Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

On Feb. 26, the application and affidavit used to obtain the search warrants for the 2010 raids on homes and offices of anti-war and international solidarity activists were unsealed, revealing lies and attacks on the constitutionally-protected rights to speak out and organize. The unsealing of these documents came as a result of legal action taken by the anti-war activists.

The timeline in the documents show what we have always stated. Shortly before the huge protest at the Republican National Convention, an undercover police agent and professional liar, going by the name of Karen Sullivan (identified in the affidavit as UC1) joined the Anti-War Committee and became active in the efforts to build the demonstration. She later joined Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

The documents demonstrate a callous disregard for free speech and the right to associate. They in effect criminalize those of us who oppose U.S. wars, and stand in solidarity with the oppressed. From Palestine to Colombia, people want to be free from the domination of Washington D.C. We have said this publicly on thousands of occasions and will continue to do so.

Not unlike countless “anti-terrorism” cases against Arabs and Muslims, the affidavit contains a collection of lies and out-of-context statements to try to isolate people from their communities and movements. In a McCarthyite return to the 1950s, the affidavit shows an obsession with Freedom Road Socialist Organization. After decades working in the anti-war movement, anyone who has worked with us knows we are proud to be fighters in the struggles against war, and for justice and economic equality. The documents imply that is something sinister, when really, it is commendable.

Having just received these documents, we are in the process of consulting with attorneys and we will have more to say in coming days.

We are glad we forced the government to unseal these documents and we demand that the U.S. Attorney makes a public statement that the investigation is closed and that there will be no indictments of anti-war and international solidarity activists. Moreover, we demand an end to repression and spying against the people’s movements.

#UnitedStates #Colombia #PalestineSolidarity #AntiWarCommittee #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #KarenSullivan #AntiWar23 #FBIRepression #PoliticalRepression

Minneapolis, MN – With the third anniversary of the FBI raids on anti-war and international solidarity activists approaching on Sept. 24, we are reprinting the above photo of “Karen Sullivan” (right) with her associate, “Daniela Cardenas.” These agents are dangerous to progressive activists. If you see them or are in contact with them, make their presence known to others in the peace and justice movements.

Starting a few months before the protests against the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a law enforcement officer going by the name “Karen Sullivan” infiltrated the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee (AWC). She joined the AWC in April 2008 and about a year later she joined the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Her associate “Daniela Cardenas” then appeared on the scene.

Conversations between attorneys for the raided anti-war and international solidarity activists and the U.S. Attorneys Office in Chicago have confirmed that these professional liars did their best to put a criminal cast on protected political activity.

These two, along with their higher-ups, are responsible for causing the raids on the homes of anti-war and international solidarity activists in the Twin Cities and Chicago and for the wave of grand jury subpoenas – 23 in all – that were served on progressive activists. Using their lies, the government is attempting to manufacture a case alleging “material support of terrorism.” These two posed as friends and political colleagues, while working full time to destroy progressive and revolutionary organizations.

All of the activists involved refused to testify in these McCarthyite grand jury proceedings and have continued to build resistance to these attacks on civil liberties.

On Sept. 24, the Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression will be holding a rally under the slogan, “Three Years Too Many! End the Investigation of Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists Now!” The rally will take place at the Minneapolis Federal Building, 300 South 4th Street, at 4:30 pm.

In a statement promoting the rally, organizers say, “Since 9/11 national security has been used to justify wars abroad and attacks on civil liberties at home. In September 2010, FBI agents raided the homes and offices of Minneapolis and Chicago peace activists, investigating them for ‘material support for terrorism.’ Demand an end to the bogus investigation and unite against the growing wave of political repression. Stand with the anti-war 23, targeted Arabs and Muslims like the Holy Land 5, jailed people’s attorney Lynne Stewart and whistleblowers Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.”

#MinneapolisMN #PoliticalPrisoners #antiwar #KarenSullivan #infiltration #AntiWar23 #FBIRepression #DanielaCardenas

The purpose here is to recall two recent episodes of serious repression, also to outline relevant mechanisms, particularly the use of jail time and police investigations to promote fear and divisions. These tools and objectives were features of both scenarios.

Colombian Prisoners of the U.S. Empire

Ricardo Palmera is both prisoner of war and political prisoner. Since his extradition to the United States from Colombia in late 2004, Palmera, known also as Simon Trinidad, has been held in solitary confinement in a high security federal prison, not allowed to receive letters or communicate freely with his lawyer. His first trial, in 2006, ended in a hung jury. Palmera’s second trial, initially delayed due to judicial cheating, eventually ended with his conviction on the single charge of membership in the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). That tagged him as a terrorist. He is now serving a 60-year sentence. His two other U.S. trials on drug trafficking charges ended in hung juries and mistrials.

