5 reasons why YOU should come to the CSFR concert this Sat

1. All of the coolest organizers in the Twin Cities are going to be there. The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is comprised of many groups, as well as ordinary citizens, who see these attacks of the anti-war movement as attacks on us all. Working for peace and justice is not a crime in this country. Yet, with the recent treatment of Occupy protesters, the passing of the NDAA, and the new laws in place in Chicago in preparation for the NATO/G8 protests this Spring, it is clear that state repression is a hot topic.
Come and support the national group that wants to put a stop to it.

2. We have an awesome line up and it is going to be an amazing show. This concert is ganna be a blast! Featuring Guante and DJ Shannon Blowtorch, there will also be performances by James Houck, Housepet, The Running Riot, Dead Skull and poetry by yours truly! I am so excited to be a part of this project and to have one of my poems on this album. I think that art and creativity are what makes our movements strong. And the chance to put all these things together like this is the reason I am an activist. It’s the reason I write poetry. Music with a message, and a fun night out that makes a real difference. What else where you going to do this weekend?

3. The benefit album is so good, you want an actual copy not just the download. I mean, what’s not to love? There is definitely something for everyone on this album. It features new music from local artists, who have all donated their talents to this cause. In fact, the whole production- from making flyers to finding a venue- has been an amazing community effort. Come celebrate the release with us, and help us raise some money for future organizing efforts. Besides concerts, the CSFR brings you more protests, community dinners, out reach and good old grassroots organizing. Not every CD in your collection can do all that.

4. Not only will the CD be there for sale, so will all our other merch! This is your chance to get CSFR t-shirts, hoodies, buttons and stickers as well! Remember this is a fundraiser, people. You definitely want to check out the table in the back of the room. We also tend to carry a lot of informational flyers, and you can get up to date on the case and all our upcoming events. Sign the petition and get on our email list (and you don’t have to wait for the concert to like us on facebook!)

5. FBI repression: you could be doing more. The fact is, this is serious business. We wouldn’t be here today without the support of our friends and community, and we need all the help we can get. Political dissent is not a crime, in fact, it is essential to a working democracy. Help us defend our rights to speak, assemble and associate freely. These 23 people standing up to the Grand Jury, are being targeted for their work as organizers, something that in times like these is desperately needed. Together we can do something about it.
To do it together, we need you.

Now, don’t worry. If you absolutely cannot make it to the show this Saturday, you can still download the album at http://www.stopfbi.bandcamp.com/
And, of course, you can always donate directly to us on our website http://www.stopfbi.net/
(Money helps, but we like volunteers more).
Hope to see you at the show!

Peace
Misty

The Electronic Intifada | US Palestinians organize as government renews threats to indict solidarity activists

Photo: Jacob Anikulapo, Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/thewaz/5231817262/)

Posted on January 6, 2012 by The Electronic Intifada

By Maureen Murphy

The US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) is asking supporters to sign a pledge to defend civil and human rights as it was revealed last week that the lead government prosecutor of the Holy Land Five has been assigned to the ongoing secret investigation against anti-war and international solidarity activists across the US.

USPCN is a Palestinian formation aimed at unifying Palestinians in the Shatat (exile) in support of self-determination and the right of return and ending the Zionist occupation and colonization of Palestine.

USPCN has rallied around Palestine solidarity and anti-war activists who are beingtargeted as part of an investigation into material support for foreign terrorist organizations. I am one of almost two dozen activists in Chicago and the Minneapolis/St.Paul areas who have been subpoenaed to a federal grand jury as part of this investigation.

The FBI and other federal agencies, in a coordinated raid in September 2010, burst into the homes of prominent organizers in the Midwest and harassed activists across the country. In the following months, subpoenas were delivered to a total of 23 activists; all of us have refused to testify, saying that we are being targeted because of our political work which is protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Veteran Chicano liberation, anti-war and immigrant rights activist Carlos Montes was also raided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department last May. Montes is named in one of the search warrants served in Minneapolis in September 2010, and when he was in custody the FBI questioned him about his political associations.

He was charged with trumped-up technical firearms code violations related to his participation in protests decades ago. (For more information about Montes and this attack on him, see this good backgrounder by Chris Hedges: “Carlos Montes and the Security State: A Cautionary Tale.”)

Readying for national day of action

The USPCN’s pledge in support of the activists reads:

In solidarity with the 23, we will defend our constitutional rights of freedom of speech and assembly. We will stand up to any escalation of the attacks on human rights activists.

