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Activists Cry Foul over FBI Probe
Critics of Foreign Policy Become Targets of Domestic Probes
CHICAGO — FBI agents took box after box of address books, family calendars, artwork and personal letters in their 10-hour raid in September of the century-old house shared by Stephanie Weiner and her husband.
Anti-war activist Tom Burke meets Barack Obama in 2004 at Burke's Chicago-area union hall as Obama was running for U.S. Senate. Burke is one of 23 prominent anti-war activists to be subpoenaed as part of an ongoing FBI terrorism probe. (Courtesy of Tom Burke) The agents seemed keenly interested in Weiner’s home-based business, the Revolutionary Lemonade Stand, which sells silkscreened infant bodysuits and other clothes with socialist slogans, phrases like “Help Wanted: Revolutionaries.”
The search was part of a mysterious, ongoing nationwide terrorism investigation with an unusual target: prominent peace activists and politically active labor organizers.
The probe — involving subpoenas to 23 people and raids of seven homes last fall — has triggered a high-powered protest against the Department of Justice and, in the process, could create some political discomfort for President Obama with his union supporters as he gears up for his reelection campaign.
The apparent targets are concentrated in the Midwest, including Chicagoans who crossed paths with Obama when he was a young state senator and some who have been active in labor unions that supported his political rise.
Investigators, according to search warrants, documents and interviews, are examining possible “material support” for Colombian and Palestinian groups designated by the U.S. government as terrorists.
The apparent targets, all vocal and visible critics of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South America, deny any ties to terrorism. They say the government, using its post-9/11 focus on terrorism as a pretext, is targeting them for their political views.
They are “public non-violent activists with long, distinguished careers in public service, including teachers, union organizers and antiwar and community leaders,” said Michael Deutsch, a Chicago lawyer and part of a legal team defending those who believe they are being targeted by the investigation.
Several activists and their lawyers said they believe indictments could come anytime, so they have turned their organizing skills toward a counteroffensive, decrying the inquiry as a threat to their First Amendment rights.
Those who have been subpoenaed, most of them non-Muslim, include clerical workers, educators and in one case a stay-at-home dad. Some are lesbian couples with young children — a point apparently noted by investigators, who infiltrated the activists’ circle with an undercover officer presenting herself as a lesbian mother.
All 23 of the activists invoked their right not to testify before a grand jury, defying U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, whose office is spearheading the investigation.
A spokesman for Fitzgerald, the Chicago prosecutor whose past work has sometimes riled both political parties, declined to comment.
It is uncertain whether Obama is aware of the investigation. A White House official referred questions to the Justice Department, where spokesman Matthew Miller said the agency will not comment on an investigation, but he disputed any assertion that people would be targeted for political activities.
“Whenever we open an investigation, it is solely because we have a reason to do so based on the facts, evidence and the law,”Miller said.
The activists have formed the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, organized phone banks to flood Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s office and the White House with protest calls, solicited letters from labor unions and faith-based groups and sent delegations to Capitol Hill to gin up support from lawmakers.
Labor backers include local and statewide affiliates representing the Service Employees International Union and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, two of the most influential unions in the liberal movement. So far, nine members of Congress have written letters to the administration asking questions.
The major national labor organizations have not gotten involved in the case and are considered likely to support Obama’s reelection next year.
But some state and local union organizations are expressing alarm about the case, saying that the government appears to be scrutinizing efforts by workers to build ties with trade unionists in other countries.
“I am so disgusted when I see that so many union people have been targeted in this,” said Phyllis Walker, president of AFSCME Local 3800, which represents clerical workers at the University of Minnesota, including four members who are possible targets.
The union’s statewide group, which says it represents 46,000 workers, called on Obama to investigate and passed a resolution expressing “grave concern” about the raids. Similar resolutions have been approved by statewide AFSCME and SEIU affiliates in Illinois.
If there are indictments, the case could test a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that found the ban on material support for designated foreign terrorist groups does not necessarily violate the First Amendment — even if the aid was intended for peaceful or humanitarian uses. The ruling held that any type of support could ultimately help a terrorist group’s pursuit of violence.
