Heavily-armed FBI raid Portland activists in search of "literature and black clothing"

Imagine if what kind of force is necessary if they were actually investigating violent criminals?

KGW

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Thu Aug 02 07:42:55 PDT 2012

Report: Portland FBI raids targeted anarchists

Search warrants targeting three Portland homes last week were part of a federal effort to learn more about the anarchist movement and vandalism in downtown Seattle during a May Day rally, according to a report in the Oregonian.

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You're Going to Need a Warrant For That, Officer

FBI Tracking Device found on American citizen's car
without a warrant. (Source)

Sandra Fulton
ACLU

Last year Yasir Afifi, a 20-year-old U.S.-born citizen, found a strange device attached to his car. When he posted a photo of it online, the FBI showed up at his home two days later. They wanted their GPS tracking device back. The FBI had been tracking Afifi’s movement for months without his knowing about it. Moreover, the agency did so without a warrant and apparently based on the flimsy rationale that his friend wrote a blog they felt was questionable. This type of warrantless tracking seems to be an increasingly common government practice.

Following this incident, as well as revelations about how much location information Apple and Google are storing about their customers, there has been a significant public outcry over the privacy of location information. Congress has held a number of hearings on the topic and today Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced companion bills in the Senate and House, respectively, to protect location privacy. The bills not only require law enforcement to get a warrant based on probable cause before accessing location information, but also regulate the use of this information by businesses. With location tracking cases popping up all over the country, this would provide a strong and clear national standard for law enforcement.

FBI using GPS to track activists (Video)

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FBI creating police state: Paul Craig Roberts (VIDEO)

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More FBI dirty tricks on MN human rights defenders

Deborah Dupre
Examiner

Amidst widespread Cointelpro rampage on human rights defenders and peace workers this season, in Minneapolis, MN, FBI agents continued their campaign against anti-war activists in the Twin Cities on Oct. 8. Because more people have become self-learned about the suppressed history of Cointelpro, the old "dirty tricks" may not be working for them.

"FBI agents came to my work and wanted to talk to me about activists in the anti-war movement," said Jennie Eisert, an Anti-War Committee member according to Fight Back News.

Eisert shed light on the same tactic Targeted Individuals consistently report: Black operatives or their organized vigilantes sneaking meetings or communications with family and friends to turn them away from the target. This tactic is successful, all too often leaving the target isolated and thus vulnerable for attacks.

Eisert did not fall for the FBI's dirty trick.

"I was called away from my desk and when I refused to talk to them, they tried to turn me against my friends and fellow activists," said Eisert.

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Raids on Activists Indicates FBI Abuse of Power

Lance Page Image/Truth-Out

Yana Kunichoff
Truth-Out

On the heels of a series of FBI raids on anti-war activists, an FBI whistleblower and constitutional rights groups are calling out the agency for overstepping its bounds, fearing that its increased powers could infringe on First Amendment rights and silence dissent.

Agents searched the homes of anti-war activists in Chicago, Minneapolis, Michigan and Durham, North Carolina in the last two weeks of September, along with the offices of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee, confiscating computers, cell phones, large amounts of paper and financial records, according to the activists and their attorneys.

"The FBI raids seem to reflect the latest actions by a recidivist agency that has lost sight of its mission to protect public safety," Shahid Buttar, executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee and the People's Campaign for the Constitution told Truthout.

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Progressive Dissent Is in the FBI's Crosshairs

After the September 26 FBI raids on peace activists’ homes across the nation, it appears that free speech depends on who's speaking and what they're saying.

Lydia Howell
Alternet

Is free speech worth the constitutional paper it’s written on?

After the September 26 FBI raids on peace activists’ homes in Minneapolis, Chicago and North Carolina, it appears to depend on who’s speaking and what they’re saying.

The pretext for the raids was investigating “material aide to terrorists”, resulting in grand jury subpoenas and confiscation of computers, books, music CDs and from one home, a Martin Luther King poster. The targeted Minneapolis activists have openly protested US military policy since the 1980s. The FBI certainly knows they have nothing to do with terrorism. These activists simply have the audacity to challenge bi-partisan US invasions, occupations and support for dictatorships and human rights abusers. Dissent on the left has long been seen as ‘criminal behavior’. Where once “the communist threat" was the argument for such repression, now, “terrorism” is.


When it comes to war, US government sees three roles for the American people: 1. Pay hundreds of billions for the largest military on Earth 2. Kill and possibly die or be maimed for US military and corporate dominance of other countries 3. Cheerlead war. The US government -- bought and paid for by weapons-makers and mercenaries (‘contractors’) -- does not think that We The People have the right to even question, much less challenge and resist permanent war, which is bankrupting our country and civilian deaths ignite more violence.

Just days before the raids, the Department of Justice Inspector General released a report about FBI abuses of peace groups under the Bush Administration -- abuses that President Obama continues. Republicans and Democrats rubberstamp domestic spying on peace organizations, Quakers, and solidarity groups visiting countries that the US bombs or subsidizes death squads in.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5-to-4 in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Center that peace groups who talked about non-violent, democratic practices and international human rights law -- that is,alternatives to terrorism -- with organizations on the State Department’s “Terrorist Watch List” may be charged with ‘material aid to terrorists’. If ending terrorism is actually the goal, then, why make working to end violence a crime? In his dissent, SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer warned thatpolitical speech -- the most protected speech under the First Amendment -- was being criminalized.

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War on Dissent: Americans living in a police state?

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Activism in the Age of Tyranny and Terror


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