We will join in the National Day of Protest when any of the 23 human rights activists are ordered to appear in front of the Chicago Grand Jury or indicted.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression, which formed in the wake of the September 2010 raids, also has a petition that has already been signed by thousands of individuals. There is also a national petition in support of Carlos Montes.

Lead prosecutor of Holy Land Five now part of secret investigation

It was revealed last week that not only is the the investigation into the anti-war and solidarity activists ongoing, but Barry Jonas, the lead prosecutor of five men associated with the Holy Land Foundation, is now working on the investigation under US District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago.

The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), once the largest Islamic charity in the US, was shut down by the Bush administration in December 2001 and indictments came down a few years later. After a first trial resulted in a hung jury that favored toward acquittal, a second trial resulted in the conviction of the five men, who were given sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years in prison.

The US government alleged that the HLF was providing material support to Hamas, a Palestinian political party on the US State Department’s designated foreign terrorist organization list. As is summarized in Alia Malek’s excellent book Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice:

The HLF was not accused of directly financing terrorist violence, but of supplying funds to Hamas-controlled charitable societies and committees. The US government has argued that providing humanitarian aid to victims of war or natural disasters is a crime if provided to or coordinated with a group labeled as a foreign terrorist organization.

The charitable groups, known as Zakat Committees, identified in the indictment have been funded by the US and the defense denied that the committees are controled by Hamas. The Hamas party won a majority of seats in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections and the Gaza Strip has been subjected to a devastating siege of collective punishment following the Hamas government’s takeover of the territory’s internal affairs.

All of the major Palestinian political parties, except for Fatah, are on the State Department’s terrorist organization list, essentially criminalizing an entire people. Of course I don’t have to point out the hypocrisy of criminalizing Palestinian political groups while the US funds the Israeli occupation to the tune of $3 billion a year and provides Israel with diplomatic cover at the United Nations.

Charity treated as “local face of terrorism”

Holy Land Foundation co-founder Ghassan Elashi is currently serving a 65-year sentence in a Communications Management Unit — self-contained detention centers where communication is severely restricted and monitored, and which are disproportionately populated by Arabs and Muslims. He provides a revealing testimony in Patriot Acts, describing how the HLF and his family company, InfoCom, which was raided days before the 11 September 2001 attacks, became the “local faces of terrorism.” It was at one point even speculated whether the 11 September attacks were in reprisal for the raid on the company.

Elashi also describes how the government agencies who raided the HLF’s offices in December 2001 had neither a search warrant or a court order to seize its contents.

The injustices against the HLF continued during the trials. During the first trial, Elashi recounts, “the prosecutors focused on the killing of Israeli soldiers and civilians by Palestinian elements, and specifically Hamas, as opposed to the actions of the HLF or the defendants themselves.”

Elashi adds:

One government witness testified in detail about suicide bombings claimed by Hamas, and prosecutors were also allowed to present to the jury numerous images and statements made by individuals other than us. For example, they showed pictures of the aftermath of suicide bombs, and videos of Palestinian school ceremonies in which children played the roles of suicide bombers, complete with suicide belts. None of the videos came from the HLF’s files. The videos depicted events that happened years after the HLF closed, and there is no evidence that the defendants attended these ceremonies.

Yet all attempts by our attorney to show the jury fundraising videos demonstrating the HLF’s charity work were met with objections from prosecutors and the judge. The judge even deemed the evidence irrelevant.

Like in the Chicago trial of US Palestinians Muhammad Salah and Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar a few years back, the prosecution’s star witness in the HLF trial was an “anonymous expert who worked with the Israeli secret intelligence.” His real name was not revealed to the court and the defense attorneys were severely limited in what they were allowed to ask during cross-examination. “This is the first time in history the US court had allowed an expert witness to testify with an anonymous name,” Elashi recounts in Patriot Acts.

Elashi also recalls that after the first trial, none of the defendants were found guilty of any of the 197 counts against them. However, the prosecution had more tricks up its sleeve, as Elashi recalls:

Prosecutors then asked the judge to poll the jurors. The judge agreed, and one of the jurors changed their mind. Suddenly there was confusion in the court. Some of the marshals told us that they had never seen such a thing in their lives.The judge then ordered the jurors to go back to the deliberation room and come out with a final verdict … This time one of the jurors changed their minds … the final verdict was a hung jury on all counts for all defendants, except [Mohammad] Elmezain, who was acquitted on all counts, with a hung jury on one count. The judge then announced a mistrial. A mistrial meant of course that prosecutors decided to retry the case.

