ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN, No. 298 (2/2)
Tom Burghardt
A subpoena asking for the Independent Media Center's Web server logs sparks
charges of government-sponsored intimidation
______________________________________________________________________________
SALON
Technology
Wednesday, May 2, 2001
http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2001/05/02/fbi_web/index.html
By Amy Standen
On April 21, protesters from across the U.S. and Canada were gathering in
Quebec to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit meeting. While
police amassed tear gas and riot gear, protesters hatched plans to take
down a two and a half mile-long fence erected to keep them out of sight and
sound during the meeting.
At the same time, thousands of miles away in Seattle, activities at the
Independent Media Center were winding down after a long day of coordinating
a joint protest in Blaine, Wash. Only around three people were left in the
office at 7 p.m. when a knock came at the door.
"FBI agents came in and flashed their badges," recalls Devin Theriot-Orr,
an IMC volunteer and legal team co-coordinator. "They wanted to ask us some
questions. You don't get visits from the FBI every day, so people were
definitely pretty freaked out."
The FBI agents wanted to see "all user connection logs" from the IMC's Web
site from a period between April 20 and 21. Within that time, the agents
charged, someone had posted secret, stolen documents -- one of which was
said to contain details of President Bush's travel itinerary in Canada --
on the IMC's News Wire bulletin boards.
The sealed demand to turn over the logs also contained a gag order: If news
of the FBI demand made it out of the IMC office, the organization faced
being held in contempt of court. Somehow, the entirely volunteer-run
organization, with dozens of offices around the world and a busy network of
online message sites, would have to keep the secret.
IMC volunteers searched the site for the offending documents in vain. "We
were unable to find anything that met their description," says Devin. "What
they told us was false -- that it had to do with travel documents for the
president." What the IMC volunteers did find were two documents,
purportedly stolen from a Quebec police car, that contained instructions
given to Quebec police on how to deal with different protest scenarios, and
crib sheets that described which protest groups were expected to be in
action in Quebec and how they might be identified. One excerpt reads:
A first group of demonstrators may take Laurier Boulevard and Grande Allee
street, while others may take Reni Livesque boulevard. The demonstrators
will split into groups of 20 or 30 people in order to carry out different
actions depending on the choice of their affinity groups. The signal to
disperse will be releasing balloons into the air. The two groups may meet
at Salaberry Street (or it could be another street) to continue via Reni
Livesque towards the Grand Thiatre.
Despite IMC efforts to keep the order a secret, word got out and soon
enough IMC visitors were posting anxious messages on the message boards,
calling the FBI order a "raid" and worrying that the media organization had
been "taken over" by Secret Service agents. IMC's attempts to remove these
posts had the adverse effect, as a report released by the organization
later conceded, of "seemingly confirming the worst suspicions of
independent journalists who posted brief articles announcing or speculating
about mysterious and terrible things going on at the Seattle IMC, then
finding their posts removed from view minutes later."
Barred by the gag order from putting rumors to rest, IMC volunteers had no
choice but to wait it out. Six days later, on April 27, the gag order was
lifted. Now IMC and its attorneys are preparing to fight.
"The IMC is making plans to challenge the subpoena," says Lee Tien of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Now that the gag is lifted, we can go in
and say the subpoena is invalid or unjustified, or all sorts of things."
But oddly, points out Theriot-Orr, there has been no request by the FBI to
remove the documents in question, which are still posted on the IMC site.
"[The FBI agents] came down Saturday night when the information,
technically, could still have been relevant. But they never asked us to
remove it." Now that the protests are over, the information isn't as
subversive as it seemed a week ago. At the IMC, the general feeling is that
the FBI's order was intended mainly to intimidate volunteers and posters on
the Independent Media sites.
"I don't think it was about the stuff that was posted," says Theriot-Orr.
"I'm certain they've been monitoring us for some time; we've been on their
radar for a while, in my opinion, and I am very curious about whether this
was taken to discourage association with the IMC."
If the FBI was trying to intimidate the IMC, the tactic appears to be
working, says Theriot-Orr. "We've had significantly less posts on our Web
site. And I think that's partially because people are nervous. There's a
history of this type of COINTELPRO activity against activist organizations
that stretches back 30, 40 years. It's nothing new. And we don't really
know -- maybe there's a bona fide investigation -- but it sure seems
suspicious."
Calls to Stephen Schroeder, the assistant U.S. attorney who filed the
application for the court order, were not returned.
