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<h1><b>APNewsBreak: Activists called back to grand
jury</b></h1><font size=2>By AMY FORLITI<br>
The Associated Press <br>
<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705560.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705560.html</a>
<br><br>
Wednesday, November 17, 2010; 6:10 PM <br><br>
</font><font size=3>MINNEAPOLIS -- Three Minnesota anti-war activists who
refused to testify before a federal grand jury in Chicago after their
homes were raided in a terrorism investigation have been told they'll be
called again, an attorney told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
<br><br>
In late September, authorities searched seven homes and an office in
Minneapolis and Chicago in what the FBI said was an investigation into
material support of terrorism. Fourteen activists in the two states were
summoned to testify, but they refused and their subpoenas were postponed.
<br><br>
None of the activists have been charged. Warrants suggest agents were
looking for connections between them and terrorist groups in Colombia and
the Middle East. <br><br>
Bruce Nestor, an attorney who represents some of the activists, said
Wednesday that three of them have been told they'll be called back to the
grand jury, but it's not clear when. Individual attorneys for those
activists are working out details with prosecutors, Nestor said. <br>
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</font><h2><b>Activists Unafraid After FBI
Crackdown</b></h2><font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.indypendent.org/?pagename=author_search&a=Jos%C3%A9%20Alcoff">
José Alcoff</a> <br>
From the
<a href="http://www.indypendent.org/?pagename=issue&issue=">December
31, 1969</a> <br>
<a href="http://www.indypendent.org/2010/11/17/activists-unafraid-after-fbi-crackdown/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.indypendent.org/2010/11/17/activists-unafraid-after-fbi-crackdown/<br>
<br>
</a><b>Tom Burke began the morning of Sept. 24 like any other. His wife
took their 5-year-old daughter to school before heading to work in their
Michigan town. Then the phone rang, and he learned that FBI agents were
raiding the homes of friends in Chicago.</b> As any good organizer would,
Burke jumped into his car to produce a press release at the first
internet cafe he could find. <br><br>
He then realized someone was following him.<br><br>
“This car turned around twice behind me, and I thought that’s funny
because I don’t know where I’m going,” he chuckles. He called his wife
and headed to her workplace. As he drove through the security gate, a
black SUV zoomed in behind him. His wife came down, and three people
jumped out of different vehicles and made a beeline toward them. “The man
came out [of the SUV] and identified himself as FBI. And he served me and
my wife with subpoenas.”<br><br>
In multiple raids, three subpoenas were served on Chicago antiwar
activists there, giving them October dates to stand before a Federal
Grand Jury. Another six were issued in Minneapolis during six FBI raids,
including one of the offices of the
<a href="http://www.indypendent.org/wp-admin/Anti-War%20Committee">
Anti-War Committee</a> (AWC). FBI agents allegedly had a key when they
entered the AWC office, where they seized checks made out to the group,
cash registers and checkbooks. Three days later, three more activists in
Minneapolis were served with subpoenas.<br><br>
All told, more than 70 federal agents were reportedly involved in the
eight raids, and some individuals claim they were subjected to
intimidating phone calls and visits by agents in North Carolina,
California and Wisconsin.<br><br>
None of the 14 individuals were charged with crimes, though the subpoenas
indicated the federal government was considering charging them with
providing material aid to terrorists, specifying solidarity work in
Palestine and Colombia.<br><br>
These allegations come on the heels of the recent Supreme Court decision
in the <i>Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder</i> case that expanded the
definition of “material aid” to “terrorist groups” to include educating
designated groups in nonviolent methods for conflict resolution and
delivering humanitarian aid to areas under their control after natural
disasters.<br><br>
“Their goal is to bring charges of support for terrorist groups against
the people who were subpoenaed,” said Burke. “They’re trying to pit
people against each other and …put people in jail.”<br><br>
Instead, various social movement organizations sprang into action. As the
FBI raided Joe Iosbaker’s and Stephanie Weiner’s Chicago home, carting
out 26 boxes of their family’s personal effects, dozens of friends and
activists arrived in a display of solidarity. Across the country, Burke
said, rallies or pickets were held in 60 cities demanding an end to the
subpoenas and the grand jury investigations. In New York, Chicago and
Seattle fundraisers were held to garner money for legal defense.<br><br>
Antiwar, civil liberties, socialist and other groups called for U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder to shutter the federal grand juries. Many of
those under attack are shop stewards in their unions, and AFSCME , AFT
and Teamsters locals were among at least 17 labor groups that have issues
statements of solidarity, which are available at
<a href="http://www.stopfbi.net">stopfbi.net</a>.<br><br>
While the subpoenaed individuals were each given one of three dates in
October to appear before a federal grand jury in Chicago for questioning,
all have refused to testify. They say they are willing to go to jail
rather than participate in what they call a government fishing expedition
of information from antiwar and international solidarity
movements.<br><br>
While the government rescinded the subpoenas and no one was imprisoned,
three Minneapolis activists were re-subpoenaed only days after the
November election.<br><br>
During the first weekend in November, Tom Burke, Jess Sundin, Steff
Yorek, and Hatem Abudayyeh traveled to New York to organize the inaugural
meeting of the <a href="http://www.stopfbi.net/">Committee to Stop FBI
Repression</a>. The event drew 150 people and raised several thousand
dollars for the legal defense budget. Organizers have also reached out to
Arab, Muslim and Puerto Rican communities that have been recently hit
with subpoenas, raids and indictments by the U.S. Department of
Justice.<br><br>
The subjects of the raids say the outpouring of support is important.
“You feel pretty isolated at first,” says Jess Sundin of Minneapolis,
whose home was raided. “But it’s very quickly obvious that we are not
alone.”<br><br>
<br><br>
<br>
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