In Chicago, Protesters ‘Subpoena’ U.S. Attorney: Video
Erin Schumaker and Kailash Srinivasan
Opposing war is not a crime! That’s the message activists — mostly members of Students for a Democratic Society from Chicago colleges — delivered to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald on Friday, January 14 in downtown Chicago.
About 35 activists gathered at the city’s Federal Plaza to protest an ongoing grand jury investigation, directed by Fitzgerald’s district of the Justice Department, into “material support” for “foreign terrorist organizations.” The grand jury and the FBI are investigating the activists for expressing support for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — two organizations currently on the State Department’s “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” list. (See In These Times’ January 2010 cover story, “Terrorist by Association.”
Since September 2010, the grand jury has subpoenaed 23 antiwar, solidarity and labor activists in Chicago and Minneapolis — including nine people told to testify in Chicago on January 25. Taking after the FBI, which has worked with the Justice Department’s investigation, on Friday protesters delivered a subpoena to Fitzgerald. He didn’t meet with protesters, but a security guard at the federal building he works in said he would deliver it to him.
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