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Terrorist by Association
The Justice Department targets nonviolent solidarity activists.
September 24 began like any other Friday for Joe Iosbaker and Stephanie Weiner. Then, at 7 a.m., FBI agents knocked on the door of the Chicago couple's house in the city's North Side.
Armed with a search warrant, more than 20 agents examined the couple's home, photographing every room and combing through notebooks, family videos and books, even their children's drawings. Some items were connected to their decades of anti-war and international solidarity activism, but others were not. "Folders were opened, letters were pulled out of envelopes," says Weiner, an adult education professor at Wilbur Wright College. "They had rubber gloves and they went through every aspect of our home." (See video interview with Weiner and Iosbaker below.)
Ten hours after their arrival, as television news crews filmed and activist supporters stood on the sidewalk, the agents drove away with nearly 30 boxes of material, including t-shirts and a photograph of Malcolm X. By that time, Iosbaker and Weiner had been served subpoenas to appear before a grand jury investigating "material support" for "foreign terrorist organizations." And they knew theirs wasn't the only home invaded that day. More than 70 FBI agents had raided seven residences in Chicago and Minneapolis and questioned activists in Michigan, California and North Carolina, serving subpoenas to 11 people. A few days later, the Justice Department subpoenaed members of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), whose office was also raided on September 24, raising the number to 14. (Editor's note: five additional Chicago-area activists were subpoenaed in early December; see update below.)
The grand jury and FBI are looking for evidence that connects the 14 activists and their "potential co-conspirators" to two organizations: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which are both on the State Department's "Foreign Terrorist Organizations" list. None of the 14 has been charged with a crime, and all deny providing "material support," including money, to any foreign organization.
Citing the Fifth Amendment, all 14 are refusing to testify before the grand jury, which they say is a secretive arm of a government intent on silencing critics. (The U.S. Attorney's office conducting the investigation declined to comment. The search warrant affidavits justifying the FBI raids remain under seal.)
Most of those subpoenaed, including Weiner and Iosbaker, have been active in the labor movement and/or are members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), a self-described "socialist and Marxist-Leninist organization" with about 100 members. But affiliations vary: 71-year-old great-grandmother Sarah Martin belongs to the Minneapolis-based group Women Against Military Madness; Hatem Abudayyeh is executive director of the Arab American Action Network, a Chicago social services agency; others are connected to Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago and the Colombia Action Network, which has protested U.S. military aid to Colombia and the assassinations of unionists there. The only connection they all have in common is that they all participated in an AWC-organized rally outside the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
Except for Mick Kelly and Tom Burke, FRSO members who have interviewed PFLP leaders, and Jess Sundin, who met with FARC members 10 years ago during a visit to Colombia, none of those subpoenaed say they have communicated directly with members of FARC or PFLP. But many of the activists are sympathetic to those organizations' goals and some have traveled to Colombia and Palestine as part of solidarity delegations.
"Anyone who does international solidarity or anti-war work, anyone
who goes against the grain of American politics, is affected by this,"
says Kelly, a University of Minnesota cook and Teamster. "It's extremely
important to push back against this repression. It affects the movement
as a whole."
The Supreme Court's ‘deeply chilling effect'
The phrase "material support for terrorism" brings to mind money and
weapons, or other goods and services that directly support a terrorist
organization's violent objectives or actions. But in June, the Supreme
Court in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project upheld a much broader
definition of material support-one that criminalizes speech advocating
peace and human rights if it is "coordinated" with an official terrorist
organization. It is this ruling that sets the stage for September's
raids.
"For the first time, [the court] actually says it's criminal to speak out, to associate," says Michael Deutsch, an attorney with the Chicago-based People's Law Office and one of the National Lawyers Guild members working with the activists. "The ruling criminalizes First Amendment activity. It's quite ominous."
Material support for terrorism was first criminalized by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The 2001 PATRIOT Act broadened the definition of "material support" to include "expert advice or assistance" and provided a maximum sentence of 15 years. (The American Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh was charged with, but not convicted of, providing material support to al Qaeda.) In 1998 the Humanitarian Law Project went to federal court to challenge the material support statute. The nonprofit group wanted to assist the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) with conflict resolution and human rights monitoring. It was later joined in the lawsuit by Tamil-American organizations wishing to provide medical assistance to victims of the 2004 South Asian tsunami, which would have required working with the now-defeated Tamil Tigers, which, like the PKK, is a State Department-listed terrorist group.