A second trial resulted in guilty verdicts on all counts and lengthy prison sentences for the five men.

Palestine solidarity construed as material support for terrorism

The injustice of the trial, convictions and sentencing of the Holy Land Foundation five gives an idea of what anti-war and international solidarity activists are in for should they be put on trial.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts’ Privacy Matters blog published a spot-on analysis last week on “International solidarity and the First Amendment in the crosshairs,” saying that government prosecutor Barry Jonas’ involvement “suggests that criminalizing support for Palestine could be at the top of the grand jury’s agenda.”

The post also states:

Since the Holy Land Foundation case was decided, prosecutors have obtained a new weapon to use against international solidarity activists like those at the receiving end of grand jury subpoenas. The Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 in the case of Holder v. the Humanitarian Law Project was the culmination of 12 years of litigation over the interpretation of the “material support to terrorism” provision of the 1996 Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which was expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act to include the categories of giving “expert advice or assistance,” training, service and personnel.

The case revolved around groups that were helping the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) develop non violent ways of getting its message across and an organization that maintained that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) should be the recipient of aid for northern Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the deadly tsunami.

In a 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court in June 2010 carved out a frightening new exception to the First Amendment. Basically it says that if a person or organization has carried out some kind of activity that was somehow “coordinated” with a group that has been listed by the Secretary of State as a terrorist organization, then that person or organization can be prosecuted for giving “material support” to terrorists. That activity can be wholly peaceful, have peacemaking or humanitarian relief as its goal, and involve nothing more than words.

The Supreme Court’s constitutionally vague decision gives the government a powerful tool to prosecute international solidarity activists. As the ACLU-Mass blog notes:

If the African National Congress were still on the State Department’s list — it was taken off by an Act of Congress as a 90th birthday present to Nelson Mandela in 2008 — then, theoretically at any rate, anyone from this country who worked with Mandela, or enabled Mandela’s voice to be heard could have faced criminal charges.

While in its June 2010 decision the Supreme Court declared that it was not criminalizing independent advocacy of ideas or opinions, ACLU-Mass notes that this was “overlooked in Boston where, in December 2011, a federal jury found Tarek Mehanna guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists without any kind of demonstrated link being made to a terrorist organization.”

Ideological war

The (mis)application of anti-terror legislation is something that I have been scrutinizing on my blog, focusing on the case of three young North Carolina Muslim men who were indicted, convicted of and received decades-long sentences for conspiracy to provide material support for foreign terrorist organizations and, in two of their cases, for conspiracy to kill, kidnap, harm or maim persons in a foreign country.

However, the government did not identify which specific groups the men were plotting to provide material support for. The indictment instead uses the word jihad over and over again, as though that was a specific crime codified in US law, and refers to generic mujahideen (repeatedly mis-transliterated from Arabic as mujihadeen in the indictment, revealing US attorneys’ complete ignorance with the subject matter).Mujahideen roughly translates to “holy warrior” but does not refer to any specific group of people.

During the sentencing hearings for the three young North Carolina men, which I covered for The Electronic Intifada, statements made by government prosecutors suggested that it was ideology on trial. One of the defendants’ sympathies with Iraqis resisting US occupation forces in Fallujah was treated as evidence of him being sympathetic with terrorism. In one of the other men’s hearing, a US attorney referred to the US military as the “arm by which we have fought radical Islam all over the world.”

The North Carolina defendants were conflated with parties fighting the US military overseas, suggesting that the US government views the prosecution of US Muslims as the “domestic” front of the war on terror, and that ideological opposition to US foreign policy is “evidence” of “terrorist” leanings.

Never-ending “war on terror”

The dangers posed to civil liberties by the indefinite, ideological “war on terrorism,” which has no geographic boundaries, have been particularly felt by Arab and Muslim communities in the US. Environmental and animal liberation activists have also been treated as domestic terrorists, and now Palestine solidarity activists are under threat of being prosecuted under anti-terrorism legislation. (Of course, Palestine activism in the US has been criminalized for decades — see this story I co-authored with my colleague Nora Barrows-Friedman for a bit of that history.)

The US State Department has said more than once that organizers with the US Boat to Gaza may be investigated for violations of material support to foreign terrorist organizations. US Congress late last year introduced a bill seeking to investigate the US Boat to Gaza.

