I hesitate to forward this, because in the 60s and 70s, when we were child-rebels thinking of ourselves as 'revolutionaries' but having no strategy to take state power and the productive forces, we were disrupted, became mutually suspicious within organizations and between organizations. This, leading to self-destruction on the one hand and focusing on victims of government murders and incarcerations on the other, helped defeat the movement. Bearing this in mind, I nevertheless forward this as an FYI.
Lil Joe ======= Al_Jazeerah New COINTELPRO campaign directed at Arabs, Muslims and South East Asians By Abdus Sattar Ghazali BERKELEY, CA: Similar to the COINTELPRO operation against the African Americans during the 1960s, the Arab, Muslim and South East Asian communities are currently facing a new FBI counter intelligence program, says Dr. Hatem Bazian, Professor at the Near East and Ethnic Studies Department, University of California, Berkeley. COINTELPRO is the acronym for a series of FBI counterintelligence programs designed to neutralize political dissidents. In the 1960s and 1970s _ the program was directed against the civil rights movements, and especially against the community leadership of African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans. In the 1980s there was a program against Central American solidarity groups. In a speech entitled, the New COINTELPRO campaign directed at Arabs, Muslims and South East Asians, Dr. Bazian said that the present FBI operations directed at Arabs and Muslims and South Asians, which it deems to be the enemies of state, have similarities between what took place in 1960s and what is taking place now. He added that all sub_divisions _ such as ethnic groupings, immigrants or indigenous and ideological differentiations of the Muslims, Arabs and South Asians are included as target by the counter Intelligence operation. Dr. Bazian went on to say that as pinpointed by Brian Glick author of War At Home, four methods were employed by the FBI during the height of the Cointelpro poperation during 1960s and the same methods are being employed now which are: 1) Infiltration. 2) Psychological warfare from outside. 3) Harassment through the legal system. 4) Extra legal force and violence. He graphically explained how the community has been affected by the arrests, raids or search warrants against the Muslim, Arab and South Asian individuals, groups and organizations. In the hour long speech at the UC Berkeley campus, he also exposed the media frenzy created by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security by pre_arranging media coverage of these arrests, raids or search warrants. Through legal harassment, he added, the government can set in motion a great size of fear which begins to permeate every sector of the targeted community. A number of areas in the US have been hard hit by the government legal campaign and it will take sometimes before we are recovered both financially and organizationally to national level. Dr. Bazian argued that the arrests, raids or search warrants campaign is redirecting the agenda of the Muslim, Arab and South Asian individuals, groups and organizations while the legal cases are draining resources of the community. Infiltration in the Arab, Muslim and South East Asian community Explaining the infiltration in the Arab, Muslim and South East Asian groups and organizations, Dr. Bazian said: "In my opinion the period of recruitment was put into place immediately after 9/11 and is still underway, three years removed after the tragic events." The Infiltration is underway, under the premise of security America from the sleeper cells, he added. He believes that the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI arms have reached the limit in the recruitment campaign and every major Arab and Muslim and South East Asian organization or center must have someone on the job of collecting information for big brother. "The discredit and disrupt phase has just started and rest assure that it will kick into high gear in the next few years, considering the personnel inducted by the Bush administration in his second term." Dr. Bazian said that the Israeli centric members of the American society is offering its services for collecting information about the Muslims for its own ideological reason which is to benefit of the security of Israeli political and economic interests in America. "Many Israeli centric individuals and organizations view with great alarm the increase in numbers and assertiveness of American Muslim and Arab communities. Since it has potential in the long run of causing the reconsideration of the existing policies vis a vis Israel and the Middle East." "The infiltration program directed by the Israeli centric grouping has longer experience in this field and is also able to recruit from a diverse group of personnel that speak Arabic and served possibly in some capacity in the occupied territory. The Israeli centric groups include the Front Page Magazine and Campus Watch of Denial Pipes. The Anti_Discrimination League (ADL) has for a long time been engaged in collecting information as well," he added. He believes that at this point that the Department of homeland Security and the FBI have already developed a database which contains the name of every local, regional and national leader in the Arab, Muslim and South East Asian communities. The current infiltration program has a two fold goal: one, arrest those who might express support to Ben Laden; and second, which is more important these days, focusing on the pro_Palestinian sentiments among the targeted communities. When we look at all the cases emerged after 9/11, the overwhelming majority cases that we are confronted have to do more with the Palestinian issue rather than Osama Ben Laden and the US while many of the pro_Israeli activists have been constantly trying to make that link, thus discrediting pro_Palestinian activists for speaking out for Palestine. Psychological warfare from outside Second major tool employed during the height of Cointelpro operation was psychological warfare from outside at the targeted group, Dr. Bazian said, which is now done through 24/7 negative campaign against the Muslims, Arabs and South East Asians in the mainstream media. Under the psychological warfare, during 60s and 70s, the security agencies planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by agents, and manipulated or strong_armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists. At present the security agencies provide negative stories about Muslims, Arabs and South East Asians that often have no connection to what is taking place, he said adding the it is intended to maintain a siege mentality among members of targeted groups. It is thought that constant external psychological pressure would lead to behavior modification in the targeted group. A basic behavior modification program