Whether or not intimidation is at issue in this instance, the IMC case has
broad significance for the future of online media and freedom of speech,
says EFF's Tien. "There's a lot of law about how the First Amendment
protects membership lists of political groups. Freedom of association,
anonymous political speech -- all these different threads weave together in
this case."
About the writer
Amy Standen is an associate editor at Salon, asta...@salon.com.
Copyright 2001 Salon.com
*****
____________________________________________________________________
CONVICTED ARMS DEALER FUNNELS AID FROM EUROPE'S FAR RIGHT TO IRAQ
Austrian, German neo-Nazi groups are fans of Hussein
____________________________________________________________________
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
World News
Thursday, May 3, 2001, Page B-1
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/05/03/MN127429.DTL
Eric Geiger, Chronicle Foreign Service
St. Viet an der Glan, Austria -- Until recently, residents of this sleepy
village took little notice of a portly middle-aged Arab businessman living
inconspicuously on the edge of town with his family, assuming him to be a
successful carpet dealer.
But Austrian media, citing security authorities, identified Abdul Moneim
Jebara, 60, as a convicted Iraqi arms dealer allegedly acting as Saddam
Hussein's liaison with sympathetic far-rightist groups in Europe.
"He calls himself a mere export and import trader, but Austrian and German
security agencies see Jebara as a pivot of an alarmingly close cooperation
emerging in recent months between extreme rightists in the two countries
and radical Islamists," said Vienna's usually well-informed and influential
newsmagazine Format.
From his hilltop bungalow sporting satellite dishes and surveillance
cameras, Jebara allegedly is coordinating unspecified aid programs from a
network of rightist supporters in Europe for Iraq, which is still under
U.N. sanctions imposed in 1990 after its invasion of Kuwait.
What seems to unite the European far rightists and the Iraqis are their
common anti-Semitic and anti-American sentiments. In its latest report on
the rightist scene in Germany, the Agency of the Protection of the
Constitution (a sort of German FBI) said, "The American democratic system
is seen by (the two groups) as an expression of cultural decadence and
economic imperialism."
A recent debate in Austria's parliament seemed to suggest that since
settling in St. Viet (near Klagenfurt in Carinthia province) in the early
1990s, Jebara has enjoyed the protection of high-level politicians who are
aware of his activities and background.
"How is it possible that a man of Jebara's caliber, who is known to have
close contacts to the extreme right and the Iraqi secret service and served
part of a six-year sentence for arms dealing, blackmail and tax evasion in
Germany, was allowed to settle in Austria?" thundered Karl Oellinger, a
prominent opposition Green Party lawmaker.
Austria's 15-month-old center-far-right coalition government quickly passed
the buck, saying that attempts to start deportation proceedings against
Jebara have always been thwarted by Carinthian authorities. Joerg Haider,
founder of the far-right Freedom Party and still its driving force, is
Carinthia's governor.
In an interview last week, Haider insisted that provincial authorities have
no power to block proceedings related to federal alien laws.
He also denied media reports quoting Jebara as saying he knows Haider well:
"I'm vaguely familiar with the case, but I have never met that man (Jebara)
and never had any contact whatever with him.
"I am being blamed for just about everything these days."
Among those reportedly spearheading the effort to funnel aid to Iraq is
Germany's National Democratic Party, which openly woos skinheads and
sponsors annual protests marking the 1987 death in prison of Hitler deputy
Rudolf Hess that often wind up in neo-Nazi violence.
The party, which all German democratic parties seek to ban, recently
proclaimed "strong support for the suffering Iraqis" on its Internet home
page.
"The so-called community of nations against Iraq is a structure held
together by means of blackmail, lies, bribery, corruption and violence by
the satraps of the east coast," the statement said, using a term far
rightists usually apply to the U.S. Jewish community.
Also regularly expressing "solidarity" with Hussein's regime is the Munich
weekly Deutsche National Zeitung, circulation 130,000 (15,000 in Austria).
Its owner is Bavarian millionaire publisher Gerhard Frey, leader of the
German Peoples Party (DVU), a group accused of racism and anti-Semitism
that won 13 percent of the 1998 vote in the eastern state of Saxony Anhalt.
In an editorial, the weekly attacked the United States for keeping Iraq in
a "stranglehold" and asserted that Germany spent $18.8 billion in tax money
to help finance the Persian Gulf War "even though Germany was in no way
threatened by Baghdad."
The publication also ridiculed as "ludicrous horror stories" recent media
reports that the German intelligence agency (BWD) has new evidence that
Hussein has revived his nuclear weapon production and may be capable of
making an atomic bomb within the next three years.
