Terrorist by Association: The Justice Department targets nonviolent solidarity activists

[marmar]

from In These Times:




Terrorist by Association
The Justice Department targets nonviolent solidarity activists.

By Jeremy Gantz


September 24 began like any other Friday for Joe Iosbaker and Stephanie Weiner. Then, at 7 a.m., FBI agents knocked on the door of the Chicago couple’s house in the city’s North Side.

Armed with a search warrant, more than 20 agents examined the couple’s home, photographing every room and combing through notebooks, family videos and books, even their children’s drawings. Some items were connected to their decades of anti-war and international solidarity activism, but others were not. “Folders were opened, letters were pulled out of envelopes,” says Weiner, an adult education professor at Wilbur Wright College. “They had rubber gloves and they went through every aspect of our home.”

Ten hours after their arrival, as television news crews filmed and activist supporters stood on the sidewalk, the agents drove away with nearly 30 boxes of material, including t-shirts and a photograph of Malcolm X. By that time, Iosbaker and Weiner had been served subpoenas to appear before a grand jury investigating “material support” for “foreign terrorist organizations.” And they knew theirs wasn’t the only home invaded that day. More than 70 FBI agents had raided seven residences in Chicago and Minneapolis and questioned activists in Michigan, California and North Carolina, serving subpoenas to 11 people. A few days later, the Justice Department subpoenaed members of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), whose office was also raided on September 24, raising the number to 14.

The grand jury and FBI are looking for evidence that connects the 14 activists and their “potential co-conspirators” to two organizations: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which are both on the State Department’s “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” list. None of the 14 has been charged with a crime, and all deny providing “material support,” including money, to any foreign organization. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6745/terrorist_by_association

[inna]

1. chilling, ominous and... unprecedented.

“For the first time, the court actually says it’s criminal to speak out, to associate,” says Michael Deutsch, an attorney with the Chicago-based People’s Law Office and one of the National Lawyers Guild members working with the activists. “The ruling criminalizes First Amendment activity. It’s quite ominous.”

Good article, well worth reading in its entirety. Thanks for posting.

[Sonoman]

3. The Roberts Court jammed a speculum into the 1st Ammendment.

The interpretation is chilling, just as it was intended to be.

Ari Fleischer, "Be careful what you say". Echoed by Rumsfield shortly thereafter.

This country (what is left of it) is so screwed.

Sonoman

[eleny]

2. Link to the list of the State Department’s “Foreign Terrorist Organizations”

http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/other/des/123085.htm