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Horrible News, if true! - PBNB 1/25/02

by illegal alien
Publishing news/events promoting peace.
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 [at] pieman.org>
Reply-To: bay_area_activist [at] 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 continuesly.
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 monitering.
Raisethefist.com was progresive. 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."

add your comments
by Mike (stepbystepfarm [at] shaysnet.com)
What are the charges?

There is reference here to servers, reference to the person arrested being the founder of the SITE raisethefist.com

We are expected to draw the INFERENCE that the two are connected. Probably right. Possibly wrong.

All I want to point out here is that people with servers are usually hosting multiple sites. People good and valuable in some ways may be destructive in others.

I don't seriously doubt that the "REAL REASONS" this server was raided and this person arrested are political. But at the same time I fear we will shortly learn that the offical charges will be about something entirely different -- and they might be justified.
by Spider Jerusalem
"Militancy"? It was just a web site. Words! So you mean "militant" speech is their crime?!?! Fucking fascist dingleberries!

Everyone, please look at the bigger picture.

The vigilante media movement (the words "independent media" being too particular to IMC) is going to be attacked and broken, same as the militia movement was in the 90s. Many more sites like raisethefist.com will soon be taken down, while others are discredited from without and within.

Bush has promised a War Year - with who? The Taliban had no chance. Bush knows something we don't. Somalia, Iraq, Columbia.. there are at LEAST 3 new wars already on the secret calendar. I don't mean anticipated, I mean scheduled and GOING TO HAPPEN. It's just a matter of breaking the news to us slowly, using events both real and contrived along the way to try and justify each new step as it is revealed.

The White House knows we'll feed on the reality of war. They know the anti-war movement will grow. They know it'll be the 60s all over again.

Unless they break the back of the independent media movement along the way.

raisethefist.com was not an isolated incident, nor the first of its kind, nor anything even remotely resembling the last. A lot more of this will be happening soon, and all for the same reason. Legalities will not matter, they'll take us down, feed us to the bureacracy, and laugh as we try to defend ourselves with rules they wrote. Meanwhile they'll move on to the next target.

The enemy is no longer coming, nor right outside the door. They're moving in as we speak.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have incoming fire and Charlie is inside the perimiter.

*Sj
by s
Does anyone know any more about this? Who is the person who ran it? Has anyone seen the site who could tell us a bit more about the contents? Where did this story originate?
by cccc
You can see the old site at this address: http://web.archive.org/web/20010813211531/raisethefist.com/index1.html
by mr. k
Parts of raisethefist.com are still in the google cache. See http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/01/114474.php for more info.
by aram James (abjpd1 [at] juno.com)
where is the link for the archive for http://www.raiseafist.com? I'd like to read what they were up to and why the FBI and their gang destroyed this site.
by mr. k
Link to Google archive: http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/01/114495.php#114499

Additional coverage at LA-IMC: http://la.indymedia.org/display.php3?article_id=14354 (this was the initial report, at 11:49pm Thu Jan 24)
by warcry
A heads up eh?

How can we protect ourselves? What pre-emptive steps can we take to, if not ensure security - at least make it more difficult for the feds to disrupt activist/anarchist activity and organizing. Looks like this crackdown gestapo shit is just going to get worst.

We need to get together and strategize as a movement specifically on security issues.

Maybe they're taking our 'smash the state' rhetoric too seriously.
:)
wc
by anonymous
Archived versions of the site are here:

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.raisethefist.com

Some things might be broken, but you should be able to access most of the text on the site.

by anonymous (donor13 [at] hotmail.com)

I have a little anti-war/anti-facism page that i've made that i've updated with links to this story here on IMC. Please spread this URL around and take a look yourself. If you have anything to add, please contact me. Thank you.
by o.O
http://www.freenetproject.org .. for all those who dont know.

It's a good thing(TM).
by Heather Nordstrom (bnblobby [at] hotmail.com)
We will stand with raised fists no matter which governments or organizations try to repress us!
- Heather from Books Not Bars (Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, in the Bay Area.)
by JoeyNormal
RTF is real. I have known its founders since before its inception. Make no mistake, this site existed.

Also, no charges have been layed, whoich makes this seizure even more abhorrent.
by Mike
Get over it. This kid was, in all senses of the word, a complete moron. The fact that you know about the arrest at all means that he's being given due process, and you all seem to be conveniently overlooking the fact that he _did_ commit federal crimes, which he then cleverly confessed to in print.

To be perfectly honest, I feel a lot more threatened by left-wing militant psychopaths with anarchistic revolutionary agendas than I do by the U.S. government. I agree that there are problems with civil liberties in this country, but rebellion and terrorism are not viable solutions to that problem.

