FBI Raids Homes of Seattle and Portland Occupy Activists
http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august132012/occupy-raids.phpThe Oregonian newspaper reported that heavily-armed domestic terrorism units of the FBI have been raiding the homes of activists in Seattle and Olympia, Washington and Portland, Oregon over the last month.
The report said that at least six homes have been raided in the two states since July 10.
The FBI has described the raids as part of an ongoing violent crime investigation, linked to last year’s Occupy May Day protests, during which a number of minor acts of vandalism allegedly took place.
In one of the raids, eyewitnesses reported as many as 80 agents in body armor, wearing military fatigues, and armed with assault rifles participated in the raid.
(...)
additional coverage
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/aug2012/fbir-a13.shtml
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/07/25/18718309.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
that MSM won't report on, or will report tardily, particularly in circumstances of repressive authoritarian domestic regimes perpetrating violations of human rights and the Constitution against innocent Occupy activists.
Releasing this type of information to the public can make us look too much like Iran or some other similar fascist country, such as Saudi Arabia.
which, as we all know, is the propaganda arm of the Iranian government.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/08/14/256121/fbi-raids-homes-of-occupy-activists/
So, we've got presstv and wsws.org, both in the same post.
Great stuff. 
Sid
it didn't happen. Didn't you KNOW that??? 
and ought not. They are looking out for our best interests, they decide what it is safe for us to read or even see. They simply cannot allow us to see something THEY thing might be harmful to our puny brains 
The vast majority of DUers read whatever they want and mostly roll their eyes at the would be protectors of our reading material, some ask them what their problem is. And others think it is a ploy to distract from an issue they do not want to see being discussed.
I have no idea what motivates people to believe they should control what a large group of Progressives, most of them pretty smart, on a forum like this ought to read, but that is because I trust people to have the intelligence to decide for themselves what they should read. 
And wsws is a pretty good news source IMO. But really for some people on here, if it's not in the M$M it didn't happen. Or actually they can PRETEND it didn't happen.
Too many to count. So where is this violence the Protesters are supposed to be responsible for?
groups identified as hate groups by the SPLC as opposed to occupy groups? Why are 1st Amendment rights being ruthlessly suppressed at a time the Congress-critters figuratively jump through their assholes to make it easy for almost anyone to legally own assault weapons with accompanying 100-round magazines? Oh what a dichotomous web they weave. 
I first heard about anarchism from Noam! Doesn't sound like a bunch of wild people tearing up stuff....
you grow up in? Since you have no idea why they were raided, and what info the FBI is acting on, I'd say hyperbole doesn't even begin to describe that asinine statement. Is there the slightest possibility that there really is a good reason, say like they may be trying to prevent another Aurora theater massacre, or the dude that shot the guard at the Family Research Council?
I know OWS is looking for anyone to blame for their lackluster results, but the America you grew up in is not a lot different than it ever was. There are still overzealous authorities, and there are still knuckleheads who, given the chance, will cause death and destruction just for kicks.
Quite frankly, outside of places like Norquist Dog Lake, and World Socialists Website, no one really gives a shit about a defunct non-movement, who may have done more harm than good.
p.s.: I know some of the true believers are desparate to try and breathe new life into a now defunct "movement", and maybe grabbing a headline here and there might revive the patient briefly, but make no mistake, this "movement" is on life support, and therefore can be easily dismissed by the media and anyone else who's paid attention.
You won't get your "Arab Spring" with OWS, and that's been clear for quite some time now.
I am so happy about the work they are doing right now, and their successes in exposing the lying cops in the courts.
As an Egyptian Revolutionary said recently, mentioning Occupy btw, when asked since the Arab Spring is 'no longer in the public square, is it over'? His response was that when the idea behind the Arab Spring and Occupy spread across the world, it received attention because of its presence in the public arena. Now, that idea, one of justice for the people of the ME and Economic Justice as articulated by Occupy, is 'deeply embedded in the consciousness of people across the world' and 'cannot be reversed'.
I kind of like the idea that the anti-Social Movement people are so devoid of that kind of understanding of the fact that it was the IDEA that brought people to the streets. that a worldwide demand for Social Justice and Economic equality, will take many forms the first of which was occupying the public square for a while, knowing that there would be a crackdown to remove them.
To think that oppression can kill an idea like this whose time had finally come to people all over the world, and which united them, would just go away, shows a sad lack of understanding of what brought so many millions of people onto the streets worldwide in the first place.
But it's remarkable how all over the world this movement seemed to happen almost spontaneously and as the Egyptian and Tunisian Revolutionaries have said, it will take years before real change occurs and no one who supports these movements ever thought any differently. But that only means they have to keep working for those changes. No way are they going away.
I myself prefer reading and posting on DU..
Last edited Fri Aug 24, 2012, 05:25 AM - Edit history (1)
DENNISON WILLIAMS was in bed when the agents banged on his front door shouting, "FBI!" Next he heard a boom and saw the light of a flash grenade.