The probe appears to date from 2008, as a number of activists began planning for massive antiwar demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
After the convention, the FBI’s interest continued, apparently focused on the international work pursued by many of the participants. Several activists said they had traveled to Colombia or the Palestinian territories on “fact-finding” trips designed to bolster their case back home against U.S. military support for the Israeli and Colombian governments.
In 2009, a group raised money to travel and deliver about $1,000 to a Palestinian women’s group, but the delegation was turned back by officials at the airport in Israel, organizers said.
Search warrants, subpoenas and documents show that the FBI has been interested in links between the activists and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hezbollah.
In the early morning of Sept. 24, 2010, agents raided homes in Chicago and Minneapolis, issued subpoenas to 14 activists, and tried to question others around the country, including prominent antiwar organizers in North Carolina and California.
At 7 a.m., according to documents and interviews, about a dozen armed federal agents used a battering ram to force their way into Mick Kelly’s second-floor apartment, which sits over an all-night coffee shop in a working-class neighborhood of Minneapolis.
Kelly, 53, a cook in a University of Minnesota dormitory and a member of the Teamsters, said he was at work and his nightgown-clad wife, Linden Gawboy, was slow to answer the door.
Apparently by accident, the agents left something behind: a packet of secret documents headlined “Operation Order,” laying out detailed instructions for the FBI SWAT team to find clues of Kelly’s activism, including personal finances or those of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a far-left group he works with. The documents point to the FBI’s interest in Kelly’s foreign travel.
“We’ve done absolutely nothing wrong,” Kelly said. “We don’t know what this is about, but we know that our rights to organize and speak out are being violated.”
In Chicago, the raid at the home of Weiner, 49, also targeted her husband, Joe Iosbaker, 52, a University of Illinois-Chicago office worker and a union steward for his SEIU local. The couple are among the grassroots activists close to the world once inhabited by Barack Obama who have been caught up in the investigation.
Like others, Weiner and Iosbacker have been fixtures on the local liberal political scene, protesting police actions, attending antiwar rallies, leading pay equity fights and even doing some volunteer work for Obama’s past campaigns.
Tom Burke, who received a subpoena Sept. 24, had in 2004 discussed the plight of murdered Colombian trade unionists with then-state senator Obama.
“He was a sympathetic ear,” Burke said, recalling that Obama told him the murders were a “human rights problem.”
Hatem Abudayyeh, one of seven Palestinians to be subpoenaed in the investigation, recalls encountering Obama in the community during his years as a state legislator. Abudayyeh, 40, is executive director of the Arab American Action Network, a Chicago advocacy group that hosted then-state senator Obama for at least two events.
The role of the undercover officer, which defense lawyers said was confirmed in their talks with prosecutors, became clear in the weeks following the raids. She had joined a Minneapolis antiwar group, then joined demonstrations at the School of the Americas military training site in Fort Benning, Georgia, and at one point flying with a group to Israel on the trip that was thwarted at the airport.
“They were smart sending a 40-year-old lesbian,” said Meredith Aby, 38, a high school civics teacher and longtime organizer. “A good match,” added Jess Sundin, a university clerical worker.
Aby and Sundin, whose homes were raided and who received subpoenas, had helped lead a group called the Anti-War Committee that had coordinated with antiwar activists across the country to plan the demonstrations at the Republican convention.
Civil libertarians and other critics say the investigation fits a pattern for the FBI, pointing to a Justice Department inspector general’s report — issued three days before the raids — chiding the agency for monitoring the domestic political activities of Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other groups in the name of combating terrorism.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee and a close Obama ally, wrote Holder in April conveying the activists’ concerns that the probe was infringing on their rights.
“Clearly we need to have a bright line where people can exercise their civil rights, their civil liberties, to peacefully protest,” Schakowsky said in an interview.
Holder experienced the activists’ anger first hand last month, when Tracy Molm, 30, an AFSCME organizer whose apartment was raided, stood to interrupt a speech he was giving at the University of Minnesota. Holder, unaware that she was a possible investigation target, agreed to meet with her after the speech.
