Chicago Update on US Atty's investigation of activists

 Aug. 7, 2012 Committee to Stop FBI Repression

Barry Jonas, of Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office, refuses to return
materials from FBI raid

Cites ongoing investigation of anti-war and international solidarity
activists

In late July 2012, Northern Illinois Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas
refused to return much of the material seized in the FBI raid on the
home of Hatem Abudayyeh, citing the ongoing “material support for terrorism” investigation that
is underway against anti-war, Palestinian and international solidarity
activists.

Barry Jonas is well known for participating in one of the worst
violations of civil liberties in the past decade. He played a leading
role in prosecuting the leaders of the United Holy Land Foundation while
he was trial attorney for the Department of Justice Counter-terrorism
Section.

Michael Deutsch, Abudayyeh's lawyer, who has a long history of fighting
government repression, stated, "The continuing investigation after
almost two years is grossly unjust and an effort by the Obama
administration to silence those who speak and organize against U.S.
policies at home and around the world."

The Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office has told lawyers representing the
anti-war and international solidarity activists that they are preparing
“multiple indictments of multiple people.” Barry Jonas’ refusal to
return Abudayyeh’s papers is the latest confirmation that the
investigation has not ended and that the Justice Department is
continuing its vendetta against those who are working for peace with
justice. This needs to be taken seriously. In a number of “material
support of terrorism” cases, there has been a gap of one to three or
more years between the FBI raids and indictments.

In September of 2010, more than 70 FBI agents took part in a series of coordinated raids on
the homes of well-known anti-war, labor and international solidarity
activists, along with the office of the Twin Cities based Anti-War
Committee. A total of 23 activists, including Abudayyeh, were subpoenaed
to a Chicago grand jury. All of them refused to testify in the secret
proceedings.

Most of the activists targeted in this case, including Abudayyeh, helped
organize the massive protest at the 2008 Republican National Convention
in Saint Paul, Minnesota. At that time, an undercover law enforcement
officer, going by the name of “Karen Sullivan,”infiltrated the protest efforts and stuck around to spy and lie about many of the 23 activists.

That Barry Jonas is now the lead prosecutor for the international
solidarity activists is troubling. Jonas is a pro-Israel ideologue whose
work in prosecuting the Holy Land case exposed his politically motivated willingness to trample on the rights of accused Palestinians. As the lead prosecutor in the Holy Land case,
Jonas used secret witnesses (the defense never got to find out who the
witnesses were), hearsay evidence and the introduction of evidence that
had nothing to do with the defendants in the case - such as showing a
video from Palestine of protesters burning an American flag - as a means
to prejudice the jury. The result was that five men, who did nothing
wrong, are sitting in prison with sentences that range between 15 and 65
years.

With each passing day, the U.S. is becoming a more repressive place.
Hundreds of Arabs and Muslims have and are facing unjust prosecutions,
or have already been put behind bars. Also, a grand jury is threatening
political activists in the Northwest; criminal proceedings are taking place against NATO protesters in Chicago; and the Occupy movement has faced a wave of police violence.

*The Committee to Stop FBI Repression urges all our supporters to sign the pledge to take action now, (http://www.stopfbi.net/get-involved/pledge-of-resistance )

to be ready in the event that international solidarity activists are
indicted. We recently won a victory when we defeated the frame-up
against veteran Chicano leader Carlos Montes

We need to do everything in our power to push back against these attacks
on our right to protest, organize and speak out for justice. Together we
will win!*

Anti-NATO protesters held on terrorism charges, extreme bail

“Call States Attorney to demand their release!”

By Committee to Stop FBI Repression | May 31, 2012

 

Fight Back News service is circulating the following call to action from the Committee Stop FBI Repression. Joe Iosbaker is one of the anti-war and international solidarity activists targeted by the FBI and was one of the organizers of the 15,000 person anti-NATO protest in Chicago.
Anti-NATO protesters held on terrorism charges, extreme bail.

