On May 18, the Committee to Stop FBI Repression released documents the FBI inadvertently left behind at a home during the coordinated raids on peace and international solidarity activists last September.
Among the documents were interrogation questions, which read like part of a Hollywood script parodying the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings:
- Have you ever taken steps to overthrow the United States government?
- Do you own a gun? For what?
- What is your personal view of the FARC?
- When you visited Israel, did you lie to Israelis [sic] authorities about the purpose of your trip?
- What do you think of terrorist groups? Do you support them?
- Do you have a "red" name? What is the purpose of a red name?
These absurd, intrusive questions, along with dozens of questions about the Freedom Road Socialist Organization affiliated with Fight Back! News*—including questions about whether they take notes at meetings, where their members are located, content discussed at meetings, whether they operate front groups, etc.—make it clear that the FBI is cracking down on organized dissent; they are threatened by any ideas that expose the hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy of U.S. foreign policy.
The day before the planned release of these documents, the FBI and LA Sheriff's Department raided the home of veteran Chicano activist Carlos Montes due to his involvement with the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and FRSO/FB.
Coincidentally, the Memphis International Solidarity Committee is a committee formed from a group of concerned citizens who met in response to an incident of harassment and intimidation from law enforcement. The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Shelby County Sheriff's Department and the Memphis Police Department's Tactical Squad disrupted socialists and activists who came together to sign FOIA requests inside the offices of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center on a national day of action against the coordinated FBI raids. The FBI has claimed that they heard about the meeting (for which a press release was issued) through the Tennessee Fusion Center.
MISC stands in solidarity with FRSO/FB and all revolutionary groups that exercise their right and responsibility to engage in the struggle to develop policies and strategies to end the oppression of poor and working people at home and around the world.
Demonstrating the Obama administration's intensification of the disdain for civil liberties shown by the Bush presidency, the FBI and local law enforcement is constantly being exposed for raiding anarchist collectives, spying on pro-peace religious groups such as the Society of Friends or Catholic Workers, and infiltrating environmentalist or animal rights organizations. The attacks on principled dissent must end now! We STRONGLY condemn the FBI's actions, which amount to a Third Red Scare.
Download the recently released FBI documents left at an activist's home during the September raids...
More information about the document release from the Electronic Intifada...
* Two groups use the name Freedom Road Socialist Organization: Freedom Road Socialist Organization/Organización Socialista del Camino para la Libertad and FRSO affiliated with Fight Back! News.
