(((i)))

BREAKING NEWS: The FBI and the US Secret Service is again engaging in a fishing expedition to route out dissenting viewpoints, harass people who are simply exercising their free speech rights, and intimidate others from exercising their right to protest in connection with the Republican National Convention. To quote one indymedia volunteer, regarding New York Indymedia:

"It has come to my attention, that our hosting provider, Calyx Internet Access, has been under harassment and scrutiny by the United States Secret Service in a blatant attempt to disrupt our relationship. Furthermore, it has been revealed to me that my contact information, was required to be disclosed to the government, presumably to begin directly harassing me. The SS did not contact the IMC directly in relation to this matter, but instead felt it prudent to put a strain on a place which we do business with. The agents attempted to circumvent Indymedia by contacting Calyx by phone, originally without a warrant or subpoena, in order to obtain user connection logs regarding a particular post on an Indymedia site. The post in question is a repost by an anonymous person containing information that is already available all over the Internet, and publicly available in other forms."

[Subpoena (US law): to order someone to go to a court of law to answer questions, or to order the appearance of documents in a court of law ]

The subpoena is for information leading to the posters of a list of RNC Delegates.

Calyx's contacts at Indymedia are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Indymedia is keenly aware of this kind of fishing expedition, as it has happened before, under similar circumstances. In April of 2001, while tens of thousands demonstrated against the proposed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) in the streets of Quebec City, the federal government attempted to do something very similar. In this case the FBI and Secret Service obtained an order issued by Judge Benton, directing the IMC to supply the FBI with "all user connection logs" for April 20 and 21st from a web server occupying an IP address which the Secret Service believed belonged to the IMC. At that time, IMC counsel Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation had this to say, and it is still apropos today:

[ More information: www.indymedia.org/fbi ]

The IMC was able to win that battle, and as a result of this attempt to violate our clear rights, we felt it prudent to develop a policy of not voluntarily gathering data for the government on people who visit our websites, or who post material to sites. ". . . we do not log IP addresses as a way of protecting the privacy of our visitors. . ."

[ More info: Indymedia FAQ (EN) | EFF | ACLU]

The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that the First Amendment protects the right to communicate anonymously with the press and for political purposes. We cannot understand why the Secret Service does not respect the U.S. Supreme Court. Additionally, a federal statute requires such attempts against the press to be approved by the Attorney General - and only after alternatives have been exhausted. It is plain that these standards have not been met in the past and are not being met here.

The particular order in question in the current, New York, case is puzzling: it is Title 18 U.S.C. 594 - "Intimidation or interference of voters." This plainly has not happened, but it is ironic to be bring up this subject during the Republican National Convention if Bush's connections to voter fraud and disenfranchisement in Florida during the last election are remembered. Another example is the Republican party's connections to the largest corporate voting interference ever, The Diebold Corporation, who make flawed electronic voting systems. In October of 2003, Diebold issued a cease and desist notice to Indymedia, because we had links to mirrors of a damning internal Diebold memo that was leaked. As a result of challenges by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Online Policy Group (OPG), and Indymedia, Diebold was forced to back down out of embarrassment.

[ Press release | more information | Black Box Voting ]

It is truly disappointing that this United States government, which holds the moral ideals of free speech and free assembly, continues to resort to fear, intimidation, and terrorizing people who celebrate these essential American values.

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