Call States Attorney Anita Alvarez at 773-674-6209 - Demand all charges be dropped against anti-NATO protesters! “Release them all now!”

Nine people continue to be held in jail in Chicago, arrested before or during the protests against the NATO summit, according to information provided by the National Lawyers Guild. They face felony charges and even terrorism charges, while the NATO generals responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands have left town to return to their occupation of Afghanistan and plotting for their next war.
Of those still being held, five of them have been charged under a State of Illinois law passed after 9/11 that has never been used. The NATO 5 were all targeted by undercover police officers exposed by the National Lawyers Guild. The agents went by the nicknames “Mo” and “Gloves.”

The NATO 5 were arrested without any evidence of their involvement in violence, other than the statements of undercover provocateurs. The first arrests took place in an unlawful police raid of a home on Wednesday night, May 16th, in which the police kicked in doors without presenting a warrant, beat up people, shackled protesters hand and foot, and then “disappeared” 11 people for up to 40 hours. The National Lawyers Guild and Occupy Chicago activists faced repeated denials by the CPD in their attempts to locate those arrested.

The remaining two were arrested several days later. Again, no evidence has been presented other than the statements of the undercover police. Both men were held longer than the 48 hours required by law before being given access to use of a telephone or to speak with an attorney.

The other four still being held were involved in a protest action at the point which the police turned violent, causing over 70 injuries from baton blows, including many serious head injuries. Over 24 had to be treated at area hospitals for broken bones, knocked out teeth, concussions, and wounds requiring stitches or staples.

On top of the arrests and charges, the protesters are being held with outrageous bails: $1.5 million for the first three facing terrorism charges; $750,000 and $500,000 for the second two charged under the same state terrorism law; and as high as $250,000 for the remaining men. Bail for one Chicago youth, Raziel Azuara is set at $150,000.

It is the Chicago Police Department that is responsible for the violence; and the CPD and the States Attorney are violating the law and the Constitution.

Charges of terrorism, pre-emptive raids and prosecution, charges based on entrapment, and violence against protesters are all standard procedure when the US government declares a National Special Security Event as they did with the NATO summit. These tactics were employed at the Republican National Convention in 2008, resulting in the cases of the RNC 8; the 23 anti-war activists raided by the FBI and subpoenaed to a grand jury for investigation of support for foreign terrorists; and the current trial of Carlos Montes in Los Angeles. Now in Chicago they’ve added the element of excessive bail, as if the protesters were part of the 1%, rather than the 99%.

We must speak out against this repression. We know the charges against the anti-NATO protesters are false. All these prisoners should be free.

Call States Attorney Anita Alvarez at 773-674-6209. Demand all charges be dropped against anti-NATO protesters! Release them all now!

In struggle,
Joe Iosbaker

Committee to Stop FBI Repression

Attacks on Chicago police stations, Obama office were planned, prosecutors say

By Miranda Leitsinger, msnbc.com May 19, 2012

Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET CHICAGO -- Three anti-NATO protesters charged with
terrorism conspiracy planned to attack four Chicago police stations, the
local campaign headquarters for President Barack Obama and the home of
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, prosecutors alleged in court Saturday.

While friends of the three men insisted they were just operating a home
brewery, prosecutors stated that police found a gun that fires mortar
rounds, swords, a hunting bow, ninja-like throwing stars and knives with
brass knuckle handles. The beer-brewing operation, prosecutors added, was
used to fill bottles with gasoline that would later be thrown as Molotov
cocktails.

"Plans were made to destroy police cars and attack four CPD stations with
destructive devices, in an effort to undermine the police response" to
attacks on the Obama office and the Emanuel home as well as unspecified
financial institutions, the charging statement said.

The three were being held on charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism,
possession of an explosive or incendiary device and providing material
support for terrorism.

