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VS: Groene partijbestuurster gearresteerd
nowar - 03.11.2001 10:05
Nancy Oden, bestuurslid van de Groene Partij van de VS, is gearresteerd wegens het anti-oorlogstandpunt van haar partij
Green Party USA elected Coordinator targeted as "terrorist" -denied rights
by The Greens / Green Party USA-Mitchell Cohen 10:37pm Fri Nov 2 ´01
address: 226 South Wabash, 6th floor-PO Box 1406-Chicago, Illinois 60690 phone: 1-866-GREENS-2  gpusa@igc.org
GREEN PARTY USA ELECTED COORDINATOR DETAINED AT AIRPORT-PREVENTED BY ARMED MILITARY FROM FLYING TO GREENS GNC MEETING IN CHICAGO IL USA
Nancy Oden,an elected Green Party USA coordinator,has been denied flying privileges and her constitutional rights, because of Green Party USA opposition to the bombing in Afghanistan.
The new "terrorism" laws have just removed all our rights and have created new "enemies lists"-WHO WILL BE NEXT?? GREEN PARTY USA ELECTED COORDINATOR DETAINED AT AIRPORT
PREVENTED BY ARMED MILITARY FROM FLYING TO GREENS GNC MEETING IN CHICAGO
"I was targeted because the Green Party USA opposes the bombing of innocent
civilians in Afghanistan."
--Nancy Oden
(The Green Party USA statement on the war against Afghanistan is at
 http://www.greenparty.org/911.html
They are the original Green Party in the U.S. since 1986)
==========
PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL MEDIA AND LISTSERVES. THANX (Mitchel Cohen)
The Greens / Green Party USA
226 South Wabash, 6th floor
PO Box 1406,
Chicago, Illinois 60690
Toll-free Phone: 1-866-GREENS-2
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2001
MEDIA ALERT:
GREEN PARTY USA will hold press conference in CHICAGO
SATURDAY, NOV. 3
10 a.m.
at the J. Ira and Nicki Family Hostel
24 East Congress Parkway (at Wabash), 2nd floor
------------------------------------------------
GREEN PARTY USA COORDINATOR DETAINED AT AIRPORT
PREVENTED BY ARMED MILITARY FROM FLYING TO GREENS MEETING IN CHICAGO
Armed government agents grabbed Nancy Oden, Green Party USA coordinating
committee member, Thursday at Bangor International Airport in Bangor Maine,
as she attempted to board an American Airlines flight to Chicago.
"An official told me that my name had been flagged in the computer," a
shaken Oden said. "I was targeted because the Green Party USA opposes the
bombing of innocent civilians in Afghanistan."
Oden, a long-time organic farmer and peace activist in northern Maine, was
ordered away from the plane. Military personnel with automatic weapons
surrounded Oden and instructed all airlines to deny her passage on ANY
flight. "I was told that the airport was closed to me until further notice
and that my ticket would not be refunded," Oden said.
Oden is scheduled to speak in Chicago Friday night on a panel concerning
pesticides as weapons of war. She had helped to coordinate the Green Party
USA´s antiwar efforts these past few months, and was to report on these to
The Greens national committee. "Not only did they stop me at the airport
but some mysterious party had called the hotel and cancelled my
reservation," Oden said.
The Greens National Committee -- the governing body of the Green Party USA
-- is meeting in Chicago Nov. 2-4 to hammer out the details of national
campaigns against bio-chemical warfare, the spraying of toxic pesticides,
genetic engineering, and the Party´s involvement in the burgeoning peace
movement.
"I am shocked that US military prevented one of our prominent Green Party
members from attending the meeting in Chicago," said Elizabeth Fattah, a
GPUSA representative from Pennsylvania who drove to Chicago. "I am outraged
at the way the Bill of Rights is being trampled upon."
Chicago Green activist Lionel Trepanier concluded, "The attack on the right
of association of an opposition political party is chilling. The harassment
of peace activists is reprehensible."
