[PAA-Discuss] FW: harrassment of dissent

[Lee Loe]

  _____  

From: HoustonCathy [mailto:ckorrf at earthlink.net] 
Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2010 10:07 AM
To: Ruth Hoffman-Lach; leeloe at igc.org
Cc: cheshirecat2 at comcast.net; CPmadelieneMagicas; Bart Boyce; Deb Shafto;
donald cook; garytoots at hotmail.com
Subject: harrassment of dissent


The FBI raids on the peace activists in MN & IL, did trigger me to look up
Texas ACLU & Nat'l Lawyer's Guide website to see if I recognized board
members & officers and jot down a few attorney names. Having to go through
all this hassle for "defense" work, money & time is draining on the anti-war
movement (& I assume that's part of the malicious intent)...
Made me appreciate the importance of our legal workers skills and commitment
to individual liberties and justice...
 
ACLU TX & in Houston is taking part in the national ACLU celebrate freedom &
read "banned books"! on Saturday
 
http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/celebrate-freedom-read-read-banned-book
 
http://www.aclutx.org/projects/bannedbooks.php
I just decided to go TONITE to the fundraiser to support our Houston chapter
& to ASK questions about representation for potential FBI raids on peace
activists in Houston
 
What: Houston Chapter Annual Meeting + Banned Books Event
Where: Dharma Cafe, 1718 Houston Ave. (Corner of Houston Ave. and Crockett
St.) 
When: Thursday, Oct. 1 @ 6:30 p.m.

Featured speaker will be distinguished author Lou Dubose, editor of The
Washington Spectator newsletter and former editor of Texas Observer
magazine.

Buffet dinner will be served. Admission is free for ACLU members;
non-members $25 at the door. Please
<https://secure.aclu.org/site/Ticketing/2013298597?=lctt433d32.app224a&view=
Tickets&id=106181> RSVP

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Ruth  <mailto:ruthhof at yahoo.com> Hoffman-Lach 
To: cheshirecat2 at comcast.net 
Subject: Re: [codepinkhouston] USLAW Statement on FBI Raids

This is really disturbing. Any attorneys out there with advice about how to
respond if thus happens to one of us?

On Sep 29, 2010, at 9:49 PM, cheshirecat2 at comcast.net wrote:
This is from a government that wants no one interfearing with it's wars.
They are great money makers for the powerful military/industrial complex and
those related to them. They are only happy when we are at war. They truly
hated when Vietnam was stopped after years of fighting/killing by mass
protests and they don't want it to happen again. There is so little war news
on TV that it hardly seems we're at war. So, the American people sit on
their butts and blissfully watch "Dancing With The Idol!" and the powers
that be go on making Afghanistan & Iraq ready for the exploitation to come.
"Out of sight, out of mind."
C




What is really troubling to me is that non-violent citizens who

support peaceful actions to advocate peaceful solutions to

our governmental war policies are being branded as potential

terrorists.  Nothing can be farther from the truth .  This is truly

Orwellian .

This "criminalization of dissent" or

"Humanitarian advocacy being treated as material support to terrorists"

must be brought to the general populace's attention immediately.

Please read the following USLAW Statement .

b





To: 
Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2010, 7:46 PM


The following statement was adopted without dissent by the USLAW Steering
Committee at its meeting on September 29, 2010.  One member voted "present"
on advice of his union's attorneys because one of its members was among the
targets of the raids. The USLAW statement is followed by statements from
United for Peace and Justice and a resolution adopted by the San Francisco
Labor Council.  If your union adopts a resolution or takes other action on
this matter, please report that to USLAW.


* * * * * * * * * *


USLAW Condemns Raids on Activists' Homes as "Criminalization of Dissent"

On Friday, September 24th the FBI raided homes in Chicago, Minneapolis,
Michigan and North Carolina, with the justification that peace and
international solidarity activists who resided in them were providing
"material support to foreign terrorist organizations".

The activists whose homes were raided are members of the Twin Cities
Anti-War Committee, the Palestine Solidarity Group, the Colombia Action
Network, Students for a Democratic Society, and Freedom Road Socialist
Organization -- all organizations that have actively opposed U.S. foreign
policies.  The FBI also raided the office of the Anti-war Committee in
Minneapolis, which had organized a demonstration during the 2008 Republican
National Convention.