Meanwhile the flow of money and arms to Israel goes unabated, and groups raising money to fund Israeli settlements enjoy tax-exempt status, just to identify but some of the double standards of what constitutes material support for “terror.”

The situation on the ground grows ever worse in Palestine, and Arab and Muslim communities face increased injustice in the US. It’s our job to raise our voices both in support for boycott, divestment and sanctions measures on Israel — including cutting off US aid — and in support of the civil liberties of those being repressed in the US.

The Electronic Intifada | Young US Muslims face sentencing for material support conspiracy so vague, government can’t even say what terrorists they intended to support

Posted on January 11, 2012 by the Electronic Intifada

A trip to the Middle East made by Ziyad Yaghi (left) and Omar Aly Hassan was the focus of terrorism-related charges against the two North Carolina men. (freeziyadyaghi.com )

This Friday 23-year-old Ziyad Yaghi and his co-defendant, Omar Aly Hassan, also 23, both convicted terrorism-related charges, will be handed down sentences for conspiring to provide material support to unspecified terrorists and, in the case of Yaghi, conspiring to harm unspecified persons abroad.

The case, which seems to be largely off the radar for major civil liberties groups and national Arab and Muslim organizations, raises questions about the use of preemptive prosecution to get convictions in the vast majority of domestic terrorism cases. The government’s case also largely focuses on speech made by the defendants, and rests on the testimony of paid undercover informants.

Conspiracy against unknown persons in an uknown place at an unknown time

The US government alleges that Yaghi and Hassan conspired with alleged ringleader Daniel Patrick Boyd to provide material support to an unspecified group of terrorists in an unspecified place at an unspecified time. They were also indicted — and Yaghi convicted — for conspiracy to kidnap, kill, maim or harm an unspecified group of people in an unspecified place at an unspecified time.

The US government alleged in a 2009 indictment that Yaghi and Hassan traveled to Israel in 2007 to meet up with Boyd and one of Boyd’s sons, Zakariya, for the purpose of waging “jihad” — what that specifically entailed was not detailed in the indictment.

After the Israeli government denied entry to all four men, Yaghi and Hassan traveled to Jordan and later Egypt. The Boyds traveled to Jordan, where they were met by Daniel Boyd’s other son, Dylan, but did not meet with Yaghi and Hassan there.

Upon their return to the United States approximately one month later, Yaghi and Hassan apparently ceased contact with the Boyd family.

During the men’s trial last September, an FBI agent admitted upon cross-examination by Hassan’s attorney that the government had no evidence of contact between Hassan and Boyd after the 2007 trip.

Dylan Boyd, who testified for the prosecution as part of a plea agreement, told the FBIin an interview that he “hadn’t seen or spoken to Yaghi and Hassan since the 2007 trip.”

It was revealed during the trial that the Boyd family had been under surveillance since 2005, and Yaghi and Hassan had been monitored starting around the time of their 2007 trip.

Lesser charges, but greater sentence?

The most serious and specific of all of the charges related to the case were dropped from the counts against alleged ringleader Daniel Patrick Boyd — conspiracy to attack a US Marines Corps base in Quantico, Virginia. Daniel Patrick Boyd and Hysen Sherifi were indicted for conspiring to murder US military personnel; the charge against Boyd was dropped as part of his plea agreement, while Sherifi was convicted of the charge.

The other co-defendants were not indicted for the alleged Quantico plot. Daniel Patrick Boyd faces 15 years in prison and a life sentence for the remaining conspiracy charges.

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported that Boyd’s sons received lesser sentences after cooperating with the prosecution:

Zakariya Boyd, 22, was sentenced to nine years in federal prison and Dylan, 25, was sentenced to eight years. Each had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide support to terrorists, which carried a maximum of 15 years in prison and $250,000 fine. Both received lesser sentences after cooperating with prosecutors, including credit for the jail time already served since their arrests in July 2009.

The judge overseeing the case said she may revisit the Boyd sons’ sentences, “depending on their contributions to the prosecution” in the separate trial of a seventh defendant, Anes Subasic. Subasic is being tried separately because he is representing himself.

While the prosecution dropped the most specific of all of the conspiracy charges as part of Daniel Patrick Boyd’s plea agreement, the jury found Yaghi and Hassan guilty for conspiring to provide material support, though the government did not identify which terrorist groups they intended to support.