For further information, please call 1-866-GREENS-2 (toll-free)
www.greenparty.org
 Website: http://www.greenparty.org
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| Lees meer over: vrijheid, repressie & mensenrechten | | aanvullingen | | | dit is weer eens een onwaar verhaal | frank - 07.11.2001 10:51
Dit verhaal klopt van geen kant. De reactie van de woordvoerder van de desbetreffende luchthaven, Bangor, was duidelijk: de dame trapte een scene nog voordat ze langs de beveiliging was. Dat ze vervolgens het vliegtuig niet in mocht had daarmee te maken en niet met haar lidmaatschap van de Green Party.
Lees het volgende bericht:
----
More on Oden
UGGGH!!!
This is article is irresponsible-- I too received it
about twenty times now through various email lists and
individual emails, and was outraged by it, so did some
elementary research. The article first appeared on
Indy Media, here is my post to that web site:
I contacted Jeff Russel, who is with airport security
at Bangor International Airport, and asked him about
this article. Here is his response:
"Tim:
"Thank you for writing. Ms. Oden´s version of events,
while certainly exciting, are far removed from
reality. We are unaware of any role Ms. Oden´s status
as a Green may have played. The passenger in question
was asked to undergo additional screening (i.e. a hand
wand examination) because the manner in which she
purchased the ticket triggered a concern under the new
Federal screening guidelines post September, 11. She
refused to cooperate. It is illegal for an airline to
fly an unscreened passenger. Accordingly, the airline
denied her boarding. She never got near a plane. She
never went through security. No screen, no fly--it is
as simple as that. The situation was entirely of her
own making. What´s sad is that she refuses to admit to
and take responsibility for her own inappropriate
behavior, looking only for somebody else to blame for
her own inability to cooperate with reasonable
expectations under the circumstances. 99.9% of people
selected are very understanding and cooperative and
the process only takes an extra minute.
"Again, thanks for writing to express your concerns
and we appreciate your efforts to objectively view the
circumstances."
Luis Lingg (the author of the article) really has done
a dis-service to Indy Media, which can be a wonderful
resource. A fundamental tenet of responsible
journalism holds that at least an attempt to contact
the subject of an article should be made. It took me
less than thirty seconds´ worth of a Google search to
find Bangor Airport´s contact info, and thirty more
seconds to fire off an e-mail asking about the
allegations. They responded about ten minutes later. I
don´t think it´s asking too much for somebody writing
an article with such allegations to at least make the
same effort.
As good as Indy Media can be, the two stories that
stay in my mind are this one and the story that CNN
film footage of Palestinians celebrating in the
streets after the World Trade Center attacks was in
reality old footage from some previous year. The
Palestinian story was as false as the Bangor Airport
story, and had the same flaw: the author did not even
attempt to contact any one at CNN for comment.
This is Journalism 101, and until submitters to Indy
Media start abiding by basic ethical standards, the
entire Indy effort will be discredited.
In the meanwhile, we readers will have to act as
editors, responding to mistakes when we find them.
**
There has been some discussion on the site to the
effect of the cops are lying, or whatever, but from my
vantage point, the very fact that nobody sought to ask
the cops in the first place discredits the article,
regardless. And the fact that the Green Party is
continuing to distribute this article, without doing
any followup, without asking the feds about any
alleged political hit list, without trying to find any
eyewitnesses of the incident, and so forth-- well, the
whole thing is just propaganda, and the truth be
damned.
I don´t know-- maybe the incident occurred exactly as
Odin says it did, but certainly nobody has made any
independent attempt to objectively report on this.
And, now that I´m emailing this response to everyone
who sends it to me, I have little doubt that not one
of the people who sent the piece to me in the first
place will forward this response to the people they
got it from. It´s a sad day for Progressives when they
have to resort to this sort of behavior.
Tim Bousquet
Editor
Chico Examiner
| | en dan voor de volledigheid... | frank - 08.11.2001 23:59
Voor de volledigheid de kant van de Green Party n.a.v. de kritiek op het luchthavenverhaal.
PLEASE REPOST EVERYWHERE
Dear Greens,
The subject heading of a press release issued by a rival Green Party organization (ASGP, which has recently changed its name to GPUS -- DIFFERENT organization than GPUSA, for those who have not been following these sordid details) says: "Correction of erroneous information" of a press release issued by the Green Party USA. But the text points to NO erroneous information in the GPUSA press release, which I wrote (with the assistance of several others) as media coordinator of GPUSA.
