Re: [Marxism] FBI targets antiwar movement

[gdunkel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Here is what ANSWER sent out this evening:

Faced with growing opposition to the war and
occupation of Iraq, the Bush Administration has
unleashed the FBI against its political opponents. Ten
days before the October 25 demonstration that drew
100,000 people in Washington DC marching under
the slogan, "Bring the Troops Home Now!" the FBI
circulated an internal bureau memorandum
documenting a far reaching campaign against
anti-war organizations and leaders who have been
involved in mobilizing large and legal mass actions.

"Under Bush and Ashcroft the exercise of First
Amendment rights has become synonymous with
terrorism. Today's front page report in the New York
Times revealing that the FBI was targeting the recent
national anti-war demonstrations in Washington and
San Francisco must be understood as the
tip of the iceberg," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard
attorney with the Partnership for Civil Justice and the
National Lawyers Guild. The Partnership for Civil
Justice and the NLG are litigating First Amendment
cases against the FBI, Secret Service and Washington
DC police as well as other law enforcement
authorities for their unconstitutional disruption
actions against political demonstrators.

"Under the banner of the war on terrorism, Bush and
Ashcroft are resorting to J. Edgar Hoover's
COINTELPRO tactics of the 1950's and 1960's against
the rising anti-war movement of today," stated Brian
Becker of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, the initiator and
co-sponsor of the October 25 demonstration. "This is
the domestic parallel of Bush's doctrine of endless
war. Internationally, the administration has carried out
war, invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq.
On the homefront the government has cynically
manipulated its so-called war on terrorism to illegally
use the FBI as a tool aimed at stifling dissent. The
movement will defend its rights, and will never be
intimidated by the FBI's illegal targeting campaigns.
Confronted with a rising tide of opposition, the Bush
Administration is using its secret police against the
people of the United States," Becker continued

"The FBI's so-called anti-terrorism efforts have
intensely focused on political dissent since the
resurgence of the U.S. social justice and peace
movement. The big lie being foisted on the public is
that these are post-September 11 counter-measures,
when in fact we have uncovered in litigation that the
FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force as well as the District
of Columbia police department have been conducting
illegal domestic spying operations against political
groups and activists since well before September 11,
2001," stated Verheyden-Hilliard.  "This has nothing
to do with terrorism and everything to do with using
the repressive apparatus of the state as a political
tool," she said.

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A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism