The Bush administration announced in the last week of May that the FBI would be seizing vast additional powers to spy on the people of the United States. We must act now to stop this assault on our rights.
These powers pose a grave danger to civil liberties and civil rights, and will - unless defeated by the people - lead to a new round of persecution of people based on their political or religious convictions.

There was no vote in Congress. No public referendum. No judicial review. George Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI director Robert Mueller decided to unleash the FBI on people targeted by the Bush administration - not because they have committed a crime, not because they are being investigated for a crime. They will be targeted because the government has determined that their political or religious views or affiliations warrant surveillance, infiltration, and disruption of their personal lives or the organizations to which they belong.

Ashcroft and Mueller are adopting the tactics of the vicious reign of J. Edgar Hoover's secret police tactics that were used against unions, progressive groups, and African American, Latino and American Indian civil rights organizations. Tens of thousands of people lost their jobs, were falsely imprisoned, were deported or went into exile and were subject to government harassment. Scores of political activists in the Black Panther Party, the Young Lords Party and in many others movements were murdered by FBI COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence)
programs.

Pressure brought to bear on the government from the mass people's movements of the 1960s and 1970s eventually led to the government adopting new guidelines, purportedly designed to curb FBI abuse of people's rights. In fact, this kind of FBI abuse has never stopped. What is new is that the FBI is overtly shifting from focusing on criminal investigations into focusing on counter-intelligence programs - a code word for an attack on dissent and on political and religious organizations that Bush and Ashcroft have decided should be targeted. Following on the heals of the Patriot Act - which has put the CIA back into the business of domestic spying - the FBI and the CIA are teaming up to conduct secret police activities.

Since September 11, 2001, thousands of Muslim, Arab American and South Asian people have been subjected to the complete violation of their civil rights and civil liberties. Charitable organizations have had their assets seized. Thousands have been illegally detained.

Educational institutions, homes and businesses have been raided. And the FBI has carried out a massive interrogation campaign of people based on race, religion and ethnicity.

Bush, Ashcroft and the ultra-right are taking advantage of the so-called war on terrorism to beat back the First Amendment and the Bill of Rights. They think that people will be frightened and intimidated and unwilling to carry out a political mobilization to stop this attack on free speech.

As Bush proclaims endless war and diverts billions of dollars from social services to the military-industrial complex in the coming years, the government is putting into place repressive mechanisms aimed at stopping the growing anti-war movement in the United Sates.
We can defeat this attack on civil rights and civil liberties. We must unite against racism and racial profiling.

More than anything, the people of this country need to be back in the streets to let the government know that we will not be silenced and we will not be intimidated. Everything that we have learned from the union movement, the civil rights movement and the anti-war movements of the past is that the people can defeat the government's plans through their own mobilization.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

* *ENDORSE the June 29 protest!

* *DONATIONS are urgently needed! Tax-deductible contributions can be made online.

* *HELP GET THE WORD OUT - organize others to come to Washington DC on June 29. (downloadable flyers, local contacts and more will be available). We are calling on all nearby cities in the East Coast, South and Midwest to come to Washington DC on Saturday, June 29 for a regional demonstration at the FBI headquarters. If you can't make it to DC, organize a local action at a Federal Building on Friday, June 28.



------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR MORE INFORMATION
email ANSWER@afgj.org, or call New York 212-633-6646, Washington 202-332-5757, Chicago 773-583-7728, San Francisco 415-821-6545