Palmera had served the FARC as contact person with foreign agencies and diplomats engaged in promoting a negotiated settlement of civil war in Colombia. He was on his way to meeting with a UN official at the time of his CIA capture in Ecuador in January 2004.

Palmera’s fate was surely intended as an object lesson for leftist guerrillas anywhere. Those in Colombia were on notice to steer clear of negotiations leading to a peace agreement. Prison abuse heaped on Palmera contributes to the intimidation. The harsh U.S. treatment of an armed revolutionary combatant puts pressure on all revolutionaries, especially those professing non-violence, to demonstrate, even show off, their dedication to peace and dialogue, and in the process possibly alienating their allies in struggle.

In tandem with the case of Ricardo Palmera, advocates for Colombian justice condemn U.S. treatment of FARC leader Anayibe Rojas Valderama, known also as “Sonia.” Extradited to the United States, she received a 17 year jail sentence for trafficking in cocaine, an accusation she denies.

FBI Raids and Grand Jury Repression At Home

The wave of FBI investigations, last year in several midwestern cities, exemplifies a more nuanced approach to instilling fear and division, than locking up opposition figures. Beginning in September 2010, FBI agents took to barging into activists’ homes and confiscating documents, literature, passports, computer files, and personal memorabilia. So far, 23 organizers, labor activists among them, have been subpoenaed to testify at grand jury hearings. All have refused. Indictments are rumored.

Many of those targeted organized solidarity efforts on behalf of the Palestinian and Colombian peoples. Several traveled to those regions. A few participated in demonstrations at the 2008 Republican convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, marked by an outsized police presence. According to the New York Times, FBI actions are in line with recently expanded powers “allowing agents to look into people and organizations ‘proactively’ and without firm evidence for suspecting criminal or terrorist activity.” For the government, schooling the activist community into caution and second-guessing is an important objective.

Because several of those whose homes were raided belong to leftist political groupings, activists with other ideological bearings may remain at a distance. Whatever assumptions different people may hold, we know the government action was provoked by their special agent, “Karen Sullivan” spreading lies and rumors. That feeds into disunity.

Search warrants used by the intrusive FBI functionaries referred to possible “material support”, allegedly provided to Palestinian and Colombian groups viewed as terrorist. The anti- terrorist witch-hunt recalls former and even current red scare thinking. Such hysteria prevails particularly in Colombia, where 7500 political prisoners languish in jails.

U.S. brandishing of the terrorist label is revealing. War on terrorism now serves as pretext for U.S. military actions throughout most of the world. Anti-war activism within the United States and worldwide resistance to U.S. imperialism are likely to set off U.S. anti-terror machinery. That’s what happened to the victims of FBI raids who were confronting U.S. imperialism. It is no great exaggeration to say that military combatants anywhere who violate U.S. rules and carry a terrorist label have a jail cell waiting for them in the United States, at least according to the court convicting Ricardo Palmera.

Abusive FBI investigations entered a new dimension in May with the ransacking of the Los Angeles home of Carlos Montes, cofounder of the Brown Berets organization that several decades ago mounted anti-war, anti-racism mobilizations on behalf of Chicanos. In league with local police, the FBI confiscated reams of documents and personal items. Montes was jailed briefly on charges relating to firearms possession. Subsequent court hearings have prompted solidarity demonstrations at the Los Angeles courthouse and in multiple U.S. cities.

A news report covering a recent Los Angeles demonstration cites an organizer for the Southern California Immigration Coalition. Ron Gochez condemns persecution of Montes as directed against the immigrant rights movement itself. “We will not be silent. We will not let them criminalize us,” he said.

If such is the case, unrestrained police investigations and the threat of jail time are being utilized to intimidate, divide and certainly to impede organizing efforts among cross border workers. That harks back to deadly fallout from the Cointelpro offensive against the Black liberation movement.

Your letters to Ricardo Palmera and Sonya expressing solidarity, friendship and concern would go a long way toward telling them they are not alone. While prison authorities have not been in the habit of delivering letters to the two prisoners, their receipt of letters serves to remind them too that the prisoners have friends. And if enough arrive, maybe they will be delivered. The prisoners’ addresses are:

Inmate: Juvenal Ovidio Palmera Pineda #27896-016

USP Florence ADMAX

US Penitentiary

PO Box 8500

Florence, CO 81226

Anayibe R. Valderrama

#27990-018

FMC Carswell

Federal Medical Center

P.O. Box 27137

Ft. Worth, TX, 76127

#UnitedStates #RicardoPalmera #September24FBIRaids #KarenSullivan #politicalRepression

St. Paul, MN – The case of Mick Kelly, whose lawyers filed the first lawsuit resulting from police violence at the 2008 Republican National Convention on his behalf, was resolved in a settlement conference at the U.S. Courthouse here.

