(those raided and or supeoned consist of a teacher, two who work for the University, a great grandmother and ret nurse, and 2 mothers)
Dear friends,
The bogus "War on Terror" has come home to Minneapolis. You have probably
heard that 5 houses in Minneapolis were raided by the FBI at 7am Friday
morning, along with the office of the Anti War Committee. These are all
friends of mine, with whom I have worked politically for many years,
against the wars and on other issues. No one has yet been arrested or
charged, but some were served with subpoenas for a grand jury
investigation. The investigation is related to "material support to
terrorist groups."
The people targeted have participated in trips to Colombia and/or
Palestine, in solidarity with the oppressed people there. They are
innocent of terrorism or connection to terrorism; their real "crime" is
support for the people of those nations who are resisting US imperialism.
This is part of a nationally coordinated action, surely approved
by the director of the FBI and probably at higher levels than that. There
has been considerable national media attention. It appears that our Twin
Cities peace community has been thrust into the middle of something much
larger. The affected activists will need a lot of our support as they
resist increasing repression and "terrorism" hype from the Obama
administration. The next step will be appearances - or refusals to appear
with the associated consequences - at a grand jury investigation in
Chicago, starting on October 5.
First step: publicize and come to the rally:
**** Monday, TODAY, September 27, 4:30pm Rally opposing FBI raids and
supporting our fellow peace activists, at the FBI Office, 111 Washington
Ave. S. (SE corner of Washington and Marquette, downtown Mpls)
Other actions coming up:
First meeting of a new solidarity and defense committee, Thursday,
September 30, 7pm, location to be announced (I'll send it to this list).
Please mark your calendars and come if you think you have any time or
skills to lend to this important cause.
Sign solidarity statement: A sign-on statement of solidarity was passed
out at an emergency solidarity meeting on the Friday evening; I believe
over 100 individuals signed it right there. I'm sure an electronic copy
of it will be available soon. I'll send it out. It can be signed by
organizations as well as individuals.
Call local and national politicians, from Mpls City Council members to the
Department of Justice. Will they take a stand?
Money - everything costs money! Phones and computers have been stolen by
the FBI and will need to be replaced. Not all of the activists can afford
that (let alone have money left over for "material support of terrorism").
There will be major legal costs, paperwork, travel, etc. A lot of money
was collected at the Friday meeting. Bring money to the Monday rally.
More information on donating will be available soon. In the meantime,
start collecting those pennies and/or hundred dollar bills!
News update:
The best and most up-to-date accounts of what has happened, and what will
follow, are at:
http://tc.indymedia.org/Raids were carried out in six Minneapolis locations: 5 houses in south
Mpls and the Anti War Committee office in the U Tech building in
Dinkytown. No one was arrested or charged with any crime. These were
search and seizure warrants only. The raids started at 7am and lasted 3
to 5 hours. Computers, cell phones, and other electronics were taken, as
were notes, financial records, contact lists, records of travel, and
travel souvenirs including posters and music CD's.
Many of the residents were also served with grand jury subpoenas - more on
that below.
The raids were quiet and discreet, mostly polite, with little damage or
wanton ransacking, unlike the Gestapo tactics of the RNC raids. They were
carried out by roughly a half dozen FBI agents per house, with one Mpls
cop present.
This was national. There were two simultaneous raids in Chicago. One
lasted 12 hours with 20 FBI agents! So far as we know, there were only
these 8 raids. Personally, I think it is unlikely there will be
additional raids. In addition, activists in several states were visited,
questioned, and intimidated by FBI agents. At least one of these visits
was in the Twin Cities, others were in Michigan, North Carolina, maybe
more. To our knowledge all the targeted people refused to talk to the
FBI.
My guess is that there will be many more FBI visits locally and
nationally. It is important for everyone to know that it is NEVER a good
idea to talk to the FBI, especially not on the spur of the moment at your
door or on the phone, without a lawyer present. It is easy to be tricked
by the FBI; they are professionals. They are allowed to lie to you; but
it is a crime to lie to them. Also, never open the door for them if you
can avoid it. Unless they show you a search warrant - and allow you to
check it for correct address, etc. - you can and should tell them to stay
outside. If you go outside, lock the door behind you.
The people targeted have several things in common which give an insight
to the nature of this investigation. Locally, all have been connected to
the Anti War Committee and/or SDS. I believe all are connected to Freedom
Road Socialist Organization. All were deeply involved in organizing the
mass marches at the RNC in 2008. I believe all have been involved in the
efforts to stop the DNC from coming to Minneapolis in 2012. All or nearly
all have traveled to Colombia and/or Palestine.
All are wonderful, dedicated, highly principled long time activists. None
have provided material support for terrorism - other than by paying taxes
to the US government, like the rest of us. They have been supportive of
people and organizations that have resisted US imperialism around the
world. Their international contacts, their travel and their reports back
to us have been very valuable to the entire antiwar community. I suspect
that is their real "crime" in the eyes of the government. The US
government has always wanted to keep us divided from our natural allies
abroad. And one of the goals of these raids is to divide them from their
allies locally, and to scare us all into silence. We must not let that
happen.
