Baltimore-Washington Area Peace Council: Stop the Repression Against Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists

Eric H. Holder, Jr.
Attorney General of the United States
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

Mr. Holder:

I am writing to you in my capacity as President of the Baltimore-Washington Area Peace Council, which is a chapter of the U.S. Peace Council. I am also the elected President of American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), Local 17, AFL-CIO. I am as well my Union local’s Delegate to AFGE Council 1, on whose Executive Board I serve.

I condemn the FBI harassment of anti-war and solidarity activists in Chicago and Minneapolis, including the coordinated raid and ransacking of about a half dozen homes and at least one office on Friday, September 24, 2010; the handing of subpoenas to testify before a federal grand jury to around a dozen activists in Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan, and; the attempted intimidation of activists in California and North Carolina.

I urge you to order the FBI to halt at once this harassment of the peace and solidarity movements, which is aimed at suppressing First Amendment freedoms of speech, the press, assembly, and petition. The government’s apparent desire to use a grand jury to frame activists is a disgrace, as are FBI claims here of “material support of terrorism.”

Accordingly, I add my voice to the demand that you stop the repression against anti-war and international solidarity activists; immediately return all confiscated materials (computers, cell phones, papers, documents, etc.), and; end the grand jury proceedings against anti-war activists.

William Angulo Preston, Esq.
—
President
Baltimore-Washington Area Peace Council,
a chapter of the U.S. Peace Council