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Published: Friday, March 10, 2006<br>
Bylined to: <a href="mailto:features @ vheadline.com">Elena Shore</a>
<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=5 color="#7F0000">FBI fishing to
intimidate and silence...<br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2><b>New America Media (Elena Shore):
</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=3>A Pomona College professor who is
an outspoken critic of US policy in Venezuela has been questioned by two
agents from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI’s
Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in what he calls an act of
intimidation. <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2><b>The detectives visited Miguel
Tinker-Salas during his office hours at about 2:40 or 2:45 pm Wednesday
... they questioned him for about 20 minutes in his office at Pomona
College in Claremont (Calif).<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=4 color="#7F0000"><i>The detectives
identified themselves but their names are being withheld at the request
of the FBI. <br><br>
</i></font><font face="Georgia" size=3>According to Tinker-Salas, the
agents told him they were interested in the Venezuelan community and
concerned that it may be involved in terrorism. They asked him if he had
relationships with the Venezuelan embassy or consulate and if anyone in
the Venezuelan government had asked him to speak out about
Venezuela-related matters.
<ul>
<li>“They were fishing,” says Tinker-Salas, “to intimidate and silence
those who have a critical analysis of US foreign policy.” </font>
</ul><font face="georgia" size=3><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3>After they left, several students
outside Tinker-Salas’ office told him the detectives had asked them about
his background, his classes and his politics, and even took note of the
cartoons on his door. <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2><b>Tinker-Salas says the detectives
told him this was part of a larger policy to interview people on various
campuses. He does not know if other professors have been questioned. He
says the agents who visited him did not interview the other
Venezuelan-born professor at Pomona College. <br><br>
</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=4 color="#7F0000">The FBI declined
to comment on the incident. <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=3>A Latin American and Chicano histories
professor, Tinker-Salas believes he was targeted as a result of his
outspoken politics regarding the US policy toward Venezuela and Latin
America. Tinker-Salas was born in Venezuela and is a US citizen, having
lived in the United States since high school. A noted historian and
commentator on CNN en Español, he has been open about his conditional
support for the democratically elected government of President Hugo
Chavez and critical of the US attempt to “undermine democracy” in Latin
America. <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=2><b>According to the ACLU of Colorado,
the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which operates across the country,
is violating First Amendment rights by equating nonviolent protest with
domestic terrorism.<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Georgia" size=3>“The FBI is unjustifiably treating
nonviolent public protest as though it were domestic terrorism,” said
Mark Silverstein, Legal Director of the Colorado ACLU, following the
release of new documents obtained from the FBI under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) on December 8, 2005. <br><br>
</font><font face="Georgia" size=4 color="#7F0000"><i>“The FBI’s
misplaced priorities threaten to deter legitimate criticism of government
policy while wasting taxpayer resources that should be directed to
investigating real terrorists.”<br><br>
</i></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
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