"I'm upstairs and unarmed!" he shouted. Agents carrying assault rifles handcuffed him while over a dozen officers from the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) searched his house, seizing his phone, computer, and black clothes. As they left, Williams was issued a subpoena to appear in front of a grand jury in Seattle on Thursday, August 2.
Williams' house on NE 8th and Buffalo was one of three searched in Portland last Wednesday, July 25, as part of a coordinated JTTF raid targeting lefty political activists in Washington and Oregon. Officers issued grand jury subpoenas to at least five people that morning in Portland, Seattle, and Olympia.
The FBI is mum about what alleged crimes prompted the bi-state searches and subpoenas; the search warrants are sealed, and this week's grand jury hearing itself isn't public. But Williams provided the Mercury with a redacted copy of the search warrant for his home, which shows the agents were looking for numerous items (including "anti-government or anarchist literature," black clothing, and flags) that could be related to the federal crimes of destruction of government property and interstate travel with intent to riot.
http://www.portlandmercury.com/portland/fear-of-a-black-bloc-planet/Content?oid=6619511
J. Edgar Hoover would be proud......
I didn't even know anarchists wrote books 
Dennison Williams was in bed at his house on NE 8th Avenue on Wednesday morning when he heard a bang and someone shout, "FBI!" Then came a loud crash, which turned out to be agents breaking down his front door, and Williams heard a bang and a saw a flash of light—the agents throwing flash grenades. Williams started yelling from his bed that he was upstairs and unarmed.
According to Williams, FBI officers entered his room with assault rifles and kept them aimed at him while they handcuffed him. They put him in a chair for about 30 minutes while they searched his house. Williams says there were about 15 FBI officers in the house, plus one Portland police officer on the street outside. According to the property receipt Williams received from the officers, the feds seized several items, including his computer, phone, hard-drive, two thumb drives, and various clothes (including black jeans, black t-shirt, and a black bandana). They then served him a subpoena to appear at a grand jury in Seattle next Thursday, August 2nd.
Williams is not sure exactly what the grand jury is meeting about, but that likely they want to ask him about other people. The FBI has said only that the raids are part of an ongoing "violent crime" investigation.
"It's related to political opposition, it's related to political dissent," says Williams. "They're trying to create a wedge within people who are resistors... They're specifically pursuing anarchists."
The FBI search warrant states that they are looking to seize items which may be evidence regarding the crimes of conspiracy to destroy government property, interstate travel with intent to riot, and conspiracy to travel interstate with intent to riot. Those items include: Clothing and related items work during commission of offenses; paint; sticks and flags similar to those used or carried during the commission of the offenses, and material for making flags; anti-government or anarchist literature, documentation or communications related to the offenses, flares, computers or electronic storage media of any kind.
Williams was not sure how many people were served subpoenas, but thinks it is somewhere around seven people, and says he "will not cooperate" with the grand jury. Anyone who refuses to testify when subpoenaed can potentially face jail time.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1191027
I can understand how that shorthand might ruffle some feathers and trigger mute emoticon retaliation.
I really should have written "Third Way, right-wing, neocon, pro-police state, and pro-corporate tax and economic policy"....but it just *takes* so darned long!
NICE example of vapidly extending the thread past the important point, though!
of their sovereignty by the Latiin American nations and the joining together of all these movements worldwide, have already brought about unprecedented changes and will go down in history. The corporate entities and their supporters oppose all these changes and movements. No matter how hard they try to discredit them, it really is too late.
The near collapse of European nations under the same policies they finally brought to first world nations is keeping them busy, along with their brutal colonial wars. Try as they do, it's hard to fight the rising global tide against those failed, deadly policies. Now it is not just the Corporations that are Global, the people are going Global.
I think that is why they are flailing so desperately, eg, the British Govt's outrageous reaction to Ecuador's perfectly legal decision last week regarding asylum for Julian Assange. They probably in their arrogance, never expected the backlash, and from nations they view as inferior. Maybe it will wake them up to the fact that while they remain lost in the past still clinging to old, failed policies, the world is moving on into the future. Made better by all these Social Justice movements which combined can begin the process of creating a more just world.
You may be right regarding the attempt to corral people and bog them down in mindless arguments over trivia. Probably the best way to foil that is to ignore it.
It is sometimes easy to lose perspective, immersed in the Matrix of MSM and internet propaganda, and the discouraging actions coming out of our own government.
I am always grateful for the reminders that this is a global awakening, and that it is proceeding apace.
Last edited Sat Aug 25, 2012, 07:44 PM - Edit history (1)
Thank you for this great OP.
No intense offended.
. I apologize for making the wrong conclusion. Thanks for clarifying
My only problem is nobody ever notices when I use the line "no intense offended". It makes no sense at all. It's an Archie Bunker mangling of words, which is perhaps the funniest line I ever saw him say.
catch it the first time I read it. When I came back to reply again, I did see it, and thought it very clever 