The Humanitarian Law Project argued that the material support law violated the First Amendment's right to free speech. But a majority of the Supreme Court accepted the government's argument-made by then-Solicitor General and current Justice Elena Kagan-that all nonviolent aid is properly illegal because it "frees up other resources within the organization that may be put to violent ends" and "legitimates" foreign terrorist groups. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts clarified that the law only criminalizes speech "under the direction of, or in coordination with foreign groups," leaving "independent advocacy" on the right side of the law.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor strongly disagreed, writing: "Not even the ‘serious and deadly problem' of international terrorism can require automatic forfeiture of First Amendment rights."
University of Chicago law professor Aziz Huq takes issue with the court's distinction between "independent" and "coordinated" speech-a critical distinction if any of the 14 activists are charged with "material support" of FARC and PFLP. "There is some kind of speech that is not possible to do independently," Huq says. "There are speech interests that are squelched here."
Deutsch agrees: "It creates a chilling effect on people who are challenging U.S. foreign policy. If you speak out for the rights of Palestinians or question the government of Colombia, or are supportive of the Kurds' right to their homeland, you've invariably going to come into contact with these groups. You're going to be advocating some of the things that they're promoting."
That's a point familiar to former anti-apartheid activists, who organized to end white supremacy in South Africa. The anti-apartheid movement took direction from the African National Congress (ANC), which was called a terrorist organization by President Reagan in 1986. If the material support statute had been in place in the 1970s, the thousands of people who led anti-apartheid protests across the United States could have been considered criminals. (The ANC and its leader, Nelson Mandela, were not removed from the U.S. list of foreign terrorist organizations until 2008, 15 years after Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize.)
"This is almost the 1950s coming back. It's overreaching," says Jim Fennerty, another attorney assisting the subpoenaed activists. Similarly, he adds, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter could be charged with "material support" for monitoring Lebanon's 2009 elections, which involved coordinated activity with Hezbollah, an official terrorist organization that was on the ballot.
In February, when the Supreme Court heard Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, David Cole, the Center for Constitutional Rights attorney sparred with Justice Antonin Scalia:
Cole: The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the L.A.Times...published op-eds by Hamas spokespersons...thereby providing a benefit to Hamas. [Under this statute,] they're all criminals...President Carter-To read the rest of this article, please visit InTheseTimes.com.Scalia: [Interrupting]: Well, we-we can cross that bridge when we come to it.
74 Comments so far
Show AllWhen Bush was in power, they said "Vote for us, to get rid of Bush policies".
After elected and they continued the Bush policies, they said "Vote for us, we are the better of two evils".
This article says it all.
According to this article, it looks like the only Americans that are not under suspicion of being terrorist sympathizers are the good Germans...OOPS, I mean the good Americans that watch and believe what they are told to believe and are being brainwashed by Foxy News and the rest of the Goebbels propaganda news networks. The Muslims across America must be terrified of another 911, because they could be locked up for their own "safety". Just like the Japanese Americans in the second world war. Many of these Japanese Americans had family members in the military, but it made absolutely no difference. Too bad we cannot lock up the politically,powerful, elite for our safety!
Just another case of Republigoons gone wild.
Stone,
This is not a Republican issue. It is the FBI under the Justice Department of Barack Obama that is carrying out these raids and prosecuting these activists.
hackerkat
Absolutely! I wonder if Stone is aware that a Democrat has been in the White House these last two years?
Silly hackerkat, thinks he/she lives in a two party state...
The United States of Terror is a one party state, where only the rich have the right to speak openly (as long as they don't say things that are 'anti-Amurikkkan). Go to work and shut up. Or if you're not working, commit suicide you commie rat!
Just hold the phone. You do realize that the Justice Dept.is staffed by political appointees that must be ratified by the Senate and that this august body has seen fit to filibuster every appointee put forth. This abuse has made it impossible to remove the Orwellian Bush appointees. With this administration hamstrung by the party of no and the pathetic blue dogs it is little wonder that the enforcement agencies have run amok. Pity that the regulation agencies such as the EPA and SEC have not been able to do their jobs. Welcome to the new Corporate America.
Stop making excuses for Obama and stop with this "blue dog" nonsense. Democrats are all the same, corrupt, deceiving and as criminal or worse than Republicans.
I see that Dem Party Apologists on CommonDreams are alive and well.
Holder is an Oilybomber appointee, he can make or break any case he cares to.