As the Los Angeles Times reported, “Prosecutors named no targeted victims. Nor did they specify places, times or dates of attacks,” except in the case of Daniel Patrick Boyd and Hysen Sherifi, whom were indicted for the alleged Quantico plot. “The elder Daniel Boyd had visited the base, and he and Sherifi had discussed its vulnerability to an attack on Marines and their families,” the paper added.

Amongst the evidence presented by the government to demonstrate the defendants’ criminal intent included weapons training said to have been conducted by Daniel Patrick Boyd, who upon his arrest was found to have amassed “a stockpile of nearly two dozen guns and 27,000 rounds of ammunition seized from a bunker under Daniel Boyd’s home,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

The FBI testified that Sherifi participated in weapons training with Boyd and his sons in the weeks prior to their arrests, the Capitol Broadcasting Company reported.

Yaghi and Hassan were not indicted for any weapons-related charges. As the Los Angeles Times reported, the government had gathered “750 hours of audio and video that included conversations between the defendants and three paid FBI informants; in those conversations, the defendants discussed jihad and their hatred for non-Muslims.”

However, defense lawyers argued, the audio and video evidence “did not show the defendants discussing or agreeing to any specific attack.”

The Los Angeles Times reported upon the conclusion of testimony, “Defense lawyers reminded the jury that all three Boyds testified that the defendants did not conspire to attack people or provide material support to terrorists.”

So not even the Boyds, whose cooperation with prosecution would likely be rewarded with lesser sentences, said that Sherifi, Yaghi and Hassan were involved in the conspiracies that the Boyd family members pleaded guilty to.

The Los Angeles Times added:

The FBI recruited three informants, code-named Jawbreaker, Hammerhead and Crosstown, who secretly taped conversations with the defendants.The defendants spoke in emails of wanting to kill non-Muslims; they exchanged bloody Al Qaeda videos; and they shared CDs containing diatribes by Anwar Awlaki, an Al Qaeda leader killed by a US drone strike in Yemen last month. One video showed a live beheading by terrorists.

Dan Boyce, representing Omar Aly Hassan, “said the defendants’ comments about jihad, no matter how offensive, were protected as free speech. Similarly, shooting at targets — a popular pastime in rural North Carolina — is protected by the 2nd Amendment, he said.”

Prosecuting on the basis of First Amendment speech?

The question of whether circulating “pro-jihadist” material makes someone a “terrorist” was raised during the trial of Tarek Mehanna of Massachusetts. Civil liberties organizations raised concerns that prosecuting Mehanna for providing a service to US-designated terrorist groups because he posted material on the Internet was a violation of the rights guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Civil libertarians argue that no matter how offensive someone’s speech is, it shouldn’t be the basis for prosecution.

Indeed, after the North Carolina men were indicted in 2009, a federal judge expressed skepticism about the charges. CNN reported that ”Magistrate Judge William Webb said the men made a number of statements espousing holy war that could be interpreted in isolation as empty boasting.”

CNN added:

Webb said the government’s case depended partly on an “unnamed, unidentified and uncharacterized” witness who had interpreted what the government said was coded speech by the suspected terrorists.The government says, for example, that one defendant’s statement about “going to the beach” meant he intended to conduct violent jihad.

“You’re asking me to believe ‘beach is the functional equivalent of ‘jihad,’” Webb said.

Use of paid undercover informants under question

The FBI’s use of paid informants also came under question during the trial.

The Capitol Broadcasting Company reported in September that an FBI informant, a Muslim of Moroccan descent who goes by the code name “Jawbreaker,” was paid $110,000 by the FBI since 2005. The informant had gained a residency card after overstaying a visa and remaining in the US illegally, defense attorneys noted.

CBC added:

Robert McAfee, Sherifi’s attorney, also blamed Jawbreaker for thrusting his client and Boyd together. The informant used FBI money to pay for Sherifi to return to the US from Kosovo, where he was living his wie and child, McAfee said.

According to the CBC, Omar Aly Hassan’s attorney, Daniel Boyce, told the jury that FBIhad tried to turn his client into an undercover informant in the case, but Hassan turned them down, “saying he didn’t know enough about Boyd and his family to help.”

Ziyad Yaghi’s mother, Laila, alleges that after her son’s arrest, the FBI questioned her and said that they had arrested Ziyad to put pressure on him to inform on Boyd. Laila Yaghi told me over the phone that she believes that her son was persecuted for not giving the FBI information on Boyd. She also said that those who testified against Ziyad were paid informants or were intimidated into cooperating with the FBI.