Among those in Chicago was Joe Iosbaker, an executive board member of SEIU
Local 73, a USLAW affiliate in Chicago.

Doors were kicked in during the early morning raids and personal belongings,
including children's artwork and posters of Martin Luther King, Jr, were
taken, as well as cell phones, computers and boxes of paper records.  No
charges have been filed; no arrests were made.  But about a dozen activists
from Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan have been subpoenaed to testify
before a federal grand jury.

The F.B.I.  broke down Mick Kelly's door around 7 a.m.  Kelly is a food
service worker at the University of Minnesota who was a key figure in
organizing the successful 2008 anti-war street protests that embarrassed the
Republican National Convention in St.  Paul.

The FBI justified these raids claiming that they were "seeking evidence
relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism."

Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former
associate editor of the Wall Street Journal, commenting on the raids,
observed:

"Material support" is another of those undefined police state terms.  In
this context the term means that Americans who fail to believe their
government's lies and instead protest its policies, are supporting their
government's declared enemies and, thus, are not exercising their civil
liberties but committing treason."

The "material support" statute is so broadly written that it can, and does,
include international peace-building activities that are not in any way
intended to support terrorism. The raids come just days after the U.S.
Justice Department Inspector General issued a report sharply critical of FBI
surveillance of peace groups from 2002-2006, concluding among other things
that there was no factual basis for the terror claims the FBI made to
justify their actions.  The Inspector General report also found that FBI
Director Mueller testified falsely to Congress about the surveillance of
peace groups.

The very same day, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) released an 88-page
document titled "The Policing of Political Speech: Constraints on Mass
Dissent in the U.S."

The government attacks on the anti-war movement over the weekend will remind
the more "seasoned" among us of the days of COINTELPRO and grand jury abuse
at its worst.  A broad coalition of organizations has called for a rapid
response with demonstrations and other forms of protest across the country.

USLAW co-convenors believe that USLAW affiliates and the entire labor
movement should protest these raids and act to preserve the civil liberties
underlying robust protest in this country.  We are not just supporters of
the organized anti-war movement, we are part of it.

These raids are but one example of how dissent in our country is being
criminalized.  The raids took place just a week before tens of thousands of
people will descend on Washington, DC in what promises to be a huge protest
for jobs, peace and justice.  Among the nearly 500 participating
organizations are 96 peace organizations (including USLAW).  Rather than
intimidate, these raids will infuse the One Nation Working Together March on
Washington with new energy and even greater import.

Use the links below to access additional reports about the raids.  Below
them is a statement issued by United for Peace and Justice, with which USLAW
is affiliated, and a resolution adopted Monday evening by the San Francisco
Labor Council.


********************

DEMOCRACY NOW!  report (23 minutes) Monday Sept 27:
 
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/27/fbi_raids_homes_of_anti_war VARIOUS
NEWS REPORTS:
http://lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/listserv/wa?A2=ind1009D
<http://lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/listserv/wa?A2=ind1009D&L=PORT> &L=PORT
SIDE&F=&S=&P=24397>http://lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/
listserv/wa?A2=ind100=9D&L=PORTSIDE&F=&S=&P=24397 



* * * * * * * * * *



From: United for Peace and Justice <info at unitedforpeace.org> Date: Sun, Sep
26, 2010 at 11:41 PM

*Protest FBI Raids and Harassment of Antiwar Activists*

United for Peace and Justice stands in solidarity with the anti-war and
international solidarity activists whose homes were raided by the FBI on
Friday, September 24.  Homes in Chicago and Minneapolis were raides.  Doors
were kicked in during the early morning raids and personal belongings
including children's artwork, posters of Martin Luther King, Jr, were taken,
as well as cell phones, computers and boxes of paper records.  About a dozen
activists from Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan have been subpoenaed to
testify before a federal grand jury.

The FBI emphasized that no arrests were made, but that evidence was being
collected regarding the possible 'material support' of terrorism.  The
'material support' statute is so broadly written that it can, and does,
criminalize international peace-building activities whose only connection to
terrorism is to reduce it.

