Good News - Bad News

First the good news.... A federal judge has thrown out a section of the USA Patriot Act that bars giving expert advice or assistance to groups designated foreign terrorist organizations. An attorney who argued the case on behalf of a civil liberties group said the ruling marks the first court decision to declare a part of the Patriot Act unconstitutional. This is the first federal court decision declaring any part of the Patriot Act unconstitutional.

But in the bad news department, intimidation through the grand jury process has emerged like a Nazgul screaming and flaying freedom from our flesh while Cheney and Ashcroft the Uruks look on, sinister growls in their throats and evil smiles contorting their hideous faces. In the background you can see Smeagol Bush cavorting and simpering about "his precious."

The Des Moines Register reports that Wendy Vasquez has been supoenaed.

Federal authorities so far have refused to disclose what the investigation is about or what laws might have been broken. But an officer with the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force served a subpoena to Wendy Vasquez of Des Moines on Thursday morning.

Vasquez, an antiwar activist who visited Iraq in 2002, was surprised.

"Just the whole idea that somebody would think I'm a terrorist is ludicrous," she said.

Vasquez's summons was the latest grand jury subpoena issued as part of a federal investigation that includes three other antiwar activists, as well as records of an activist legal group at Drake.

Vasquez was among dozens of activists who attended a Nov. 15 conference at Drake called "Stop the Occupation! Bring the Iowa Guard Home!"

The conference was hosted by the Drake Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. The event was followed the next day by a demonstration at the Iowa National Guard Headquarters in Johnston where 12 protesters were arrested.

I've met Wendy Vasquez and I know that she is a person of conscience. The federal grand jury in Des Moines has targeted Quakers and Mennonites and other members of the Iowa Peace Network who have long opposed the Iraq War.

I hope that bloggers of conscience who oppose the war will make visible this attempt by the Federal Government to stifle protest thorugh the use of the Federal Grand Jury.

Addition... I see that Kos has blogged this message from Brian Terrell, Executive Director of the Catholic Peace Ministry:

Yesterday, February 3, Detective Jeff Warford of the Polk County Sheriff's Office-FBI-Joint Terrorism Task Force came to Catholic Peace Ministry's office here in Des Moines with a subpoena for me to testify before a Federal Grand Jury next Tuesday, February 10. Mr. Warford also served papers on Elton Davis at the Catholic Worker House and Patti McKee, who was coordinator of Iowa Peace Network until last month. The Grand Jury process is shrouded in secrecy. We do not know who or what the object of this investigation may be, beyond "possible violations of federal criminal law in the Southern District of Iowa."
The proceeding will be behind closed doors. We may not have an attorney present. We have the right to plead the Fifth Amendment, refusing the answer questions that might incriminate us. The government, then, can offer us immunity from prosecution, in which case we will obliged to answer under threat of contempt of court and could be imprisoned for the length of the Grand Jury session, 18 months, should we continue to refuse to answer. This immunity would be limited to our own testimony and anything any of us say could be used against the others.

Whatever is going on, this is definitely an escalation on the part of the government's war on dissent and clamp down on civil liberties. The fact that anything that we three and the peacemaking communities we represent could possibly attract the notice of a "Terrorism Task Force" is reprehensible. Please spread the word, express concerns you have with Federal and Polk County authorities. Keep us in mind and prayer.