In a small room off the auditorium, with the attorney general flanked by aides and security, Molm demanded to know why the administration was pursuing the inquiry, she recalled later in an interview.
“He said they had a predicate for the investigation,” Molm said. “I said, ‘The predicates after 9/11 are nothing.’”
“We’re going to have to agree to disagree,” Holder replied, according to Molm.
At that point, Molm revealed that her apartment had been raided as part of the investigation. Holder and Justice Department officials abruptly ended the discussion.
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73 Comments so far
Show AllOne word: COINTELPRO
I emphatically agree.
Pre-emptive strikes in preparation for the political campaign, conventions?
Pretty soon the only remnant left of democracy in the United States will be the right of whites to vote in elections and choose between factions within the two biggest organized crime syndicates in the country.
Shades of the Woodrow Wilson administration when, as Thomas Fleming ably points out in his well written book The Illusion of Victory: America in World War I, peace activists and German Americans and those who dared to speak out against U.S. involvement in the affairs of Europe were hounded and harassed and jailed from 1914 to 1918 because of their anti-war activities. The Obama administration does not have to look far to discover who the terrorists are as law enforcement and other government agencies are doing a splendid job of terrorizing the citizens of these United States.
The search for "terrorists" must go through the white house and congress first and last...fat chance in fascist amerika !
Erroll,
You are absolutely correct. Let's go back even further than the persecution of dissenters and suppression of civil liberties by Woodrow Wilson under the notorious Espionage Act of June 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918. During John Adams' presidency we had the odious Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798. The Naturalization Act of 1798. The Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
During the Civil War the tyrant Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus and suppressed the civil liberties of war dissenters. Lincoln had newspaper publishers fined and imprisoned for expressing dissent during the Civil War.
Let's also remember the internment of Japanese-American citizen by FDR during WWII.
Who can forget the widespread violation of the civil liberties of civil rights advocates and anti-war dissidents during the civil rights era and the Veit Nam War.
Pro-war propaganda, misinformation, the vilification and persecution of dissent, and gross widespread violations of civil liberties have occurred in all nations during time of war.
"The tyrant Abraham Lincoln..."! ! ! Liked that slaveholders' rebellion, did you ? John Wilkes Booth ? Think it'd have been better if the Democratic (and anti-war ) candidate, John McClellan , had defeated the "tyrant " in 1864?
Bagenal Harvey,
We are not talking about counter-factual histories of what may have happened had Abraham Lincoln never been elected president. We are talking about President Lincoln's actual conduct during the Civil War.
Regardless of the outcome of the Civil War, President Lincoln exercised tyrannical authority that many constitutional law scholars consider to have been unconstitutional. Do you believe that a president has the constitutional authority to revoke the writ of habeas corpus, suppress the editorial content of newspapers, arrest citizens for "disloyal" speech, and try civilian American citizens in front of military tribunals as President Lincoln did? All of these things happened during George W. Bush's administration and are now happening under the Obama administration. Our fascist Supreme Court has even held many of these activities to be constitutional.
If you believe that a president has the constitutional authority to exercise the power that Lincoln did during the Civil War you subscribe to the damnable Machiavellian reason of state argument whereby any means is justifiable to preserve the integrity of the state. Reason of state arguments are amoral. They lead directly to the very constitutional abuses of executive power that I pointed out in my earlier post, the suppression of constitutionally lawful dissent, and the violation of civil liberties of dissenters.
Throughout history the reason of state argument has been used by despots to justify some of the greatest horrors inflicted upon humankind. The reason of state argument is anti-democratic and a recipe for tyranny.
Highkarate,
Thank you for your kind words. I also extend to you my sincerest apology for any incivility in my discourse, and any indifference to your points of view that I may have demonstrated in our prior dialogues. My intent was simply to show that I have disagreements with some of your view points, not to suggest that your views have no merit. I'm a staunch supporter of the provisions of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution. I think that it would be to the benefit of all of us that in our discourses, even when they are contentious, we adhere to the Eight Fold Path precept of "Right Speech".
