Weblog Entry - 08/19/2002: "Freedom of Speech for "suspects"?"

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08/19/2002 "Freedom of Speech for "suspects"?"

This long history of an individual who merely passes out informational press releases from the ALF is instructive.
You can work to change the laws but if your opposition is to the war on drugs (poor people) or to the torture of animals you will become a target for destruction by your government. Those who want to know how I came to believe this should see my own story by;
going back to my home page (click the graphic to your left at the top of this blog)
or go to the Index at the bottom of this blog,
and click on the words, "Higher Consciousness".
You can click off the pictures of the cats in order to better read the story.
Why is drug or animal social change work guaranteed to bring out the forces of oppression?
Because you are messing with the big exploiters-the profiteers-and the man is going to unleash the Hounds from Hell against you. Don't mess with their right to control what you take into your body - they've got ownership rights on drugs they want to $ sell $.
Do not mess with their right to torture and kill animals for $ profit $. Especially, do not mess with the elite university educated "researchers" right to torture and kill.
There is no freedom of speech in America unless your speech is harmless. If you disagree look up your state's disorderly conduct laws.
Remember, the ALF has NEVER harmed, in any way, a human being. If the Boss tells you humans have been physically harmed by actions of the ALF- he is lying. Ask him to prove it and send me the proof.

Front spokesperson by David Barbarash North American A.L.F. Press Office Aug. 18, 2002
On Tuesday July 30, 9 members of the RCMP, Canada's national police agency led by Cpl. Derrick Ross of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (see sidebar article, "Insidious INSET" below),
executed a Search Warrant and raided my home and office in Courtenay, British Columbia. The search and seizure was carried out on behalf of law enforcement from two counties in the State of Maine, under the auspices of the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Treaty.
Although no one was home at the time, and access to the house could easily have been gained by breaking a window or picking a lock (the latter of which they would normally do to install electronic
eavesdropping devices), the RCMP felt it somehow necessary to kick in the door. The wood was shattered, the window was cracked, and the doorframe and wall were damaged, all of which made the door completely unusable. When the police completed their search at 6:30 pm, ten and a
half hours after they began, they screwed in a sheet of chipboard over the doorway, leaving behind ransacked rooms, scattered files and garbage, and probably a few more bugs in the walls and ceilings.
Seized from my home were both my computers, dozens of computer disks, hundreds of videos, miscellaneous photos, files, and papers, four U.S. postal mail bags, plus documents and files seized (and later returned) from previous RCMP raids. One might reasonably suspect that there was some recent ALF action of immense and costly proportions in which I was suspected of having some
involvement to warrant such a cross-border raid, but in fact the incidents Kennebec and Sagadahoc County Sheriffs are investigating took place three years ago in the summer of 1999, and the damages from the relatively minor actions total no more than $8700. From May through Sept. 1999 the Animal Liberation Front took credit for four actions against hunting clubs and one action against a Food and
Drug Administration building in Maine. The actions essentially boil down to break and enter, spray painted walls, broken windows and doors, and stolen stuffed animal heads, which were returned to their natural environment to rest in peace according to the Communique received by the Press Office.
Chronology
In July 1999 I took over the ALF Press Office and became the North American spokesperson. The actions in Maine were some of the first I worked on in my new role, giving interviews to Maine media outlets in Sept. 1999.
Four months later on Jan. 23, 2000 Kennebec County Sheriff Everett Flannery made a request for a search to be conducted against my home. On Oct. 11, 2000 and on May 14, 2001 supplemental requests for a search were made by U.S. authorities to the Canadian Minister of Justice.
Almost one year later, on May 07, 2002, the Canadian Justice Minister approved the request, and two and a half months after that on June 25 RCMP Cpl. Derrick Ross swore out an Information to Obtain a Search Warrant which was approved and signed by Associate Chief Justice Patrick
Dohm of the BC Supreme Court. (Dohm was recently in the news regarding another search warrant he
signed against a former Premier of British Columbia. In that instance, RCMP officers traveled to California where Dohm was vacationing at the time to obtain his signature for the warrant, apparently wanting to ensure they got the warrant signed. Dohm is known for being extremely conservative; perhaps another Justice might have refused their request.)
