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Three of the anti-war activists targeted by the FBI |
By Debra Sweet
A contradiction to ponder:
- A three-year investigation by the Department of Justice into the CIA operatives who carried out waterboarding, filmed the acts on 2 men, and then destroyed the tapes, ended this past November – with the government deciding not to prosecute anyone. Jason Leopold, in Special Prosecutor Declines to File Criminal Charges Over Destruction of CIA Torture Tapes wrote:It is widely believed that the videotapes were destroyed to cover up torture. It is also believed that the tapes were destroyed because Democratic members of Congress who were briefed about the tapes began asking questions about whether the interrogations were illegal, according to Jane Mayer, author of the book, “The Dark Side” and a reporter for The New Yorker magazine.
- A two-year secret federal investigation of the U.S. anti-war movement has been conducted by the Obama administration, apparently with a federal grand jury in Chicago hearing evidence from Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, looking into “possible links between U.S. anti-war groups and foreign terrorist organizations,” according to the Chicago Tribune. Fitzgerald issued subpoenas beginning in September 2010, delivered via FBI raids to their homes, for activists to appear before the grand jury. With all the records sealed by court order, it is impossible to know about the scope and intent of the probe.
But knowing what we know about how the “war on terror” has been conducted, one can be suspicious that the aim of the first investigation was to find no crimes, while the aim of the second is to manufacture crimes.
23 anti-war activists have now been targeted by the FBI, many through September raids that confiscated a wide range of personal material. In FBI Raids Anti-War Activists Homes in Midwest, Revolution newspaper reported after the initial raids:
The FBI spokesman in Minneapolis was quoted in the Chicago Tribune, “The warrants are seeking evidence in support of an ongoing Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation into activities concerning the material support of terrorism.” This was a charge which activists immediately dismissed as illegitimate and unjustified. No arrests have been made and the FBI admitted that there was no “imminent danger” to the public.
9 of the 23 activists have subpoenas compelling them to appear before the grand jury on Tuesday, January 25. Their profiles and background are posted by The Committee to Stop FBI Repression. According to the site:
These activists are involved in many groups, including the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee, the Palestine Solidarity Group, the Colombia Action Network, Students for a Democratic Society, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. These activists and many others came together to organize the 2008 anti-war marches during the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
The Committee’s site continues in a section on Grand Juries:
Some of those targeted have traveled to other countries to understand our government’s role in places like Palestine and Colombia. While there, they met with people to learn about their experience facing brutal repression from U.S. sponsored regimes, and brought their stories back to people in the U.S. Hearing about the reality of U.S. military aid is not a crime, and yet this appears to be the target of this investigation.
The Committee’s demands are:
- Stop the repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists.
- Immediately return all confiscated materials: computers, cell phones, papers, documents, etc.
- End the grand jury proceedings against anti-war activists.
Grand Juries as Politically Repressive Tools
It’s important to know how grand juries are used in political investigations in this country. Glen Ford, in President Barack “Midnight Raid” Obama: End Your Wars at Home and Abroad writes
Grand juries are places where rights are butchered, and we can clearly see the broad outlines of a mass prosecution strategy unfolding, in which grand juries are the engines of political destruction.
Revolution newspaper gathered resources from the Center for Constitutional Rights in The Grand Jury – The Grand Inquisition and summarizes:
The person who has refused to testify [before a grand jury] can be brought back before the judge and held in what is known as “civil contempt” of the court. Without a trial, the judge can imprison the person for whatever is the length of the grand jury. Grand juries are normally 18 months, but there are special federal grand juries that are empanelled for 36 months, and this can be extended because it is “special.”
Historically, the Justice Department and the FBI have used the subpoena power of the federal grand jury, coupled with compulsory immunity, to jail activists who refuse to cooperate with government investigations. In the 1960s and well into the ’80s, there were many instances of courageous people who refused to testify before grand juries.
Joe Iosbaker, one of those originally subpoenaed said in October,
“We have nothing to say to a Grand Jury. Most people do not understand how secretive and undemocratic the Grand Jury is. I am not allowed to have my lawyer with me. There isn’t even a judge. How strange is that? It is the U.S. prosecutor with 23 people they hand picked to pretty much rubber stamp whatever the prosecutor says. A person is defenseless in that situation.”
Maureen Murphy received a subpoena on December 21 to appear on January 25. In explaining why she will not testify, she cites the danger not only to the activists in the United States by giving legitimacy to the investigation, but principally to those they could be forced to testify about in other countries
I have no intention to participate in the government’s witch hunt. It is very clear that no crime has been committed and that the government’s motivation in issuing these subpoenas is to have us name the names of other activists not only here in the United States, but also in places like Palestine and Colombia, where many of us have traveled to learn about the human rights situations in those places. We can only assume that the US government shares intelligence with the governments of Israel and Colombia, whose repressive military rule the US bankrolls at the US taxpayer’s expense. And it is essentially a prison sentence or worse for human rights activists in Palestine and Colombia to be singled out and identified in this way. And I have no intention in playing any role in that.
