-Caveat Lector-
http://ontario.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=6610&group=webcast
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. ' "
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