Highkarate,
Maverick: "Tower this is Ghost Rider requesting permission for a fly bye."
Tower: "Sorry Ghost Rider. That pattern is full."
Great movie "Top Gun". Another favorite of mine about military aviators is "The Great Santini" featuring the great Robert Duvall of "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. It smells like victory!" fame.
During my undergraduate years I did two years of Naval ROTC. I declined to accept a commission. During one of my 45 day summer tours I had the opportunity to serve aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower. I had the opportunity to fly in the RIO's seat aboard an F-14 Tomcat. A carrier launch and landing is one hell of an experience. Naval aviators are some of the finest fixed winged aviators in the world.
>>I tend to not stalk others too much here..
>>and am at heart a comedian who understands the value
>>of getting muddy once in a while..
Comedian indeed, but not an extremely funny one.
Photius,
I'm with you on Adams, Wilson, FDR and Bush but Lincoln is a different matter. Lincoln was doing more than "preserving the integrity of the state" ; he was (reluctantly at first ) leading a war against the system of human slavery in the US. The "victims" of the suspension of habeas corpus were pro-slavery and the editorials suppressed were supporting the slaveholder rebellion. Yes, in abstract terms, it violated the constitution and set a terrible precedent. But this was not an abstract fight. It was a life-and-death struggle (in which Lincoln's life was taken by a man shouting "Thus ever to tyrants"). To have acted otherwise would have led to the defeat of the anti-slavery forces that had come to hold state power. We should all be glad that Lincoln and those around him did not hesitate when necessary to take the steps needed. The Neo-Confederates who regard Lincoln as a tyrant also believe he acted unconstitutionally in taking away their property without compensation ie freeing the slaves. Should give you pause when rethinking this.
It does give me pause Bagenal Harvey. I don't care if the editors of papers expressed support for a slaveholder rebellion. That is no reason to violate their constitutional right of free speech and jail them. This is more than just some abstract issue. Lincoln didn't really give a damn about slaves. If he could have found a way to preserve the Union with a continuation of slavery he would have done it. He said that his goal was to do as much.
You have eloquently enunciated a reason of state argument that the ends justifies the means. The Constitution is about means and not ends. Throughout history humankind in a crisis has had despots who have essentially said, "Don't restrain me by means. I'll do the things necessary to preserve the integrity of the state". As you wrote, these despots always believe and tell the people; "we are engaged in a life-and-death struggle." When the people in a republican democracy acquiesce and give tyrannical authority to any publicly elected official you have started on the slippery slope to a tyranny.
We have a situation in this country where we have seen a progressive increase in presidential authority since 9/11 under the guise of national security and the unitary executive theory of the presidency. Once presidents have had a taste of dictatorial power they don't want to relinquish it.
We are not living in the Golden Age of the Roman Republic where we have honorable statesmen like the Roman statesman Cincinattus. Cincinattus was called on by the Roman Senate to lead the Roman Republic during a time of crisis. When the crisis resolved under Cincinattus' leadership, he relinquished his position as dictator and returned to his estate. George Washington patterned himself on Cincinattus. That is why he declined being declared a king or president for life. None of our modern day presidents have adhered to the noble ideals of Cincinattus.
Very well spoken Photius- American History, as taught by the Victors, needs constant clarification and critical revision for the truth's sake...You have just displayed A brilliant example of this...
Was Lincoln going to permanently suspend habeas corpus, Photius ? Did he intend to permanently try government opponents by military courts? Permanently silence newspaper critics? You know the answer and you know the principle. Lincoln WAS like Cincinattus. You are correct that, initially, he would have seen continuation of slavery to preserve the Union. But during the course of the conflict, begun and pushed forward by the most reactionary elements in society at that time, Lincoln changed. The Emancipation Proclaimation may have been a tactic but it shifted the whole paradigm. The hard core racists like McClellan and the newspaper editors and telegraph wire cutters who fell afoul of acts that were not in conformity with a formal reading of the Constitution saw it that way. So , eventually, did Lincoln. When he went to liberated Richmond, Va., shortly before his assassination, he was mobbed by freed slaves. One of them fell on his knees in front of him and he told him to get up because, "you kneel to no man anymore." Doesn't sound like a tyrant to me and I don't think he's on the same plane as the other Presidents on whom you and I agree.
