Preliminary Reports of Daniel McGowan’s Release!

Update: A full write up has been posted by NYC ABC.

Word is spreading on social media that Daniel McGowan, an ELF prisoner locked away in a Communication Management Unit (CMU) for nearly the last seven years, has been released to a halfway house in New York. Daniel was caught up in Operation Backfire, a crucial component of the “Green Scare,” in which several alleged members of the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front were tried and convicted of various acts of sabotage and arson against entities destroying and polluting the environment or exploiting animals. This post will be updated as more news, formal or otherwise, is made available.

July Political Prisoner Birthday Poster now out!

From our comrades at The Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective:

Hello Friends and Comrades,
Here is the political prisoner birthday poster for July. As always, please post this poster publicly and/or use it to start a card writing night of your own.

Firstly, please write Justin Solondz a letter. After being extradited from China and convicted of Earth Liberation Front actions in the United States, Green Scare target Justin Solondz has been transferred to a prison in western Pennsylvania. This puts him much closer to his parents than when he was imprisoned at FDC SeaTac. Please let Justin know you’re thinking about him by sending a card or letter to:

Justin Solondz #98291-011
FCI Loretto
Post Office Box 1000
Loretto, Pennsylvania 15940

The second anniversary of the international day of solidarity with Marie Mason, Eric McDavid, and other longterm anarchist prisoners has just passed. Read a report back on many of the inspiring protests here.

The Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective is proud to have just published a new piece of prisoner’s writing on unity, truce efforts, and political consciousness in US gangs. The zine, entitled What Better Time Than Now?, presents a number of interesting topics like the forming of identity through historical consciousness and revolt, the co-optation of such identity through musical and artistic forms, and the role of street gangs in the rebellions of the future.

Our lovable comrades of the Mysterious Rabbit Puppet Army are embarking on a month-long tour presenting their newest production, “Donny Quixote!” The show offers a scathing critique of “green” capitalism and technologya a humorous adaptation of the story of Don Quixote. MRPA will offer two other feature performances as well, alongside a wide range of literature relating to the content of the shows. If you’re on the eascoast or in the midwest you should definitely check them out.

Lastly, here is a link to the Political Prisoner/Prisoner Of War every-other week update by the NYC-Anarchist Black Cross. There are lots of good updates on many political prisoners.

Until Every Cage Is Empty,

The Chapel Hill Prison Books Collective

“Never Alone: Long Term Anarchist Prisoner Support” Tour in Denver

Friday, April 20th, 7pm

At the 27 Social Centre (2727 W 27th ave)

Dinner provided!

Kid friendly activities will take place throughout the event.

$5-$15 suggested donation

It’s 2012. The world is ending. So what are we at Sacramento Prisoner Support and Marie Mason Support Crew gonna do? Go on an epic road trip to talk about prisoner support, of course! Because unless we actually make this the last year of their world, our comrades will still be in there the next.
The nationwide Never Alone tour will be crisscrossing the country in April 2012, featuring the usual suspects speaking about long-term anarchist prisoner support. Focusing specifically on the cases of Eric McDavid and Marie Mason, the tour will mark the spots where the events of these cases unfolded, using multimedia presentations to bring the facts of these cases to light.

As well as raising awareness and support for Eric and Marie, the tour will also feature strategizing about how to more effectively grow a culture of resistance that can breach the prison walls and sustain us and our friends for the long term, a security culture beyond 101 workshop (updated for 2012, now with extra tech!) and some awesome guest speakers. Truly, you won’t want to miss this.

When our friends and loved ones are snatched from us and held captive by the state, we become all too aware that we are never alone. The eyes of the state are always upon us, attempting to silence our voices and still our hands. To keep us from doing the work we know must be done. We must act despite this.

Because we also know that it is imperative that our friends on the inside know that they, too, are never alone. That we will stand by them throughout their time in prison, and welcome them with open arms when they return. That the struggles they were involved in continue on, and that they are empowered to continue on in struggle from inside the prison walls.

And we know that we can’t do this alone. We need the active support of our communities to give us the strength and courage to struggle for our friends and their freedom.

Our friends remind us of what is possible. They remind us that we don’t have to wait for permission to do what we know is right. They remind us that we are not powerless. Like Marie and Eric, we are tired of watching all that we love be destroyed by all that we hate. We know what needs to happen.

We are in it for the long haul.

Are you?

