As of today at least nine (9) community organizers from throughout San Diego and other parts of California have been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. Presumably, the subpoenas are in relation to a federal investigation of the 2003 burning of a La Jolla apartment complex, which the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for, and which the FBI has admittedly little evidence or credible leads.

"At the center of the Portland controversy was the City Council's insistence that renewal of the JTTF be contingent upon the FBI granting the Mayor and City Attorney security clearances equal to those given Portland police assigned to the task force...
While the first JTTF dates back to 1980, the FBI's website indicates that the "number of task forces has nearly doubled since September 11, 2001," and nationwide, they now number sixty six...
Since 1981, however, Oregon law has barred police-INS collaboration and police surveillance in the absence of evidence of criminal activity."

Leonard Peltier is still imprisoned thirty years after the shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in which two FBI Agents and an AIM member were shot dead.

The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana will host the WAMM March for Medical Marijuana on Saturday, July 16th, 2005 at 12 noon on the Pacific Garden Mall, in downtown Santa Cruz.

From racist attacks targeting Lodi, California’s Muslim community, to attempts to silence and imprison political activists in San Francisco and San Diego, dissent and freedom of speech are under attack. As government repression in general increases, so does the use of the federal grand jury to intimidate, incarcerate and render impotent activists across social movements. In recent years, pressure on the animal rights, environmental justice, anti-war and anarchist movements has increased exponentially. Government officials seem anxious to pin the label “terrorist� on anyone that is effectively campaigning against injustice. At a recent hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, John E. Lewis, Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division of the FBI, testified that, “Investigating and preventing animal rights extremism and eco-terrorism is one of the FBI’s highest domestic terrorism priorities.�

Activists and people of color are not the only people being persecuted, lawyers are feeling the heat as well. On Febuary 10, 2005, New York civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart was convicted of conspiracy, providing material support to terrorists and defrauding the US government. Yet, Stewart never provided any financial support, weaponry or any other concrete aid for any act of terrorism. No act of terrorism is alleged to have resulted from her actions. Lynne and her supporters argue that all she did was represent her client effectively as a good attorney should.

audio: New York Human Rights attorney Lynne Stewart interview

updates:
San Diego: Judge to Hear First Amendment Objections
San Francisco: Reprieve for Activists

resources: FBIwitchHunt.com || Just Cause Law Collective || National Lawyers Guild || No Compromise