The Justice Department has indicted four Americans, including three members of the African People’s Socialist Party and Uhuru Movement (APSP), over their political views on Russia, a step that has grave implications for First Amendment rights.
The allegation against the Americans is that they were involved in a “foreign malign influence campaign” directed by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB). The DOJ also indicted three Russians related to the case, including Aleksandr Ionov, who was initially charged last year.
Ionov is a Moscow resident who founded the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), a non-governmental organization. The DOJ claims that Ionov used the AGMR to conduct Russia’s “malign influence campaign” and recruited Americans to spread “Russian propaganda.” The indictment alleges the Russians were involved in a 2019 local election in St. Petersburg, Florida, one city where the APSP is based.
“Russia’s foreign intelligence service allegedly weaponized our First Amendment rights – freedoms Russia denies its own citizens – to divide Americans and interfere in elections in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen.
Offices and homes affiliated with the APSP were raided by the FBI in 2022 over the group’s connections to the AGMR. Omali Yeshitela, the leader of the APSP who was indicted by the DOJ, pointed out after the raid that his group has worked with organizations around the world for decades.
“At our First Party Congress held in Oakland, California in 1981, we received solidarity statements from organizations and governments from around the world,” Yeshitela wrote in an article published by Antiwar.com in March 2023.
“This helps to give lie to the notion that our connection to a Russian NGO is evidence of an illicit relationship that we would have with a ‘foreign power,'” he said.
Yeshitela strongly denied that his group was working for Russia, and they appear to have been targeted for their political beliefs. The APSP has expressed support for Russia and denounced US involvement in Ukraine, but the group has been speaking out against US foreign policy since it was formed in 1972.
Yeshitela said in the article that he expected to be indicted and that the government would likely use the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) to go after him and his group.
“This is selective prosecution. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other Israeli lobbying organizations are seemingly immune from prosecution under the FARA law despite their obvious public function as agents of the Israeli government,” he wrote.
The DOJ’s press release says the Americans and Russians are charged with “conspiring to have US citizens act as illegal agents of the Russian government within the United States without providing prior notification to the Attorney General, as required by law.” If convicted, they face up to five years in prison.
Yeshitela and two other Americans are also charged with “acting as agents of Russia within the United States without such prior notification,” which carries a maximum penalty of up to ten years in prison.
The APSP said they are not making a statement on the indictments at the advice of their attorneys and are looking for donations to fund their legal defense.
This is starting to get a little scary to me…..
The sewer is backing up.
I’m telling you, it’s time to start weaning yourself off public criticism of our glorious leaders, and time to keep your head down and mouth shut. If we live through these geniuses, and their world wars, we should get plenty of time to criticize as we search for canned goods.
lol.
Anyone who disagrees with neocon foreign policy can be indicted. That’s how the system of political repression works. In Orwellian world it is called “liberalism”.
A snitch, a racist, a rapist, and a plagiarist walk into a bar. The bartender ask “How’s your new book coming along Mr. Orwell?”
The right wingers on this board want to blame the left at every turn. Including using a shady person like Orwell.
Who is left? Neocons are left? They are “left” only in Orwellian world.
You mean the world created by a guy who liked Hitler?
The right has already sold out. It is the left we are concerned with, and the left is selling out big time.
Nah this site loves to pin everything on the left since the days of Justin Raimondo
I don’t think it’s the site as much as it is some of the commenters.
Of course, shady is anyone not goose stepping to the NEO tune. Can you find the difference between neocons and neolibs? A mutual admiration society!
So this is ehy they call this NEO liberalism, just like NEO conservatives. Finally understood as the lights are dinning.
So this puts Russia, China , North Korea and the USA all on a equal footing for free speech.
Bingo!
“So this puts Russia, China , North Korea, Israel and the USA all on a equal footing for free speech.”
Fixed, no charge.
Free Mordecai Vanunu!
Jeez, yes! One fears they’ve set the pattern for Assange.
Here are links to the DOJ press release and the indictment against four APSP members and supporters and 3 Russians.
The press release is outrageous and reminiscent of J. Edgar Hoover’s demonization of dissent by the Communist Party. I have not read the indictment yet.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-citizens-and-russian-intelligence-officers-charged-conspiring-use-us-citizens-illegal
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1580251/download
Ain’t “freedom” a wonderful thing?
USA! USA!
I live in Oceana. War is Peace. Ignorance is Strength. I LOVE BIG BROTHER! I LOVE BIG BROTHER! I am living the dream.
This feels like something akin to a SLAPP lawsuit. I look forward to a speedy trial so that we can see the evidence and hear the verdict.
I suspect it would be quite illuminating to compare the behavior of these people with past and/or current behaviors promoted by US funded NGO’s operating in Ukraine, Georgia, Taiwan, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Iran, etc.
I have been reading a out political economic structures for a long time and still wonder if the US accusations regarding limited freedoms of speech in Russia and China are accurate representations of Chinese and Russian character. US capitalists have been running what are called color revolutions in those countries for over a century, even going so far as to divide up China into drug dealer’s terrotories using US troops.