The authors say they are "attempting to confirm a report", but they offer no timeline nor indicate any means by which they are doing so. (A phone call to Nancy Oden would be a start. Anyone wanting details can call her at 1-866-greens-2.)
I would hope that the first thing Greens would do when their fellow Greens or anyone else are subjected to the repressive apparatus of the state would be to support them and get the victim a good lawyer, raise money for their defense, join forces to condemn the violations of civil liberties that are taking place, etc., and not challenge the story of the victim unless they have substantiated evidence that the victim is lying.
In any situation, there will be discrepancies between accounts of people involved. When I was arrested at the Liberty Bell in 1999 in a nonviolent civil disobedience action calling for a new trial for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, police "witnesses" at the scene gave testimony that contradicted each other in the tiniest details: Who said what to whom, what I was wearing (this was an interesting point, as I was wearing a clown outfit -- hard to miss!), whether an area had been cleared or not, etc. By the time my case came to court I was charged with blocking a police van when I was actually around 20-30 yards BEHIND the van and walking in a completely different area. It turned out that the US Attorney prosecuting my case was actually PRESENT at the scene -- we only found that out from still photos demonstrators had taken, as the video did not show him in any of the frames.
The point here is that even folks on the same side disagree on details of an event, even when they are standing right next to each other. That´s how good lawyers build their cases -- on those contradictions in testimony among people on the same side of a situation. When we´re talking about people on OPPOSING sides, the gap can become enormous.
And yet -- and this is my point -- ALL versions of what happened at the Bangor Maine International Airport agree that Nancy Oden was searched, her bags were searched, and she was clean. NO ONE disputes that.
They also ALL agree that military personnel carrying automatic weapons ordered her away from the plane, and that she was denied access to any other flights out of Bangor International Airport. NO ONE disputes that.
The also ALL agree that she was not arrested.
WHY NOT?
WHY then did they detain her?
Why did they not allow her on the plane?
There is no way to verify, for the time being, whether or not Nancy´s name appeared on an FBI list. Nancy Oden never claimed to SEE such a list; she said that the clerk TOLD her her name was flagged, and that this was not a random search.
She also says that one of the military personnel initiated an argument over the incidents of Sept. 11 and the bombing of Afghanistan. While it is quite interesting that such a list exists and that activists´ names may indeed be on it, it is not relevant to ascertaining the validity of Nancy´s story.
Greens, and all progressive activists, are increasingly under scrutiny by the state for our strong antiwar statements and activities. The fact that some people challenging Nancy have been able to fly freely without incident means nothing -- only that they are not yet being targeted. (Tariq Ali´s story of arrest at an airport in Germany for carrying a BOOK by Karl Marx has been all over the internet for the past week, as have dozens of other similar experiences.) We know of HUNDREDS of stories of people who have been detained at airports, in the streets, etc. based on the color of their skin, their religion, books they are carrying etc. To deny without so much as a real inquiry the tale Nancy Oden relates is politically irresponsible.
To turn unconfirmed speculation about this into a sectarian attack is simply immoral.
This is a time all of us should unite in saving what remains of the Bill of Rights, and in supporting those victimized by the new counter-terrorism program.
One of our people -- a COORDINATOR OF THE GREEN PARTY USA -- is being harassed and persecuted, and everyone should come to her defense.
If you have questions, do some actual firsthand investigation. It´s not hard. Do as many of us have already done in verifying the details: call the airport, the police, the fbi, the airlines -- it´s not that hard to validate Nancy Oden´s story, because they´ll ALL AGREE on the gist of it.
The only discrepancies are whether or not her name appeared on an FBI list.
THAT´S NOT THE CRUX OF THIS PARTICULAR MATTER (although as a result of all of this the FBI NOW ADMITS FOR THE FIRST TIME that it indeed has compiled and circulated such a list of individuals). Again, who is on it? What are the criteria?
I note that Reclaim the Streets is on the "terrorism" list. If this is any indication of the FBI´s careful attention to these matters, one should not be so gullible as to believe the FBI version of anything. Unfortunately, the authors of the press release, below, don´t seem to understand how COINTELPRO operated, and continues to operate. And in the process, they´re smearing the very victims of those operations that they should be defending.
- Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party USA
Media Coordinator GPUSA
| | hallo :) | Neus - 17.06.2002 11:12
, hallo :)
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