Second, the Athens IMC itself wasn't suspected of doing anything illegal, but the Greek government could easily use information concerning it for repressive purposes. We knew there was nothing connected to its investigation on that server so why were these people trying to get this information?
After consulting with the Athens IMC, we refused to release personally identifying information to the government. We then publicly announced the existence of the subpoena to our membership and posted that information on our website.
Two weeks later, we were served with the gag order forbidding us from talking about the subpoena and forbidding us from even acknowledging to anyone outside our Leadership Committee that the order existed. That included friends, family, our membership and even the Athens IMC. We were to act as if nothing had happened even though we had already announced that it had.
We were informed that any violation of this order could result in fines and imprisonment, which could have destroyed the organization. Our lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation advised us to comply.
I hate bullies and my natural inclination when I confront one is to push back. That's more or less what May First does in most of the legal cases we face. It wasn't the threat of a prison sentence that concerned us but a misstep in this case could mean a huge fine that would shut us down, closing down the websites and email accounts of thousands of activists. That would be movement-crippling and so we decided to follow our lawyers' advice and comply.
We heard nothing more from the government and haven't heard anything since. And that's the first absurdity in the whole tale.
You would think that not allowing a citizen to talk would be a pretty huge decision for the government in this country. But this was treated like a routine matter and that's because it is routine. It has become one of the government's favorite investigative tools and the specific kind of tool the government usually uses is a National Security Letter.
Essentially the NSL is a demand for certain information, which always includes a gag order like the one we received (except ours came from the federal court itself). Under the Patriot Act, the FBI can issue such a letter (without a judge's approval or a hearing) if the agent running an ongoing investigation believes the information being sought is relevant to the case. Most of these letters are about illegal clandestine activities or terrorism but that's a pretty wide berth for any investigation. What's more, the letters never tell you what the investigation is about. There is no judicial review of the request required although, after the reform of the Patriot Act in 2006, you can appeal the letter to a federal judge. But the record shows that such appeals are almost never successful.
So you have to give up the information on people who expect that you will protect their information, never tell these people or anyone else you're doing it and never tell anybody that you can't tell them.
This alone shows that, in the United States, we have no privacy and, since you can't communicate with people about what you're being forced to do, no real freedom of speech.
To illustrate how absurd things got: I was contacted by several journalists from Greece who were, naturally, interested in a story about the US government cooperating with their own government's investigators.
One asked me, "Have you received this subpoena?" and I responded that we have issued a statement on it.
He then asked if there are new developments and I answered, "I am unable to further comment on this situation at this time."
These Greek reporters are clever souls so this one asked me, "Are you under a gag order from your government?"
I repeated my answer about not being able to comment. (By now I was starting to feel like the British Prime Minister during Minister's Questions in Parliament. "I refer the honorable gentleman to an answer I gave previously.")
Then, in the kind of question I would ask several times a week when I was working for a daily newspaper, he asked "Can we assume that this would be your answer if you were under a government gag order?"
After consulting with the Athens IMC, we refused to release personally identifying information to the government. We then publicly announced the existence of the subpoena to our membership and posted that information on our website.
Two weeks later, we were served with the gag order forbidding us from talking about the subpoena and forbidding us from even acknowledging to anyone outside our Leadership Committee that the order existed. That included friends, family, our membership and even the Athens IMC. We were to act as if nothing had happened even though we had already announced that it had.
We were informed that any violation of this order could result in fines and imprisonment, which could have destroyed the organization. Our lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation advised us to comply.
We heard nothing more from the government and haven't heard anything since. And that's the first absurdity in the whole tale.
You would think that not allowing a citizen to talk would be a pretty huge decision for the government in this country. But this was treated like a routine matter and that's because it is routine. It has become one of the government's favorite investigative tools and the specific kind of tool the government usually uses is a National Security Letter.
Essentially the NSL is a demand for certain information, which always includes a gag order like the one we received (except ours came from the federal court itself). Under the Patriot Act, the FBI can issue such a letter (without a judge's approval or a hearing) if the agent running an ongoing investigation believes the information being sought is relevant to the case. Most of these letters are about illegal clandestine activities or terrorism but that's a pretty wide berth for any investigation. What's more, the letters never tell you what the investigation is about. There is no judicial review of the request required although, after the reform of the Patriot Act in 2006, you can appeal the letter to a federal judge. But the record shows that such appeals are almost never successful.
So you have to give up the information on people who expect that you will protect their information, never tell these people or anyone else you're doing it and never tell anybody that you can't tell them.
This alone shows that, in the United States, we have no privacy and, since you can't communicate with people about what you're being forced to do, no real freedom of speech.
To illustrate how absurd things got: I was contacted by several journalists from Greece who were, naturally, interested in a story about the US government cooperating with their own government's investigators.
One asked me, "Have you received this subpoena?" and I responded that we have issued a statement on it.
He then asked if there are new developments and I answered, "I am unable to further comment on this situation at this time."
These Greek reporters are clever souls so this one asked me, "Are you under a gag order from your government?"
I repeated my answer about not being able to comment. (By now I was starting to feel like the British Prime Minister during Minister's Questions in Parliament. "I refer the honorable gentleman to an answer I gave previously.")
Then, in the kind of question I would ask several times a week when I was working for a daily newspaper, he asked "Can we assume that this would be your answer if you were under a government gag order?"
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