The men were identified as 20-year-old Brian Church, of Ft. Lauderdale,
Fla.; 24-year-old Jared Chase, of Keene, N.H.; and 24-year-old Brent
Betterly, of Oakland Park, Mass.

Mike Barrett, CEO of Diligent Innovations Consulting and former director
of strategy for the Bush administration's Homeland Security Council, talks
the G8 summit being held at Camp David, and the upcoming NATO Summit
kicking off in Chicago this weekend where Occupy Wall Street protesters
are already waiting.

Defense attorneys told a judge on Saturday that undercover police were the
ones who brought the Molotov cocktails, and that their clients were
entrapped.

Bond of $1.5 million was set for each defendant.

Michael Deutsch, one of their attorneys, later told reporters outside the
courtroom that it was all a setup. Two informants "ingratiated themselves"
with the three men and "this was all their idea," he insisted.

It was "entrapment to the highest degree," Deutsch said.

But Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy told reporters "the evidence
speaks for itself" about what he called an "imminent threat."

"They were making the bombs ... (and had) directions on how to implement
this," added Cook County State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

The charging document states that "while the Molotov Cocktails were being
poured, Church discussed the NATO Sumrnit, the protests, and how the
Molotov Cocktails would be used for violence and intimidating acts of
destruction. At one point, Church asked if others had ever seen a 'cop on
fire' and discussed throwing one of the Molotov Cocktails into" a police
station.

Six others initially arrested have been released. They were all detained
in a raid Wednesday on a home in Bridgeport on Chicago's South Side,
NBCChicago.com reported.

Beer or bombs?
But the group of protesters said what police thought was suspicious was
actually a home beer-brewing operation.

“We were handcuffed to a bench and our legs were shackled together. We
were not told what was happening,” one of those detained but later
released, Darrin Ammussek, told NBCChicago.com.

“I believe very strongly in non-violence, and if I had seen anything that
even resembled any plans or anything like that, we wouldn’t have been
there," he added.

Scenes from Chicago protests surrounding NATO summit

He claimed that during 18 hours in custody, police never told him why he
was arrested, read him his rights or allowed him to make a phone call, The
Associated Press reported. He said he remained handcuffed to a bench, even
after asking to use a restroom.

"There were guards walking by making statements into the door along the
lines of 'hippie,' 'communist,' 'pinko,'" a tired-looking Ammussek told
reporters just after his release.

Nurses (yes, nurses) lead charge for Wall Street 'sin' tax

Security has been high throughout the city in preparation for the summit,
where delegations from about 60 countries, including 50 heads of state,
will discuss the war in Afghanistan and European missile defense.

Among the pre-NATO protests planned for Saturday was a march on the home
of Mayor Emanuel. The big show will be on Sunday, the start of the two-day
NATO summit, when thousands of protesters are expected to march 2½ miles
from a band shell on Lake Michigan to the McCormick Place convention
center, where delegates will be meeting.

 3 men charged with terror conspiracy ahead of NATO

By SHANNON MCFARLAND and TAMMY WEBBER | Associated Press – May 19, 2012

CHICAGO (AP) — Three men arrested earlier this week when police raided a
Chicago apartment were being held Saturday on terrorism conspiracy
charges, accused of trying to make Molotov cocktails ahead of the NATO
summit.

Their attorney, Sarah Gelsomino, said the men are "absolutely in shock and
have no idea where these charges are coming from."

They were scheduled to be in court later Saturday for a bond hearing on
charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism, possession of an explosive or
incendiary device and providing material support for terrorism.

Six others arrested Wednesday in the South Side raid were released Friday
without being charged.

Among the items seized by federal authorities was beer-making equipment,
Gelsomino said.

Chicago police Lt. Kenneth Stoppa declined to elaborate on the case beyond
confirming the charges against the three who were still in custody.

Police identified the men being held as Brian Church, 20, of Ft.
Lauderdale, Fla.; Jared Chase, 24, of Keene, N.H.; and Brent Vincent
Betterly, 24. A police spokesman gave Betterly's hometown as Oakland Park,
Mass., but no such town exists. There is an Oakland Park, Fla., that is
near Fort Lauderdale.

