Raid on raisethefist.com UPDATE! - PBNB 1/25/02

Peoples Bark News Readers;
This is a followup to the Horrible News, if true! bulletin i sent out last night.
As there was no documentation i could include last night, i merely went on the credibility of my source.
This followup provides a little more detail to what appears to be an arrest and shutdown of the raisethefist.com website based in LA.
From what i am learning, sounds like the individual(s) with raisethefist.com took pictures of undercover police authorities and posted them on their website so other community organizers/activist would simply know who they were. i am sure there is probably more to it than that but for now that's what we have to go on.
i also spoke with someone and it sounds like there has been some verification via calls to the LA FBI that this did, indeed, happen.
There was a search warrant involved and according to the Feds, they do not have to disclose anything to anyone because of that.
The FBI person also stated that there was no raid. i will wait to hear what the raisethefist.com folks have to say on that before i comment one way or another.
i am enclosing an email with information/photos i received re: rockymountain indymedia.
It sounds like the person involved's first/last name is Sherman.
i will appreciate hearing from anyone with further documentation about this attack on raisethefist.com's premises.
It appears to me that the FBI went after raisethefist.com and does not expect repercussions or is figuring no one is watching. OR, they could
be seeking to draw more of us into their little net and raisethefist.com is their bait.
i am trying to determine if it is unlawful (felony/misdemeanor/other) to post photos of undercover authorities???? Doesn't sound like that big of a deal to me but this Sept. 11 thingie has got these "authorities" really wound up.
Well, to me, if raisethefist.com needs us, i say, throw me a hook and line - and hold the sinker - cause i don't plan on lettin' any feds deny me the right to support our friends in need.
Anyway, check this info out and please, anyone who can research this - especially those of you in the LA area, get back to me, better yet, also try and get in touch with activist/organizers in that area down there so they might be able to get in touch with and organize to help raisethefist.com
i have re-included the information that i sent out last night at the end of this email.

Here's the rockymountain info:

From: "fmrelay" <dave@. alumni.caltech.edu>
Reply-To: voterweststeering@. yahoogroups.com
Subject: [voterweststeering] Re: Horrible, if true! - PBNB 1/25/02
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 18:26:10 -0000
> Apparently, they're excuse for shutting it down was the
> 'militancy' portrayed on the site.

Militancy's not against the law.

--- In voterweststeering@y..., normaarm@a... wrote:
> No names? just "raisethefist.com founder"??? Misspellings throughout? Who are these people?

-------------------------

What I've found so far is that he's known in LA as a "Libertarian Socialist", named Sherman (I don't know if that's his first or last name). What the police really have against him could be that he was collecting photos of undercover cops -- e.g. these posted by
revolution@. raisethefist.com to the Rocky Mountain IndyMedia site.
Evidently, cops were photographing demonstrators and r.t.f. photographed them back.

http://rockymountain.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=1568&group=webcast

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PBNB Readers;
If the following news is true, and i believe it is, as i know the source, we are starting to "creep" eerily ever closer towards:

FASCISM: 1 -a. Totalitarianism marked by right-wing dictatorship and bellicose nationalism. 2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.
- The American Heritage Dictionary

Not that we haven't ALWAYS been, in some sense of the word, depending on your class, hue of your fleshtone, your gender, your sexual preference, your age, your thoughts - - meandering ever closer to the above (FASCISM) - also known as a POLICE STATE.



no peace without justice,

john vance, editor/publisher/coordinator
Peoples Bark News Berkeley
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeoplesBarkNewsBerkeley/messages

A First Amendment Center
http://www.freezepeach.cjb.net
Berkeley, Ca

-----------------------------------------------------
From: "ARON KAY" <pieman@. pieman.org>
Reply-To: bay_area_activist@. yahoogroups.com
Subject: raisethefist.com raided
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2002 15:34:35 -0500

LOS ANGELES, JAN 23 2002 - Heavily armed with high-powered machine guns, shotguns, and hand guns, the FBI, Secret Service, and Los Angeles Police Department surrounded the founder of raisethefist.com in his house. The founder was currently asleep, woken up by a relative who said fbi, police and undercover's were currently up and down all of the streets, with they're eyes focused on the premises. Raisethefist.com founder aproached the door were 2 FBI agents demanded that he step outside. Within seconds a swarm of FBI raided the house with automatic weapons and shot guns. Additional police and fbi also stayed on the
front lawn, around the house with a door barricade and additional weapons. "armed and ready".

FBI and secret service entered the house, seizing all servers and political literature. Raisethefist.com was currently being ran within the founder's room of the house, over a computer network. The room was literally ransacked, and all equipment, disks, cd's .. etc. were boxed up, loaded into a truck and seized until further notice.

Since 1999, raisethefist.com has been under extensive government monitering.
At times, Raisethefist.com has recieved over 100 hits from the U.S Department of Defense in a single day. The FBI, police department, NSA (and who else) continuously monitered the site on a daily basis. Even governments from the UK, Canada, Lavtia, Belgium, Egypt, Finland, and Australia monitered the site continuously.
The FBI had also previously intercepted all packets going through the DSL line hosting the site, and have seized additional accounts being used by the site.

In yet another successful attempt to silence our voices,
Raisethefist.com, an anarchist/activist independent media/collective has been shut down by the secret service.

"It's not yet known at this point if the site will be back up. As of now, we have nothing. No more servers, no more network, nothing. My room remains completly ransacked. My neighbors remain shaken up by what happened. I most likely won't be getting any of the equipment back. They also took alot of my political litature. Apparently, they're excuse for shutting it down was the 'militancy' portrayed on the site. This is not true. This was an excuse. This same 'militancy' they were concerned about is portrayed on at least a thousand other web sites across the internet, and they havn't been touched by the federal government, with the exception for remote monitoring.
Raisethefist.com was progressive. It was going somewhere. Kids started creating clubs in their schools called 'RaisetheFist'. People started
utilizing the collective as a powerful resource for the
activist/anarchist community. The federal government has been investigating me, and the site very closely, long before 9-11, and long before such militancy was even portrayed on the site. They knew the site had potential, that it was turning into something more than a site, but a strong collective utilized by activists throughout the world committed to social justice. And that's become a crime. Justice has become a crime. Freedom has become a crime. Anyone activly disagreeing with policies of the U.S is now automaticly rendered a "terrorist" in the eyes of national security.... Where raisethefist.com will go from here, I don't know. Based on what i've been told, i'll most likely be in jail, so most of my focus will be towards getting an attorney."

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no peace without justice,

john vance, editor/publisher/coordinator
Peoples Bark News Berkeley
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PeoplesBarkNewsBerkeley/messages

A First Amendment Center
http://www.freezepeach.cjb.net
Berkeley, Ca