All other issues aside, he knew the government was huge, well-armed, and capable of finding him. He was asking for trouble, and he got it. Lock him up and throw away the key, I say. No one has any use for brainless demogauges.
by eric (kelliel3o@!hotmail.com)
I had a severe case of no charges against me,the fed,irs,undercover narcotic agent and 10 other feds in my home. Said I had 20lbs and currancy. It led to a 5 hour iinnterrorgation. Thay found nothing and interrogated me about a person i vegley knew and don"t believe me.Talked to a lawyer and he said I would do 356 months. Remember no charges have been made. No drugs that they said I had,and im looking for 356 months in prison for what.where the evidence?hearsay!LIES? I do not get it. write back PLEASE
by brigg
Don Quixote rides again!

by FILTHY
im sure you'll be sayin that one day when your in prison on evidence created by the police state. oh wait you already are in prison ur in america!!! and the prison is all the more secure since u cannot see the walls. ingeniusly created eh?
by heydude
for christ's sake FILTHY, I've been reading your stuff all day and can't stand it.

It's "you're stupid", not "your stupid".

'You're stupid' as in 'you are stupid.'

Not 'your stupid' as in 'your stupid mind'.
by FILTHY
You certainly are picky, I do have a degree in Fincance from Texas A&M University. I was not aware of the fact that I was being graded for grammar. My most sincere apologies. LOL I think you might want to take note that this site is about content not grammar.
by FILTHY
You certainly are picky, I do have a degree in Fincance from Texas A&M University. I was not aware of the fact that I was being graded for grammar. My most sincere apologies. LOL I think you might want to take note that this site is about content not grammar.
by GG
Degree in FINANCE. That's MATH. No words required there. Proofread your work or you WILL BE SHOT. Bad spellers, please form an orderly line in front of the oven. Please add your shoes to ze pile. Herr Doktor will be checking your mouth for gold fillings. Women to ze right, men to ze left.
by patrick henry
I posted on R.T.F. for almost a year and enjoyed what I saw .
I hope that the challenge to our rights to a free media are continually met with more sites like R.T.F.

Good luck and thank you for your time
by Matt (paintbal24 [at] aol.com)
Thats fuking bullshit I knew the person who ran the site personally and he wasnt a terrorist. All he was doing was putting what were some things that were fucking out of place in our govenrmant to light.I will say this I LOVE THIS COUNTRY BUT I HATE THE FUCK HEADS THAT RUN IT.
by Matt (paintbal24 [at] aol.com)
Thats fuking bullshit I knew the person who ran the site personally and he wasnt a terrorist. All he was doing was putting what were some things that were fucking out of place in our govenrmant to light.I will say this I LOVE THIS COUNTRY BUT I HATE THE FUCK HEADS THAT RAN IT.
by Matt (paintbal24 [at] aol.com)
Thats fuking bullshit I knew the person who ran the site personally and he wasnt a terrorist. All he was doing was putting what were some things that were fucking out of place in our govenrmant to light.I will say this I LOVE THIS COUNTRY BUT I HATE THE FUCK HEADS THAT RAN IT.
by mike
i thik oyu are such a great guy, anyone that would go to that extent of trying to bring down the givernment deserves some kind of reward!!! you are my hero, i wish i could get the balls to srart up a site like yours. your the best.
by filthy
I'm in line for my gestapo grammar beating. Maybe I'll learn next time to keep my comments to "heil bush," with proper puctuation of course. I will remember my place, also, and remember to smile when my nazi superiors spit on me in the gutter, and I will say, "Yes massa, I love servin you massa." I will get a job with a big corporation, maybe like IBM, so that I can wear one of those spiffy blue suits, and I will never be late to work, god forbid. I will attend church on sundays and give all my money to the church, so that they can think for me. I do not want to think any more. I want to be assimilated. I want one world order, where someone else thinks for me. I don't want to have fun. I want to be boring. I want to be bored. I want to starve unless my nazi superiors give me the food that they have made me realize I do not deserve. Please take me in, nazi benefactors!!!!! I beg of thee!!!!
by ........
You know, I don't know what to think of this article. Raise the Fist is up and running. Check it out.
http://www.raisethefist.com
by ....
Raisethefist is a 1 of a kind site. smart and to 2 the point.
Zionist infiltration was to a minimum, so 1 could actually witness a free flowing dialouge and an educational one at that.
Any intelligent site that may pose a threat to the reptiles in charge is shut for any number of reasons.
The zioist entity is ultra threatened by Israelis and Jews waking up and freeing themselves from the chains of zionism- and whenever indymedia.org.il is out of control, the zionists shut it down indefinietely...
(Today is the 8th consecutive day that "independent" media israel has been shut down.)
S.F indymedia is also infiltrated by this reptiles as is indymedia Jerusalem.
(when 1 tries to use the "search engine" )on the Palestinian website, 1 inevitably gets the FORBIDDEN Access sign.

The powers that be Are so threatened by raisethefist because it wasn't for sale!
( UNLIKE INDYMEDIA S.F -
WHICH WAS SOLD TO THE FEDS)

Incarcerating the webmaster was the last desperate attempt to control the controversial content of this beloved site!
Thge question is where do we send funds for the speedy release of our humble Comrad?
by George
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

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