The three came to Chicago in late April to take part in May Day protests,
said activist Bill Vassilakis, who said he let them stay in his apartment.

He said Betterly was an industrial electrician and had volunteered to help
wire service at The Plant, a former meatpacking facility that has been
turned into a food incubator with the city's backing.

Vassilakis said he thought the charges were unwarranted.

"All I can say about that is, if you knew Brent, you would find that to be
the most ridiculous thing you've ever heard. He was the most stand-up guy
that was staying with me. He and the other guys had done nothing but
volunteer their time and energy," he said."

Authorities in Oakland Park, Fla., said Betterly and two other young men
walked into a public high school last fall after a night of tequila
drinking and took a swim in the pool, according to a report in the South
Florida Sun-Sentinel.

They stole fire extinguishers from three school buses, discharged one and
smashed a cafeteria window with another. The vandalism caused about $2,000
in damage, the newspaper said.

Betterly was charged with burglary, theft and criminal mischief.

Security has been high throughout the city in preparation for the summit,
where delegations from about 60 countries will discuss the war in
Afghanistan and European missile defense.

Elsewhere, Chicago was mostly quiet. Downtown streets were largely empty,
though that is not unusual for a weekend. Security guards stood watch
outside many downtown buildings. In places, the guards almost outnumbered
pedestrians.

Outside the Chicago Board of Trade, a frequent target of Occupy
protesters, a lone protester wore a sign about wasteful military spending.

Closer to the summit site, commuter rail service was halted for a short
time so police could investigate a suspicious package on a train running
beneath the convention center where diplomats will be meeting.
Investigators determined there was no threat.

Among the pre-NATO protests planned for Saturday was a march on the home
of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The bigger show will be on Sunday, the start of the two-day NATO summit,
when thousands of protesters are expected to march 2½ miles from a band
shell on Lake Michigan to the McCormick Place convention center, where
delegates will be meeting.

On Friday, police on bicycles and foot tailed activists through the
streets but ignored taunts and went out of their way to make as few
arrests as possible. Protesters made a lot of noise and tried to evade
police, but otherwise were relatively uneventful.

In all, police said there was a single arrest on a charge of aggravated
battery of a police officer. Another man was briefly taken into custody,
but he was released a short time later after being questioned by police, a
department spokesman said.

Michael Olstewski, a recent music school graduate who came to Chicago from
Atlanta, was one of hundreds of protesters who took to the streets Friday
for a spontaneous march. He said he would not rule out provoking police to
arrest him later "if I feel it's strategic and a powerful statement."

___

Associated Press writers Ryan Foley, Jason Keyser, Jim Suhr and Jeffrey
McMurray contributed to this report.

Outlawing dissent: Rahm Emanuel's new regime

On the pretext of policing upcoming G8 and Nato summits, Chicago's mayor has awarded himself draconian new powers

Bernard Harcourt guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 January 2012

Former White House chief of staff and now Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Photograph: Aude Guerrucci/POOL/EPA

It's almost as if Rahm Emanuel was lifting a page from Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine – as if he was reading her account of Milton Friedman's "Chicago Boys" as a cookbook recipe, rather than as the ominous episode that it was. In record time, Emanuel successfully exploited the fact that Chicago will host the upcoming G8 and Nato summit meetings to increase his police powers and extend police surveillance, to outsource city services and privatize financial gains, and to make permanent new limitations on political dissent. It all happened – very rapidly and without time for dissent – with the passage of rushed security and anti-protest measures adopted by the city council on 18 January 2012.

Sadly, we are all too familiar with the recipe by now: first, hype up and blow out of proportion a crisis (and if there isn't a real crisis, as in Chicago, then create one), call in the heavy artillery and rapidly seize the opportunity to expand executive power, to redistribute wealth for private gain and to suppress political dissent. As Friedman wrote in Capitalism and Freedom in 1982 – and as Klein so eloquently describes in her book:

"Only a crisis – actual or perceived – produces real change. When the crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function … until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable."

