The organizers denounce the attacks on free speech, freedom of association, and the right to dissent that these actions represent. The raids and summonses reflect escalating hostility toward individuals and groups working in solidarity with the Palestinian and Colombian people and are blatantly political attacks on peaceful activists and an abuse of prosecutorial discretion.

The OKC action, one of many across the country in the days following the raids, will take place on Thursday, September 30 from 4:30 – 5:30 pm at the corner of NW 6th St. and Harvey. While no activists or groups in Oklahoma were the subject of the raids, the organizers say that they are concerned such events anywhere serve to intimidate peace organizers and suppress the right to dissent everywhere.

“The National Lawyers Guild is working to provide legal support to activists who are the subjects of these raids,” said James M. Branum of NLG. “We have set up a a national hotline for U.S. activists who get contacted by the FBI. Callers will be referred to NLG defense attorneys in their area.”

A national network to address and counter the harassment has been created and will plan future actions across the country and seek legislative changes to end the practice. Oklahoma activists will be part of that effort.

Info:

Press release from National Lawyers Guild:

http://nlgok.org/2010/09/29/nlg-press-release-on-fbi-raids/

Resources to protect dissent:

http://nlgok.org/protect-dissent/

What: Solidarity March in Support of Bradley Manning
When: Thursday, August 12, 8pm
Where: Corner of NE 16th and Lincoln to Oklahoma State Capitol

This Thursday, August 12, Oklahomans will show support for and solidarity with Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused of leaking documents about the Afghanistan War, with a march at dusk near the state capitol. The Army intelligence analyst, originally from Cresent, Oklahoma, is being held in the brig at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia.

The action is being organized locally by the Oklahoma Center for Conscience, with support from the Oklahoma Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

Private First Class Bradley Manning, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst stationed in Iraq, stands accused of disclosing a classified video depicting American troops in Iraq shooting civilians from an Apache helicopter in 2007. Eleven people were killed, including two Reuters employees, and two children were critically injured. No charges have been filed against the soldiers who did the killing.

News sources have also speculated about Manning’s involvement in the leak of over 90,000 secret documents (collectively known as the Afghanistan “war logs”) made public by WikiLeaks, a website that publishes leaked material anonymously.

James M. Branum, an attorney that works with OCC on military law cases, calls the Pentagon’s treatment of Manning “extreme” and designed to set up the case “as an example of the punishment waiting for others who would consider exposing violations of military regs and international law.”

“We are saying that exposing war crimes is not a crime,” he said.

The whistleblower behind the Vietnam era’s Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has called Mr. Manning a hero. ”I admire the courage of Bradley Manning for sacrificing himself to make the public aware of the futility of the war in Afghanistan,” says Ellsberg.

“Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime,” says former Marine Corporal Jeff Paterson of Courage to Resist, a group teaming up with the Bradley Manning Support Network to raise funds for Manning’s defense.

More info:

http://www.bradleymanning.org/

http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/blogcategory/64/122/

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/search/node/Bradley%20Manning

Grandfield OK teacher lost job after teaching The Laramie Project

On Friday, March 20, two members of NLG Oklahoma visited Grandfield after hearing that the Westboro Baptist Church, a Kansas based anti-gay group, was planning to demonstrate at the high school. They intended to join a counter-demonstration led by a handful of local students.

As it turned out, WBC did not appear, but a few Oklahomans who wanted to show support for Taylor and the students, did, including the wife of an active-duty GI who served two tours in Iraq.

NLG-OK members James Branum and Rena Guay met with Taylor, about 10 students and a parent, to learn first hand about what has been going on in the small rural town. It was a sad but not entirely unique or surprising story of intolerance of dissenting points of view.

Branum, an attorney based in Lawton, discussed with the group what rights the students were entitled to, and how to handle abridgments of those rights. NLG-OK has agreed to provide legal support for any students that encounter harassment.

We’ll be organizing a fundraising pledge drive for donations dedicated to legal support should it become necessary. We will continue to monitor the situation going forward, and will report here any developments that we can share.

Here are some of the non-local news stories that have been published about this incident:

USA Today
The Oklahoman
Truthdig
Feministing
RH Reality Check