Posted on 10/15/2001 4:03:25 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Mercury News
A Bay Area peace activist is resisting the FBI's efforts to question her about her associations with Middle Easterners, saying their inquiry is an assault on her civil rights.
Kate Raphael of Berkeley says the FBI wants to talk to her about her involvement with the international anti-war group Women in Black, which holds weekly silent vigils to protest what they call the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
The mainly Jewish group dresses in black and holds banners on street corners in San Francisco, Berkeley, Palo Alto and around the world. Women in Black chapters in Israel and Serbia were nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Since Sept. 24, Raphael and her attorney, Rachel Lederman, have been trading calls with the FBI. The agency, Raphael said, apparently wants to ask her about any ``Middle East connections'' she has developed as a result of her peace work.
Raphael and Lederman said a San Francisco agent has told them that Raphael can expect a grand jury subpoena for her failure to cooperate.
FBI spokesman Andrew Black would not confirm or deny that the agency was trying to talk to Raphael. But he did say that in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, agents are working ``aggressively but professionally.''
``The FBI has a responsibility to investigate the ruthless murder of nearly 6,000 individuals and we need the cooperation and assistance of the public in order to bring those responsible for planning this attack to justice,'' Black said.
Raphael's activism dates back to her high school days in Richmond, Va. As editor of the Thomas Jefferson High newspaper, she protested military recruiting ads. In the Bay Area, Raphael, 42, works with a small grass roots group called Lesbian and Gay Insurrection. She has escorted women into abortion clinics and done rape crisis counseling. Since Sept. 11, Raphael has helped set up a program that provides escorts to people of Middle Eastern descent who fear they could become victims of an anti-Muslim backlash.
Raphael finds it ironic that the FBI wants to talk to her.
``It's certainly possible,'' she said, ``that the FBI don't understand the difference between a lesbian peace activist and Islamic fundamentalist men who crash planes into buildings. But that's a sad statement about our government.''
Members of Bay Area Women in Black said they worry that security concerns are starting to erode First Amendment freedoms.
``People are afraid of anthrax and retaliation and biological warfare, but what frightens me the most right now is that our civil liberties are going to be seriously curtailed,'' said 74-year-old activist Rachelle Marshall, who has protested each Friday since 1988 in downtown Palo Alto.
But others say the FBI can't be too careful these days.
Abraham Sofaer, a senior fellow with the Hoover Institution and a former federal judge and prosecutor, said if Raphael is subpoenaed, she should respond to the grand jury.
Although she's ``not a likely candidate for alliance with the Taliban,'' Sofaer said, Raphael has a duty ``as a citizen and as a national of the U.S. to answer those questions. And if she believes this is a political dragnet, she can go to the court and say that.''
No, I don't advocate torture of suspects, especially suspects who are hesitant to speak
with the FBI on advice of counsel. We have a right not to speak to the police, right?
Sheesh, people.
As far as the torture thing goes, I was about 90% kidding!!
But she has an obligation to answer the questions anyway. They won't "beat" her, but she could end up in a cell, for contempt of court.
You can't pick and choose what rules you will follow. You can only help influence what rules exist.
I sometimes get angry over what I feel are government abuses of civil rights, but what does this lady see as a problem here? Does she feel she owes the nation she lives in? Anything at all?
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