Today, it's more than mere ideas that are lying around; for several decades now, and especially since 9/11, there are blueprints scattered all around us.

Step 1: hype a crisis or create one if there isn't a real one available. Easily done:with images from London, Toronto, Genoa, and Seattle of the most violent anti-G8 protesters streaming on Fox News and repeated references to anarchists and rioters, the pump is primed. Rather than discuss the peaceful Occupy Chicago protests over the past three months, city officials and the media focus on what Fraternal Order of Police President Michael Shields calls "people who travel around the world as professional anarchists and rioters" and a "bunch of wild, anti-globalist anarchists". The looming crisis headlines Rahm Emanuel's draft legislation, now passed: "Whereas, Both the North Atlantic Treaty Organization ("Nato") and the Group of Eight ("G8") summits will be held in the spring of 2012 in the City of Chicago" and "whereas, the Nato and G8 Summits continue to evolve in terms of the size and scope, thereby creating unanticipated or extraordinary support and security needs …" The crisis calls for immediate action.

Step 2: rapidly deploy excessive force. Again, easily done: Emanuel just gave himself the power to marshal and deputize – I kid you not, look at page 3 – the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Department of Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), and the entire United States Department of Justice (DOJ); as well as state police (the Illinois department of state police and the Illinois attorney general), county law enforcement (State's Attorney of Cook County), and any "other law enforcement agencies determined by the superintendent of police to be necessary for the fulfillment of law enforcement functions".

As one commentator suggests, the final catch-all allows Emanuel to hire "anyone he wants, be they rent-a-cops, Blackwater goons on domestic duty, or whatever. For a city that has great problems keeping its directly sworn officers in check, this looser authority is an even greater license for abuse." Thanks to the coming G8 meeting, the Chicago police department has just gotten a lot bigger! According to Fox News, "there will be hundreds, perhaps thousands of federal agents here."

Not just that, but Emanuel has also given himself the power to install additional surveillance, including video, audio and telecommunications equipment. And not just for the period of the G8 and Nato summits, but permanently. These new provisions of the substitute ordinance apply "permanently": there is no sunset provision on either the police expansion or the surveillance. On this second, the new ordinance reads:

"The superintendent is also authorized to enter into agreements with public or private entities concerning placement, installation, maintenance or use of video, audio, telecommunications or other similar equipment. The location of any camera or antenna permanently installed pursuant to any such agreement shall be determined pursuant to joint review and approval with the executive director of emergency management and communications." [my emphasis]

Thanks to the mobilization of the Occupy movement (including their funeral for the Bill of Rights) and other groups like the ACLU, some of Emanuel's other draconian provisions were scaled back. Emanuel dropped his proposals to increase seven-fold the minimum fine for resisting arrest (including for passive resistance) from $25 to $200, to double the maximum fine for resisting arrest from $500 to $1,000, and to double the maximum fine for violations of the parade ordinance from $1,000 to $2,000. But the rest of his proposals – including the three-fold increase in the minimum fine for a violation of the parade ordinance – passed the City Council Thursday.

Step 3: privatize the profits and socialize the costs. In Chicago, that translates into Emanuel outsourcing city services to private enterprises, but making sure the public will indemnify those private companies from future law suits. This is a two-part dance with which we have become all too familiar.

First, city services are outsourced, often to circumvent labor and other regulations, and the income side of the public expenditures are shifted over to private enterprise and employees. Under the ordinance (see page 4):

"The mayor or his designees are authorized to negotiate and execute agreements with public and private entities for good, work or services regarding planning, security, logistics, and other aspects of hosting the Nato and G8 summits in the city in the Spring of 2012 … and to provide such assurances, execute such other documents and take such other actions, on behalf of the city, as may be necessary or desirable to host these summits."

Second, the agreements can be entered "on such terms and conditions as the mayor or such designees deem appropriate" and these terms include, importantly, "indemnification by the city". In other words, any lawsuits will fall on the city taxpayers. The public will be left holding the bag if there is, for instance, police abuse or other mismanagement by private employers.

Step 4: use the crisis to expand executive power permanently and repress political dissent. Most of the ordinance revisions, it turns out, do not sunset with the departure of the G8 or Nato delegates. To be sure, there's a sunset provision for those contracts that specifically involve "hosting the Nato and G8 summits." That provision expires on 31 July 2012; but not the expanded police powers, nor the increased video surveillance, nor the other changes to the protest permit requirements.

The new rules affecting permits for protests and marches include details that impose onerous demands on dissent. As noted earlier, the minimum fine for a violation of the parade ordinance will increase from $50 to $200. On the parade permit applications, the protest organizers now must provide a general description of any sound amplification equipment that is on wheels or too large for one person to carry and/or any signs or banners that are too large for one person to carry. These may sound like small details, but they are precisely the kinds of nitpicking regulations that empower and expand police discretion to arrest and fine, and that make it harder to express political opinions.

It's another glaring example of what I have called The Illusion of Free Markets and the paradox of "neoliberal penality": the purported liberalization of the economy (here, the privatization of city services) goes hand-in-hand with massive policing. Scott Horton captured the idea well in Harper's, under the rubric "The Despotism of Natural Law". Notice the neoliberal paradox: the fact that the city claims to be incompetent or unable to performs its ordinary functions implies that we need to both outsource city services and augment city police powers.

It was accomplished so quickly and seamlessly – passed practically overnight – that few seem to have noticed or had time to think through the long-term implications. There's not a mention in the New York Times and only a small story in the Chicago Tribune. The crisis and fear of outside agitators, professional anarchists and rioters – splashed on the TV screens direct from London, Toronto, Genoa, Rome, or Seattle – is enough to create a permanent state of exception.

To make matters worse, this cookbook implementation of mini shock treatment follows on the heels of a severe crackdown on the Occupy Chicago movement that resulted in the arrest of over 300 Occupy protesters in Grant Park in October 2011. The prosecutions are still ongoing today and the effect on political dissent has been chilling.

In those 300 arrests, Rahm Emanuel and his police chief rigidly enforced a park curfew without finding reasonable ways to accommodate the political speech interests of the protesters, and beyond any semblance of a legitimate governmental interest. The massive arrests raise a clear first amendment problem – one that has been raised by the Occupy protesters and will be heard en masse at the Daley Center on 15 February. (Ironically, Emanuel and his police will effectively "Occupy the Daley Center".)

The first amendment argument is compelling, especially when you consider the disparate treatment that political expression receives in Chicago. Recall, for instance, how different things were in Grant Park on election night 2008. Huge tents were pitched, commercial sound systems pounded rhythms and political discourse, enormous TVs streamed political imagery. More than 150,000 people blocked the streets and "occupied" Grant Park – congregating, celebrating, debating and discussing politics. That evening, President-elect Barack Obama would address the crowds late into the night and the assembled masses swarmed the park to the early morning hours. It was a memorable moment, perhaps a high point in political expression in Chicago.

Well, that was then. The low point would come three years later, almost to the day. On the evening of 15 October 2011, thousands of Occupy protesters marched to Grant Park and assembled at the entrance to the park to engage, once again, in political expression. But this time, the assembled group found itself surrounded by an intimidating police force, as police wagons began lining up around the political assembly. The police presence grew continually as the clock approached midnight.

Within hours, at the direction, ironically, of President Obama's former chief-of-staff (was Rahm Emanuel at Grant Park after hours, a few years earlier?), the Chicago Police Department began to arrest the protesters for staying in Grant Park beyond the 11pm curfew in violation of a mere park ordinance.

