The FBI is confirming that this morning they began a number of “raids” against the homes of antiwar activists, claiming that they are “seeking evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism.”
So far there do not appear to have been any arrests related to the raids nor, according to FBI spokesman Steve Warfield, are there any expected. He also insisted that there was “no imminent threat” related to the antiwar organization targeted. Some of the activists say they were ordered to appear before a grand jury, however.
The warrant against antiwar activist Mick Kelly’s home cited efforts to look into his ability to “pay for his own travel” to Palestine and Colombia and appeared to have been little more than a fishing expedition looking for possible links to “foreign terrorist organizations including but not limited to FARC, PFLP, and Hezbollah.” Kelly insists that the raids were about harassing antiwar organizers.
Officials said they were related to a Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation. The JTTF in Minneapolis has a long history of heavy-handed investigations against protest groups, including an attempt in 2008 to infiltrate a vegan potluck.
Most of the raids were conducted in Minneapolis and were related to antiwar leaders in that city. Other raids were also reported in Chicago, Michigan, and North Carolina. Many of the homes targeted in Minneapolis were related to the Marxist-Leninist group “Freedom Road Socialist Organization” (FRSO) but this was not the only group targeted.
According to Reuters, Chicago antiwar activist (and longtime gay rights activist) Andy Thayer was also targeted, which he attributed to “solidarity work, for speaking out on the issues of the day.”
CNN also listed the Palestine Solidarity Group, the Twin Cities Antiwar Committee, and Students for a Democratic Society as groups whose members were targeted. The Twin Cities Antiwar Committee’s office was also raided according to the group’s attorneys.
Regardless of the reasons the FBI gives, the raid was about the upcoming Democratic convention and the activists' plans to protest as they did at the Republican convention. This is a free speech issue being protrayed as a "terrorist" and security issue so the Obama administration can't be accused of being as fascist as the Bush administration.
what happened to our "freedom"
Are you serious? We stopped being free a long time ago. It happened by such subtle degrees that most people were too busy watching the football game to notice.
What a pitiful state of affairs when the terrorist label is used against people opposed to wars of agression .
War, death, torture and destruction are now the noble calling, the inspiration for our children,
These are all death wishes pushing people toward suicidal behavor.
It creates peer pressure for a mindlessness citizenry , creating fear of fear. If this seems insane it's because it is.
Folks:
It seems like the Obama administration is getting like Bush-light in terms of how agressively things get investigated. Guantanamo, the Federal AGs left as holdovers from 43s administration is outrageous. Poor Don Stiegelman. And now this, the FBI last I heard couldn't even put together a data system which as I recall had massive over runs.
This is political and it stinks. Come on Obama get up some courage like FDR and go after the bad guys who would enslave us to serfdom by essential eliminating the middle class.
What this country needs is a new and vigorous 3rd party to shake up the system or money taken ourt of politics, and the moon will be blue tomorrow!
Call it the Accountability Party and investigate, arrest, indict, try, and if convicted(fair trials don't presuppose conviction), jail them all. The Bush/Cheny cabal for war crimes and felony murder, all members of congress who voted either for the Authorization to Use Military Force or for subsequent war funding for war crimes and felony murder, the entire US Military officer corps for war crimes, AIPAC et tentacles for treason and subversion, Clinton for half a million dead Iraqi children, Kissinger for the murder of Gen, Rene Schneider. There are no doubt others whose criminal activities are less well known. Go after them as well.
Slash military funding and transfer it over to the Department of Justice, and… Let There Be Justice!
Get used to dealing with it folks – this is the future.
NO!!! WE SHOULD NEVER GET USE TO THIS. IT'S NOT ACCEPTABLE! WE ARE THE TRUE PATRIOTS OF PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS. NOW WE MUST HAVE THE COURAGE TO ACT LIKE IT. OTHERWISE, WE'LL BE ALLOWING OUR COUNTRY TO GO THE WAY OF HILTER'S GERMANY. NO! I WILL NOT GET USE TO IT!