Find out more about the tour: http://neveralonetour.wordpress.com/
Questions? Trolling? Contact us at neveralonetour (A) riseup dot net.

Bari/Cherney: Judge Wilken Affirms Order to FBI to Submit Evidence for Independent Testing

From IndyBay

Federal Court Orders FBI To Turn Over Evidence
for Independent Forensic Analysis in 1990 Judi Bari Car Bombing Case

In an order dated March 31, 2012 and released today, Honorable Claudia Wilken, United States District Judge of the Northern District of California, affirmed a March 21, 2011 Order by Magistrate Judge James Larson, directing the United States, through the FBI, to turn over evidence in the 1990 car bomb assassination attempt of Judi Bari in Oakland, CA to a third party forensic laboratory for independent testing.

“This is a historic and momentous development,” said Ben Rosenfeld, attorney for plaintiff Darryl Cherney, Judi Bari’s co-organizer in the sustained campaign to preserve California’s ancient redwoods, who was also injured when the bomb went off. Cherney went to Court in 2010 to prevent the FBI from destroying the evidence. That evidence includes a mostly intact explosive device built by the same hands as the car bomb, a cardboard sign, and latent fingerprints. “We now have a real chance at solving the attempted murder of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, and finding out just how deep the FBI cover-up goes,” said Attorney Rosenfeld.

The FBI never subjected this evidence to basic forensic examination. Its lawyers contacted Cherney’s lawyers in 2010 announcing plans to destroy the evidence. In 2002, an Oakland federal jury found three FBI agents and three Oakland police officers liable for violating Bari and Cherney’s First and Fourth Amendment Rights and trying to frame them by falsely accusing them of transporting the bomb which nearly killed them. The FBI never looked elsewhere.

Cherney alone has continued to pursue the bomber(s). With co-Director Mary Liz Thompson, he just released a new documentary entitled Who Bombed Judi Bari? (http://whobombedjudibari.com/). The evidence, hitherto sealed away in an FBI locker, may finally yield an answer to that question.

Request a copy of the Court order via one of the contacts above, or look it up on PACER under federal Case No. 91-01057 (Document Number 686). For historic information about the case, visit http://www.judibari.org/.

Shit the FBI Says

From Green is the New Red

Justin Solondz to Plead Guilty to ELF Arson

from the Olympian:

TACOMA, Wash. – A man charged in the 2001 arson that destroyed the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture is expected to plead guilty.

Justin Solondz is scheduled to plead guilty to federal charges before U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton on Tuesday morning.Prosecutors say Solondz built the firebombs that started the $6 million blaze in Seattle.

Solondz was arrested in Chicago last summer following his expulsion from China, where he had been serving a prison sentence on drug charges.He faces charges including conspiracy, arson and using a destructive device in a violent crime.

The UW fire was part of a string of 17 arsons across the West by radical environmental groups, the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front. Fourteen people have been convicted of crimes related to the fires.

Green Scare: Briana Waters pleads guilty, expected to testify against alleged accomplice

DABC Note: It appears that we can no longer list Briana Waters as an non-cooperating defendant, as she is now poised to snitch on an alleged accomplice to the UW arson.

From capitalist media:

TACOMA, Wash. — A violin teacher from California admitted she helped set the fire that destroyed the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture.

Briana Waters faced a retrial for the 2001 fire. But on Tuesday she told a federal judge she played a role in the arson at the University of Washington. In May of 2001 members of the Earth Liberation Front set fire to the UW’s Center for Urban Horticulture, causing $6 million in damage. Investigators quickly determined it was no accident.

Originally, Waters said she was innocent and testified to that in her trial, but on Tuesday the 35-year-old mother and musician admitted she was a lookout for the five-person crew.

Her original conviction was thrown out but rather than face trial again — and risk a longer sentence — she accepted a plea deal.

“We’re particularly pleased Ms. Waters, who previously claimed she was innocent… accepted guilt for her crimes in admitting what she did wrong and will now face justice for those crimes,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Friedman.

She’ll likely get a four-year sentence and have to testify against the alleged ringleader of the arson crew, a former boyfriend. He’s in a Chinese jail on a drug conviction but he could be back in the U.S. within a year.

Waters is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 23. She is free on bond until then.