Emanuel could have ordered his police officers to issue written citations and move the protesters to the sidewalk. In fact, that's precisely what the police would do a few weeks later at a more obstreperous protest by senior citizens at Occupy Chicago. On that occasion, 43 senior citizens who stopped traffic by standing or sitting in the middle of a downtown street were escorted by police officers off the street without being handcuffed, and were merely issued citations to appear in the department of administrative hearings. (Those arrests, however, took place under the watchful eye of Democratic Senator Dick Durbin and Democratic Representatives Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky and Mike Quigley.)

But not on 15 October or the following Saturday night. Instead of issuing citations, the Chicago police arrested over 300 protesters, placed them in handcuffs, treating the municipal park infractions as quasi-criminal charges, booked them, fingerprinted them and detained them overnight in police holding cells, some for as many as 17 hours. They are now aggressively prosecuting these cases in criminal court.

That's precisely the type of practice that chills political expression. The inconsistent treatment of political dissent in Grant Park or at the Chicago board of trade reflects the colossal amount of discretion that mayors and police chiefs have over political discourse today. Police discretion is wide, political expression is fragile.

Rahm Emanuel's message on the G8 and Nato meetings has been loud and clear – and chilling: the DEA, FBI, ATF, DOJ, state police and many other law enforcement agencies will be out in force; it will be harder to comply with the protest laws; and any deviations or errors will be costlier and punished. What's really troubling is that the G8 and Nato will come and go, but these reforms are with us in Chicago to stay. Chicago's mayor seems to be following in the footsteps of other municipal officials (recall Rudy Giuliani's idea of staying on as mayor for an extra three months), who, with a touch of Potus-envy and perhaps a small Napoleonic complex, begin to act like minor tyrants.

It'll be interesting to follow the first amendment litigation brought by the Occupy protesters. Their cases have been joined – there are about 100 of them in the challenge now – and their free speech claims will be heard by the chief judge at the Daley Center on 15 February 2012.

Chicago Police Department Establishes Counter-Terrorism Unit

Sept. 9, 2011 Chicagoist

While Chicago police are already busy training for the mass arrest of
activists at next year’s G8 and NATO summits, the department is creating a
counter-terrorism unit in preparation as well. Chicago News Cooperative
reports Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy quietly started the unit last
month and is expected to have it fully operational by year’s end. McCarthy
helped the NYPD with their counter-terrorism strategies after the World
Trade Center Attacks.

McCarthy apparently hopes to bring lessons from New York’s
counter-terrorism program, with the unit acting on intelligence from the
regional Joint Terrorism Task Force.

If McCarthy plans on taking pages from the NYPD’s playbook however, it
could walk a dangerous line over civil liberties concerns. Huffington Post
New York reports since September 11, 2001, the New York Police Department
has turned into an extraordinarily aggressive intelligence agency, acting
in conjunction with the CIA, often clandestinely. The department cast a
giant net that’s produced a report on every mosque within 100 miles of the
city, has detectives in foreign cities, and has even taken a close look at
every cab driver of Pakistani decent.

While the CNC and Huffington Post reports focus mainly on relations
between police and local Muslim communities, it’s no secret law
enforcement has employed such tactics on activists, particularly left wing
activists, as well. In 2008, the FBI employed a former left wing activist
to incite protesters at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Last
year, they raided the home of Joe Iosbaker, one of the organizers of the
coming G8 and NATO protests. The social-action Quaker organization known
as American Friends Service Committee has been under surveillance by
Chicago Police and the FBI for decades for their protests of presidential
inaugurations and military recruiters.

Considering the history of documented evidence of infiltration and
intimidation by law enforcement towards activist organizations, we wonder
if we’re not seeing the beginnings of a new Red Squad in Chicago.

