EDITORIAL
What Iowa proves ...
A storm of protest in Iowa and across the
country has torpedoed the federal government's attempt to
investigate four peace activists and Drake University in Des
Moines.
In early February, Polk County Sheriff's Deputy Jeff Warford
served grand jury subpoenas on the activists and Drake
officials. The business cards he left behind identified him as
a member of an FBI-Joint Terrorism Task Force. The four
activists had taken part in an anti-war conference at Drake on
Nov. 15, hosted by the National Lawyers Guild.
Federal authorities ordered the uni versity to turn over any
security records containing descriptions of or observations
from the conference, including "any records of persons in
charge or in control of the meeting and any records of
attendees of the meeting."
The subpoena also required university officials to deliver
membership information for the Drake chapter of the National
Lawyers Guild. Federal officials said publicly on Feb. 9 that
the grand jury inquiry was focusing on whether a Nov. 16
anti-war protest in which activists trespassed at Camp Dodge
was "planned" at the conference at Drake.
Bruce Nestor, a Minneapolis lawyer for the NLG, filed court
papers that day asking that federal investigators be compelled
to explain their actions. "To the extent that the grand jury is
being employed for the purposes of ... intimidating and
harassing supporters of the peace or anti-war movement," he
wrote, "the grand jury has clearly overstepped its
authority."
As indignation and anger spread like wildfire, the grand
jury appearances of the four activists were postponed. And
then, on Feb. 10, the subpoenas were dropped altogether. "We
made them want to stop," Brian Terrell, leader of the Catholic
Peace Ministry and one of the four targeted by the federal
probe, told a crowd of about 100 cheering people outside the
federal courthouse. "We're here to make them want to never let
it happen again." Signs in the crowd read, "Say no to political
grand juries," "You can subpoena us, but you will not silence
us," and "Investigate Halliburton, not Iowans."
This struggle has much more political significance than the
much-ballyhooed Iowa caucuses. It shows that, through
uncompromising independent political action, this right-wing
government can be pushed back.
Reprinted from the Feb. 19, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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