Mike & Friends Blog
Coleen Rowley
Former FBI agent Coleen Rowley was one of three whistleblowers chosen as persons of the year by TIME magazine in 2002
Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace
By Susu Jeffrey and Coleen Rowley
Domestic surveillance of peace groups, speech elevated to material support for state enemies, secret assassinations of American citizens — the war on terror has come home. Even publishing an op-ed or filing an amicus brief could be a criminal act. Offering training in non-violent conflict resolution or giving humanitarian assistance in a crisis zone is said to “enable” acts of terrorism.
The Thought Police arrived in Minneapolis in late September to investigate “activities concerning the material support of terrorism," namely antiwar organizing. Search warrants in six homes and offices allowed FBI agents to collect documents, files, computers, phones, books, photographs, videos, souvenirs, war relics, notebooks, address books, diaries, journals, maps or any other evidence showing connections to groups in Palestine, Lebanon or Colombia or Minnesota and to determine if the people whose places were raided, supported or recruited other people or talked to them. Talked to them?
The victims of the FBI raids do give talks. They have extensive email lists. The warrants also mentioned potential co-conspirators. We chant:
The First Amendment is under attack.
What do we do?
Speak up! Talk back!
National Lawyers Guild (NLG) attorney Ted Dooley called the FBI actions “a probe into the political beliefs of American citizens.”
“You are the Indians now,” Clyde Bellecourt, of the American Indian Movement, said at a Minneapolis rally in front of the FBI offices. About sixty support rallies have taken place outside FBI offices throughout the nation.
Former FBI agent and whistleblower Coleen Rowley called the searches a “war on dissent, rather than terrorism.” She noted that the raids in Minneapolis occurred four days after the Department of Justice Inspector General found numerous problems with the FBI targeting environmental, anti-war and faith-based advocacy groups in the period 2002-2006. Rowley pointed to the fact that Federal Attorney General guidelines were erased “that used to require a level of factual justification before domestic groups could be spied on.” As a former FBI insider, she described make-work career incentives for ambitious agents to obtain good numbers, called “stats” (statistics) — regardless of the outcome of any investigation.
A dozen subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in Chicago next month were issued in Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois. The targeted peace and justice organizers called the move "an outrageous fishing expedition" and an effort by government to use a grand jury to frame activists. The antiwar leaders repeatedly declared their political activities to be “very open” and “with absolutely no involvement in illegal activities.”
“Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs)” are unilaterally designated by the President without consulting the United Nations or international law. The current President also decided he has the power (legal or extralegal) to authorize extrajudicial killings of American citizens anywhere in the world.
"There is no process whereby you can contest the designation," said NLG attorney Bruce Nestor. "Ever since these laws were passed in 1996, there is a concern that they reach so broadly as to certainly chill or intimidate people in speaking out on foreign policy."
Think about it. If Israel were considered a terrorist nation — how many American Jews would be guilty of material support to a “FTO”? How many American Jews have given humanitarian aid to Palestine? Remember supporting divestment in South Africa? (At one time, South African anti-apartheid groups were on the FTO list.) Does your church collect donations for international relief? Are you part of the majority of Americans now opposed to the war in Afghanistan? Should we stop former president Jimmy Carter from monitoring election fraud in countries we disapprove of? Should Greg Mortenson, humanitarian builder of schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan, be more careful of who he drinks Three Cups of Tea with?
You could be guilty by association; it’s now legal precedent. Speaking out could be fatal to your freedom.
Susu Jeffrey was a Women's International League for Peace and Freedom delegate to the UN-Beijing Women's Conference in 1995, took wheel chairs to Cuba in 2004, and has been active in the nuclear-free movement since her first nonviolent, civil disobedient arrest at Seabrook NH, in 1977. Coleen Rowley is a retired FBI agent/legal counsel whose whistleblower disclosures about pre 9-11 FBI failures led to her being named as one of three TIME Magazine “Persons of the Year” in 2002. They are both active members of the Minnesota peace community that is made up of over 70 different peace and social justice groups.
Click here to suggest an article
Mike's Blog
-
May 9th, 2012
About President Obama's Statement in Support of Gay Marriage
I am deeply moved by the announcement made a short while ago that President Obama has gone back to his original position in 1996 and ...
-
May 4th, 2012
Here's a free song for you. It's my contribution to "Occupy This Album", a compilation CD (99 songs!) featuring David Crosby & Graham Nash, Steve ...
-
February 11th, 2012
A 75th Anniversary for the American Dream, a 25-Year Anniversary for Me
On this day 25 years ago, in 1987, I became a filmmaker. It was around ten in the morning and the first-ever roll of Kodak ...
-
January 17th, 2012
STOP SOPA: Why MichaelMoore.com Will Be Blacked Out Wednesday, January 18th
My websites MichaelMoore.com and Mike's High School Newspaper will both be going dark for 24 hours starting at midnight tonight in protest of the Stop ...
-
December 30th, 2011
75 Years Ago Today, the First Occupy
On this day, December 30th, in 1936 -- 75 years ago today -- hundreds of workers at the General Motors factories in Flint, Michigan, took ...
-
December 28th, 2011
Click here to donate to the congressional campaign of Flint's own Dan Kildee I have many things I'm planning to do in the New Year ...
-
December 24th, 2011
A Little Christmas Gift for You to Download
Thanks for all the wonderful comments regarding the short story about my mom from HERE COMES TROUBLE that I sent you a few days ago. ...
-
September 11th, 2010
If the 'Mosque' Isn't Built, This Is No Longer America
OpenMike 9/11/10 Michael Moore's daily blog I am opposed to the building of the "mosque" two blocks from Ground Zero. I want it built on ...
-
December 14th, 2010
Why I'm Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that ...
-
May 12th, 2011
Some Final Thoughts on the Death of Osama bin Laden
"The Nazis killed tens of MILLIONS. They got a trial. Why? Because we're not like them. We're Americans. We roll different." – Michael Moore in ...
-
November 22nd, 2011
Where Does Occupy Wall Street Go From Here?
This past weekend I participated in a four-hour meeting of Occupy Wall Street activists whose job it is to come up with the vision and ...
-
September 22nd, 2011
A STATEMENT FROM MICHAEL MOORE ON THE EXECUTION OF TROY DAVIS
I encourage everyone I know to never travel to Georgia, never buy anything made in Georgia, to never do business in Georgia. I will ask ...
-
December 16th, 2010
Dear Swedish Government: Hi there -- or as you all say, Hallå! You know, all of us here in the U.S. love your country. Your ...
-
November 2nd, 2010
This letter contains (almost) no criticisms of how the Democrats have brought this day of reckoning upon themselves. That -- and where to go from ...
Comments
18