Openly pitching for cash for "our Iraqi brothers" are leaflets issued by a
shadowy organization calling itself "German and Austrian Patriots." The
flyer's signatories include Franz Schoenhuber, 78, the former Waffen SS
sergeant who co-founded the once-surging extreme rightist Republican Party,
and the leader of a Salzburg-based neo-Nazi group identified only as
"Richard R."
Security officials say funds and commodities collected for Iraq on
"humanitarian grounds" are usually channeled to Jany le Pen, the wife of
Jean- Marie le Pen, the leader of France's far-right National Front.
Running a special aid organization called "SCS -- Children of Iraq," she
then arranges for the transfer to Baghdad.
"The idea of helping Saddam Hussein seems to have a bizarre unifying effect
on assorted extreme rightist groups . . . not only in Austria and Germany
but also in the rest of Europe," said the Austrian security official.
Apparently that's where Hussein's man in St. Viet comes in. In an
impassioned plea for donations for Iraq published recently by the Austrian
far- rightist periodical Rule, Jebara was named as "coordinator for the aid
action for Iraq by German Patriots."
Questioned about it by Austrian reporters in January, Jebara not only did
not deny his role as "aid coordinator" but also minced no words about his
admiration for Hussein and proudly showed off a wristwatch whose dial
showed a portrait of the Iraqi despot.
"The Iraqi people are starving, our children are starving, and Bill Clinton
(then U.S. president) is much worse than Hitler," he said. "The people
helping us are just ordinary young people who finally recognize what the
truth is -- and besides, their ideology resembles ours."
Jebara, a former resident of Munich, was sentenced in 1986 to 6 1/2 years
in prison for attempting to smuggle 40 combat helicopters from Germany to
Iraq during the Iran-Iraq war, as well as for trying to blackmail a
business partner.
The verdict specifically referred to Jebara's "close contacts" with high-
level Iraqi government and secret service officials, including Hussein's
top security officer and the chief of the national "procurement agency."
According to Format, Jebara also was questioned in the court in connection
with the reported participation of German firms in the construction of
chemical weapon plants at Iraq's heavily guarded Samarra industrial
complex. The magazine said he was accused of engineering a hostage-taking
plot in Iraq to force his release from prison. Jebara has vehemently denied
both allegations.
Jebara was prematurely released from prison for unknown reasons in the
early 1990s, and his motive for moving to Austria is also unclear.
But some analysts point out that before the Gulf War, Iraq was Austria's
most important trading partner in the Middle East, with Austrian exports
amounting to about $400 million annually. State-owned and private companies
-- such as Voest-Alpine, OMV and ELIN -- did large-scale business in the
fields of manufactured goods, oil and power plant construction,
respectively.
"The Gulf War and the embargo ended the Austrian-Iraqi trade almost
completely, and that's why it was with satisfaction that the easing of the
sanctions in recent years was registered here," said the Vienna Daily
Standard.
Copyright 2001 San Francisco Chronicle
*****
____________________________________________________________________
BRIGADIER FACES QUIZ IN FINUCANE MURDER PROBE
____________________________________________________________________
THE SUNDAY TIMES
Ireland
Sunday, 6 May 2001
http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2001/05/06/stiireire01011.html
Liam Clarke
A BRIGADIER and four undercover soldiers are to be questioned by Sir John
Stevens's inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane, a Belfast solicitor shot
dead by loyalists in front of his family in 1989.
Collusion between the Force Research Unit (FRU), a British Army grouping
which handled spies, and the perpetrators is widely suspected. A dozen
serving and former undercover soldiers, as well as Special Branch officers,
have already been questioned by Stevens's Metropolitan police detectives.
Sgt Johnston "Jonty" Brown, another witness, said: "I believe the inquiry
is like a rocket that is about to fall back to earth. I have every respect
for the Stevens team but I don't think they will prove who killed Pat
Finucane. In order to have the thing examined properly there should be a
full judicial inquiry."
Last October, The Sunday Times revealed that a tape made by Brown, of a
confession to the murder by a UDA terrorist, had been lost by Special
Branch, which is in charge of intelligence gathering.
Brown refused to comment at the time because he was still a serving police
officer. He confirmed the story on Ulster Television last week after
retiring.
The UDA man who confessed to Brown referred to the dead solicitor as "fork
Finucane" because he had shot him while he was holding a fork at the family
dinner table.
