Liberty for all? Not exactly.

Move along folks. There's nothing to see here, just the Federal Government cracking down on peace activists (from Daily Kos.) Here's what Brian Terrell, one of the activists under subpeona, has to say about what the Feds are up to:

Yesterday, February 3, Detective Jeff Warford of the Polk County Sheriff's Office-FBI-Joint Terrorism Task Force came to Catholic Peace Ministry's office here in Des Moines with a subpoena for me to testify before a Federal Grand Jury next Tuesday, February 10. Mr. Warford also served papers on Elton Davis at the Catholic Worker House and Patti McKee, who was coordinator of Iowa Peace Network until last month. The Grand Jury process is shrouded in secrecy. We do not know who or what the object of this investigation may be, beyond "possible violations of federal criminal law in the Southern District of Iowa."

The proceeding will be behind closed doors. We may not have an attorney present. We have the right to plead the Fifth Amendment, refusing the answer questions that might incriminate us. The government, then, can offer us immunity from prosecution, in which case we will obliged to answer under threat of contempt of court and could be imprisoned for the length of the Grand Jury session, 18 months, should we continue to refuse to answer. This immunity would be limited to our own testimony and anything any of us say could be used against the others.

Whatever is going on, this is definitely an escalation on the part of the government's war on dissent and clamp down on civil liberties. The fact that anything that we three and the peacemaking communities we represent could possibly attract the notice of a "Terrorism Task Force" is reprehensible. Please spread the word, express concerns you have with Federal and Polk County authorities. Keep us in mind and prayer.

See the links to stories in the Des Moines Register about the case. This comment and following ones in the same thread remind us how governments can use violent acts as a pretext to crack down on organized protest.

That's the pretext, of course (none / 0)

One "assault" by one agent provocateur or kid, and Big Brother will have its pretext to shut down an entire branch of the organized opposition.
by C S McCrum on Sun Feb 8th, 2004 at 20:39:42 GMT

Apparently, an act of passive resistance is being charged as an assault, and the government is making a Federal case about it.

I'm gratified to report that our government is working so hard to protect us from terrorists.