And Holder is beholden to Oilybomber.
The President makes the decisions. Obama can stop these prosecutions and persecutions any time he wants. Clearly, he does not want to stop them.
Actually its worse than that the law is retroactive, in that if you donate to a group today and it is later listed as a Terrror Organization, you are liable for prosecution.
Does hugh harm to the Muslim culture which is greatly involved in generous acts of charity.
Talking in our sleep has become a criminal activity.
this is starting to look and sound like Gestapo tactics,there is no other name for it, all pretence at these actions being done in the name of homeland security are no longer valid or beleivable, wake up pepole.. the gloves are off..
Yes, that is the cliche "the Gloves are off"
That definitely sums up this horrendous, accelerated, catering to the bloated 2% and massively oppressing 90% in broad daylight.
Obviously these people are guilty of thoughtcrime. I am suprised the Thought Police did not simply arrest these criminals and process them for reeducation. Big Brother is watching you.
Indeed.
This from today's Washington Post (of all places):
"Nine years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, the United States is assembling a vast domestic intelligence apparatus to collect information about Americans, using the FBI, local police, state homeland security offices and military criminal investigators.
"The system, by far the largest and most technologically sophisticated in the nation's history, collects, stores and analyzes information about thousands of U.S. citizens and residents, many of whom have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
"The government's goal is to have every state and local law enforcement agency in the country feed information to Washington to buttress the work of the FBI, which is in charge of terrorism investigations in the United States."
It gets better:
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/monitoring-america/
They are funded by the forced contributions of American taxpayers, just to add insult to injury.
Why arrest when indefinite detention is an option?
It is easy. Just remember that showing in any way "resentment toward government," advocating world peace, speaking out for peace, or against poverty and arguing with corporate outsourcing of jobs, multibillionaire giveaways of our taxes, etc., showing sympathy for any people or group outside of the American Right Wing, doing not unto others as you would not have done unto you, giving alms of any sort to anybody without first clearing it through HS and its minions makes you a homegrown terrorist.
Once you understand that, you can then follow your conscience - or not - as the spirit moves you.
Probably see you in the camps before too long. Heil!
The Obama Administration, through his DOJ, is further to the right than George W. Bush.
Andy Gibbs, stuff it!
So Peace Signs freak them out. The 'V' (...-) sign that used to appear everywhere overnight freaked out the Nazis in occupied Europe in WWII. Maybe these modern day McCarthyites need to see peace signs everywhere.
The Progressive Magazine has for a long time said we're in a new McCarthy era.
AD
In due course, you'll wish it was only a new form of McCarthyism. Drunken joe was far too liberal for the bozos who now rule.
This is McCharthy's Bigger Brother.
Alsmost every article on CD today shows we are in a police state. I realize those of us who read CD already know this. We need to wake the rest of the population up. This really is 1984.
This would be the same *In These Times* whose editor and publisher, Joel Bleifuss, goes psychotic in his rag's own pags whenever Ralph Nader's name gets mentioned positively?
That "In These Times"?
Score another point for Ralph Nader!
Once again, I find myself unable to believe in god or heaven, but dearly wish there is a Hell so I could know that, someday, justice will be served the against the Obama and all the his vile fawning minions.
Once a very wise man was asked: Sir, is there really a hell? And he answered .... where do you think you are now!
The simplest solutions are often the best, though not necessarily the easiest.There are sill enough progressive citizens here to make a difference; but not operating within the framework constructed and controled by those in charge. It's a fools game and they will always win if we play by their rules. Food production, utilities, healthcare, information, all operate under the watchful gaze of the oligarchy pulling all the levers. Nationalism and religous superstition keep us in line, and we continue, like little children to buy shiny plastic toys while thanking some alien being or another for the shit we collect and the house with more toilets than butts. At this point, we have IMHO, one choice. Stop playing their game! Wikkileaks exposed the truth, we need, as individual to expose their other weakness: dont't give them any money! Blow up your TV.
Eat well, exercise, instead of consuming shit and supporting the insurance industry. Take all your hard earned money out of national banks. A new paradigm, the last frontier. Not outer space or ocean depths, humanity and respect for our tiny planet, on which we defacate daily.
"There are s[t]ill enough progressive citizens here to make a difference; but not operating within the framework constructed and controled by those in charge."
Absolutely correct. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of those few progressives are far too inhibited by residual conditioning even to consider operating in any framework that might actually be effective. And those frameworks are, themselves, more narrowly restricted with every day that passes.
