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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> HoustonCathy [mailto:ckorrf@earthlink.net]
<BR><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, September 30, 2010 10:07 AM<BR><B>To:</B> Ruth
Hoffman-Lach; leeloe@igc.org<BR><B>Cc:</B> cheshirecat2@comcast.net;
CPmadelieneMagicas; Bart Boyce; Deb Shafto; donald cook;
garytoots@hotmail.com<BR><B>Subject:</B> harrassment of
dissent<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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)...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Made me appreciate the importance of our legal
workers skills and commitment to individual liberties and
justice...</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>ACLU TX & in Houston is taking part in the
national ACLU celebrate freedom & read "banned books"! on
Saturday</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/celebrate-freedom-read-read-banned-book">http://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/celebrate-freedom-read-read-banned-book</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.aclutx.org/projects/bannedbooks.php">http://www.aclutx.org/projects/bannedbooks.php</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><STRONG></STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV><STRONG>What</STRONG>: Houston Chapter Annual Meeting + Banned Books
Event<BR><STRONG>Where</STRONG>: Dharma Cafe, 1718 Houston Ave. (Corner of
Houston Ave. and Crockett St.) <STRONG><BR>When</STRONG>: Thursday, Oct. 1 @
6:30 p.m.<BR><BR>Featured speaker will be distinguished author <STRONG><FONT
color=#800000>Lou Dubose</FONT></STRONG>, editor of The Washington Spectator
newsletter and former editor of Texas Observer magazine.<BR><BR>Buffet dinner
will be served. Admission is free for ACLU members; non-members $25 at the door.
<STRONG><A
href="https://secure.aclu.org/site/Ticketing/2013298597?=lctt433d32.app224a&view=Tickets&id=106181">Please
RSVP</A></STRONG></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=ruthhof@yahoo.com href="mailto:ruthhof@yahoo.com">Ruth
Hoffman-Lach</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=cheshirecat2@comcast.net
href="mailto:cheshirecat2@comcast.net">cheshirecat2@comcast.net</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [codepinkhouston] USLAW
Statement on FBI Raids</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>This is really disturbing. Any attorneys out there with advice about how
to respond if thus happens to one of us?</DIV>
<DIV><BR>On Sep 29, 2010, at 9:49 PM, <A
href="mailto:cheshirecat2@comcast.net">cheshirecat2@comcast.net</A>
wrote:<BR>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."<BR>C<BR><BR>
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<TD id=yiv644879225drftMsgContent
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: arial; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit"><BR>What
is really troubling to me is that non-violent citizens
who<BR><BR>support peaceful actions to advocate peaceful solutions
to<BR><BR>our governmental war policies are being branded as
potential<BR><BR>terrorists. Nothing can be farther from the
truth . This is truly<BR><BR>Orwellian .<BR><BR>This
"criminalization of dissent" or<BR><BR>"Humanitarian advocacy
being treated as material support to terrorists"<BR><BR>must be
brought to the general populace's attention
immediately.<BR><BR>Please read the following USLAW Statement
.<BR><BR>b<BR><BR><BR>
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<BR>Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2010, 7:46 PM<BR><BR>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>* * * * * * * * * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+2><B><BR></B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+2><B>USLAW Condemns Raids on
Activists' Homes as "Criminalization of Dissent"</B></FONT><FONT
face=Arial size=+1><BR><BR>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".</FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial size=+1></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR>Among those in Chicago was Joe
Iosbaker, an executive board member of SEIU Local 73, a USLAW
affiliate in Chicago.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.</FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial size=+1></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>The FBI justified these raids
claiming that they were "seeking evidence relating to activities
concerning the material support of terrorism."</FONT><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=+1></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>Paul Craig Roberts, former
Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury and former associate
editor of the Wall Street Journal, commenting on the raids,
observed:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR>"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."</FONT><BR><FONT
face=Arial size=+1></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR>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."<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial
size=+1>********************<BR><BR>DEMOCRACY NOW! report
(23 minutes) Monday Sept 27:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><A
href="http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/27/fbi_raids_homes_of_anti_war">http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/27/fbi_raids_homes_of_anti_war</A>
VARIOUS NEWS REPORTS:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><A
href="http://lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/listserv/wa?A2=ind1009D&L=PORT">http://lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/listserv/wa?A2=ind1009D&L=PORT</A><SPAN>
</SPAN>SIDE&F=&S=&P=24397>http://lists.portside.org/cgi-bin/<SPAN>
</SPAN>listserv/wa?A2=ind100=9D&L=PORTSIDE&F=&S=&P=24397
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR>* * * * * * * * *
*</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR>From: United for Peace and
Justice <<A
href="mailto:info@unitedforpeace.org">info@unitedforpeace.org</A>>
Date: Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 11:41 PM</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=+2><B>*Protest FBI Raids and Harassment of Antiwar
Activists*</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.<BR><BR>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.</FONT><BR><FONT face=Arial
size=+1></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>----------</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT><FONT face=Arial
size=+2><B>San Francisco Labor Council
Resolution</B></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><I>[<B>Note</B>: 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.</I>]</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+2><B>Condemn FBI Raids on Trade
Union, Anti-War and Solidarity Activists</B></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><I>Whereas</I>, 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</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><I>Whereas</I>, 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</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><I>Whereas</I>, 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</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><I>Whereas</I>, 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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><I>Therefore be it resolved</I>,
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;</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><I>And be it further resolved</I>,
that this Council make the following demands:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>1. Stop the repression
against trade union, anti-war and international solidarity
activists.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>2. Immediately return all
confiscated materials: computers, cell phones, papers,
documents, personal belongings, etc.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1>3. End the Grand Jury
proceedings and FBI raids against trade union, anti-war and
international solidarity activists;</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><I>And be it further resolved</I>,
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;</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><I>And be it finally resolved</I>,
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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=+1><BR></FONT></DIV>
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