FBI: Peace Activism May Now be Criminal" - What We Must Do
19 December 2010By Harmony Daws
Fourteen anti-war activists in Chicago recently felt
the cold fingers of government control on Sept. 24
when they were subpoenaed and their homes invaded and
property seized by the FBI. These "peace and justice
activists, mothers and grandmothers" are under grand
jury investigation for allegedly giving "material
support" to a foreign terrorist organization.
What does that mean? Daniel Kaplan, an intern in the
American Friends Service Committee Middle East Program
in Chicago, says,
Over the course of this fall, being on the side of
peace and justice has gradually meant living in a
state of fear. Since September, the FBI has subpoenaed
and raided the homes of 19 activists seeking and end
to violence in Palestine and Columbia. The rash of
raids stems from a [US Supreme] court ruling this
summer that redefines the charge of "material support
to terrorism." Before, material support meant
supplying support in the form of finances, weaponry,
intelligence, or combat training to political bodies
defined by the state department as "terrorist
organizations."
Now "material support to terrorism" includes vocal
support for such organizations or even advocating open
communication with them. For activists in my
community, this means that anyone who advocates
negotiations with the government in Gaza could be
charged with "material support to terrorism," because
Gaza is currently governed by Hamas.
Essentially, it is now a crime to promote direct
reconciliation between Palestinian/Gaza organizations
and Israel/the United States. The government has
criminalized opinions that are not in line with our
government's foreign policy…
According to the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, the
14 activists' personal belongings—including cell
phones, papers and computers—are still under FBI
confiscation. The federal law that criminalizes aid
and comfort to a terrorist organization was upheld by
the Supreme Court in June. "The court ruled 6-3… that
the government may prohibit all forms of aid to
designated terrorist groups, even if the support
consists of training and advice about entirely
peaceful and legal activities." (Emphasis ours)
This means that no longer can Charlie Rose interview
on PBS a member of Hamas (as he did this year). No
longer can American peace activists, such as former
President Jimmy Carter, send messages to Hamas urging
compromise and reconciliation. Nor can an American
Christian in the Mideast attempt to evangelize or even
talk to a member of Hamas. It is now criminal to
reason with a large number of the earth's inhabitants
who desperately need Christian faith and reason.
After the Supreme Court ruling, the Jewish
Anti-Defamation League heralded the decision as a
victory against terrorism. Actually, ADL was elated
because it opened bolder possibilities for itself, as
Israel's PR representative, to broaden the definition
of terrorism to include those who ideologically oppose
America's "ally in the war on terror." Because moral
and verbal opposition to Israel can be more damaging
than financial or military contributions, ADL wants to
make criticism of the Jewish state an act of sedition,
punishable as a speech crime.
ADL, as well as its sister Jewish attack group, the
Southern Poverty Law Center, offers multiple
"anti-hate" programs to police and FBI. It schools
them in ADL's definitions and ideological responses to
"hate criminals" and "domestic terrorists." ADL has
already described millions of anti-Obama critics as
paranoid "conspirators." (See, ADL Blasts 'Paranoid'
Right: Are Millions of Anti-Obama Protestors
'Conspirators?') In its MIAC directive to Missouri
State Police, ADL and SPLC described millions more as
"potential domestic terrorists." (See, Alex Jones'
"Secret State Police Report: Ron Paul, Bob Barr, Chuck
Baldwin, Libertarians are Terrorists") Just this
month, SPLC smeared 18 Christian/conservative
leadership organizations as hard-core "hate groups."
(See, SPLC Attacks 18 "Hateful" Christian Groups) How
long will it be before the FBI considers "home-grown"
terrorists as including Christian conservative
"haters" – even criminalizing those who communicate
with them?
ADL has enormous power within government agencies such
as the US Justice Department, Department of Homeland
Security, and the FBI. During the Clinton
administration, Att. Gen. Janet Reno instructed FBI
head Bill Sessions to forge an unbreakable bond of
cooperation and information sharing with ADL.