I sincerely believe in the sleeping giant within us all, and if awakened has the ability to change the world. A violent revolution is counterproductive and is not, in any way, revolutionary. Any transition is, of cours, by its very nature, unpredicable. Our country is filled with creative, sharing, citizens who respect each other and the planet. At home and around the world people are sharing skills and resources to help those in need and protect the planet. But they are dwarfed by the giant multinational corporations whos purpose has little to do with humanity and sustainabilty. For many Americans, progressive or otherwise dropping out, as it were, would seem a dangerous, nearly impossible adventure. That adventure might just wake the sleeping giant. IMHO its not dropping out, but dropping in. The industrial revolution required midless slave labor. We can do better now.
Well said. Great posts. I want to believe that too. The problem with the non-violent revolution (Chris Hedges says we need not a revolution, but rebellion, as a revolution allows another corrupt power to take the place of the old) is that it will only be non-violent on one end. The powers that be will defend their grip on the wealth of this country very violently. Human beings, regardless of nationality, will be readily and willingly destroyed, ironically using members of the middle and lower class, by giving them shiny badges and fancy uniforms and making them feel needed, to crush their own brothers. I guess that is how it always works. But perhaps the creative, caring citizens you talk of in this country will be able to overwhelm with vast numbers. After all, it is basically the top 1% vs the rest of us, minus those they can corrupt into doing their dirty work. Peace!
Since the World Court found the USA guilty of State Terrorism in 1988 and the USA continued the same behavior, many have categorized the US federal government as a terrorist organization. The USA's terroristic behavior has greatly expanded since, making it even more urgent that it be destroyed so as to stop its wanton behavior.
you forgot SLAVERY!
Paying taxes to the USG is funding a terrorist organization, all Federal taxpayers are criminals, by the USG own definition.
It's Joker time.
Greater the power of Corporation greater the fascist crushing of war dissent.
We have not seen this level of fascism since pre-WWI, if then.
Jesus would be prosecuted under laws like these.
If Jesus were not a Political Activist of any sort at all then Jesus would neither be persecuted or prosecuted under any of your Nation's laws at all. For all anyone would know Jesus might not have any worldly political agenda at all. In theory if Jesus showed up in human flesh he would have to die again.
Jesus never sought to raise any worldly army to overthrow Rome or Herod either one. Even John the Baptist did not go to Herod on any Political Matters of State. Only the Religious Leaders, and not all, of Israel were the ones seeking Jesus's death. He said to Pilate that truly he was a King but his Kingdom is not of this world.
The Kingdom of God/Heaven is not a Worldly Republic, Worldly Representative Republic such as the European's Nation, nor even a Democracy. I am starting to like the sound of that better all the time. There aren't Caesar's of Rome, nor any Roman Senate ruling in the Kingdom of God/Heaven.
The money that Rome used bearing the Graven Image of their Caesar's upon their coin isn't used in the Kingdom of God/Heaven any more than the European's money is used there.
Jesus only had The Right under Roman Law to teach of his God. Under Roman Law Jesus did not have any right to teach Sedition towards Rome. Jesus never taught any sedition towards Rome.
Thus Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. So this old Indian wonders, or maybe I don't wonder at all if Jesus already knew that while it may look like Caesar is building some really grand swell world upon the earth that eventually all Caesar's world will do eventually is become Hell on Earth.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
It looks like the Obama administration is taking action following the destruction of the Constitution under Bush. The Constitution has been nullified by U.S.A PATRIOT Act, which our Congressional representatives approved - twice. Holder (and the toad-like Elena Kagan) further set the stage with the Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project ruling. Now, the clampdown begins.
This Colombia allegation is rather interesting as Eric Holder helped mitigate a scandal where Chiquita Banana was funneling money to a Colombian right-wing death squad called "The United Self Defense Forces of Colombia." Holder did that in 2003 before becoming Attorney General. Under the low-key deal, the U.S. Department of Justice got $25 million from Chiquita over five years.
According to this Guardian article, such deals - in which the DoJ gets paid directly by companies - help keep compensation away from the victims of the crime.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/
cifamerica/2008/nov/25/
attornery-general-eric-holder-chiquita
The right-wing paramilitary groups in Colombia are terrorist groups for hire, likely funded either by wealthy landowners, corporations like Chiquita or the Colombian military itself. The United States indirectly funds the paramilitary death squads by funneling money to the Colombian military, ostensibly for drug interdiction. However, the money just goes for counterinsurgency attacks, either by the Colombian military directly or the paramilitary groups indirectly. The U.S. public is told this is all about a war on drugs. Ironically, the Colombian military itself is notorious as a group of drug smugglers.
