Antiwar or Pro-Hezbollah?

During the Vietnam era, the “antiwar” movement was misnamed. Its leaders, for the most part, were not against war at all; they were just on the other side. Today a series of raids in Minneapolis and Chicago suggested that the same might be true of today’s antiwar movement. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports: “FBI raids homes of several Twin Cities war protesters.”

The homes of five Twin Cities activists, including three prominent leaders of the Twin Cities antiwar movement, were raided Friday by the FBI in what an agency spokesman described as an “investigation into activities concerning the material support of terrorism.” The office of an antiwar organization also was reportedly raided.

Among those raided were the leaders of the violent demonstrations that took place at the Republican convention in St. Paul in 2008. A radical lawyer who represents at least one of the suspects said that the search warrants executed by the FBI sought, among other things, information relating to travel to “Palestine” and Colombia.

[The lawyer] said, “They are looking at any connection between him and ‘FTO’s,’ foreign terrorist organizations, including but not limited to FARC, PFLP and Hezbollah,” and any support, contact or association with those groups. FARC is a revolutionary peasant organization in Columbia, and PFLP is the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Hezoballah is a political and paramilitary organization based in Lebanon.

It will be interesting to see what comes of the investigation.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses