Raided Antiwar Activists Won’t Testify Before Grand Jury
Attorney Terms Grand Jury 'a Tool of Harassment'
14 of the antiwar activists who were subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury will refuse to appear, according to their attorneys. The group includes a number of the antiwar activists whose homes were raided on September 24.
The FBI insisted the raids were targeted at uncovering ties between the antiwar organizers and “material aid to terrorism,” but Melinda Power, one of the attorneys for the activists, insisted the grand jury was a “tool of harassment against activists.”
At least four of the antiwar activists had been ordered to appear before the grand jury in Chicago today, while others had been called for later dates. The activists could be held in jail for the duration of the grand jury’s procedings for refusing to appear.
But the open-ended detention of the activists could further fuel opposition to the entire proceding, and strengthen the belief that the operation is designed primarily to intimidate the likely organizers of antiwar protests against President Obama at the 2012 DNC.
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bogi666
October 5th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
The activists are political prisoners and the grand jury, which are rigged, being of dubious Constitutionality, was created just for purposes like this, to persecute dissenters using extra-Constitutional methods meant to keep the population in fear of the USG. The NAZI rigged courts had nothing on the grand jury rigged courts.
ghouri
October 6th, 2010 at 2:30 am
The american courts are no more courts and have become a part of jails to punish for the govt. and destroy civil society and may be they get paid extra for their work as we have seen in the case of Dr. Afia siddiqui that notorious judge has passed the judgment. What a wonderful world?
John_Mohammad
October 6th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
So what happens when the activists DO show up to testify and the FBI decides to charge them with "providing material aid to terrorists"? Following the playbook, they'll never be able to face their accusers, and probably won't know on what basis the charges are made because it's all been hushed up under the 'state secrets' farce. I'm loving the police state more and more, you know? Maybe one day I'll be able to wear a black leather trench coat and a fedora and be able to flash a swastika and demand "you papers, please" just like the other kids. The revolution might not be televised, but you can bet it will be all over youtube.
Patrick
October 6th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
Everyone who opposes the wars needs a mass response to this. And the response is very simple.
If Obama's FBI and if Obama's Attorney Generals are going to attack peaceful antiwar activists, then DO NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT.
If you vote Democrat, not only are you voting to support the never-ending war in Iraq, Obama's Bush-like surges in Afghanistan, and remote-control death via drone strikes in Pakistan, but if you vote Democrat you are voting to support Obama's FBI and Obama's Attorney General' harrassment of people who dare to speak freely about their opposition to Obama's wars.
DO NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT.