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News :: Miscellaneous |
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editorial cartoon and article about raisethefist |
Current rating: 0 |
by charles amsellem
(No verified email address) |
28 Jan 2002
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cartoon c 2002 by charles amsellem |
 cartoon c 2002 by charles amsellem |
A young man tentatively identified only as Sherman founded, hosted and ran the alternative media website called raisethefist.com. Raisethefist had many similarities to indymedia.com and was accurately described as a younger and angrier inymedia by one post on that site. A diversity of subjects including anarchism, activism, and current events not reported by mainstream media or even what passes as alternative media were reported and commented on in an open publishing format available to the public.
On January 24, 2002 approximately 25-30 individuals, mostly federal agents, but also LAPD, and LA Sherriffs Dept personnel according to one source, raided the raisethefist.com founder's home fully armed, confiscated some of his property and shut down the site along with the newly opened, laanrchists.org site that he also recently created. Another post at sfindymedia confirmed that one of the reasons for the raid was that Sherman posted pictures of undercover agents at indymedia so that protesters and activists could identify them. An anonymous post indicated that in fact his home was ransacked and all cds, equipment, disks, and political literature were confiscated until further notice.
Previous communications indicated that the FBI, police department, NSA continously monitored the site as well as government agencies from the UK, Canada, Latvia, Belgium, Egypt, Finland, and Australia. The author of this article and accompanying cartoon has experienced peculiar difficulties in both accessing the site and recieved constant mailer daemon error messages when trying to coorespond with either raisethefist.com or laanarchists.org. Also, some of the content of those sites was evidently blocked by some unexplained technical difficulties. According to posts on indymedia close to the sorce the FBI has intercepted packets going through the DSL line hosting the site before.
This quote was posted presumabley from someone close to the source; "It's not yet known at this point if the site will be back(ed) 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 happend. 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."
The Thursday January 24th raid took place at approximately 4pm and a 25 page search warrant was served based on charges of "computer fraud and abuse" and "distribution of information related to explosives, destructive devices, and/or weapons of mass destruction." Cheryl Mimura, FBI spokesperson from the Los Angeles Field Office, when asked about the raid merely responded that it "was shut down." The Los Angeles Joint Task Force on Terrorism served the warrant and the FBI has denied that the warrant is in any way related to the September 11 assaults. The following is an exerpt from a recent email interview with Sherman,"As a victim of one of the first post-Patriot Act anti-'terrorism' raids, why do you think the Feds chose you? 'Simply because Raisethefist was effective in what I was doing. It's the same reason why Feds raid other activist organizations. They're effective. And effectiveness within our movement scares them. They're afraid. And they're going to try and silence us any way they can. ' " Another comment elaborated on the issue, "Why do you think the FBI raided RaiseTheFist.com? Do you think they were out to shutdown something unique to your site, such as the photos of undercover cops? 'They raided it simply because it was effective. It had a lot of potential, and was really moving, not just as a web site, but essentially as an anarchist/activist collective - kids were starting to set up clubs in their schools called "Raisethefist" - we were also beginning to put together an anarchist collective for Los Angeles, amongst other things. I believe one of the main things that got them scared about the site, is that we called for an actual change. Raisethefist was a bit more radical than other web sites, and seeing how it was getting so popular, they wanted to shut it down.' "
Lastly, on the issue of what the future holds in store for raisethefist, Sherman and the inteviewer had this to say, "Did RaiseTheFist.com have any external backup? Do you expect to get your computers back any time soon? Do you have any plans to resume web operations? 'I had the site backed up on a CD-ROM, which they took. Right now, we're just trying to find bits and pieces of the site in peoples cache so we can get it back up as soon as possible. There are people working on getting the site back up on another host. Getting the site back up is the first step, then trying to resume with it is the second step. It's going to take some time to get everything back together. I put alot of time into programming all of the things into the site. I don't think I'm going to get my computer equipment back. If I do, it won't be for a long time. They already told me that I probably won't be seeing any of it any time soon. They also told me that i was in some "serious trouble," etc., etc.' " " A webposting states that you are 'a kid' who lives with his parents. Any comment as to whether you are under or over 18, and who you live with?" 'I'm 18 years old, almost 19. I currently live with my mom. The computers were also used for my job. I've been supporting myself through them doing independent programming. So not only is Raisethefist.com gone, but I'm out of a job for the time being. By the way, there are a lot of stupid-ass rumors going on out there. I think I heard one about someone saying I was making 'weapons of mass destruction' or something. Just shows the ignorance amongst a lot of people out there.' " "Do you think the Bush Administration is just trying to see what it can get away with? What would you predict will be the outcome of this episode?" 'They're going to try and get away with anything, and everything. What does the future hold? Nothing but a barcode. What can we do to protect ourselves? This was one of the main concerns Raisethefist.com addressed. My best advice is to not give in to their fear-tactics. Keep fighting, and fight hard. Don't stop. " With a newly-empowered FBI, is the web perhaps too open a medium for revolutionary expression? Are there alternatives whether through new technology or the lack thereof?" 'There is less security on the internet, as there really has never been any. But I'd suggest not to be discouraged by it. Keep utilizing the internet as an information resource. ' " |