(Oh, and thanks for the "eloquently"; for my part, let me say you frame your arguments very well also.)
>>We should all be glad that Lincoln and those around him did not hesitate when necessary to take the steps needed.<<
We should all be glad that Bush and those around him did not hesitate when necessary to take the steps needed.
We should all be glad that Obama and those around him do not hesitate when necessary to take the steps needed.
It is ridiculous to put Bush, Obama and Lincoln in the same category. Was the Civil War on a moral plane with the wars of aggression against Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, etc.? This would be hard to see even from an absolute pacifist position; one side represented the constant violence of slavery, the "200 years of unrequited toil" and the "blood drawn by the lash" to quote Lincoln's Second Inaugural. The Neo-Confederates call the Civil War "The War of Northern Aggression". Unbelievable that any progressive or opponent of the Bush-Obama wars would agree.
dbl
highkarate
Thank you for your kind words. Keep fighting and speaking out against American imperialism.
That is about the same time that Woody Wilson allegedly accepted much needed "campaign/bribery" money from the International Banksters and slid the FED into the backdoor of Congress, along with the IRS, {if my memory serves me well}...Isn't it coincidental that the initiation of the FED and the War that Wilson's campaign Pledge/Platform swore that "our Boys would NOT have to fight" and that America would NOT get involved in , were like "Peas in A Pod- As with Revenge, A dish best served cold!!!
You really expect Obama to investigate this? He is more than likely the one who ordered it!
You mean the same Obama who voted to give the telecoms RETROACTIVE IMMUNITY in the FISA vote? While he was campaigning for the nomination?
Thank you, Obama voters.
Don't blame them. McCain, or Clinton or any other president right now would be doing the same thing. The president has no power.
What I find funny is the fact that we brought OBL, Saddam, and every other dictator to power. We support the corrupt regimes in many nations but it is ok if it is the government doing it. Look at all the corrupt regimes Congress supports
I agree tho that the final days of democracy in the US is upon us.
And as Franklin said, 'if we can keep it' I don't think we deserve too.
Too many Amerikans support the wars. Look at many war stories on any website and you see people calling for the US to just nuke them.
I wonder when they will show up at my door for just my comments?
Ah, joecool9 - you get the benefit of the doubt this time. Otherwise, I'd suspect you are a ....
Let's take your post apart.
Voting for Obama gave him legitimacy.
The president does have power.
If by "too many Americans support the war" you mean Zionists, then you're right. They are overwhelmingly powerful. If you mean the average American, if you recall, they had to be lied to and tricked to enter the way. Remember that?
Nobody's going to knock on your door. You're one of them.
No we can keep it. Democracy that is. Don't be defeated. There are people who want to nuke everything that's true, but more and more people are being affected by loss of jobs or homelessness or knowing people who are in these predicaments that they are starting to see the lies. There will always be those who follow like idiots, but we can still keep Democracy with them so long as they are a small minority. We'll have to come up with some answers of our own to render these powers impotent. But whatever you do, now is the time to stand up and be counted not throw your arms up in resignation. Be active in any way you can. Argue if someone in your circle makes a remark that is part of the fascist narrative. Don't let them think they can go unchallenged. We have to do this in our everyday lives because it has a ripple effect. This effect will reap results. We have learnt something about Obama now. Best to spread it around. Maybe he won't be so trusted next time.
Unfortunately, it isn't surprising.
I mean, why did Congress adopt the PATRIOT ACT and renew it recently, if not for this sort of crackdown (and the rest of it)?
And we know that both right wings of our one-party system (or crime syndicate, as Thalidomide puts it so aptly) voted for the darn bill.