June 11th: International Day of Solidarity with Green Scare prisoners Marie Mason and Eric McDavid

June 11th began as an international day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoner Jeff “Free” Luers in 2004. At the time, Jeff was serving 22+ years. Infuriated by the environmental devastation he saw occurring on a global scale, Free torched three SUVs at a car dealership in Eugene, OR. The sentence imposed on him was meant to send a clear message to others who were angered by capitalism’s continued war on the Earth’s ecosystems – and to those who were willing to take action to put a stop to it. Free is, after all, not alone in his concerns about climate change, fossil fuels, pollution and genetically modified organisms.

After years of struggle, Jeff and his legal team won a reduction in his sentence and he was released from prison in December 2009. But in the years intervening Jeff’s arrest and release, the FBI had carried out a series of indictments and arrests in an attempt to devastate the radical environmental and anarchist communities. Two of the people caught up in this maelstrom of repression were Eric McDavid and Marie Mason.

Eric McDavid was arrested in January 2006 after being entrapped by a paid government informant – “Anna” – and was charged with a single count of conspiracy. Eric – who never carried out any actions and was accused of what amounts to “thought crime” – refused to cooperate with the state and took his case to trial. After a trial fraught with errors, the jury convicted Eric. He was subsequently sentenced to almost 20 years in prison. More information on Eric’s case can be found at http://www.supporteric.org

Marie Mason was arrested in March 2008 after her former partner – Frank Ambrose – turned informant for the FBI. Facing a life sentence if she went to trial, Marie accepted a plea bargain in September 2008, admitting her involvement in the burning of an office connected to GMO research and the destruction of a piece of logging equipment. At her sentencing in February the following year, she received a sentence of almost 22 years. More information on Marie’s case can be found at http://www.supportmariemason.org

Marie and Eric now share the unfortunate distinction of having the longest standing sentences of any environmental prisoners in the United States.

Please join us in an International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners Marie Mason and Eric McDavid on June 11th. This is a time to remember our friends who are in prison – who are continuing their struggles on the inside. This is a time to continue and strengthen the very work for which Eric and Marie are now serving so much time – to struggle against capitalism, ecological devastation, and the ever more diffuse forms of control in this prison society.

Free Marie and Eric!
Free all prisoners!

Please be in touch:
june11thsolidarity@gmail.com
http://june11th.org (more content soon)

Judge Larson Orders Gov’t to Submit Judi Bari Bombing Evidence for Independent Testing

Judge Larson orders gov’t to submit Judi Bari bombing evidence for independent testing, after FBI hoped to destroy it.

On March 21, 2011, Magistrate Judge James Larson issued this order granting a motion for preservation and independent testing of the bomb remnants (including potential DNA evidence, along with fingerprint evidence) in the case of the bombing of Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney.

Last year, the bombing victims’ attorneys received word that the FBI intended to destroy this evidence, even though the FBI never conducted an honest investigation in trying to determine who bombed Judi and Darryl, and never so much as subjected this evidence, including duct tape contained in the nearly intact Cloverdale bomb (which misfired, and which the FBI itself acknowledges was built by the same bomber(s) as the car bomb which ripped through Judi Bari’s Subaru car seat and up into her body on May 24, 1990) to forensic examination.

In 1990, bombers did not know to cover their DNA tracks. There is every reason to believe that these bomb components may contain forensic evidence which will finally answer the question, who bombed Judi Bari. The FBI, apparently, has never sought DNA testing of this evidence, and has never so much as compared the usable fingerprints it lifted. Furthermore, given the history of this case, the victims cannot trust the FBI to do this sincerely on its own. For this reason, their lawyers sought both preservation and independent examination.

Read the rest here, including court doc pdf’s.

And for more on Judi Bari, check out this excellent radio program produced by Prison Radio.

Brianna Waters re-indicted

From Earth First News:

On January 26, 2011, Briana Waters was re-indicted in a 9 count indictment which also served as a superseding indictment for Joseph Dibee, Josephine Overaker, and Justin Solondz. Briana is accused of: conspiracy to commit offense or defraud the US, possessing an unregistered firearm, arson of a building used in interstate commerce or in activity affecting interstate commerce, using a destructive device during a crime of violence, and arson of a building belonging to an institution receiving federal financial assistance. The use of a destructive device charge alone carries a 30 year minimum sentence. Trial is currently set for June 27, 2011 – although this date will almost certainly be pushed back. For more information on Briana and how you can help, please visit: http://supportbriana.org/