If BenLladen did 911 and if the reason he did it given to us by George W Bush was correct "They did it because they hate our freedom" then ben Laden has achieved his goals superbly.
IF HE DID IT..DID HE?
Good luck. If they rounded up everyone who was an outspoken opponent of the war, they'd have to arrest half the country. Now, while a lot of us don't give a rat's ass about what we do to a bunch of camel jockeys, the facts are we're accomplishing nothing in Afghanistan We're not getting the guys we want. And we're not doing the level of damage to the Islamic militants we would hope for. It's a bad strategy. It won't work.
I hope they get your whiteass you racist jackass. Your remarks are very racist when you call Muslims camel Jokeyeys. I am sure your racist words will backfire on your face when you will start serving the Feds at FEMA camps. What goes around comes around. Muslims never came and occupy your country. You are the one who are killing millions of Muslims because your thirst for oil and the luxury life you don't want to lose. Now it's time for you and the rest of American SHEEPLE to start digging your own grave.
Sorry, Mr. Butler, but I have to agree with this guy. "The guys we want" are the war jocks who condone the invasion of other people's lands for profit. We Americans are the real terrorists. "The guys we want" are in the positions of power in this country, and all of us are empowering them. The War on Terror is, and always has been, a justification of colonialism, and you nad I have benn living under it for so long we don't even know we're a colonial power. We've allowed hisotry to be rewritten, and it continues being rewritten day by day in the corporate-controlled press. Take a step back and look before it's too late, if it isn't already. And it may well be.
This is being done to ensure the right attitude on the part of the commoners–i.e., cowed and passive. It is also something new, if I'm not mistaken…and a sign of the Empire's growing aggressiveness in maintaining its grip at home.
All on the Great Liberal's watch.
"All on the Great Liberal's watch."
Last night, in the aftermath of Achmadinejad's speech at the UN, I watched an interview with Obama. He burbled forth the approved imperial boilerplate. Iran-is-the-Jewel-in-the-Crown-of-the-new-Islamo-terrorist-boogieman. None of that high sounding "hope and change" rhetoric. Just the guttural of the imperial murderer. He turned into a "whiteman" right before my eyes. I'm energized now. I'm looking forward to going to the polls now. I'll mark my ballot with a dagger aimed at the heart of anything with a "D" next to it. I wonder how many others reacted the same way.
But what good will that do? The ones with the "R" next to their names are, if anything, even WORSE — their recent history in power should make that fact all too obvious. And as Justin points out in his recent column on Rand Paul, the Tea Party is under the sway of the neocons. So don't count on them.
At this point, the War Party controls our elections. And until there are other viable options, the only thing left is to organize, locally. And the FBI is starting to round up the local organizers. This is not a very "hope"-ful situation.
*giggles*
People still vote?
OH STOP with the "Liberal's Watch" already!. If you believe it's one party or another than you've bought exactly what they want you to believe, hook line and sinker. Neither party runs or should I say is fully responsible for ruining our country it's the politicians of all 2 party system that are bought and paid for by the corporations, so we have corporate laws and corporate wars. Do you homework. Maybe you should start looking at 3rd party candidates and I don't mean the Tea Party. They are a sub faction of the R Party masquerading as a 3rd party.
Free Speech? What's that? It was only a matter of time until peace activism was equated with terrorism. We are living in an upside-down world. It's amazing how quickly most people in the US will go along with this sort of thin as long as they are told that it will keep them "safe".
I bet this is ignored by our evening news.
The revolution will not be televised.
Neither, apparently, will the repression.
err….depression is the correct term…
The Revolution is being televised.
The "Holder Raids" of Attorney General A. Mitchell Holder. (Look it up: The Palmer Raids, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer.)
Don't like war! you must be a terrorist. F…M..
"Land of the free and the home of brave' your joking right?
Great post! That's the sad thing, most Americans still think they live in the freest country on earth. I'd kill to be safe in OZ
This is America folks. You are free to do exactly as you are told. I just wish I was cool enough to be raided. That would make me feel like I was doing the right thing. If my government hates me for living by my principles then I know I am doing good work.
