This is fucking BULLSHIT!
"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.
Brian Terrell
Executive Director
Catholic Peace Ministry"
(coverage found here via![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sinboy)
Let's put this in bold, folks: they may NOT have an attorney present.
These fucking thugs have got to go. I say again: get off your asses and VOTE. If you are not registered to vote, you can go here or here. (again, thanks for the links and info goes to the ever lovelyrosefox.)
I close, again, with these words the rotten sons of bitches have apparently forgotten:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
(Yes, damn it, I know they haven't "made a law". They haven't got the guts. The snivelling cowards are doing it by intimidation and secrecy. They haven't got the balls to come right out in the open, and that's exactly how I'm going to feel about it until I find out the people in question were building nuclear bombs to insert up Dubya's tuchus.)
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.
Brian Terrell
Executive Director
Catholic Peace Ministry"
(coverage found here via
sinboy)Let's put this in bold, folks: they may NOT have an attorney present.
These fucking thugs have got to go. I say again: get off your asses and VOTE. If you are not registered to vote, you can go here or here. (again, thanks for the links and info goes to the ever lovely
rosefox.)I close, again, with these words the rotten sons of bitches have apparently forgotten:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
(Yes, damn it, I know they haven't "made a law". They haven't got the guts. The snivelling cowards are doing it by intimidation and secrecy. They haven't got the balls to come right out in the open, and that's exactly how I'm going to feel about it until I find out the people in question were building nuclear bombs to insert up Dubya's tuchus.)