And I got a email from the Obama campaign to help get the "grass roots" up and running. What are they thinking! Could it be worse under a Repug? Screw them!
LOL. US foreign policy is set by Tel Aviv.
Any complaints will bring a 'visit' in the dark of night from the FBI (or Mossad).
And don't forget yesterday's update on FBI powers:
Men in trash: FBI agents given more power to search your household garbage
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2003034/FBI-sparks-privacy-concerns-gives-agents-power-search-trash.html
and
F.B.I. Agents Get Leeway to Push Privacy Bounds
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/13/us/13fbi.html?ref=federalbureauofinvestigation
They have to fill up the Halliburton constructed concentr.....er, illegal alien detention camps before the campaigns begin.
and combine with:
No Justice in Kafka’s America
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/no_justice_in_kafkas_america_20110613/
Reminds me of the 2008 RNC where they just went in and arrested leaders of protests with or without cause. They didn't care as they had a 10 million dollar budget and used it to settle the lawsuits after the fact.
? Nobel Peace prize ?, will never be anything again... first mass murderer kisinger, and now mass murderer obomber !
Yeah, nothing sinister at all. Nothin' to see here folks, just go back to American Idol and Dancing with the Stars.
To "crush your opponents with any means available" is not sinister?
Even the idea that it's not sinister sounds pretty sinister to me.
FYI -and above all - don't be a Muslim activist
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/13/115729/survey-us-trails-in-equal-legal.html
Survey: U.S. trails in equal legal treatment of citizens
Daniel Lippman | McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The U.S. lags behind western Europe in access to civil justice and legal assistance, according to an international survey released Monday that also raised questions over whether U.S. police forces treat all citizens equally.
The results of the survey by the World Justice Project, an advocacy group that promotes the rule of law, also signaled that some Middle Eastern countries continue to rank relatively low in certain areas, a key factor in the region's popular protests.
"Without the rule of law, medicines do not reach health facilities due to corruption, women in rural areas remain unaware of their rights, people are killed in criminal violence, and economic growth is stifled," William Neukom, the founder of the group, said in a statement announcing its second annual Rule of Law Index.
Earlier this year, the project polled 66,000 people across 66 countries, asking questions that covered eight areas including corruption, security, and access to the legal system. The researchers also interviewed 2,000 experts around the world to compile what they called a comprehensive picture of whether citizens believe their governments adhere to the rule of law.
A fair legal system provides a critical backbone and infrastructure for countries — ensuring that they run effectively, citizens get a fair shake and companies can operate under predictable rules, the researchers said.
Sweden and Norway topped the charts in many of the categories studied.
While the U.S. scored high in many areas — including checks and balances in the legal system, civil liberties, freedom of expression and independence of the judiciary — it trailed western European countries in such areas as legal access for low-income communities and ethnic minorities and also scored low in perceptions of whether police treat people of different backgrounds equally.........
The Nazis went after the trade unionists, and now Obama regime seems to be following the same playbook. Don't say you weren't warned that the government was going to use the anti-terrorism laws against people execising their First Amendment! We told you so when we opposed PATRIOT back in 2001!
As Galenwainwright says, this is an updating of COINTELPRO, the domestic espionage program from the '60s, to surveill and raid the homes of Vietnam war protesters and civil rights leaders. Since Obama is on record for basically hating the sixties, an authoritarian to the core, it's little wonder this shit is going on now.
With the Patriot Act recently renewed by our fascist congress, it's time to rev up Nixonian paranoia about anyone daring to protest our ongoing, illegal, imperialist wars, no matter how many Americans don't support them or how transparently we're LOSING every one of them. And will keep losing them, bankrupting the economy and disgracing the nation to a degree that we will never recover from.
Obama is as guilty of these infractions against our constitutional rights as any of his criminal predecessors. It is the highest of ironies that many of the targets of these FBI raids were some of his most public supporters and organizers. This is Obama's way of thanking them for their naive loyalty and efforts on his behalf. I wonder how long they can keep the doubt cloud around all this as to whether Obama "knows about it." It's how corporations circle the wagons around their CEO when they get indicted on criminal charges. "He didn't know anything about it!"