According to ADL, their "Hate Crime Working Group
Model" has been installed in every state attorney
general's office. Hate crime working groups collect
"statistics" and educate law enforcers and society. An
example of this is the Judao-protective Knoxville
"trunk" which contains a noose, a Star of David and
symbols of the Holocaust as part of its show-and-tell
tool kit. Fifty-six European nations have modeled
their response to hate crimes on ADL's working groups,
definitions and curricula for legal response.
ADL's site quotes FBI director Louis J. Freeh in 2000,
Let me again thank the Leadership ("ADL") . . . for
giving the FBI the kind support and insight and
direction in some cases that have enabled us not only
to do our job with respect to counter-terrorism, but
to really bring home to the United States the
dedication to the principles of the ADL, which
resonate not just in civil rights cases, but also in
human rights cases, and how important that guidance
and inspiration have been to use now for many, many
years.
Even if Obama is lukewarm toward support of Israel,
ADL is so entrenched within the FBI, Justice
Department and police that arrests of peace activists
who criticize Israel, or communicate with its enemies,
are unsurprising. Stated simply, as it now subpoenas
critics of Israel, the FBI is actually facilitating
ADL's pro-Israel directives. Aggressively mixing
synagogue with state, ADL makes use of federal and
state agencies to pursue its anti-free-speech agenda.
We can be sure that, as more proscribed "terrorist"
groups are added to the State Department list, ADL's
Department of Global Anti-Semitism in the US State
Department will continue to play a pivotal role in
deciding who is on that list. (See, The Real Motive
Behind the "Department of Global Anti-Semitism")
This week, 131 veterans and anti-war protesters were
arrested outside the White House for civil
disobedience. Journalist Chris Hedges gave a moving
speech as Iraq war veterans quietly told a cameraman
that they can no longer live silently with themselves
for what they did. Hedges said with slow eloquence, "
Hope never makes sense. Hope is weak, unorganized and
absurd. Hope, which is always nonviolent, exposes in
its powerlessness, the lies, fraud and coercion
employed by the state. Hope knows that an injustice
visited on our neighbor is an injustice visited on all
of us."
What We Must Do
Unless every American of every political and religious
persuasion protests, it will not just be Holocaust
reductionists like Ernst Zundel, Germar Rudolph and
Frederick Toben who will be quietly extradited and
imprisoned for questioning Holocaust reality as
defined by Israel and ADL. Instead, it will be
students, professors, clergy and average Americans who
will disappear from their homes, incarcerated for
criticizing Israel and its version of Mideast reality.
Daniel Kaplan encourages us to immediately call US
Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago: "Call
312-353-5300, dial 0 for operator, and ask to leave a
message with the Duty Clerk (paralegal). Don't just
allow the FBI to get away with this."
An important part of conditioning societies to accept
totalitarianism is to first shock them with
unprecedented attacks on freedom, exactly as the FBI
is now doing. Then, repeat the shocks until gradually
a numbed citizenry accepts the police state, convinced
there is nothing else to do. Remain shockable! Speak
out now in criticism, not only of the FBI but of the
puppet master behind hate and speech crime
enforcement, ADL.
Unless ADL continues to be exposed, it will
relentlessly move forward to criminalize not only
"anti-Semitic" critics of Israel but also
"anti-Semitic" Christians who accept the New Testament
teaching that the Jews had Christ killed. Tragically,
the very evangelicals who occupy the crosshairs of
ADL's malevolence may actually be pleased that those
who "curse" Israel (by criticizing her and encouraging
dialogue with Palestinians) are now facing arrest.
Plagued with political and theological
short-sightedness, evangelicals and their media can't
be counted on to even mention the FBI threat, much
less oppose it.
It's up to the rest of us, Christian or not, both left
and right, to protest loudly and unceasingly.
Otherwise, all who share the "crime" of wanting to
think and speak for themselves will go to prison
together.
Harmony Daws is a writer for National Prayer Network.
To greater understand the illogic behind hate laws,
read her article "Top Eleven Reasons You Should Fight
Hate Laws."
Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer
Network, a Christian/conservative watchdog
organization.
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