The Los Angeles Times finds that the North Carolina case is not exceptional when it comes to pre-emptively prosecuted “homegrown terrosim” cases:

Based on the results of a recent study of domestic Islamic terrorism cases, the three Muslims from the Raleigh, N.C., area are fairly typical of other Americans charged or convicted of jihadist terrorism in the post-Sept. 11 era.For instance, 184 of the 188 terrorism cases studied involved no actual attacks.

The study, released in March by the New American Foundation and Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Policy, looked at the 188 cases of American citizens or US residents charged in jihadist terrorism plots in the USsince Sept. 11. The study’s opening sentence asks: “How real is the ‘homegrown’ Islamic terrorist threat?”

Of the four cases that did progress to attacks, the worst was at Ft. Hood, Texas, where Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is suspected of killing 13 people and wounding 32 in 2009.

(By comparison, the study points out that 73 people were killed in hate crimes in the US between 2001 and 2009 — and more than 15,000 slayings are committed in this country every year.)

A third of the 188 cases involved the use of an informant, the study found.

The conviction of Omar Aly Hassan and Ziyad Yaghi raises important questions about preemptive prosecution:

Should two young men be subjected to criminal trials and lengthy sentences for alleged conspiracy plots so nebulous that the intended victims of the plot were not yet identified?

Does preemptive prosecution protect public safety, or do convictions rely on prosecuting people (particularly Arab and Muslim people) based on First Amendment-protected speech?

Should the testimony of paid informants — who often have criminal backgrounds, whose testimony is rewarded with perks like citizenship papers and expunged criminal records — determine whether someone walks free or spends the rest of his life in prison?

Human Rights versus the U.S. IN-justice System

Mark International Human Rights day with a discussion of the criminalization of human rights work
and other activism. The community has rallied around the AWC as our members are investigated for
charges of “material support to terrorism.” These charges are an attempt to silence voices against US
policies of war and militarism, while also making it illegal to extend the hand of friendship to people in
countries of conflict.

This same strategy is evident in the recent conviction of two Somali women, for the crime of sending
$8600 in humanitarian aid to Somalia, where they are from. We also see it in the government’s
threats to bring charges against participants in last summer’s Gaza Flotilla, which was carrying letters
- messages of solidarity and friendship – to deliver to Palestinians living in Gaza.

Our discussion will include several other legal cases attacking human rights: The death penalty – Troy
Davis, and Mumia Abu Jamal (now incarcerated for 30 years); Private Bradley Manning – imprisoned
while awaiting charges related to the WikiLeaks release of classified documents exposing war crimes
in Iraq, among others. Come hear about the important work being done to fight these legal attacks on
our rights and our movements!

Children welcome. The library has a wonderful children’s book selection. Let us know if you would like
an AWC volunteer to accompany your child there while you enjoy the program. Lunch will be provided -
featuring soups home-made by our fantastic AWC chefs! Donations requested, no one turned away.

Organized by the Anti-War Committee | www.antiwarcommittee.org | 612-379-3899

FightBack! News | Thousands join protest at the School of the Americas

Meredith Aby, of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, speaks about FBI and grand jury repression of the Latin America solidarity movement. (Fight Back! News/Staff)

Posted on November 21, 2011 by FightBack! News

Fort Benning, GA – Over 4000 people gathered here, Nov. 19, at the School of Americas Watch protest of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Despite the change of name from School of the Americas (SOA) to WHINSEC, the legacy of half a century of training in counterinsurgency techniques, psychological warfare and interrogation tactics continues to this day in places like Colombia and Honduras.

‘Students’ of SOA/WHINSEC’s curriculum have been linked to death squads attributed to the rape, murder and torture of labor organizers, religious leaders, teachers and human rights activists.

Jimena Paz, a leader in the Honduran resistance movement, said, “In my country SOA graduates continue to repress social movements who stand up against a coup led by graduates of this school right here in Fort Benning.”

Standing up to political repression

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) had organizers from across the country mobilize for the demonstration. CSFR organizers passed out flyers explaining the connections between the repression abroad and the FBI attacks on activists at home and received hundreds of petition signatures to defend Carlos Montes, a target of FBI repression. Thousands of flyers were also distributed promoting the upcoming NATO/G8 protests in Chicago and the RNC 2012 protest in Tampa Florida, with a common emphasis on defending the right to protest and speak out against injustice at these events.

