MUST READ- Domestic Disturbance: FBI Raids Bring the Terror War Home

[Panaconda]

Domestic Disturbance: FBI Raids Bring the Terror War Home
Written by Chris Floyd
Saturday, 25 September 2010 23:40

...

Now we know what Homeland Security (sic) secretary Janet Napolitano meant when she said on September 10: "The old view that ‘if we fight the terrorists abroad, we won’t have to fight them here’ is just that — the old view." The new view, Napolitano said, is "to counter violent extremism right here at home."

"Violent extremism" is one of those undefined police state terms that will mean whatever the government wants it to mean. In this morning’s FBI foray into the homes of American citizens of conscience, it means antiwar activists, whose activities are equated with "the material support of terrorism," just as conservatives equated Vietnam era antiwar protesters with giving material support to communism.

Antiwar activist Mick Kelly, whose home was raided, sees the FBI raids as harassment to intimidate those who organize war protests. I wonder if Kelly is underestimating the threat. The FBI’s own words clearly indicate that the federal police agency and the judges who signed the warrants do not regard antiwar protesters as Americans exercising their Constitutional rights, but as unpatriotic elements offering material support to terrorism.

"Material support" is another of those undefined police state terms. In this context the term means that Americans who fail to believe their government’s lies and instead protest its policies, are supporting their government’s declared enemies and, thus, are not exercising their civil liberties but committing treason.

...

http://www.chris-floyd.com/articles/1-latest-news/2026-domestic-disturbance-fbi-raids-bring-the-terror-war-home.html

[gateley]

1. I've sent (outraged) e-mails to my Senators, Congressman Napolitano and Obama.

I hope they all get deluged with complaints and demands for explanation.

EDIT to clarify. I called Napolitano's office and left a msg on the comment line; I'll call the 'office' number during the week. If there was an e-mail address directly to her, I couldn't find it on the website. :grr:

[redirish28]

2. This is a story to watch.

[indepat]

3. Wholly smacks of total totalitarianism in its totality?

:shrug:

[TreasonousBastard]

4. If they spent this much energy going after MS-13...

there would have been no murders, and very few muggings, in my town.

But, hey, that's no fun when you got a gun and a badge-- that's just work.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. ahem

[maryf]

6. K&R nt

[Luminous Animal]

7. Kick.

[TBF]

8. It can't happen here

[Starry Messenger]

9. On old American tradition.

[pnwmom]

10. At least the 4th attempt in two days to give Paul Craig Roberts

a forum here.

PCR, the former Reaganite, long time Hoover Institute member, and current member of the anti-immigration, racist organization VDARE.

[Panaconda]

11. Isn't that sad

Such a guy as Roberts hits closer to home than most liberal pundits. And as Chris Floyd says- Remember this is a CHRIS FLOYD essay:

I'm sure that if I had met Paul Craig Roberts 25 years ago -- or indeed, had even known of his existence -- I would have felt strongly antagonistic toward this Reagan Administration apparatchik and all that he stood for. And for all I know, if I met him today, I still might find that we were at loggerheads on some issues, maybe many issues.

Maybe you don't want to hear the unvarnished truth of what is going on. Remember that old saying about messenger and message?

[Occulus]

12. Nobody is buying what you're trying to peddle, pnwmom.

Why don't you just give it a fucking rest?

Kthxbai.

[pnwmom]

14. Why don't you provide a link to a source other than PCR

or someone else who writes an "essay" that just strings together long passages of PCR?

[Panaconda]

15. I'll make you a deal

I'll post several links which say virtually the same thing by different authors if you will simply only focus on the words and ideas posted in this OP and state why you seem to not wish for these ideas to be discussed openly.

If you focus on the messenger then our agreement has been breached. Deal?

[pnwmom]

16. I would be happy to read them. n/t

[Panaconda]

18. So on good faith

here are a few articles. Let me know if you want more. Now remember we are only discussing ideas regardless of the source.

Claiming “material support of terrorism”
FBI raids homes of antiwar activists

...


The raids, carried out under the auspices of the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), are a transparent attempt to intimidate political opponents of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. They come on the heels of a Justice Department inspector general’s report revealing massive police infiltration and spying on antiwar groups and other political dissenters in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. (See: “Report whitewashes FBI political spying”)

...

The political nature of the raids was barely concealed. The warrant to raid Kelly’s home specifically cited his membership in a group calling itself socialist, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). Signed by US Magistrate Judge Susan Nelson at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, it allowed the FBI to take “documents, files, books, photographs, videos, souvenirs, war relics, notebooks, address books, diaries, journals, maps, or other evidence, including evidence in electronic form relating to Kelly’s travels to and from and presence and activities in Minnesota and other foreign countries, to which Kelly has traveled as part of his work for FRSO,” according to an attorney representing Kelly.

