FBI raids home over use of Twitter at G20 summit

[Alamuti Lotus]

FBI raids home over use of Twitter at G20 summit
By Ali Ismail
16 October 2009

On October 1, FBI anti-terrorism agents backed by police helicopters raided the Queens, New York, home of Elliot Madison, a self-described anarchist. Madison had been arrested in Pittsburgh a week earlier for using Twitter to pass information between protesters at the G20 summit.

The federal agents in New York confiscated items from Madison’s home that included political literature, a picture of Lenin and items of clothing. Madison works as a social worker, and the FBI also seized his clients’ case files.

An article in the New York Times stated, “A search warrant executed by the FBI at Mr. Madison’s house authorized agents and officers looking for violations of federal rioting laws to seize computers and phones, black masks and clothes and financial records and address books.” Madison’s attorney has since obtained a court injunction against the FBI examining the seized items.

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post reported the FBI action under the headline “Queens ‘terror’ raid hits G-20 anarchist.”

The raid came a week after Madison and another individual were arrested in Pittsburgh during the G20 summit and charged with “hindering apprehension or prosecution” and “possession of instruments of crime”—a reference to police scanners. According to the Pennsylvania State Police, Madison was found in his hotel room using the social-networking site Twitter to provide information on police movements to protesters during the G20 summit. Police scanners and several computers were also found in his hotel room.

Madison, 41 and a resident of the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens in New York, has denied any wrongdoing. While in Pittsburgh, he participated in the Tin Can Communications Collective, a group formed to use social-networking sites to send mass text messages concerning protest-related events.

Madison is believed to be one of the first people in the US to face criminal charges for using a social-networking site to inform protesters about police movements.

Madison’s lawyer, Martin Stolar, stated, “He and a friend were part of a communications network among people protesting the G20.”

“It’s an outrageous use of criminal law to punish dissent, to punish speech, which tends to support dissent, and it is the most unique application of the criminal law to the use of Twitter that I have ever seen,” said Stolar.

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[lib2DaBone]

1. Bring our troops home.....

Disban the CIA, DEA, TSA, NSA, OSI, RNC, DNC and Homeland Security. Quit invading the rest of the worlda and leave people alone.

Use the money we save to rebuild America and build green energy.

Why are we paying millions of dollars a year for our public servants in CONgress? What are they doing besides sitting on their fat ass?

Is this really rocket science? Do I have to go to Washington and do this myself? (you lazy MF-ing Slackers) Don't make me come up there....