Jason Boyle
In the eyes of are government masters and their minions we are all terrorists or at the very least potential terrorists.
Oppression only happens in Iran.
Or israel.
Its taken longer than I expected really.
When you allow laws like "material support for terrorism' which criminalise even the most vague of connections to 'terror' groups ( and isn't that arbitrary!) and then sit (largely) idly by while your government makes up laws /declares itself above others /and announces it will henceforth assasinate targeted citizens abroad( on their say so) – all without raising the ire of the population …….well , eventually its going to get so close to home you can't help but notice- protest before its too late!
Well down that 'slippery slope'…and picking up speed.
One of a series of nifty metaphors. But what happens? The metaphor implies slippin' and slidin' until out of control towards some semi-vague "unpleasantness". I like "headed over the cliff". The vague nature of one's fate ends when going over the edge becomes unavoidable. Then there is a short peaceful period during which you get to mull over your imminent demise and how you got airborne at great height with no parachute. Then you die, perhaps to an accompaniment of a great crashing sound and a fiery explosion. More dramatic in anticipation and execution.
"Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death." Orwell,1984.
This is intimidation. Well, attempted intimidation. It will only work if you don't know your rights and you're intimidated.
No, it's provocation, and it works.
The US government and the military industrial complex is desperately trying to silence those who want the American people to realize that the Iraq war is unjust and far from over and that NATO will not win a military victory in Afghanistan.
The Fascist Boys Institute[FBI] has admitted whenever their is a slow day it trumps up imagined fears and raids the Quaker and/or other organization and then trumpets these raids which are really just to create fears that don't exist. USG funding also enters into the equation as $100's of billions spent for spying has to appear to have results.
<<USG funding also enters into the equation as $100's of billions spent for spying has to appear to have results. >> Good point. And it more or less explains why we're always at war: first, so that the money keeps coming, and second, to be able to train cadre under "real" "combat" conditions in order to have a credible military so that… the money can keep coming. Eisenhower saw it from the inside and coined the term "military-industrial complex." Now we're so far into living inside it that we don't even realize there's no outside. And now the stage is set (remember the run-up to the Conventions) for the military to be used against "enemies" at home.
A total load of BS in this increasingly orwellian society. As an Iranian-American antiwar individual, what if this happenedf to me? What if they accused me of "material support for terrorism" because of some antiwar posts I made or something similar. Everybody would beleive it because the government said so and a warmonger population and government would judge me, the person who is the least violent among them. It's a sick society and I don't expect it to change. In fact, it will get worse.
Well..brother I think you got short memory unless if you were begotten after 1978. Remember how Americans vigilantes persecuted Iranian Americans after the CIA betrayed Shah-Iran and replaced him with their new pippet Khumeini. It's a cycle..every time there's a terror staged by the Feds they blame it on minorities then the SHEEPLE follows with vengence.
my, my–and if not another campus panty raid, what's better for grads in later life? nevermind… the facts (including experience) explain more than preliminary reports on such matters, etc.
I agree they should be held to the same standard, but Bush seemed to be worse. In the Bush era I heard people were kept on no-fly just for having expressed anti-war opinions and criticism per se. It seems this FBI outfit has lots of independence, and Director Robert Mueller was appointed in 2001 by – GW Bush! So we can ask why didn't Obama push for a new Director etc, but I have to wonder if he can just demand whatever conduct he wants from Mueller, what with checks and balances etc. I'm just posing the question.
Obama's the boss. This doesn't happen without his approval.
Even if he couldn't ask for his resignation directly, which he could. He could threaten to cut the budget of the FBI's director's office to the bone if he didn't like what he was doing.
Obama and the Democrats won't issue a peep about this.
And, the doors are still being kicked in. And the no-fly list has more than a million names on it and its still growing.
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Maybe you like his slightly slicker and less offensive style of a police state, but there has been no change.