(Perhaps not-so-coincidentally, Dohm was also the Justice who authorized wiretaps to be placed in my home and vehicle back in 1996 in regard to an RCMP investigation of mail bombs sent to fascists and razor-blade letters sent to hunters. Charges of sending razor-blade letters to BC guide outfitters were laid in 1998 but dropped in 2000 for lack of evidence and because the RCMP did not want to disclose critical information as ordered to by a judge.)
On July 30, 2002 the Search Warrant was executed by four INSET members and five Vancouver Island based RCMP members. It must be noted that I am neither charged nor under investigation for
any actions or crimes in either country. "I have no real interest in Barbarash at all," said Sheriff Flannery. (Comox Valley Record, Aug. 09, 2002)
Information to Obtain
To secure a Search Warrant an officer must swear out an Information to Obtain, upon which a judge will make the determination if he/she will authorize a search and seizure. The Information will spell out the crimes being investigated, the connection the person to be searched has to the investigation, the list of items to be searched and seized, and all supporting documentation. Usually there must be fairly strong evidence to suggest the person to be searched is connected in some way with the actual crime, and there must be strong supporting documents and/or affidavits included, as the Information to Obtain is the only report the judge looks at to make a decision. In this situation there is only one document connecting me to the events in Maine: a single newspaper article published by Blethen
Maine Newspapers on Oct. 05, 1999 after I gave an interview to reporter Dennis Hoey.
That's all there is - one newspaper article, which quotes me as saying basically the same things I've said hundreds of times in the past three years in my role as ALF spokesperson. This was apparently enough to get an authorization for a search warrant.
The Grounds for Belief in the Information to Obtain as presented by Cpl. Ross consist of twelve paragraphs: eight lay out the minor offences being investigated, two deal with my current address and phone numbers, and two read as follows:
"In Sept. 1999, Dennis Hoey of the Blethen Newspapers in Brunswick, Maine wrote a newspaper article about the attacks. Attached hereto and marked as Exhibit "B" is a copy of Mr. Hoey's article. In that article, Mr. Hoey writes that David Barbarash relies on Animal Liberation Front anonymous letters and videotapes to publicize the groups activities. "Furthermore, Mr. Hoey advised Detective Sergeant Turcotte that David Barbarash had sent a press release claiming that Barbarash had received some form of communication from the Animal Liberation Front activists in Maine relating to the criminal activities that they had committed at the Rod & Gun Clubs in Maine." My role as spokesperson means that I will usually receive some form of communication from ALF activists following an action or raid where a claim of responsibility is made, which is what happened with these Maine incidents. I then draft a press release, which would include the Communique, and send it out to local media where the action took place.
I am then available for media interviews to discuss the tactics and philosophy of the ALF, and the animal abuse being highlighted in the action. And that's it, end of story.
The newspaper article submitted as Exhibit "B" states, in part: "David Barbarash, North American spokesman (sic) for the animal rights organization, said Monday that acts of vandalism should be expected for groups that harm or torture animals. "'I think they will continue their activities, but not necessarily against sportsmen's clubs,' said Barbarash, who lives in Vancouver, B.C. 'Sportsmen's clubs are just one target of many.' "Barbarash, who says he never communicates directly with activists, relies on their anonymous letters and videotapes to publicize the groups activities.
"Barbarash said the Maine activists told him they stole stuffed animals from one of the clubs so they could be 'returned to their natural environment to rest in peace.' "The group targeted the sportsmen's clubs because - as Barbarash said the group told him in its recent communique - 'they are hangouts for
killers and must be destroyed.'"