...

The federal law prohibiting “material support of terrorism” was established in 1996 and “has been interpreted so broadly to really endanger the rights of US citizens to oppose the military and foreign policies of the United States,” Nestor added. “This is a direct attack on people who are strong, dedicated advocates of freedom, of the right of people to be free from US domination. It is an attack upon anybody who organizes against US imperialism and US militarism abroad.”

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/raid-s25.shtml

=======

FBI Raids Homes of Antiwar and Pro-Palestinian Activists in Chicago and Minneapolis

...

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/9/27/fbi_raids_homes_of_anti_war


Orwellian FBI Raids in Minnesota, Chicago, Iowa
By S. T., on September 25th, 2010

An official left a home in the 2900 block of Park Av. in Minneapolis after a search warrant was executed at the residence.
Big Brother is raiding homes again. The excuse is “terrorism”. During the Bush administration this would not have been a surprise, but it’s not quite as expected now, or so we thought. . . .

Anti-war protesters and peace groups are still be intimidated and their rights to free speech chilled around the United States by false accusations of “terrorist activities”. The most recent of these Orwellian property seizures and intimidations happened in Minneapolis and Chicago. Similar surveilance and intimidation happened recently in Iowa.

Were the homes of Tea Party activists, who routinely carry loaded guns and make threats, raided too? No. This is what Tea Party people should be protesting — real abuse of power. Government intimidation and violations of our Constitutional rights to free speech and assembly is much more serious than rich people getting a long overdue tax hike.

Why do American citizens not have the right to protest war and meet to discuss peace without being harrassed by the FBI? These raids are nothing short of our freedom of speech and assembly under attack. Since Republicans are so concerned with Constitutional rights lately, which these raids are in violation of, I would expect them to be at the forefront of denouncing this. But we don’t see that happening.

...

http://www.civilianism.com/gate/2010/09/orwellian-fbi-raids-in-minnesota-chicago-iowa/

FBI Raids Activists' Homes in Sinister COINTELPRO Replay

In a replay of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's infamous COINTELPRO operations targeting the left during the 1960s and '70s, America's political police launched raids on the homes of antiwar and solidarity activists on Friday.

...

The warrant allowed the FBI to take "documents, files, books, photographs, videos, souvenirs, war relics, notebooks, address books, diaries, journals, maps, or other evidence, including evidence in electronic form relating to Kelly's travels to and from and presence and activities in Minnesota and other foreign countries, to which Kelly has traveled as part of his work for FRSO."

Reprising the red-hunting frenzy of the McCarthy period at the height of the Cold War, the warrant specifies that the Bureau was authorized by Obama's Justice Department to seize material relating to "the recruitment, indoctrination, and facilitation of other individuals in the United States to join FRSO, including materials related to the identity and location of recruiters, facilitators, and recruits, the means by which the recruits were recruited to join FRSO, the means by which the recruitment was financed and arranged."

In other words, with a bogus "terrorism investigation" as a pretext, the Obama regime is targeting socialist political groups for destruction in order for Democrats to whip-up "War on Terror" and anticommunist hysteria prior to November general elections that may see Congress pass into the hands of the troglodytic Republican faction of war criminals and corporatists.

...

http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2010/09/fbi-raids-activists-homes-in-sinister.html

Comment from last article:

he FBI is really getting extremely bold in their tactics. However Cointelpro didn't stop in the 80s and 90s. In Seattle in 1981 the FBI collaborated with Marcos agents to assassinate Filipino cannery workers and union organizers Domingo and Viernes. As a CISPES member in the 1980s, I had personal experience with the FBI infiltrating our chapter. And after they broke it up, subjecting some of us to ongoing harassment. Infiltration and harassment was even more intense in Seattle's African American community in the 80s and 90s. It's just that prior to the Internet, knowledge of such things was limited to hard core activists. I write about some of this in my recent memoir THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY ACT: MEMOIR OF AN AMERICAN REFUGEE (www.stuartbramhall.com). I currently live in exile in New Zealand.

[Panaconda]

19. I was wondering

if you took the time to read these articles and had any comments on the content.

Still there?

[txaslftist]

13. Wow.

Identity politics much?

Completely dodge the issue that a bunch of peaceful antiwar ppl are being harassed...

[L0oniX]

17. ....