I did or said that day, or whom I spoke to, and I have no paper records of what I did or said or spoke to.
FBI spokesman Steve Warfield said the bureau was seeking evidence related to "activities concerning the material support of terrorism."
Seeking evidence? Does anybody actually believe this? Why didn't, and aren't, they seeking evidence in the crimes of 9-11, the Anthrax Letters, or the stolen presidential elections of 2000 and 2004? These raids were not about seeking evidence, they were about intimidation -- period.
Let's be clear about the FBI -- this is the agency that:
(1) produced the names and photos of 19 Arab patsies on whom to blame 9-11, amazingly, within only a couple days of the crime and to date still refuses to do any honest 9-11 investigative work.
(2) hung the entirety of the Anthrax Letters crimes on the conveniently suicided lone scientist Bruce Ivins, after unsuccessfully trying to frame physician/virologist, Stephen Hatfill who successfully sued the government (dead men tell no tales -- they rarely sue either).
(3) continues to turn a blind eye to the growing epidemic of clearly stolen elections via electronic voting in the U.S.
We're talking about the enforcement/investigative arm of Big Zio (our Zionist shadow government) whose priority mission is to protect and/or cover up the crimes of Big Zio. And this means, under the guise of honest investigation, identifying and framing selected patsies. Does this mean every FBI agent is a Zio-operative? No. There are decent and honorable people in the ranks of the FBI, but they don't run it -- Big Zio does.
There are probably 3-5 cartels that think they run the FBI/CIA/ETC...
You should add into point 1,tho, that many of these 19 were later found alive and well and nowhere near NYC.
Maybe if this story blows up it'll help a lot of dumbfounded people get real about the Obama America. Nothing new here folks. New boss same as the old boss.
Grand Jury is grand abuse. No defense allowed, and refusal to testify is not an option. That's plain coercion.
Got courage? Keep standing up folks.
Obama's Justice Department is acting like Woodrow Wilson's under AG Palmer, which persecuted labour and peace activists and even deported Emma Goldman.
Make no mistake about this, Obama is as much a threat to our civil liberties as Nixon and Bush were, perhaps more!
A learning opportunity.
A victim of President Wilson's arrogant persecution was Minnesota Representative Charles A. Lindbergh, Senior, who dreaded the possibility that the US would be drawn into the idiotic Great War taking place in Europe. IF that happened, and IF our involvement lasted long enough, then his beloved son could be drafted. When the US joined the fracas, Lindbergh rapidly wrote a book called "Why Is Your Country at War?" He warned parents in ghettos and on farms that their lads would be sacrificed for the sons of the Elite.
During printing, a copy somehow reached the White House. Woodrow Wilson acted immediately to destroy the book. Federal officers raided the printing house, seized all copies and burned them. They also melted the printing plates in a refiners' fire. Charles Lindburgh Junior was a teenage witness to this persecution of his father. It had long terms effects upon his opinion of America. When Chas. Lindbergh Sr died in 1924, a number of his friends got together and published a memorial edition of the book Wilson had burned. I was lucky to find a copy in a used book store.
Thanks for your post!
I knew about Lindbergh, Sr.'s resistance to World War I -- but I did NOT know about the book.
it is our crap legal system. a 2 tier "system" one for the wealthy connected elite and one for everyone else.
it is also perfect for pushing this country closer and closer to total fascism.
i support the 14 activists 100%. vote green. it is time to stop this crap which is happily supported by dims and repugs all over the country.
matt
hcgp.org
So ends the empire of the United States,
Infecting the world for so many years.
Angry and swelling like a boil
Incubated with terrorist fears.
Eating away at the Social Fabric,
Dissolving the bonds of respect.
Healthy life is removed from Nature,
All is war or terror suspect.
One illegal war after another.
Killer of millions, destroyer of homes.
Technocratic state of big brother.
Turns peoples lives into war zones.
Its fortunes spent on evil wars,
Its peoples robbed without recourse.
Class warfare makes all its new laws.
Social contract is now by force.
Justice is used for suppression.
Police violence used to oppress.
Media tell lies of ommision.
Tortured innocents made to confess.
The empire of the United States.
leaks with a bad offensive smell,
Once the top will finally burst,
full of elite corruption to tell.
Its currency will become a figment,
of flashed computer memories,
Its reams of government bonds,
will be priced as junk stories.
Good for these folks, we need to heap as much contempt as we can on the judical and political systems of this country. They are not serving the people, but the elitists and the multinational corporations!
The defendants should learn from their politicians and power criminals--use the defense tactic that is employed so well by these mega-criminals:
"I don't know", "I can't recall", "my memory fails me", "That's the first time I've heard that..."
well done!
why participate in the rigged game?
make it too expensive for the machinery to function!
We all give money to terrorist groups. We pay our taxes. The U.S. government takes this money & uses it to terrorize poor people around the world.