'The FBI Is Approaching Seattle Climate-Change Activists'

[Popular Front of Judea]

It's not 1919. Feel free to discuss the dictatorship of the proletariat -- but don't think of stepping in front of a bulldozer.


Earlier this month, Ansel posted (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/07/03/is-the-fbi-approaching-local-climate-activists) about climate-change activists who had supposedly been visited by FBI agents. That raised the specter of another grand jury circus: raids on the homes of activists, subpoenas, the question of how far the FBI will go to conduct social mapping of local protest networks, and the possibility of more grand-jury refusers winding up in solitary confinement after declining to answer questions about other people's politics. (If you missed the last go-round, to do with the downtown vandalism on May Day of 2012, see here (http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/christmas-in-prison/Content?oid=15565849) and here (http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/freedom-is-frustrating/Content?oid=16403520) and a big old Google roundup here. (https://www.google.com/search?q=%22grand+jury%22+%22brendan+kiley%22&oq=%22grand+jury%22+%22brendan+kiley%22&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i62l3.5497j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8))
A few days ago, six activists released a statement to The Stranger confirming that they were approached by FBI agents—two of the three agents left business cards identifying themselves as special agent Matthew Acker and special agent Kera O'Reilly—who, the activists say, asked about opposition to tar sands development and brought photographs, hoping the activists would identify the people in them. (Local anti-tar sands activists staged a protest at the Canadian consulate (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/03/seattle-police-arrest-two-tar-sands-protesters-at-canadian-consulate) in early April.)


The FBI Is Approaching Seattle Climate-Change Activists | Seattle Stranger (http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/07/17/yes-the-fbi-is-approaching-climate-change-activists)

[Os Cangaceiros]

It's not 1919. Feel free to discuss the dictatorship of the proletariat -- but don't think of stepping in front of a bulldozer.

Or visit jihadist websites, or belong to militant anti-abortion or far right groups, or are involved in human/drug trafficking, etc. I'm pretty sure that the far left isn't high on the FBI's priority list at the moment; I do agree about that

Any political movement that destroys property in pursuit of it's goals is going to catch the attention of the FBI, though, regardless of how progressive (or regressive) it's politics are. The radical environmentalist movement in the pacific northwest didn't gain attention outside of the local news when it was just tree hugging and obstructing bulldozers, it drew widespread attention after a series of spectacular arsons.

If communists started torching buildings from coast to coast you could bet that they'd be getting visits from the feds too. So action like that always draws more attention than rhetoric alone. But that should be no surprise.

[Popular Front of Judea]

Threatening present or future infrastructure -- pipelines etc -- is a good way of gaining attention. The FBI has a rather flexible definition of threat as we all I hope know.