TomPaine.com: Dissent Under Attack
12/3/03 6:00:00 AM
(Press Release)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: National Desk
Contact: Nick Penniman, 202-332-2881 ext. 11, or Ellen Miller, 202-332-2881 ext. 10, both of TomPaine.com
WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 /U.S. Newswire/ - TomPaine.com, in its Op Ad today in The New York Times, affirms the legacy of political dissent throughout American history and blasts recent Justice Department attacks on the environmental organization Greenpeace. The lawsuit filed against Greenpeace marks the first time in U.S. history that the government has prosecuted an entire organization for the free speech activities of its supporters.
"America has a proud legacy of political dissent and a dark tendency to repress it. Eliminate protest and you remove some of our finest moments: the Boston Tea Party, abolition, suffrage, civil rights and modern environmentalism," the ad reads.
Last year, two Greenpeace activists boarded a ship that was smuggling illegally harvested rainforest mahogany and unfurled a banner that called on President Bush to act. But the Justice Department, instead of going after the smugglers, went out of its way to file criminal charges against Greenpeace, citing an antiquated 1872 law. If convicted, it could devastate the group and send a chilling message.
The ad reminds readers that the Justice Department's efforts against Greenpeace aren't solitary. "The Department of Justice is overreaching in other ways, too, monitoring dissent as they did under Cointelpro, a Cold War program launched by the FBI to infiltrate protest groups."
The Greenpeace trial is scheduled for later this month.
TomPaine.com says that Attorney General Ashcroft is on the wrong side of history.
"What John Ashcroft is missing is what Thomas Jefferson expressed so well when he wrote, 'I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.'"
To view the ad visit
http://www.tompaine.com/op_ads/opad2.cfm/ID/9523. At www.TomPaine.com you'll find articles by Greenpeace, the ACLU and People for the American Way, and an interview with historian Howard Zinn.
TomPaine.com is a nonprofit, nonpartisan Internet journal. Since 1999, its online content and ads have been praised by Rolling Stone, Forbes.com, the Columbia Journalism Review, Chicago Tribune, PC Magazine and many others.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