Kennedy went up against the CIA and look what happened to him. The CIA crossed over (illegally) into domestic spying long ago. And don't think Obama doesn't think about that every day.
Readers who wish to spread publicity on this may wish to advance to
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/9/25/905201/-F…
and recommend the article
just as suspected, we are still living in Bush's fascist little state, with Obama as the new imperial overlord.
The Washington/Wall Street Empire strikes back. Dissenter will be purged. In an article appearing on Antiwar today, Paul Craig goberts said; "An American Police State was inevitable once Americans let "their" government get away with 9/11." It would seem that he is now convinced that certain elements of the US goverment were involved in the planning and execution of 9/11. From the evidence I've studied, I would say that is certainly the case. 9/11 was just the excuse the Washington/Wall Street Ruling Establishment needed to strip constitutional liberties from all Americans and to launch perpetual wars for perpetual profits. For anyone who doesn't believe that the Wall Street-controlled US government isn't capable of planning and executing such a despicable, heinous and evil act as 9/11, I urge you to google Operation Northwoods.
Excuse me for popping up yet again. But a few days after 9/11 I was in England and a friend asked if I thought the Bush administration had a hand in it. I remember telling him that in the end it didn't really matter, that what mattered was how they were going to use it. And that was before I knew about the PNAC and the sentence "the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event––like a new Pearl Harbor" (see Wikipedia article on PNAC)
In this free country, "speaking out on issues of the day" is not tolerated.
I'm guessing Patrick Henry is rolling over in his grave right now.
I guess its no big surprise. After all, these same people go around killing in the name of Jesus Christ, who tried to teach a message of tolerance, love and peace. So, I guess its no surprise that they are kicking in doors in the middle of the night with their Gestapo tactics in the name of American 'freedom'.
And people wonder why I post anonymously. That I should even feel the need is an insult to the very notion of America
And remember, pretty much every damn Democrat voted for this law about "material support of terrorism" that's so broadly and vaguely defined that the FBI and friends can do pretty much anything to anyone under it.
Well, I guess it's pretty much a done deal now. Dissent will no longer be tolerated in "the land of the free and the home of the brave." George Orwell's totalitarian police state has finally arrived in America. Weep, all ye people, weep; for you are now slaves; your fathers died in vain.
Did you ever notice in America that there are zero criminal penalties for a government official violating your rights? You can try to sue as a civil case, if you can get one of these rightwing judges that Bush appointed and all the Senate Dems stood up and saluted to take the case. But, there's not a law nor a prosecutor who will lift a finger to defend your rights.
Not a single person involved in these raids will spend a day in jail, no matter how many rights they violated in doing this.
The fascists insist that they need the threat of massive jail penalties as a deterent to crime. But, aren't our basic American rights that so many shed blood for us to have worthy of the same protection. If violating the rights of a citizen carried a 20 year term in a federal prison, I'd bet they be a little more respectful and not so willing to find the vague-est excuse to kick in the doors.
And that's the real message about how much your rights really mean in this modern day America.
Got get those pesky anti-war types to shut up in the month before the elections.
Can't have anyone reminding voters that the Democrats pretended to be anti-war to get elected, then expanded and escalated the wars. Fortunately for the Dems, they now control the FBI so that pesky 70% of the American people who oppose these wars can be dealt with.
Don't you dare vote Democrat or Republican ever again.
"Don't you dare vote Democrat or Republican ever again." Not even if they held a gun to my head. And no honest American who truly loves his country and knows that the two major political parties are owned; lock, stock and barrel by the Wall Street Crime Syndicate would either.
I guess the question must be: what are we gonna do about it? …other than vent on the internetz.
"I guess the question must be: what are we gonna do about it?" Frankly, at this point in time, I don't know. But I do believe that the answer to your question will come very soon. And I hope that the answer to your question is a peaceful one for all of our sakes, especially our children. I sincerely mean that.
we need a Constitution Party
(Sigh) This is a repeat of what happened over a year ago in another (?) neighborhood, and a replay of what happened in the Sixties. The Revolution is being televised, and this time it could fly.