Only one week ago, the Justice Department's own Inspector General released a
report documenting political surveillance by the FBI.  Friday's raids are
the latest violations by a recidivist agency whose abuses have unfortunately
recurred throughout its history.

The FBI's raids threaten the First Amendment, our Peace Movement, and
reflect the dangerous expansion of guilt by association pervading the
Justice Department's "counter-terror" prosecutions.  They cannot stand, and
the FBI should be held accountable for any abuses.  Activists are encouraged
to join demonstrations at FBI and/or Federal buildings in cities around the
country.

----------



San Francisco Labor Council Resolution

[Note: The following resolution -- submitted by David Welsh, NALC 214, and
Alan Benjamin, OPEIU 3 -- was adopted unanimously by the SFLC Delegates'
Meeting on Sept. 27, 2010.]

Condemn FBI Raids on Trade Union, Anti-War and Solidarity Activists



Whereas, early morning Sept. 24 in coordinated raids, FBI agents entered
eight homes and offices of trade union and anti-war activists in Minneapolis
and Chicago, confiscating crates full of computers, books, documents,
notebooks, cell phones, passports, children's drawings, photos of Martin
Luther King and Malcolm X, videos and personal belongings. The FBI also
raided offices of the Twin Cities Anti-war Committee, seizing computers;
handed out subpoenas to testify before a federal Grand Jury to 11 activists
in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan; and paid harassment visits to others in
Wisconsin, California and North Carolina; and

Whereas, one target of the raid was the home of Joe Iosbaker, chief steward
and executive board member of SEIU Local 73 in Chicago, where he has led
struggles at the University of Illinois for employee rights and pay equity.
Brother Iosbaker told the Democracy Now radio/TV program that FBI agents
"systematically [went] through every room, our basement, our attic, our
children's rooms, and pored through not just all of our papers, but our
music collection, our children's artwork, my son's poetry journal from high
school -- everything." He and his wife, a Palestine solidarity activist,
were both issued subpoenas. The earliest subpoena dates are October 5 and 7;
and

Whereas, the majority of those targeted by the FBI raids had participated in
anti-war protests at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul MN,
which resulted in hundreds of beatings and arrests [with almost all charges
subsequently dropped]. Many of those targeted in the 9/24 raids were
involved in humanitarian solidarity work with labor and popular movements in
Colombia -- "the most dangerous place in the world to be a trade unionist"--
whose US-funded government has been condemned by the AFL-CIO and
internationally for the systematic assassination of hundreds of trade
unionists; and

Whereas, the nationally coordinated dawn raids and fishing expedition marks
a new and dangerous chapter in the protracted assault on the First Amendment
rights of every union fighter, solidarity activist or anti-war campaigner,
which began with 9/11 and the USA Patriot Act. The raids came only 4 days
after a scathing report by the Department of Justice Inspector General that
soundly criticized the FBI for targeting domestic groups such as Greenpeace
and the Thomas Merton Center from 2002-06. In 2008, according to a 300-page
report obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI trailed a
group of students in Iowa City to parks, libraries, bars and restaurants,
and went through their trash. This time the FBI is using the pretext of
investigating "terrorism" in an attempt to intimidate activists.

Therefore be it resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council denounce the
Sept. 24th FBI raids on the homes and offices of trade union, solidarity and
anti-war activists in Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere; the confiscation
of computers and personal belongings; and the issuance of Grand Jury
subpoenas. This has all the earmarks of a fishing expedition. 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;

And be it further resolved, that this Council make the following demands:

1.  Stop the repression against trade union, anti-war and international
solidarity activists.

2.  Immediately return all confiscated materials: computers, cell phones,
papers, documents, personal belongings, etc.

3.  End the Grand Jury proceedings and FBI raids against trade union,
anti-war and international solidarity activists;

And be it further resolved, that this Council participate in the ongoing
movement to defend our civil rights and civil liberties from FBI
infringement; forward this resolution to Bay Area labor councils, California
Labor Federation, Change to Win and AFL-CIO;  and call on these
organizations at all levels to similarly condemn the witch hunt;

And be it finally resolved, 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.






 

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