has been directed at the Arabs, Muslims and South Asians to bring about a complete change in their world view. "The message from the negative campaign is that the problem is in what you believe and with whom you associate. And if you change it completely, leave those whom you associate with, then you will be accepted as normal and positive member of the American community." Dr. Bazian pointed out that the leading cases of arrest of individuals, the exposure of some secret groups training in a hamlet and account of money movements, all intended to keep the psychological pressure on the targeted community. Yet a number of these cases are real and the evidence was with the prosecution, but the overwhelming numbers of all others are nothing more than a psychological tool to employ for the specific purpose of containment. The number of cases directly related to 9/11 are limited to one or possibly two, however the continuous stream of arrests and charges brought against Arabs, Muslims and South East Asians are intended to maintain the psychological pressure, he said. "We have 266 other cases that we are dealing with in the courts today. None of them have anything with the activities of 9/11. Three years since 9/11, we don't have their actual names from the 1000 arrests and 266 cases. Harassment through the legal system Dr. Bazian argued that one of the most powerful tool at the disposal of the FBI and the DHS is the legal system which can be deployed as an instrument of control rather than basic adjudication of dispute between various parties, including the government. "During the early days of the 20th century the Justice Department perfected the use of legal system in a campaign of harassment and intimidation directed towards anarchists and communists alike, presently we are witnessing once again the use of legal system in a well designed campaign directed against the leadership and activists in the Arab, Muslim and South East Asian communities." Dr. Hatem Bazian summarized the goal of harassment through legal system in the following 10 forms: First: Through the legal process the FBI and the DHS structures immediately put the individuals and organizations out of business, since an arrest or search warrant is intended to halt all activities carried out by the identified subject. Second: By arresting or charging or serving a search warrant the FBI and DHS can immediately produce negative responses in the community towards those individuals and groups targeted. It is common to speak in private and they most likely to say that they must have done something otherwise the FBI would not have come after it. Third: The legal process allows for media frenzy to take place, and a wider negative campaign permeated the society towards targeted individuals and groups. Fourth: Through the arrests and raids and searches, the FBI and the DHS people are able to indirectly set the agenda of activities of the community organizations since Immediately after the arrest, the targeted communities, groups or individuals would begin to mobilize for some type of a legal response. Five: Another more damaging outcome of the approach is the real possibility of split and fallout among the community members, who begin to point the finger at each other and those who are arrested, charged or searched. Six: The legal process allows for new and less experienced people emerge at the local community scene. And their initial task is figuring out who is who and what needs to be done when the group is under siege. These are the moments that make it possible for infiltration to take position and power in the community. Seven: The legal process is very expensive and if the community groups, for most part the second and third generation immigrants and their limited resources are required to mount a large number of legal battles then their financial position is greatly impacted. Take for example, Prof. Sami Al Arian's case in Florida, where the retainer for the lawyers was upwards than $ 650,000 and the financial cost of the law suit is expected to go for about 2.5 million dollars by the end of this legal battle. Eighth: The legal harassment also leads to disrupting national networks built over years of trust and relationship developed over generations. When legal battle developed one of its outcome is the destruction of those relations and the planting of seeds of doubt and mistrust among people who had long standing relations for over a generation. Nine: The regional and national panel of organizations and rules begin to take more of a localized characteristic, due to the pre_occupation with the legal battle governed by the specific association and reference to them. As such Chicago Muslims of South East Asia begin to focus mainly on their own field. While (Muslims in) Dallas and New Jersey will be pre_occupied with their own set of legal cases that will be against furthering the national networks. Ten: Fear is a very important commodity and its introduction as an instrument of control is a strategic one. Fearful people will accept a variety of initiatives that under normal conditions will be considered unthinkable. The legal tools are intended to bring about fear and provide a lesson to everyone in the Muslim, Arab and South East Asian communities. The extra legal force and violence The extra legal force and violence happened in the 60s and 70s but not yet deployed against the Muslim, Arab and South East Asian communities, Dr. Bazian said. However, he added, that one can argue that this has been used through the massive arrests and torture of prisoners in the US. This is something that we accept but we don't have yet extra legal force and violence against the community directly but we should be watchful for this in the future. One the positive developments in encountering the government campaign, Dr. Bazian sees an increasing resistance emerging in the Muslim, Arab and South East Asian communities in many places with concentration of Muslim and Arab population such as Chicago, New York and Texas. In this perspective, he pointed out that the 650,000 dollar retainer to lawyers of Professor Sami Al Arian of the University of South Florida was raised by the community on a national level. The government has handed Dr. Sami Al Arian, who is in solitary confinement for three years, a 49 count indictment which allows foreign intelligence sources, Israeli sources, to be admitted into the court against him. Another important development, according to Dr. Bazian, is coalition building across the racial and ethnic lines. The coalition of the Japanese community was in the forefront to the support of the Muslim, Arab and South East Asian communities. This was followed by the Asian Law office as well as many other ethnic communities which came to develop modes of collation building for the long term, Dr. Hatem Bazian added. _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
