[Peace] Fwd:[ANSWER]: Call to Action: JUNE 29 - MARCH ON THE FBI in

jencart jencart at mycidco.com
Tue Jun 4 20:26:29 CDT 2002


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CALL TO ACTION:
Saturday, June 29 @ 12 noon

MARCH ON THE FBI AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
headquarters in Washington DC
Pennsylvania Ave. between 9th and 10th St. NW

- Say no to the FBI attacks on civil rights and civil 
liberties
- Stand up against racism and racial and religious 
profiling
- No new COINTELPRO
- Defend the Arab American, Muslim and South Asian 
communities
- Stop the new witchhunt against political and religious 
organizations
- Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier & all political 
prisoners in the U.S.
- Money for jobs, education and healthcare - not 
repression and war

The Bush administration announced in the last week of May  that the FBI would be seizing vast additional powers to 
spy on the people of the United States.  We must act now  to stop this assault on our rights.

These powers pose a grave danger to civil liberties and  civil rights, and will - unless defeated by the people - 
lead to a new round of persecution of people based on 
their political or religious convictions.

There was no vote in Congress.  No public referendum.  No  judicial review.  George Bush, Attorney General John 
Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller decided to 
unleash the FBI on people targeted by the Bush 
administration - not because they have committed a crime,  not because they are being investigated for a crime.  They  will be targeted because the government has determined  that their political or religious views or affiliations 
warrant surveillance, infiltration, and disruption of 
their personal lives or the organizations to which they 
belong.

Ashcroft and Mueller are adopting the tactics of the 
vicious reign of J. Edgar Hoover's secret police tactics 
that were used against unions, progressive groups, and  African American, Latino and American Indian civil rights  organizations.  Tens of thousands of people lost their 
jobs, were falsely imprisoned, were deported or went into  exile and were subject to government harassment.  Scores  of political activists in the Black Panther Party, the 
Young Lords Party and in many others movements were  murdered by FBI COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence) 
programs.

Pressure brought to bear on the government from the mass  people's movements of the 1960s and 1970s eventually led  to the government adopting new guidelines, purportedly  designed to curb FBI abuse of people's rights.  In fact, 
this kind of FBI abuse has never stopped.  What is new is  that the FBI is overtly shifting from focusing on criminal  investigations into focusing on counter-intelligence 
programs - a code word for an attack on dissent and on  political and religious organizations that Bush and 
Ashcroft have decided should be targeted.  Following on  the heals of the Patriot Act - which has put the CIA back  into the business of domestic spying - the FBI and the CIA  are teaming up to conduct secret police activities.

Since September 11, 2001, thousands of Muslim, Arab 
American and South Asian people have been subjected to the  complete violation of their civil rights and civil 
liberties.  Charitable organizations have had their assets  seized.  Thousands have been illegally detained. 
 Educational institutions, homes and businesses have been  raided.  And the FBI has carried out a massive 
interrogation campaign of people based on race, religion  and ethnicity.

Bush, Ashcroft and the ultra-right are taking advantage of  the so-called war on terrorism to beat back the First 
Amendment and the Bill of Rights.  They think that people  will be frightened and intimidated and unwilling to carry 
out a political mobilization to stop this attack on free 
speech.  

As Bush p




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