The CSFR hosted a workshop on Saturday night, attended by over 100 people, to raise awareness of attacks on activists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI has been used as an apparatus to infiltrate and repress peace, solidarity and civil rights movements, past and present. These attacks are relevant to the SOA/WHINSEC protest and its attendees in many ways.

The activists who have been attacked most recently are all prominent international peace and solidarity activists, indicating that this is a movement which is currently in the cross-hairs of the FBI. The volume of resources spent to harm this movement is alarming and the activist community across the U.S. should be aware of the vast scope of the repression, as well as the unjust methods and tools, which, in flagrant abuse of privacy rights and lacking due process, are at the ready disposal of federal Investigators.

As we continue to witness inaccurate media coverage of the ongoing Occupy actions, we should note the myriad systems of repression, often violent, that have been used in attempts to suppress a movement protesting the richest 1% in society. According to the Gothamist, the New York Police Department’s raids on Zucotti Park were advised by the Department of Homeland Security, in a coordinated effort of aggression to preserve the status quo. However, the similarities in repressive methods against free speech and activist movements have been met with resistance.

“Just as people have linked arms and successfully defended Occupy encampments from police repression,” said Kosta Harlan of the CSFR, “in the same way our movements for justice, peace and equality are uniting to defend the Anti-War 24 and Carlos Montes,” targets of government raids and subpoenas to appear before federal grand juries.

CSFR activists stressed the necessity of taking up the fight against repression of activist movements, setting a precedent for resistance. Workshop facilitators encouraged attendees to write or phone President Obama, Attorney General Holder and local representatives to demand that they call off attacks on free speech in the U.S.

“We came to Fort Benning this weekend to challenge the killers of the SOA,” stated Daniel Ginsberg of Peace Action. “We’ll be heading home to our Occupations to continue defending activists from government repression.”

Come to the People’s Plaza to Defend the Occupy Movement

Monday, November 14
Rally at 5 pm
Stay after rally for Sleep-in (stay all night, or as late as you are able)
@ Occupy Minnesota, “People’s Plaza” (Hennepin County Government Center Plaza at 5th St. S. between 3rd and 4th Aves. S.)

• Stop Attacks on the Occupy Movement!  
• Hands off the People’s Plaza!  
• Defend our rights to protest!  

County Commissioners and Sheriff Stanek have threatened to close down the occupation of the People’s Plaza in Minneapolis. Beginning Monday, November 14, they have declared a set of new policies for the plaza outside the Hennepin County Government Center – no more sleeping, no more porta-potties, and no more signs or other property left out. These policies are aimed at shutting down the occupation, like the violent attack on occupiers in Oakland, California, and other measures being carried out against Occupy Wall Street protests in cities across the country. We say no to these attacks and plan to stand together to defend our rights to build a movement that stands for people over profits!  Occupy Together: Join OccupyMN and organizations including labor, students, anti-war, poor people, and the 99% for a giant rally at 5pm, and plan to stay the night (or as late as you can)! Wear your warmest clothes, bring your sleeping bags and help fill the People’s Plaza in a massive sleep-in as we defend our right to occupy and speak out for the 99%!

MIZNA’s 7th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

November 10–13 

At the historic Heights Theatre
3951 Central Ave NE | Columbia Heights | Minnesota | 55421
Tickets: $10 general admission, $8 students
Festival passes: $50 at the door, $40 in advance

It’s wonderful to see how our festival has taken shape and grown over the years. This year’s team, Rami Azzazi, Marya Morstad and the festival committee, have put together an exciting and timely selection of films—whether romantic, political or revolutionary—always reflecting the humanity of our community.

A year later, standing stronger

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Today is September 24th 2011, and the one year anniversary of the FBI raids on the houses (and offices) of my friends and fellow activists of the anti-war committee. A lot has come to light about this investigation since, about the spy that walked among us for over two years, about the FBI’s covert intervention in our work and travel, and eventually the full on assault (delivered with subpoenas and battering rams) on our rights to freedom of speech and freedom of association.

No kidding. They are calling us terrorists.

Even though we are the ones fighting and organizing against terrorism in countries like Colombia where being a union organizer is a deadly undertaking, and Palestine where collective punishment is being used to oppress an entire population. Indeed, we are the ones right here at home organizing against U.S. funded terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq. We stand with all people of the world oppressed by their government or ours, to say that peace is the answer, and justice is the method.

