Patrick Fitzgerald, On the Case Again

This is fascinating. No idea what to make of this. Excerpts:

...The search was part of a mysterious, ongoing nationwide terrorism investigation with an unusual target: prominent peace activists and politically active labor organizers...

The apparent targets, all vocal and visible critics of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South America, deny any ties to terrorism. They say the government, using its post-9/11 focus on terrorism as a pretext, is targeting them for their political views.

This would of course be the same government being run by the guys on their side of the political aisle, correct?  The government that, as is pointed out repeatedly in this piece, is in power in part because of their help? So what the heck?

They are “public non-violent activists with long, distinguished careers in public service, including teachers, union organizers and antiwar and community leaders,” said Michael Deutsch, a Chicago lawyer and part of a legal team defending those who believe they are being targeted by the investigation...

All 23 of the activists invoked their right not to testify before a grand jury, defying U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, whose office is spearheading the investigation.

A spokesman for Fitzgerald, the Chicago prosecutor whose past work has sometimes riled both political parties, declined to comment.

And as soon as his name comes up, I get very, very interested. What has he found? Why does he think it important? This guy is not apparently partisan in his investigations--he went after both Libby and Blagojevich.

It is uncertain whether Obama is aware of the investigation. A White House official referred questions to the Justice Department, where spokesman Matthew Miller said the agency will not comment on an investigation, but he disputed any assertion that people would be targeted for political activities...

The union’s statewide group, which says it represents 46,000 workers, called on Obama to investigate and passed a resolution expressing “grave concern” about the raids. Similar resolutions have been approved by statewide AFSCME and SEIU affiliates in Illinois...

 Of course, the problem is they helped him get elected. There's a picture with the piece of one of the activists shaking then-Senatorial candidate Obama's hand. If the President calls off this investigation, especially when it's being run by a prosecutor famous for being bipartisan in hunting down powerful baddies, he'll have a lot of explaining to do.

If there are indictments, the case could test a 2010 Supreme Court ruling that found the ban on material support for designated foreign terrorist groups does not necessarily violate the First Amendment — even if the aid was intended for peaceful or humanitarian uses. The ruling held that any type of support could ultimately help a terrorist group’s pursuit of violence...

Search warrants, subpoenas and documents show that the FBI has been interested in links between the activists and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hezbollah...

So they appear to have links to long-time anti-American terrorist organizations.  Interesting.  I wonder if material support passed from them to these groups.  This gets especially difficult when one considers that these unions and "peace organizations" (if these so-called peace activists supported Hezbollah, et al., they really need a new title) also helped the President reach his current position.

In Chicago, the raid at the home of Weiner, 49, also targeted her husband, Joe Iosbaker, 52, a University of Illinois-Chicago office worker and a union steward for his SEIU local. The couple are among the grassroots activists close to the world once inhabited by Barack Obama who have been caught up in the investigation...

Like others, Weiner and Iosbacker have been fixtures on the local liberal political scene, protesting police actions, attending antiwar rallies, leading pay equity fights and even doing some volunteer work for Obama’s past campaigns.

Tom Burke, who received a subpoena Sept. 24, had in 2004 discussed the plight of murdered Colombian trade unionists with then-state senator Obama.

“He was a sympathetic ear,” Burke said, recalling that Obama told him the murders were a “human rights problem.”

Hatem Abudayyeh, one of seven Palestinians to be subpoenaed in the investigation, recalls encountering Obama in the community during his years as a state legislator. Abudayyeh, 40, is executive director of the Arab American Action Network, a Chicago advocacy group that hosted then-state senator Obama for at least two events...

Kind of unbelievable. Really interesting. God bless Patrick Fitzgerald and keep him in your prayers, folks--for judgment, for protection, that he do the right thing, that he not chase shadows nor fail to chase true criminals, that he steer straight and work for justice.