It is an outrage that the type of invasion and harassment which I've been subjected to can take place against a spokesperson, the messenger, who has nothing at all to do with any illegal direct actions in the role as media liaison. I am neither aware of any action prior to its occurrence, nor am I aware of the identities of any ALF activist. The type of communication I receive from activists is anonymous and one-way. It is even more of an outrage that the actions warranting this type of harassment are nothing more than minor property destruction offences, and it is pouring salt deeper into the wound to discover that a solitary newspaper article can stand alone as the sole supporting document giving
a judge enough of a basis to issue a search warrant. Indeed, the apparent crimes in Maine are of a political nature and are more appropriately classified as economic sabotage, a political strategy
used by social justice activists for centuries. In this era of "smoking out the terrorists," economic sabotage, or non-violent property damage done for political reasons, is now egregiously led "terrorism."
B.C. Civil Liberties Association spokesperson Murray Mollard commented, "It raises the question what is terrorism? This would not be the kind of action we consider terrorism. (The raid) appears to be using a criminal matter to permit the United States to come into Canada. It's an expansion of authority on what is essentially a criminal issue." (Comox Valley Echo, Aug. 09,2002)
Search Warrant
The Search Warrant called for a shopping list of items to be seized, including:
- photos, negatives, videos, and cameras,- computers, computer disks, software and hardware
- paper files, address books, phone records, lists of names of ALF activists - maps of past or future ALF targets and ALF members' residences - records of disposition of funds between myself and ALF activists The key to this list is that all items to be seized must be related to "activities or members of the Animal Liberation Front in the State of Maine." How then, one might ask, are the following seized items related to the investigation or covered by the Warrant:
- notes from the kitchen table with instructions to friends on feeding our cats and watering our garden while away on vacation - an address book belonging to my housemate - U.S. postal mail bags received as "M Bag" mail) - A.L.F. 2001 Direct Action Report, a publicly available document - numerous videotapes of publicly available documentaries regarding animal rights, environmental, and social justice issues - videos, documents, and computer files seized by the RCMP in a previous raid in 1997 and later returned after the conclusion of the previous campaign of harassment - a report I produced for my lawyer in 2000 documenting a covert RCMP/NSIS (National Security Investigation Section) undercover operation used against me from 1995 - 1997 (an operation documented by personal notes and videos, and RCMP documents and reports, which attempted to set me up to burn down a building).
In a Briefing Note filed by INSET member Sgt. Frank Martino on July 31, 2002, he lists upfront some of the items seized, seemingly indifferent to their apparent disassociation from the criteria listed in the Search Warrant. In fact, the only item that might have any connection are phone bills from 1999 showing calls made to Maine. Now the RCMP have an extensive collection of fax and phone numbers for Maine media outlets!
In addition to stealing items they didn't even have the authority to take by their own rules, a callous and ruthless attitude was evident in the wake of the raid. Aside from the unnecessary smashing of my front door, several rooms were literally upturned. Files and garbage were strewn about my office and personal letters were removed from files and placed open around the room. Our friends were questioned, threatened, and harassed when they arrived to feed the cats, and our indoor cats
were let outside to fend for themselves.
The day following the raid the RCMP released my name and address to the media even though I had not been charged with any crime, contrary to their own policy. They did this knowing I had previously filed a complaint when I received implied death threats (bullets left on my car) and verbal attacks and threats from hunters in the Fall of 2000 after hunters invaded an animal rights video night I was hosting in Courtenay. One of my biggest fears then, and now, and which I made very clear in my
complaint, was that these hunters would discover my home address. It seems the RCMP are not concerned with threats of violence against people they don't like, and are apparently willing to help facilitate such violence.
There is little doubt in my mind that the real reasons behind this raid have very little to do with minor actions in Maine three years ago. The RCMP, now with the overt complicity of U.S. law enforcement, are continuing their campaign of harassment against the ALF's most vocal and visible supporter.