Could there be some sort of connection between the targeting of U.S. activists, alleging some vague Colombian connecton, and Holder's earlier engagement on behalf of the corrupt Chiquita Banana in Colombia? I would interpret Holder's past behavior in the Chiquita case to be support for a terrorist organization - that is, legal support to lessen the notoriety of Chiquita Banana and reduce the visibility of the paramilitary group's actions.
Maybe Holder is still doing a job for Chiquita by following up on some "intelligence" provided by that company (?). That's speculation, but these charges are so absurd that one must look for other motivations.
The video described an FBI agent being offended by seeing a peace sign. The FBI also dislikes environmental organizations and likes to bomb activists (Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney). Then there's the FBI's support for the killing of Fred Hampton in Chicago. Maybe the FBI can just tell us what behavior they think we're allowed to do under the Constitution, or is it now called the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act?
The ironic thing about the raids now is that activism is routinely ignored by U.S. government representatives. I don't think our Congressional reps felt the slightest pressure when hundreds of thousands of antiwar activists mobilized before the Iraq war. Our reps just ignored the people's will, and they still get reelected. So these repressive actions just seem petty and ideological rather than because activist groups are showing any success.
-TIA
Key phrase: "and they still get reelected" [in your last paragraph].
Thanks, TIA. The background on Holder is quite telling, and his appointment now tracks closely with all of Obama's cabal of elite insiders. Elena Kagan's appointment to the Supine Court makes even more sense now too for those of us not intimately familiar with the strong Neocon-Zionist connections common to all that continue surfacing.
With the Columbian connection, we seem to be witnessing the shock doctrine of a police state formerly used throughout Latin America now being turned on the US population. We're gradually becoming a banana republic plutocracy.
Ironically, very determined and successful resistance to neoliberalism is taking root in Latin America, and they may well become our model and allies in defeating it here as well.
Doug,
Nothing would cheer me up more than thinking that the likes of Chavez, Morales and others would rise to the occasion but I am guessing we have a little extra war in reserve to deal with them. We have never accepted that a country would privatize it's resources, kick our business interests out and redistribute their wealth. We murder leaders for doing that kind of thing.
Zelaya was most likely lucky to be shipped out alive. I wish people here better understood neoliberalism and why what's happening to us here is totally by design, not accident.
I'm just waiting for that knock on the door.
Each one of us who does anything other than just sit here and post on CD needs to get their hands on a copy of the new National Lawyers Guild booklet, "You Have the Right to Remain Silent". Written in straight forward language to help anyone who may find themselves confronted by the FBI or other police organization on a fishing expedition.
To borrow a refrain from the Cheap Trick song, "The Dream Police". The thought police get inside of head, the thought police come to me in my bed, the thought police, police, the thought police, police, police................".
Never, ever, talk to the police for any reason at all, even if they are off duty and only want to discuss the weather.
The only terrorist organization I've donated to is the Obama campaign.
Obama is getting scarier by the day. I feel like I helped some third world dictator.
Sundome -- I got a chuckle out of that line. But oh so accurate, too.
Obama is clearly the current leader of an organization that uses terror and violence to further its political and economic conspiracies.
The comments about who's party's at fault for the FBI intimidation misses the point. No matter who's in power they will
abuse,deny and dismiss our civil rights when it serves their purpose.
Our Founding Fathers were no better than the politicians we have
now. The knew the value of good PR too. They conveniently ignored the
slavery issue in their drafting the Constitution.They tried to stifle
dissent back then too. See the Alien and Sedition Act. John Adams used this act to try and stifle dissent. Don't be fooled by their
soaring rhetoric. Read the Constitution of the Soviet Union. It too
was filled with phrases like our Constitution. But you know what
happened to their rights.We are headed for a state ruled by the oli-
garchy.If if doesn't collapse from it's Ponzi scheme banking system.
This backs up the article from a week ago by Stephan Salisbury, "Terrorama: The Next Congress Will See Terror in Everything"
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/15-1
I posted on that thread questioning whether the article was exaggerating. It would seem not. Political freedom is something the USA had back in the 50s and the 60s. But the only freedom left is to read things on the internet, and maybe that will go too.