On a personal note, I know all of the targeted individuals, and I have
worked with all of them politically for many years. Several are good
friends. All have been very supportive of the RNC 8 defendants, including
my daughter and son-in-law. I can personally vouch for them - you will not regret
supporting them, and I hope you will get to know them better. I fear for
them - and their children, and our movement as a whole.
Part of what makes this situation so dangerous is that it is part of an
intensifying repression at home and abroad. This may be a test case for
recently strengthened laws against "material support to terrorists" and a
recent (June 2010) US Supreme Court ruling on this issue which is very
bad. I'm still researching the details and will say more later.
president, convincing to many who would otherwise vote third party, is
potential appointments to the Supreme Court. It should be noted that the
Obama administration argued before the Supreme Court on the repressive
side: for expanding the definition of material support. This is part of a
pattern of the Democratic president urging that the Supreme Court continue
and intensify the repression and expansion of presidential powers that we
criticized when Bush was in office. And in a final irony, the Solicitor
General who argued for expanded powers to imprison people for 15 years for
even speech on behalf of, or expert advice to, a prohibited organization,
was Elena Kagan - our newest Supreme Court justice, appointed by Obama.
Why would Obama appoint any Justice who would oppose the rightwing drift
of the court, when the administration is arguing those right wing
positions?]
The next step is the grand jury. This is very dangerous. The original
intent of grand juries was to protect a defendant from having to go
through an arduous trial if there were no real evidence. Now they tend to
be political witch hunts. They are held in secret, there is no judge
present, the jurors are not screened for bias, and the individual being
questioned does not have a lawyer present (the person can leave the room
to consult with their lawyer, but the lawyer can not observe or speak).
Most dangerous, the person can be asked anything, and can be charged with
perjury for any lie. Unlike a trial, questions do not have to be
relevant. If the person is granted immunity, they are forced to testify,
or be jailed for contempt.
A local woman, Carrie Feldman, was recently called
before a grand jury in Iowa, despite any personal participation in the
alleged crime. She refused to cooperate, and spent 4 months in jail. You
can read more about that case at: http://davenportgrandjury.wordpress.com/See especially the tab labeled Grand Jury.
It is often asked, what does a person have to fear if they are innocent?
Well, first of all, the personal violation of having their house raided,
and the loss of their computer with all its data and all means of
communication, personal and financial records, personal and family
photographs, even favorite music CD's. The targeted people are virtually
incommunicado (at a very vulnerable and stressful time) until they can get
new computers, new email addresses, new phones and phone numbers. Everyone
dreads a computer crash - having your computer confiscated is much worse.
It could be years until they receive any of this back (it has been over
two years and my daughter has still not had any of her stuff returned).
All this is without even being charged with a crime.
Now they face a grand jury. They have a very difficult and scary decision
to make - whether or not to cooperate and answer questions. Many
activists feel that it is usually best NOT to cooperate, regardless of the
likely costs: many months in prison (up through the duration of the grand
jury - a year or more). But what is the harm if you are innocent?
Shouldn't you welcome the opportunity to defend yourself? In a grand
jury, you often don't even know specifically what you are defending
yourself against. You may be called only as a witness, not as a target of
the investigation. But the questions aren't limited to your possible
criminal activity. You may have to answer questions about all your
activities and all of your personal and political contacts. Your answers
may lead to others' houses being raided, or your friends being called
before the same grand jury. Or you may just wish to maintain SOME
personal privacy, even if all your actions are legal. Or, maybe something
you have done in good conscience in defense of oppressed people is now
made illegal by the sweeping new terrorism laws.
We must support these friends and allies of ours as they make these
important decisions and face the consequences. We should support them
regardless of the decision they make. People have many individual
circumstances, and their conscientious decisions should be respected.
I am so relieved that the RNC charges against my daughter have just
been dropped. It looked like some major troubles were wrapping up. Now
this. It's not family, but these are good friends and committed activists
for peace and justice. Solidarity was critical in having Monica's charges
dropped; these folks need the same!
I hope to see you at today's rally and beyond.
Thanks for your interest,
Dave Bicking
PS. Below are some links to news stories, helpfully compiled by my friend
Charley Underwood:
Pioneer Press
http://www.twincities.com/ci_16168424UpTake
http://theuptake.org/2010/09/24/fbi-raids-peace-activist-homes-subpoena-them-for-grand-jury/
Twin Cities Daily Planet
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/09/24/reporters-notebook-fbi-raids-minneapolis and
http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/09/24/fbi-raids-activist-homes-minneapolis-chicago
Minnesota Independent
http://minnesotaindependent.com/71242/peace-activists-targeted-by-fbi-call-raids-harassment
Star Tribune
http://www.startribune.com/local/103716104.html?elr=KArksc8P:Pc:UthPacyPE7iUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU
Minnesota Daily
http://www.mndaily.com/2010/09/24/fbi-raids-student´s-employees´-homes
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