These are "provocation" raids. The aim is to radicalize people. The "Revolutionary Vanguard" is in place, it's been "ready" since Stalin assassinated Trotsky in Mexico City after Lenin died. Stalin took over the Soviet Communist Party and the Soviet Union, and Trotsky fled to New York City where he shuttled back and forth between there and Mexico City building the Fourth International, also known in America as the Socialist Workers' Party and the Young Socialist Alliance, the Moratorium Day Committee and the Weathermen of the Sixties. Half or more of Trotsky's Central Committee were FBI agents-in-place sent in for a lifetime career to run the party, in competition with Trotsky's (Leonard Bronstein's) real comrades for control over the Revolution. Simultaneously, Trotsky's comrades started applying for jobs as FBI agents. So guess what we have today in America? Two sets of revolutionaries wearing each others' masks ~ one working for Anglo-American plutocrats, one working for Israeli plutocrats.
I know this because I worked for them ~ oblivious and unknowingly ~ for eight years, being trained as an "off-the-books agent in place" by COINTELPRO. I'd write a book about it, but it's too bizarre to be believed. The political reality, however, is this: a king's best and most loyal friend takes the job of secretly rallying the king's enemies, and revolutions occur when the king makes a deliberate mistake to install a new form of plutocratic slavery. "Democracy" is the most efficient form of tyranny yet, but Americans just have too much troublesome freedom.
We'll see whether this makes it past the moderators into the public discussion and if so, I'll continue … but the Minneapolis raids had one of two (or two) purposes: radicalize politically active opponents of American imperialism, and/or give Mike Kelly credibility as an "antiwar activist" revolutionary leader.
Take your pick ~ the one thing you can rely on is that it is not what it appears to be in the media for public consumption.
Hey, America is a democracy, right? It has a Government elected by the people, one which operates for the people, right? It seems that this is wrong.
People who oppose war are obviously intelligent and have some morals. Only morons prosecute war, morons and those parasites who make money from it and/or who love the power that controlling the military brings, who love the title: Commander in Chief!
Recently America had a moronic C in C who was the laughing stock of the world. George W Bush was his name. Then the world thought Obama would change things. Instead he escalated war. Now he's organizing his minions to harass those who hate war.
Those who promote war should be taken out and shot. They truly are morons, barbarians, anachronisms.
At least you still have a semblance of democracy in the USA. Here in Europe unelected EU Komissars decide on more than 80% oft the laws to be passed, and our local parliaments simply rubberstamp them. Damm what the countries constitution may say.
Don't worry. In France, at least – where I live – EU directives can and are ignored. For example, France is running a deficit that is supposed to be illegal under EU principles. France arrests anti-GMO activists. In addition, we have a president here with a CIA background (see http://www.voltairenet.org/article157821.html) who is there to make sure that the American program continues to be applied.
There has never been despotic and authoritarian regime which allowed dissent.
Previous Evil Empire also had "constitution" which proclaimed "demokratia", "freedomia" and "libertia" as RIGHTS of its citizens and they even claimed to guarantee "workers paradise".
Evil Empires are just that, regardless of the ideology and values they claim to have. Resist Evil.
Superb writing. Can’t wait to read more.
How about we all just agree to end these wars – nothing less, nothing more, just end the wars? Stop the infighting and bickering and focus solely on ending the wars and then go from there. No other topic should take priority over ending this perpetual warfare state. If we end the war, we end the state's excuses to violate our liberties.
We are going to have to provoke a response in the tradition of MLK and Gandhi, to show the world and our people here, that this government is illegitimate.
AbulHusayn: “The Revolution is being televised”
The Media is also being used to calculate the resistance that the provocitors (“FBI”) will expose after the assult on our liberties, in order to scape goat a non – party or be joined under one. Americans are being sized up for retro active positions in a conflict ensuing.
But, all that has really been achieved is the illegal party provocators cementing themselves in The Fire of delusion.