The police know that I don't have any information to help identify ALF activists; this is nothing more than a case of shooting the messenger. Although the bullets being used are in the form of search and seizures, the real damage is in the form of attempting to disrupt my life and my work, and attempting to increase the stress in my life.
B.C. Supreme Court Hearing
On Sept. 24 a hearing will take place in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver to discuss the Warrant and its execution. As well, an order will be sought by U.S. authorities to send the seized items to Maine. Through my lawyer I will be fighting back, and I will be seeking an order to quash the Warrant based on flimsy and non-existent grounds for conducting the search, and also, an order will be sought for the return of all my property.
In addition, I'll be making a formal complaint to the RCMP Public Complaints Commission concerning the raid and its execution, the needless and inappropriate damage to my residence, the seizure of items
not listed in the Warrant, the harassment of my friends, the release of my cats into the outdoors, and the release of my name and address to the media.
In the meanwhile, the ALF Press Office is seeking monetary donations to help cover our legal expenses, and to help cover the cost of replacing computers and software.
Donations and requests for more information can be sent to P.O. Box 3673, Courtenay, BC V9N 7P1 Canada, or write us at naalfpo@tao.ca or call 250-703-6312.
On a final note, there is one thing that we must be clear on. This raid was not about animal rights issues or actions, this raid was about how we all have lost a large chunk of basic civil liberties and human rights. It's about how we really do live under the rule of a police state where it's no longer allowable to speak your mind or express beliefs which oppose oppression, and which challenge the
corporate/military governments. To do so risks police raids, possible arrest and lengthy jail terms.
For many of us, we've understood and watched the erosion of our freedoms for many years, and we've become very alarmed at how this deterioration has increased drastically since Sept. 11, 2001. And yet, still it takes a major police action, like this latest raid, for the concept to really sink in. Our "western civilization" is nothing more than a glorified prison.
This is it. The time is now. This is our life, and how events unfold in our lifetime will be the difference between a life of freedom for all or a life lived under the boot of fascism. The police state is here; do we live, and fight, on our feet? Or do we die on our knees? Drastic words, perhaps, but what kind of world do we really want to live in?
SIDEBAR: Insidious INSET
By David Barbarash
The RCMP used a post-Sept. 11 newly formed anti-terrorist team to raid the home of Animal Liberation Front spokesperson David Barbarash on July 30, 2002.
Formed in June, less than two months before the raid, four multi-agency Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSETs) will use the premise of "national security" to invade people's homes and attempt to disrupt lives even when no crimes have been committed. From an RCMP Press Release issued June 18, 2002:
"(INSET) will help ensure early detection and prevention of any potential threats to national security. The importance of greater integration of resources and intelligence has been heightened by the reality of terrorism since the tragic events of September 11th, 2001.
"Through shared federal, provincial and municipal resources - the INSET members will be better able to track and put a stop to the criminal activities (major or minor offences) of terrorist groups or individuals who pose a threat to Canada's national security.
This type of increased capacity will enable INSET members to work with their partners nationally and internationally towards the common goal of detection and disruption of potential terrorist threats.
"The Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (INSETs) will apply Canada's laws, acts and regulations, and the new anti-terrorist legislation to assist in the early detection and disruption of any actual or intended terrorist acts.
This integrated approach between intelligence and enforcement groups at the early stages of criminal activity has proven to be a highly effective model for successful prosecution."
INSET has field offices in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, and Ottawa, and integrates law enforcement officers from the RCMP, provincial police in Ontario and Quebec, and major metropolitan police forces. It will share information with CSIS (Canadian Security and Intelligence Service), immigration officials, and international police forces.
RCMP Superintendent Wayne Pilgrim says the new agency is also ready to use new counter-terrorist laws, including the power to make preventive arrests to stop terrorists from carrying out attacks.
"We basically operate on the premise of prevention, and that's either through prosecution or disruption.... whatever means are provided to us within the legal framework that we can operate," he said. (CBC, June 20,2002)
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