After he confessed in a secretly taped conversation in a car, Brown
suggested to Special Branch that he be arrested and formally charged. They
refused and recruited him as an informant. The Special Branch officer then
in charge is now an intelligence adviser to the Ministry of Defence.
When Brown later told his story to the Stevens team, the RUC first gave
them a different tape. When the inquiry discovered this, Special Branch
said the original tape had been lost.
A senior Stevens team source said: "I can confirm that the tape is missing
and that we have been unable to recover it."
It is understood that the confessor was interviewed by the Stevens team
last year but refused to admit his guilt.
Brian Nelson, an FRU agent in the UDA at the time of Finucane's murder, has
also been questioned and released without charge. Unless new evidence is
forthcoming no charges against him are likely.
In the next few weeks, four FRU handlers, including Sgt Margaret Walshaw
who handled Nelson, will be questioned under caution by the Stevens team.
She is now an instructor for the British Army's secret intelligence wing.
Stevens will then ask to interview Brigadier John Gordon Kerr, commander of
FRU at the time, who is now a British military attache in Beijing.
Stevens's team has to decide how much the FRU knew about the murder of
Finucane. They have charged only one person in connection with the killing,
William Stobie, an RUC agent and the UDA's quartermaster at the time. But
Neil Mullholland, the chief witness against Stobie, has asked to withdraw
his evidence.
Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.
*****
____________________________________________________________________
MORE CASUALTIES OF THE DRUG WAR
____________________________________________________________________
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
(Col. Writ. 4/28/01)
Source: Marpessa Kupendua, Afrikan Frontline Network,
http://www.afrikan.net, natt...@home.com
- Thursday, 3 May 2001 -
For millions of people in this country, the mere mention of the word,
"drugs," brings a steel wall down, clanging out every other thought.
It is precisely this reflexive response, this closing of the mind, that
allows the political order to wage a mindless war against the poor, and in
the name of drugs, violate any alleged constitutional right allowed to the
people.
When did the U.S. government formally declare the drug war? What President
issued an order? When did both houses of Congress issue resolutions
favoring war?
The media and the ruling elite favor the rhetoric of war, for it stirs
American passions, and it diverts such passions from anger at the rulers to
contempt against the poor, the powerless and those on the periphery of the
society.
Uncritically, the people have accepted the demonization of a thing (a drug)
and by association, have damned anyone even charged in connection with this
thing. We don't blink an eye when someone who uses the drug is sent to
prison for decades, for there is no rational relationship between the
danger of a substance and the punitive sanctions imposed on a person who
uses the substance. Over 125,000 people die a year from lung cancer due to
the noxious weed, tobacco. Another 25,000 folks die annually because of
cirrhosis of the liver, the principal cause of which is alcoholism. Guess
how many die from cocaine overdoses a year? Roughly 6,000 - out of over 4
million users annually.
While legal poisons like tobacco are advertised as "smooth," and alcohol is
promoted as a sexy social lubricant, both lead to over 150,000 deaths a
year.
Yet, only illegal drugs are "bad." Isn't that insane?
As insane as this appears nationally, the international impact of the U.S.
drug war is downright deadly.
When a group of U.S. missionaries were enroute to Peru recently, they
encountered a Peruvian fighter jet which saw it's duty as shooting first,
no questions later.
Veronica Bowers and her baby daughter, Charity, were shot out of the sky by
the Peruvians, allegedly because they were believed to be drug couriers.
Their pilot (an American) was shot and severely wounded in the legs, and
barely managed to get the single-engine craft down in one piece.
The Peruvian fighter was being shadowed during the attack by a CIA spy plane.
These Americans who went to Latin America to do missionary work,
unwittingly became the latest victims in this irrational and illogical drug
war. One wonders, what if they were drug couriers? Would that have
justified their being blasted to kingdom come?
Many of these Latin American countries are sent enormous sums of money, or
sent (sold) military material, to enlist them as foreign mercenaries in
their northern neighbor's mad cap quasi-war.
It is precisely this maddening rhetoric of war that has driven the nation
to such ends that this young American mother, and her baby, are seen as
little more than the latest "collateral damage."
Harsh words? Perhaps.
But watch, for the flights will undoubtedly continue. And doubtless more
innocent aircraft passengers will be targetted and killed.
It only matters to American media when the dead are Americans.
Copyright 2001 Mumia Abu-Jamal. All rights reserved.
PLEASE CONTACT: International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ; P.O. Box
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Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
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AM 8335
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