New hearings sought in Chicago police torture case

By KAREN HAWKINS - Associated Press | Aug. 9, 2011



CHICAGO (AP) — Fifteen incarcerated men who claim they were sent to prison

by confessions that were beaten, burned and tortured out of them by

convicted Chicago police Lt. Jon Burge and his officers are getting some

high-profile help — including from a former Illinois governor.



In a friend-of-the-court brief to be filed Wednesday with the Illinois

Supreme Court, ex-Gov. Jim Thompson and more than 60 current and former

prosecutors, judges and lawmakers are asking for new evidentiary hearings

for inmates who say their convictions were based on coerced confessions.



The brief marks the first effort on behalf of alleged Burge victims as a

group and not separate individual cases, attorneys said.



Burge's name has become synonymous with police abuse in the nation's

third-largest city, and more than 100 men — most of them African-American

and Latino— have alleged Burge and his men tortured them from the 1970s to

the 1990s.



Burge was convicted last year of lying about whether he ever witnessed or

participated in the torture of suspects. He's serving a 4 1/2-year

sentence at Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina.



Burge never has faced criminal charges for abuse. He was fired from the

police department in 1993 over the 1982 beating and burning of Andrew

Wilson, a suspect later convicted of killing two police officers.



The brief "gives the Illinois Supreme Court the opportunity to finally and

firmly repudiate the Burge era of the Chicago Police Department," said

Thompson, a former Republican Illinois governor and U.S. attorney.



Lawyers are filing the brief in the case of Stanley Wrice, an inmate who

has been claiming since 1982 that he falsely confessed to a brutal sexual

assault only after Burge's officers beat him in the face and groin with a

flashlight and a piece of rubber.



Wrice, 57, is serving a 100-year sentence. Attorneys say he's one of the

longest-serving inmates with a Burge torture claim.



Each of Wrice's attempts for a new hearing had been turned down until

December, when the appellate court granted him a new evidentiary hearing.

Prosecutors looking to block the hearing asked the Illinois Supreme Court

to take the case, and the justices agreed.



At issue before the high court is whether a coerced confession can ever be

considered "harmless error" in a criminal trial, attorneys said. The

special prosecutor's office that's handling Wrice's case has argued that a

conviction could stand — even if it involved a coerced confession — if the

person could have been proven guilty without the confession.



Wrice's case has gone farther than any other current claim involving

Burge, and other inmates are either awaiting decisions or have given up,

attorneys say. The brief to be filed Wednesday asks the high court to:

order prosecutors to identify each inmate who claims their confession was

coerced by Burge or his men; appoint lawyers to inmates who need them;

order evidentiary hearings in the cases; and to order the Cook County

Circuit Court to vacate the convictions of inmates whose convictions it

was determined were based on coerced confessions.



Justices "have an opportunity to take control of this problem and to fix

it," said attorney Locke Bowman, who plans to file the brief. He's

represented several alleged torture victims who have been freed from

prison and have civil suits pending against Burge.



The brief's signers include both attorneys and advocates who have

represented alleged Burge victims as well as former prosecutors, judges

and politicians who have rarely, if ever, publicly weighed in on the Burge

case.



"This brief is a group of non-usual suspects coming forward to implore the

court to seize the opportunity to declare emphatically that torture has no

place in our criminal justice system," said Bowman, legal director of the

MacArthur Justice Center at Northwestern University.



Former U.S. Attorney Thomas Sullivan said he signed on to stop the

piecemeal approach the Burge cases have taken in the past.



"I feel that it's important that there be a full judicial examination of

what went on...not case by case," Sullivan said.



Heidi Lambros, one of Wrice's attorneys, said the friend-of-the-court

brief was signed by "some heavy hitters" to help demonstrate an outside

perspective on the case.



She said she is also pleased with a brief filed Tuesday by students

working with the Chicago Innocence Project, who got affidavits from

witnesses in the Wrice case who say they were tortured into implicating

him.



Thompson said that while the hearings will take time and money, "the end

is worth it."



The Supreme Court could hear oral arguments in Wrice's case as early as

mid-September.