UPDATE: After reading a statement to the grand jury, Feldman returned to the Twin Cities Thursday night with a subpoena to appear again one month from now. More, including the text of the statement, here.

Early Tuesday evening, Twin Cities activist Carrie Feldman was pulled over by Cedar Rapids, Iowa FBI agents and served a subpoena (PDF) to appear in Davenport, Iowa federal court. The subpoena, dated October 6, originally asked her to appear on Wednesday morning; that date has been pushed back to Thursday at 1pm. No other activists are known to have been subpoenaed. Feldman was also informed that her high school attendance records from 2004 were under investigation. (Read her personal statement below.)

Grand juries have been a leading tool of the Green Scare--the demonization and repression of both legal and illegal activities carried out by environmentalist and animal rights/animal liberation activists. The hearings are particularly troublesome for their secrecy; even the witnesses called to testify are often left wondering what the investigation is about. In this case, too, the nature of the investigation is at present completely unknown and left to the speculation of observers. However, a check of the Omaha, Nebraska FBI Field Office website (the office serves all of Iowa) shows that the FBI is prioritizing its investigation into a November, 2004 Animal Liberation Front action at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

Related: Grand Juries 101 PDF zine | EWOK!/MidwestGreenScare.org

 

WARNING: Black SUV just pulled over & served out-of-state federal grand jury subpoena on local. Watch out: US Attorneys fishing around town!!

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More details are not known/available at this time but please be on the lookout!

For more info on Grand Juries as an instrument of state repression, fishing expeditions and everything EXCEPT challenging powerful criminals check: http://grandjuryresistance.org/ ,
and http://midnightspecial.net/projects/grandjury/files/GJRP_Brochure.pdf

Los Angeles Indymedia hosts James and Bronwyn of KPFK's "Indymedia On Air" invited TCIMC's Nigel Parry to appear together with Jessica McPherson from Pittsburgh Indymedia and Ted Forsyth from Rochester Indymedia to talk about the G-20 in Pittsburgh. Topics covered included the increasing militarization of these kinds of events, Indymedia's reporting of the protests around the Summit, the police targeting of journalists and the LRAD.

http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/10/battening-down-the-hatches-secret-state-monitors-protest-represses-dissent/

Battening Down the Hatches: Secret State Monitors Protest, Represses Dissent

by Tom Burghardt / October 12th, 2009 DISSIDENT VOICE

As social networking becomes a dominant feature of daily life, the secret state is increasingly surveilling electronic media for what it euphemistically calls “actionable intelligence.”

 To oppose Columbus day, a group of white Minnesota residents dropped banners at the Fort Snelling visitor center in solidarity with Dakota people for whom Fort Snelling is a site of genesis and genocide.

No more lies, no more land theft. 

The conversion of the Riverside coal-burning power plant, operated by Xcel Energy, from coal to natural gas will be commemorated tomorrow at a public ceremony on site in Northeast Minneapolis. Riverside is located on the Mississippi River between North and Northeast Minneapolis. The coal plant has been operating since 1911 and was the largest single source of air pollution in Minneapolis.

Changes made to the way the plant operates and the switch from dirty coal to more clean burning natural gas will cut dangerous air pollution substantially:

Sulfur dioxide (SO2)  is a precursor to fine particulates, which can cause people to develop asthma and aggravate existing lung and circulatory problems – cut 99%.
Nitrogen oxide (NOx) or smog will damage lung tissues, causing asthma attacks and other health problems – cut 96%
Particulates or soot, which are linked to lung and circulatory system problems – cut 86%
Mercury, a potent neurotoxin which can lead to developmental problems in kids and the reason every body of water in Minnesota is under a fish consumption advisory – cut 100%

The Audacity of Hype! Not since Henry Kissinger was given "the Peace Prize" in 1973 has the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize involved such a sad and tragic irony. Between now and delivering his "Peace" Prize acceptance speech, Obama will be sending drones to bomb mostly collaterally innocent people every week (in their homes, marketplaces, villages, and even wedding parties). He will be continuing to operate George 'Dubya' Bush's practically beyond-the-law, rendition-torture gulags (notoriously, Gitmo & Bagram). He will be expanding the technological advancements, types and potential "usability" of U.S. nuclear weapons (while supposedly also being awarded "for his attempts to curb nuclear proliferation"). And, he will be, upon their every request, militarily resupplying a racist apartheid state (Israel) with cumulatively billions of dollars worth of cluster, DIME and phosphorus bombs, no matter how many fleeing families upon whom that state will use those execrable terror weapons. The Nobel Peace Committee must still be high on the 'Obamalade' to make such a blatant mockery of what the Nobel prize for peace(!) should stand for. Or, should they now call it the Nobel "Peace Is War" Prize? [ --JA]

 Anti-Columbus Day Statement

President Obama's award of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday added him to a list of laureates that in addition to legendary human rights activists includes such other warmakers as Al Gore and Henry Kissinger.  However, his escalation of the war in Afghanistan--he's currently debating whether to send an additional 40,000 troops to supplement that occupation--has not made him popular in the Twin Cities on this, the 8th anniversary of that war's beginning.

On Wednesday - as some do every Wednesday at evening rush hour - people gathered at the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue bridge to bear witness to the war, which in Afghanistan has killed unknown thousands of civilians and 869 U.S. soldiers. "For 8 years, the people of Afghanistan have suffered attacks on their families and the destruction of their homes and villages. We say this is 8 years too many!" declared a statement by the vigil organizers.

Related: Rochester IMC | Washington, DC (1, 2, 3) | New York City | San Francisco | Minneapolis: March October 17 | Recruiting Station Cleared Out