FBI Expands 'Witch Hunt' Against Antiwar Activists

[unhappycamper]

FBI Expands 'Witch Hunt' Against Antiwar Activists
by Charles Davis
Published on Wednesday, December 22, 2010 by Change.org

The FBI on Tuesday added four more names to the list of antiwar activists subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury as part of an investigation into whether members of the peace movement provided "material support" for terrorism.

In all, 23 people have been subpoenaed since September 24, when the FBI raided the offices and homes of prominent activists in Chicago and Minneapolis. None has been charged with a crime. Several have also refused to testify in what they say is a witch hunt aimed more at intimidating those who dare speak out against U.S. foreign policy than uncovering actual ties to terrorists.

And they're probably right.

Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling this past June, the definition of "material support" for terrorism is now so broad as to include any sort of "advice" to a State Department-designated terrorist group, even if that advice is "stop engaging in terrorism and embrace nonviolence." Former President Jimmy Carter and groups such as the ACLU and Human Rights Watch have spoken out against the ruling.

Because the definition is so broad, though, it provides the perfect legal basis for the government to go after those opposed to its policies abroad. And as the Bush administration ably demonstrated, there are plenty of people in government who would be all too happy to equate opposition to the U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen - just to name a few - as de facto support for terrorism.

[xchrom]

1. recommend

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Reminds me of the Palmer Raids where war protestors were labelled "radicals"

and given the J. Edgar Hoover treatment.

[ixion]

3. of course, this has been the goal all along

to lock down the citizenry and clamp down on dissent in the name of 'keeping people safe', of all absurd things.

[bemildred]

4. Never listen to your local FBI plant. nt

[lonestarnot]

5. 2nd Fucking A of the morning.