This is nothing new, and not surprising in the least for those of us who have been tracking the growing police state the U.S. has been morphing into for the last decade. This is simply one step of many, many more that will become more frequent and encompass more and more Americans along the road to complete fascism. You can count in years - not decades - the time that it will take for this transformation to be complete. The signs and warnings have been there for many years now, and we all have seen them and read about them. Don't act surprised, as you knew this was happening to the U.S. - get prepared, get ready. Or get out, while you still can.
Benjamin Franklin was queried as he left Independence Hall at the close of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, “Well, Doctor, what have we got—a Republic or a Monarchy?”
He said:
“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
This article is yet another sign, if any were needed, that we have not kept our democratic republic. A phalanx of Mafia-like police agencies now surveil the public, monitoring their conformity to Orwellian laws like the mis-named "PATRIOT Act." An invisible network, ever present behind the scenes within all the major agencies--FBI, CIA, NSA, DIA, DHS, Pentagon, etc.--sets the agenda for presidents and congresses, enforcing its decrees with terror and intimidation, visited upon both presidents, representatives and the public. Some call it the Secret Government, others the Invisible Government. Whatever one calls it, it is quite real, and essentially a Mafia structure, representing the Military Industrial Media Complex.
The answer? Only for more and more people to out it, expose it, protest, agitate against it at every level. Fundamental changes begin with a spark. The arrogant criminality of the overseers just becomes too much, and something snaps in one person, as we saw in Tunisia.
I was listening to Mike Malloy last night and he opined that perhaps it will take a Republican victory in 2012 and a more definitive turn towards fascism, like with troops in the streets telling people to shut up and do as they are told, to wake up Americans in sufficient numbers to really get like 25 million or more in the streets of DC. Is he right? Seems to me we already have a Republican in the white house, but apparently the Obamabots are so numerous that it is not recognized?
"It is uncertain whether Obama is aware of the investigation."
Yeah, sure. It's been widely reported in the political press. If he isn't aware of it, he isn't running the country.
Or does the author MEAN to imply that Obama's a sock-puppet?
Not mentioned in the story, Rahm Emmanuel. He has his slimy fingerprints all over this.
"The search was part of a mysterious, ongoing nationwide terrorism investigation with an unusual target: prominent peace activists and politically active labor organizers."
Unusal target? Hardly. More like usual target. I guess the author of this piece never heard of COENTELPRO. Like the rest of the corporate media, the Washington Post is showing the usual amnesia. If it goes against the narrative, it never happened.
To paraphrase the frail and dying Pinters Nobel speech - It didn't happen...It didn't happen...It didn't happen... Why are you dwelling on something that happened long ago?
Good call.
And in other news, Water claimed to be wet, and evidence suggests Pope may be Catholic...
Liberty & Justice,
sj
What if you have no affiliations just an inquiring mind?
Deaf, dumb and blind is how an upright mammal should be?
They are banking on the crowd that must have the new Apple IPad, damn the torpedoes and outsourced slave labor. If you want to blend in, ooh and aah about the Ipad.
Educated people know the memes of the problems facing the World, however they get extremely uncomfortable when the surface gets scratched because the whole house of cards could fall then and it would be YOUR fault. Everything is fine if we all make it fine. That our stocks and all our funding comes from weapons and exploiting minerals and peoples of poor nations is somehow different. You don't belong if you point it out. Believe me, I am past bothering.
I am glad there are some congresspeople that care enough to speak out about this infringement on the basic human right to think.
I'm struck by this little tidbit in the piece:
"The apparent targets are concentrated in the Midwest, including Chicagoans who crossed paths with Obama when he was a young state senator and some who have been active in labor unions that supported his political rise."
Wha? You go to bat for this President, and he sets the DoJ dogs on you when he's in power? Is this a joke, or are we re-living some sick history?
I never thought there could be a human as stomach-turningly vile as Bush, until Obama came along.
