[Ppnews] Midwest Activists called back to grand jury

[Political Prisoner News]

APNewsBreak: Activists called back to grand jury

By AMY FORLITI
The Associated Press
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/17/AR2010111705560.html

Wednesday, November 17, 2010; 6:10 PM

MINNEAPOLIS -- Three Minnesota anti-war activists 
who refused to testify before a federal grand 
jury in Chicago after their homes were raided in 
a terrorism investigation have been told they'll 
be called again, an attorney told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

In late September, authorities searched seven 
homes and an office in Minneapolis and Chicago in 
what the FBI said was an investigation into 
material support of terrorism. Fourteen activists 
in the two states were summoned to testify, but 
they refused and their subpoenas were postponed.

None of the activists have been charged. Warrants 
suggest agents were looking for connections 
between them and terrorist groups in Colombia and the Middle East.

Bruce Nestor, an attorney who represents some of 
the activists, said Wednesday that three of them 
have been told they'll be called back to the 
grand jury, but it's not clear when. Individual 
attorneys for those activists are working out 
details with prosecutors, Nestor said.
******************************************

Activists Unafraid After FBI Crackdown

By 
<http://www.indypendent.org/?pagename=author_search&a=Jos%C3%A9%20Alcoff>José 
Alcoff
 From the <http://www.indypendent.org/?pagename=issue&issue=>December 31, 1969
http://www.indypendent.org/2010/11/17/activists-unafraid-after-fbi-crackdown/

Tom Burke began the morning of Sept. 24 like any 
other. His wife took their 5-year-old daughter to 
school before heading to work in their Michigan 
town. Then the phone rang, and he learned that 
FBI agents were raiding the homes of friends in 
Chicago. As any good organizer would, Burke 
jumped into his car to produce a press release at 
the first internet cafe he could find.

He then realized someone was following him.

“This car turned around twice behind me, and I 
thought that’s funny because I don’t know where 
I’m going,” he chuckles. He called his wife and 
headed to her workplace. As he drove through the 
security gate, a black SUV zoomed in behind him. 
His wife came down, and three people jumped out 
of different vehicles and made a beeline toward 
them. “The man came out [of the SUV] and 
identified himself as FBI. And he served me and my wife with subpoenas.”

In multiple raids, three subpoenas were served on 
Chicago antiwar activists there, giving them 
October dates to stand before a Federal Grand 
Jury. Another six were issued in Minneapolis 
during six FBI raids, including one of the 
offices of the 
<http://www.indypendent.org/wp-admin/Anti-War%20Committee>Anti-War 
Committee (AWC). FBI agents allegedly had a key 
when they entered the AWC office, where they 
seized checks made out to the group, cash 
registers and checkbooks. Three days later, three 
more activists in Minneapolis were served with subpoenas.

All told, more than 70 federal agents were 
reportedly involved in the eight raids, and some 
individuals claim they were subjected to 
intimidating phone calls and visits by agents in 
North Carolina, California and Wisconsin.

None of the 14 individuals were charged with 
crimes, though the subpoenas indicated the 
federal government was considering charging them 
with providing material aid to terrorists, 
specifying solidarity work in Palestine and Colombia.

These allegations come on the heels of the recent 
Supreme Court decision in the Humanitarian Law 
Project v. Holder case that expanded the 
definition of “material aid” to “terrorist 
groups” to include educating designated groups in 
nonviolent methods for conflict resolution and 
delivering humanitarian aid to areas under their 
control after natural disasters.

“Their goal is to bring charges of support for 
terrorist groups against the people who were 
subpoenaed,” said Burke. “They’re trying to pit 
people against each other and 
put people in jail.”

Instead, various social movement organizations 
sprang into action. As the FBI raided Joe 
Iosbaker’s and Stephanie Weiner’s Chicago home, 
carting out 26 boxes of their family’s personal 
effects, dozens of friends and activists arrived 
in a display of solidarity. Across the country, 
Burke said, rallies or pickets were held in 60 
cities demanding an end to the subpoenas and the 
grand jury investigations. In New York, Chicago 
and Seattle fundraisers were held to garner money for legal defense.

Antiwar, civil liberties, socialist and other 
groups called for U.S. Attorney General Eric 
Holder to shutter the federal grand juries. Many 
of those under attack are shop stewards in their 
unions, and AFSCME , AFT and Teamsters locals 
were among at least 17 labor groups that have 
issues statements of solidarity, which are 
available at <http://www.stopfbi.net>stopfbi.net.

While the subpoenaed individuals were each given 
one of three dates in October to appear before a 
federal grand jury in Chicago for questioning, 
all have refused to testify. They say they are 
willing to go to jail rather than participate in 
what they call a government fishing expedition of 
information from antiwar and international solidarity movements.

While the government rescinded the subpoenas and 
no one was imprisoned, three Minneapolis 
activists were re-subpoenaed only days after the November election.

During the first weekend in November, Tom Burke, 
Jess Sundin, Steff Yorek, and Hatem Abudayyeh 
traveled to New York to organize the inaugural 
meeting of the <http://www.stopfbi.net/>Committee 
to Stop FBI Repression. The event drew 150 people 
and raised several thousand dollars for the legal 
defense budget. Organizers have also reached out 
to Arab, Muslim and Puerto Rican communities that 
have been recently hit with subpoenas, raids and 
indictments by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The subjects of the raids say the outpouring of 
support is important. “You feel pretty isolated 
at first,” says Jess Sundin of Minneapolis, whose 
home was raided. “But it’s very quickly obvious that we are not alone.”





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