My question is this;
Do barbarians from the west publish free speech violations against hired revolutionaries planted and paid for in Russia and China? How could those countries have surpassed the US in imagination if their speech was squelched by the governments?
Greenwald last night compared this case to Russia’s use of the “foreign agent” label to suppress wrong-think.
One case he referred to was the shutting down a news outlet for being a foreign agent for reporting how a politician got rich on a government salary.
Suppression of dissident voices is not a solely western practice.
You’d be hard pressed to find dissident voices on China’s domestic Tik Tok would you not?
They censor their social media just like our government does.
FBI=KGB, Savak.
Well said, well said.
Thank U. 🙂
I am saddened to hear of this prosecution. Apparently some people are allowed more freedom than others according t our high court who have awarded a “get no jail” card to one group who have practiced the conduct this group is accused of for many decades by labeling them as “Sui generous,” Sui generis is a Latin phrase that means “of its/their own kind”, “in a class by itself”, therefore “unique”. A number of disciplines use the term to refer to unique entities. This is the shield that has been awarded to AIPAC that exempts them from the law being used tp prosecute this group.
https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/house-un-american-activities-committee
Hypocrisy never goes out of style
Here comes the thought police in action.
If these Americans are Russian spies, charge them as spies. Nope, they charged them as “acting as a foreign agent” for their views that the government doesn’t like.
Disgusting abuse of the justice department. We are pretty much turning into Russia and China right in front of our eyes in the freedom of speech department.
And mainstream media? Complete silence. I google’ed this and found an article on Al Jazeera as the only media covering it…
Turning into the old Soviet Union is more appropriate I believe.
The US has done this type of stuff well before the Soviets.
Glenn Greenwald shared he is going to be on Tucker tonight to talk about this case.
You know the world is upside down when Fox News is where one needs to go for coverage about a wrongful arrest of a hard socialist.
There is a certain amount of humor in that ZaSu!
Wake and baking may help (or hamper) with my twist of phrasing at times…..;-)
Doing it as we write…
I just chopped a tent and am doing taste tests of the lollypops (I really trimmed them) as they hang…
Excellent! Greenwald and Carlson together exposing the case that needs a MAJOR light shined on in defense of basic freedoms.
Just a D.C. Grand Jury doing what they’re told to do.
What a load of shit. This country is going to hell ..
There is an old expression about the last act of any empire, having to do with an Orwellian aspect but the quote escapes me, at the moment… “Enslaving the people”….
“slavery is freedom”
GOING, Going, gone to hell…!!!!!
Does FARA require that someone actually receive money from a foreign govt to be considered an ‘unregistered agent’? For some reason, I doubt it. I never hear of money transfers when the U.S. invokes FARA.
No, it doesn’t seem to require that. Here’s the law in question.
One way to retaliate is for all writers to start writing, en mass, about Russia……………………………………………………………………………………….
FJB
Ditto that.
FTA. Fuck them all.
The U.S. ambassador to Georgia along with U.S.-funded NGOs just orchestrated violent protests in Tiblisi in their successful attempt to kill the Georgian government’s proposed FARA law which was very similar to ours. They screamed bloody murder about loosing their “freedom of speech” if the law was passed
“This is selective prosecution. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and other Israeli lobbying organizations are seemingly immune from prosecution under the FARA law despite their obvious public function as agents of the Israeli government,” he wrote.
And he’s 100% right here…
Guilty of wrong think. Let’s face it, the real “crimes” are, essentially, disobedience to the state.
Glenn Greenwald devoted his show last night to these folks, he has interviewed one of them several times prior on his show (interesting guy but definitely a man of the “hard” left;-) and pointed out that the arrests are very similar to Russia’s practice of labeling dissidents as foreign agents.
https://rumble.com/v2j8t6m-system-update-show-74.html
Greenwald shared that he will be on Tucker tonight to talk about this case.
There are live streams on Rumble for those who refuse to pay to watch 😉
Holy shit. Are we next?
End of the empire. The rot always begins from within, and that rot begins with the head.
Just shows what the Zionists Biden thinks about black peoples struggles.
Clearly the Ministry of Truth is hard at work making sure we aren’t exposed to any mis- or disinformation.
Ah yes “weaponizing” rights so to speak. I think that is up there with burglary, rape and murder.
“Weaponizing rights” is politicianese for “using rights in any way that the political class doesn’t like.”
These indictments are insulting to APSP. For fifty years the APSP and the Uhuru Movement that it leads have been Pan-Africanist, anti-imperiailist, anti-capitalist, anti-Zionist and revolutionary socialist. Their world view is Afro-Centric socialist internationalism. The idea that they could be agents of a European country is beyond insane.