Ah, Holder with his "predicates" for an investigation. This is the guy who got Chiquita Banana off the hook for funding right-wing death squads in Colombia. Then he got selected as Attorney General by Obama. It's interesting, how that all worked out for him. Possibly, Holder is getting his "intelligence" cues against antiwar activists from the same band of cutthroats and murderers, but it's hard to say since no evidence seems to have been presented after all of these years.
Undercover infiltrators are just par for the course these days at antiwar events. You kind of hope they learn something, but they're just dumb cops without a clue about the Constitution or whatever that "piece of paper" is called.
Courts at least used to be somewhat sensible, but that was maybe 10 years ago. Judges these days do political hack work.
Obama, being a narcissist, can pretty much shrug this stuff off. But people, maybe even mainstream loyalist Dem voters, might start to notice this Captain Qweeg complex displayed by the Obama administration, which is even more reactive than the Bushies or even Nixon. The Obama administration couldn't even tolerate a whistful little song about freeing Bradley Manning. After that $500-a-plate serenade, Obama's staff threatened to cut the San Francisco Chronicle off from White House access.
This administration claims to want people to push him to do things, but it really has shown nothing but contempt when people organize. Obama's press secretary even went so far as to tell progressives to fuck off and shut up about single-payer healthcare.
I hope people will take note of the paranoid tendencies of Obama, and even Dem politicians with their PATRIOT Act rubber-stamping. What its shows is that they are just actors, and bad ones, afraid of people speaking out. Not worthy of public office. Just don't vote for them, and get in the streets. Maybe all of this is a sign that it's working -- after a decade of protests.
Well, HK, I share your oscillating feelings between the prospect of a "cosmic shift" happening and the despair that it will be thwarted yet again. Obama was smooth during the 2008 campaign, but he emerged as just another right-wing corporatist after the election, and he's a rather awful one at that. The real question is whether people will resist the good cop-bad cop Dem/Repug corporate grip and vote third party instead. Alas, the majority of voters don't even bother to vote these days, and about two percent voted Green in the 2008 election, so it's not looking good.
As for the Libertarians, I don't follow them. They are OK on social policies, but their economic policies are anything goes. That's pretty much what we've got right now with corporations calling the shots in Washington with Dem/Repugs. I don't want more of that. I want the death penalty for all corporations not serving the public interest. So, Blackwater (Xe), Goldman Sachs, etc., etc. Let's just nullify their charters and disband them. In the U.S. Libertarian playbook, creating fraudulent financial vehicles would be OK or killing people for pay would be all right. That's just empowering an extreme form of capitalism that we already suffer under.
The third party we support has to represent the peoples' interests. And I don't think corporations are people, despite what the Supreme Court may say.
Well, I guess you've made up you mind on the matter, HK. I disagree entirely. Here are a few ideas to consider, though.
There probably is no coincidence why Ron Paul's son's first name is "Rand," as in Ayn Rand. If you start looking at that so-called "objectivist" stuff, what you find is perhaps the ugliest, darkest parts of humanity that reside in the reptilian brain portion of our human anatomy: namely, that greed is good; that the elite should be worshiped; that unbridled capitalism leads to the best conclusions. History proves otherwise. Humans actually are social, cooperative beings, and capitalism is a recent encroachment that really only ever has worked for a few, while creating misery for others. You say you don't believe in socialism, but it's never been tried in human history, except maybe briefly in anarchist Spain (but that's a long story).
You make a distinction between capitalism as a small-form barter system and laissez-faire big-time capitalism, but there isn't a difference. The objective of both is always to gain a profit at the expense of another.
Anarchism and Libertarianism don't share much in my view. Anarchist thought envisions a social compact and control of production decisions by those who do the work. Libertarianism would allow for free practice of capitalism under any circumstances, with the owner deciding what should be done and how labor should be paid (or not paid). If general society is harmed under a particular capitalist practice, well then too bad for society, according to U.S Libertarian thought. I'm referring to the Libertarian Party views in the United States, of course. You can hear echoes of that kind of rot in Rand Paul statements. His father is probably just a bit better at being politically correct.