Jess Sundlin, another whose home was raided, said
“If our friends choose not to testify, they could be imprisoned. It could be for months or even years, like in the case of Professor Abdelhaleem Ashqar, who faced the same prosecutor we face and who was investigated of violating the same law we are confronting. Before he was acquitted of the charges against him, Dr. Ashqar was sentenced to criminal contempt for refusing to testify before Fitzgerald’s grand jury in Chicago. The punitive sentence against him was more than 11 years. Again, he was acquitted of the crimes the grand jury was investigating.”
Needed: A Wave of Support for Antiwar Resisters
On Tuesday, January 25, The Committee to Stop FBI Repression, and affiliated organizations are holding protests of the grand jury investigation in dozens of cities. I’ll be in Chicago that day, outside the Federal Building, in support of those refusing to testify.
Jill McLaughlin, in Reality And Morality: Standing Up To Repressive Forces While Standing Up For Humanity expressed the mission of World Can’t Wait in opposing this dangerous and repressive investigation.
We cannot allow these repressive attacks to deter us from righteously opposing and resisting the crimes of our government. We must have courage.
Wow, you really hit a subject close to my heart. It’s an interesting paradox, wanting to lead by example, but unable to simply off ones-self. I did NOT mention genocide, more or less the thinning out of a species, so that all who survive can have a bit of leg room, again why I like suicide bombers best. If they have enough fortitude, mislead as it is, to kill themselves and in doing so toppling many others, then I feel that the reasoning behind such acts MAY BE a part of evolution. Most times if a species becomes to vast in the animal kingdom, something comes along to keep it steady. In this sentiment, we are one hell of a resilient set of animals, who somehow walk through many natural ways to die, say bears and disease. If all regular attempts to steady the population fail, then to me, us killing ourselves, or harboring mental delusions of religious freedom, are the new forms of completing the task. It’s like pigs. Pigs are very sociable creatures, who keep rather clean, and even stay in small social groups. Place them altogether in a pen with no personal space, and they can become quite “hoggish” as it were. I wish no one in particular any harm, just the open space that we need. Killing ones self has got to be the most difficult decision one can make. I have thought about it several times, in fact, I have a beretta in a bank lock box, for the day that I feel no longer valuable to myself or society. If I can’t help my fellow man via working, or community, or immediate family, then it would only be right of me to kick off, and not continue to waste resources on myself. Frederich Niche states in The spoken word of Zarathustra that “some men die too soon, but many men live beyond their prime, like bad fruit; wasting away the potential of the tree, only to cling for life” I wish not to be this way, my only aim in bringing up such a subject is to hopefully make others aware. I know, this means that children should be banned from my little list of “people who must die” but as the population is, I feel that we cannot make this distinction. It’s already ingrained within most humans, that killing something very defenseless by violent means, in nearly any animal life, is wrong. But sometimes such actions occur for the same reasons they do in nature, some specimens are not made to perpetuate; be it by chance, or bad decisions.
I only speak of the macro. If you would like to further discuss the minor details, and how I feel about it, feel free to mail me back anytime. Sorry for the girth of my response, I just wanted to make sure that there is no confusion. Thanks!
– Craig
So Craig, you’re saying genocide is a good thing? If you feel that way, you could always set an example and start with yourself. Or is it only other people who need to die, not you?
I am pro war anything, can you blame me? Infant mortality, complicit citizens who make great brain washed soldiers dying in war, or the family ofs who purchase stupid car magnet ribbons, religious blind following suicide bombers, whom I like most because they not only kill themselves but several others; anything to get the freeway moving, and resources flowing. If you decide to try to keep as many people alive as possible, then you should take a look at Japanese subways. I’m not gonna tell ya, I’ll let you be surprised. We can always make more, and to perpetuate the illusion that life is the most precious resource, the one thing you don’t want to lose, then you insist upon conformity. If you oppose a government, you should move out from under it, and strike it out on your own, or under a different government, one that you have more a liking. I believe sincerely that you all wish to make this country better by using it’s current policies, but I can assure you, when you have nearly the entire “former” staff of goldmans sacs bank running the treasury of a government that is supposed to be for the people, you can see what kind of trouble we’re in. The policy holders have made it difficult to understand the policy, even if you are educated, then made it difficult, and costly to become educated. I fear that there are not enough people to push your cause, because most of them are under the new indentured servants policies, that hold people to an oppressing schedule, with not much energy to fight. I mean, it’s a nice try, but really, alot of people need to die, so that we become rare again, and hard to dispose of. Individuality would be more prized, and having to personally face your constituency will have a far more sobering effects.