In a widely publicized incident, police, standing only feet away, shot Kelly in his belly with a high velocity marking projectile. Kelly was at the demonstration organized by the Anti-War Committee on the fourth day of the RNC, Sept. 4, 2008.

“This is a partial victory,” states Kelly. “Before, during and afterwards, the authorities attempted to quash dissent at the Republican National Convention. The settlement in this case indicates the police did something wrong. We had every right to speak out against U.S. wars at the Republican National Convention.”

Mick Kelly, one of the main organizers of the massive march and rally on the first day of the Republican National Convention, earlier prevailed in a separate lawsuit against the city of Saint Paul after his arrest for leafleting at a June 2008 Obama rally. He is also one of the Twin Cities anti-war and international solidarity activists whose home was raided by the FBI on Sept. 24, 2010.

While the exact dollar amount of the settlement is undisclosed, Kelly states that he intends to make a $5000 donation to the Committee to Stop FBI Repression – the organization that is defending the anti-war activists whose homes were raided on Sept. 24, 2010 and others served with subpoenas by the Chicago U.S. Attorney.

Kelly agreed to settle when the judge overseeing the case ruled against Kelly’s moves to subpoena a police infiltrator in the anti-war movement who went by the name of ‘Karen Sullivan.’ Officer Sullivan joined the Anti-War Committee in the months prior to the RNC and was present at the protest where the shooting took place. “We hoped to find out more about how Karen Sullivan, who helped target activists for FBI raids, was involved in the repression that took place at the RNC,” said Kelly.

#SaintPaulMN #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #ProtestRNC2008 #StateRepression #RepublicanNationalConvention2008 #AntiWarCommittee #lawsuit #MickKelly #KarenSullivan #2008RepublicanNationalConventionRNC #RNC2008 #infiltration

Minneapolis, MN – At a March 4 press conference outside the Federal Building, lawyers who filed the first lawsuit resulting from police violence at the 2008 Republican National Convention announced their plan to move forward with litigation in the case of Mick Kelly. In a widely publicized incident, police, standing only feet away, shot Kelly in his stomach with a high velocity marking projectile at the demonstration organized by the Anti-War Committee on the fourth day of the RNC, September 4, 2008.

Mick Kelly, one of the main organizers of the massive march and rally on the first day of the Republican National Convention, earlier prevailed in a separate lawsuit against the city of St. Paul after his arrest for leafleting at a June 2008 Obama rally. He is also one of the Twin Cities anti-war and international solidarity activists whose home was raided by the FBI on September 24, 2010.

Law enforcement agencies failed to reveal the presence of an undercover infiltrator during the discovery process of Kelly’s 2008 RNC lawsuit. The existence of an undercover law enforcement officer who was active for two years in RNC protest organizations was first revealed in the course of communications between lawyers representing activists whose homes were raided by the FBI September 24, 2010 and Chicago Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Fox. The infiltrator, who went by the name “Karen Sullivan,” remained active in the Twin Cites peace movement until the September 24 raids, when she vanished.

Lawyers will ask the judge presiding over the case to reopen the discovery process and will move to subpoena “Karen Sullivan.”

The lawsuit is being pursued by attorneys Ted Dooley and Peter Nickitas, members of the National Lawyers Guild. Ted Dooley was one of the speakers at the press conference.

Dooley states, “By law, we should have been given all information about this ‘Sullivan’ character. She was present, and planning, at meetings prior to the RNC protests. And she was near at hand when Mick Kelly was shot at the September 4 anti-war demonstration. Kelly has an absolute right to discover what she knew, and when she knew it!”

Jess Sundin, one of the main organizers of the protest at the RNC and a leader of the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee states, “There is a pattern of repression against anti war activists before, during and after the Republican National Convention. They sent in police agents to spy and used violence on protestors at the RNC. To top it off, they continued their spying and raided our homes and office on September 24, 2010. Many of us who organized the march at the RNC have received summons to appear in front of a Chicago Grand Jury. This is wrong and we are pushing back.”

#MinneapolisMN #InJusticeSystem #ProtestRNC2008 #RepublicanNationalConvention2008 #FBI #September24FBIRaids #KarenSullivan