But, in their book, that makes us terrorists. “A domestic threat” if you will. So be it. I am not apologetic to a system that perpetuates war just to make a profit, or that would engage in KGB-style tactics to silence dissent.

So, I wrote them a letter to this affect. I shared it today at the rally on Jess’s lawn, and I thought I would share it here as well. Here is An (amended) Open Letter to the FBI
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An Open Letter to the FBI

Fuck you guys.

Fuck you for Fred Hampton, I just read that they got to Hemmingway. Hell, they’ve still got Leonard Peltier. And now they’re here in the mid-west, looking for anti-war and then all the rest.

Fuck you for the 14 (wait now) 23 – no, one more 24 that you are after right now. I just wanna know how many times you have directly interfered with peace and justice in this country. I wanna know how many lives…

And I wanna talk about it. I want out stuff back- fuck- I want our spy back. She did the grunt work around here and I’ve never seen my tax dollars so well spent. I want to talk about your budget, FBI, gone unchecked since 9/11. Ten years later, and you’re tailing peace activists just to bill the time and tapping phones and raiding homes…

Looking for what? Proof that we disapprove of this government? Well, we haven’t been at all shy about that, have we? We show up. On your Capitol lawns with our signs, and our banners, and our bullhorns and we SCREAM at your buildings, from behind your police lines, I- I guess I should feel honored to have this much of your attention.

Tear gas in my eyes and all. Those plastic zip-tie handcuffs as they round us up like cattle, and now the heat is really coming down because it was never a fair battle and the Grand Jury inquisition has begun. It’s some of that good ol’fashioned McCarthyism, except now the red tag term is terrorism. Meanwhile, the real war criminals are accepting awards. Those torturers and wire tappers, patting each other’s backs at the podium.

Anyway, Fuck them.

I came here to talk to you. To ask what the hell we’re ganna do now that they’re kicking in doors in Dinkytown looking for dissenters. They’re taking down posters off the walls, calling it evidence to be used against us and you’re next if you don’t think so. Anybody left with an opinion. Anybody here consider themselves out spoken? I am talking to you.

So, here’s a quick history lesson in FBI repression.

John Lennon. They tried to deport him-did you know that?- for speaking out against the war. It was right before the Republican National Convention of 1972 and Nixon was afraid it was going to cost him re-election, so they tried to kick him out of the country for having a concert. You see? They were afraid of a concert.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s home was raided by the FBI (now we’re on to something). He received threats and harassment from them for half his Nobel Peace Prize deserving career and was in the end assassinated. I read that he was under surveillance when it happened. That under cover police watched from across the street as King was shot. But they couldn’t kill the dream he started dreaming and we are still coming, ready or not. And I do mean ready or not.

So don’t forget about the RNC of 08. You know, we’ve got a real movement in this state and in case you haven’t noticed it’s going on right now. And hold your breath for the peaceful 23 whose grand jury subpoenas are hanging over all our heads. Don’t be silent! Tell everyone you know about this! Go to stopFBI.net and get involved! Call the president. And tell him to call it off. We said end the war, AND the witch hunt, Defend the first amendment. Enough is enough. No more attacks on them and no more attacks on us.

MinnPost | U.S. touts ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ — except when it comes to Bush and torture

Posted on September 16, 2011 by MinnPost

By Chuck Turchick

“Equal Justice Under Law.” Along with a seal of the United States, those four words appear on a huge marble slab covering almost the entire back wall opposite the entrance of the Federal Building/U.S. Courthouse in downtown Minneapolis – four words that say so much.

If only they were true.

The attorneys in the United States Attorney’s Office on the sixth floor must be going in the back door. The words are impossible to miss if one walks in the front door.

A group of us recently met with two assistant U.S. attorneys, one of whom is second-in-command to U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones. Among our requests was that former President George W. Bush, who will speak at a Beth El Synagogue fundraiser in St. Louis Park on Sept. 21, be brought in for questioning while he is in Minnesota, the jurisdiction for which Jones is the chief federal law-enforcement officer.

National Protest Against 10 Years of War in Afghanistan

A coalition of organizations, including Veterans for Peace, ANSWER Coalition and many others have called for an ongoing protest in Washington, D.C. Rallies, concerts, and civil resistance actions against the war to begin on Thursday, October 6.

For possible transportation from the Twin Cities call Ross or Colleen at 952-465-2866. www.october2011.org.