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<h1><b>The Feds expand their assault</b></h1><font size=3>Nicole Colson
looks at the latest developments in the government's attack on antiwar
and socialist activists in the Twin Cities and the Chicago area.<br><br>
December 14, 2010<br>
<a href="http://socialistworker.org/2010/12/14/feds-expand-their-assault" eudora="autourl">
http://socialistworker.org/2010/12/14/feds-expand-their-assault<br><br>
</a>
<img src="http://socialistworker.org/files/imagecache/330/files/images/Fennerty-FRSOdemo-a.jpg" alt="National Lawyers Guild member James Fennerty speaks in defense">
National Lawyers Guild member James Fennerty speaks in defense of
subpoenaed activists at a December press conference <br><br>
THE GOVERNMENT witch-hunt against antiwar, pro-Palestinian and socialist
activists that began with FBI raids in late September appears to be
ratcheting up again.<br><br>
Recently, five more political activists in Chicago received subpoenas to
testify about their association with groups or individuals that the
government appears to suspect of providing "material support"
to groups designated by the government as "terrorist"
organizations. This brings the total number of those subpoenaed to
19--eight subpoenas are currently active.<br><br>
In September, a group of activists in the Twin Cities and Chicago area
had their homes and offices raided by the FBI, with broad search warrants
entitling the government to seize any documentation relating to travel to
Colombia, Palestine and Lebanon--as well as material related to finances
and recruitment in the Freedom Road Socialist Organization
(FRSO).<br><br>
In a show of solidarity, the 14 activists who initially received
subpoenas informed the government that they all would refuse to take the
stand under the Fifth Amendment. The U.S. Attorney's office, in turn,
allowed the term of the grand jury to quietly expire, voiding the
subpoenas.<br><br>
However, in late November, three of the original 14
activists--Minneapolis residents Tracy Molm, Anh Pham and Sarah
Martin--were re-subpoenaed under a new grand jury term. The three have
been offered immunity from prosecution for their testimony--meaning that
if they refuse to testify, they face a civil contempt charge and prison
for the rest of the term of the grand jury, which is well over a year at
this point.<br><br>
Then, in early December, three more activists--this time, Chicago
activists who had not been included in the initial round of
subpoenas--were served. According to the
<a href="http://www.stopfbi.net/">Committee to Stop FBI Repression</a>, a
defense organization working around the case:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>On Friday, December 3, 2010, the FBI targeted three young women who
traveled together to Palestine last summer. After the FBI called to
question a young Jewish-American woman, Sarah Smith, FBI agents knocked
on the door of two young Palestinian-American sisters. One sister was
already on the phone with lawyer Jim Fennerty and handed the phone to the
FBI, causing the FBI to leave. The FBI agents soon returned with
subpoenas to the grand jury targeting antiwar and solidarity activists,
dated for January 25, 2011. <br><br>
</dl>Two more Chicago activists were reportedly subpoenaed on December
8.<br><br>
As National Lawyers Guild attorney Jim Fennerty explained to WBEZ,
"They're widening the scope of this investigation," Fennerty
said. "They're trying to squeeze anybody they can. This is an attack
about people who do solidarity work around Palestine."<br><br>
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -<br><br>
IN A
<a href="https://chtodelat.wordpress.com/2010/12/11/sarah-smith-i-am-being-subpoenaed-by-the-fbi/">
statement read to dozens of supporters at a rally in Chicago on December
6</a>, Sarah Smith--one of the Chicago activists who received a
subpoena--described having received a call from an FBI agent, who
requested a meeting with her so he could "ask her some
questions":<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>I felt something suspicious about him telling me he wanted to ask me
some questions, but he would not tell me what these questions were. So I
said that I had to consult a lawyer and check my schedule, and that I
would get back to him. I reiterated that it would be easier for me to
meet him if I knew why an FBI agent wanted to sit down with me. He then
said that it had to do with the trip I took this summer. He then
emphasized, "I think you know which one I'm talking
about."<br><br>
<dd>The trip I took last summer was to Israel and Palestine. I am Jewish
and wanted to see firsthand what life is like for Israelis and
Palestinians. If I went on the standard tour to Israel, I would not be
shown how Palestinians live. So I went on a tour that showed me both
worlds--Israel and the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank. I went
with two Palestinian-American friends. You would think Jews and
Palestinians going together to visit Israel and Palestine is something
the U.S. government would encourage. Instead, we are now being ordered by
the FBI to go before a grand jury for going on that trip.<br><br>
<dd>The U.S. government says it supports peace between Israel and
Palestine. It says it supports separate Israeli and Palestinian states.
So why does the FBI investigate us because we went to see the Palestinian
land? Top U.S. government leaders meet with Palestinian leaders, so why
does the FBI investigate us because we talked to average Palestinians on
the street? I went there so I could make up my own mind and talk about
what I saw. It seems to me our government wants to hide what Israel is
doing to Palestinians. <br><br>
</dl>As Smith suggests, a trip to the Middle East is hardly a criminal
act. But as Michael Deutsch, a lawyer with the People's Law Office in
Chicago, has noted, the subpoenas point to a disturbing expansion of
"anti-terrorism" laws under the Obama Justice
Department.<br><br>
In a Supreme Court case in June, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project</i>,
the court found in favor of the Justice Department that certain types of
speech--even if they do not advocate or lead to violence--can be
considered "material support" for terrorism.
<a href="http://www.truth-out.org/justice-department-prepares-expansion-laws-targeting-activists">
Writing in Truthout.com, Deutsch noted</a>:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>The court distinguishes what it refers to as "independent
advocacy," which it finds is not prohibited by the statute, from
"advocacy performed in coordination with, or at the direction of, a
foreign terrorist organization," which is, for the first time, found
to be a crime under the statute. The exact line demarcating where
independent advocacy becomes impermissible coordination is left open and
vague.<br><br>
<dd>Seizing on this overbroad definition of "material support,"
the U.S. government is now moving in on political groups and activists
who are clearly exercising fundamental First Amendment rights by vocally
opposing the government's branding of foreign liberation movements as
terrorist and supporting their struggles against U.S.-backed repressive
regimes and illegal occupations. <br><br>
</dl>In the context of the government outrage over the WikiLeaks release
of secret documents, the Feds' attack is only likely to grow.<br><br>
In the coming weeks and months, as these activists face dates to appear
before the grand jury, it will be important for the entire left and
everyone who cares about free speech to support them.<br><br>
<br><br>
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