The DOJ accuses the APSP and the Uhuru Movement of working on behalf of the “Russian government in order to destabilize and undermine trust in American Democracy.” In fact the APSP and the Uhuru Movement have been working to undermine trust in so-called American Democracy and to replace American imperialism with an Afro-Centric international socialist order for over 50 years, before there was an independent Russia.
I disagree with APSP in its support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But I agree with APSP that the enslavement of African people is the foundation for European and American capitalist development and that American supremacy is ultimately based on the dividend American capitalism received from slavery and genocide of the indigenous people of North and South America. These policies led to colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa, European (including Russian and USA) supremacy in Eurasia and control of the resources of North and South America by USA capitalists. The capital generated from the slave trade (the “slavery dividend”) gave Europeans and Americans the wealth that enabled them to surpass and dominate Muslim, Hindu, and East Asian countries that were at comparable or more advanced stages of economic development as Europe when Columbus came to America and Muslims and Portuguese were enslaving Africans.
Although the APSP was founded 50 years ago, their influence, and the influenceof the Uhuru Movement, in the African-American and African liberation movements has been growing in recent years. They are developing African internationalism in the tradition of Malcolm X and the Black Panther Party. Like the Black Panthers, the APSP recognizes the African American people as an internal colony inside the USA with the right to self determination and reparations.
This indictment is a renewal of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program that was primarily directed against the Black Panther Party and also against other Black and white leftists in the 1970’s. But the charge that Omali Yeshitela is a Russian agent is even more ridiculous than the notion that Trump was working for the Russians.
Well said Skywalker, spoken like a true radical. Radicalism scares the crap out of the Systematic Drones.
Right on. This is simply ridiculous.
Just how hard is it to “Undermine trust in American democracy”?
’cause I’m already there.
When a prosecution is political, known to be so inside the Justice Dept and the District US Attorney office involved, then Main Justice (what they call the DC headquarters) sends out a Special Assistant to oversee the case. You see, there is a known procedure, and they know exactly what they are doing.
I’ve seen it happen. It has gone on for decades. It happened in the Red Scare aka Smith Act trials. I later knew a lead prosecutor in one of those cases who had done that himself, heard the inside story over drinks.
I saw it since, complete with illegal bugging and guys wearing wires that carefully planned to entrap.
So yeah, this has always happened, on and off. It is on again, big time.
It has frequently been Democrats doing it, but Republicans have been just as willing. Uniparty. War Party. The Establishment. Call it any of those, but under whatever name it is very real and has been forever. Now again.
This is not just another occasion on which to be bitter or cynical. This “stuff” is dangerous. It has done a lot of harm, and that harm has been widely admitted after the fact. Yet we do it again?
We must speak up before “after the fact” lament. That did no good then, and would do no good now.
Country has collapsed.
The 1st Amendment Protects them. I have a Jimmy Dore tee-shirt that says I’m “Sowing Discord”.
How fo you weaponize First Amendment? Either it exists or does not.
The outrage of “liberal” Biden regime persecuting African socialists(!) for daring to have an opinion supporting Russia’s punishment of nazis must be exposed to the wider public. Fortunately the excellent combination of Glen Greenwald and Tucker Carlson are on the case. Lets make their upcoming interview go VIRAL !
Another episode in the inevitable disintegration of the US.
If the allegations are true. The question will be. Were these people associated with the African People’s Socialist Party in America aware this was a Russian propaganda outlet? That will have to be proven in a court of law in order for any such charge to stick. Unless, what people think is now a crime. If that is the case this is no longer America nor a democracy with the peoples right to protest by voicing their views.
The same as the FBI-entrapped Islamic ‘terrorists’, the APSP will be put to the impossible expense of defending themselves in a court room deeply brain-washed against Russia. Any lawyer will tell them defense is useless. And mostly it poses a menace to anyone wanting to exercise his ‘right of free speech’ against NATO aggression.
I thought FARA had to do with funding. Silly me! I also think the DOJ does NOT expect to win this case in court after appeal, but DOES expect it to be expensive for the APSP. Lawfare. It should be summarily dismissed, but won’t be, as judges are also corrupt.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chile-stuns-markets-and-ev-makers-nationalizing-lithium-industry-overnight
Chile Stuns Markets And EV Makers By Nationalizing Lithium Industry Overnight
Uh, oh. National Endowment for Democracy just got their plane tickets to Santiago.
The United States Government has been at war with Omali Yeshitela for fifty years when they first targeted his operation with the FBI’s Cointelpro program. Black Power has always been a threat to the Westphalian nation state because it posits a form of nationalism that has nothing to do with borders or centralized government. It is a threat imperialism because it acknowledges the fact that poor people on every hemisphere are colonized by the same war machine that pits us against each other. This is so much bigger than Russia.
I don’t care what your opinion of Donald Trump is, but we’ve seen this movie run before. At a sitting president. In that case, a multi year FBI investigation turned up nothing. The Biden Administration better have some compelling evidence, or this is just show-biz. At some point there needs to be a public blow-back for this type of theater.