Bush, Now Obama: “Anti-War Protests are a Form of Terrorism”

Your Government is Criminalizing Dissent. This Must Not Stand.

In September 2008, activists in Minneapolis/St. Paul preparing peaceful protests against the GOP’s National Convention are pre-emptively arrested by the FBI and charged as terrorists.

In June 2009, the DoD is caught red-handed instructing all of its personnel that any legal, non-violent protests are “low-level terrorism.”

In April 2010 the NY Times and Washington Post report that Obama has ordered the assassination of US citizens he considers terrorists. In addition, despite his pre-election declarations that he would restore habeas corpus, since taking office Obama has said that even if someone is found not guilty of any charges, he will hold them without end if he deems it necessary.

On September 24, 2010 the FBI raids several homes and two offices of anti-war activists in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago and N. Carolina, looking for evidence that these individuals have “lent material support to terrorists.”

On December 19, 2010 Vice-President Joe Biden on Meet the Press calls Wikileaks founder Julian Assange a “high tech terrorist” for releasing government documents that show that our government has been systematically lying to us, committing war crimes, and consistently violating the law.

If this were happening in any other country, US officials would be besides themselves about the violation of human rights and civil liberties. Yet they are silent as this criminalization of protest proceeds more and more pervasively, aggressively, and outrageously here at home.

These heinous government acts are designed to suppress and intimidate any one who dares to criticize or even question our government’s policies. They are the natural and inevitable corollary to illegal and immoral actions abroad. The lies that started the wars on Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, and the lies that perpetuate those illegal and immoral wars can only be maintained and those policies continued if this government can successfully shut down any signs of opposition. The government is criminalizing dissent and free assembly of those they disapprove of, with no end in sight. The people must stand up and be counted or these trends will continue unabated. A government that carries out atrocities abroad can only do so as long as it can prevent the people who speak the truth and expose their false words and ill deeds from the right to do so.

Stop the repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists.

End the grand jury proceedings against anti-war activists.

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