newswire article reporting united states anti-racism | police / legal JAN 24, 2007 - 5 YEARS AFTER THE FBI RAID ON RAISE THE FIST author: repost from a listserve written by Sherman Austin

edited, and posted by Akwala On January 24, 2002 I was surrounded by 25 federal agents from the FBI and Secret

Service Los Angeles Joint Terror Task force while I was at home asleep taking a nap.

The agents were armed with sub-machine guns, shot guns, bullet-proof vests, a

battering ram, and a 25 page search and seizure warrant filled with as much "terror

rhetoric" as they could think of. While asleep I was unaware that agents were

already positioned around every angle of the house, including right outside my

window with loaded weapons ready for a fire fight. I was 18.



Fortunately my sister was home and woke me up to the news that "a bunch of FBI

looking people" in suites and vests were all over block and up and down the

streets. Every single one of them focused on the house. It had only been 2 years

since I started the site Raisethefist.com which was receiving thousands of hits

daily from around the world, many of those hits were also coming from the FBI, U.S

Department of Defense, NSA, Secret Service, and foreign government law agencies. I

was running the site on a computer network and a residential DSL line from my home.



The news was no surprise.



I got up. Looked at the servers hosting Raisethefist.com. They were off-line.

I approached the door where 2 special agents asked for my name, then grabbed my

shoulder and pulled me outside. Agents armed with their loaded sub-machine guns and

shot guns emerged from their hiding spots and entered the house. Just as they

walked in, "Its this way!" one of the agents said as he pointed his sub-machine gun

and led others to my room where the servers were.



The 2 special agents who greeted me at the door escorted me back inside and said

they had a search and seizure warrant because of my web site, Raisethefist.com. I

asked them how this was legal and they said it was now legal under the USA Patriot

Act.



I wasn't being accused of authoring anything on raisethefist.com. I was being

accused of authoring a web site that was created by somebody else. A white kid. A

web site that contained a page on how to build home-made explosives. Again, a web

site I didn't author, implement, or create in any way. The FBI insisted I did. They

asked me 7 times if I was the author of the site which contained this explosives

information. I said "NO".



I had a link to this web site from Raisethefist.com , as I did to many other sites.

While my room was being ransacked. The "evidence" which consisted of computers,

protest signs, and political literature was loaded into boxes and placed into a big

white truck waiting outside.



The FBI tried to ask me questions about raisethefist.com. The FBI told my mother

they had been watching me for a very long time and my political haven't changed. I

was asked if I'd like to see the president killed. I was told I had crossed over a

line and as long as I got back on the other side of that line everything would be

okay. In other words if I stayed silent and did what I was told there would be no

more trouble.



After approximately 6 hours the FBI agents left. We noticed a message on the

answering machine from a call that came in the same day but before the raid. It was

from an individual I hadn't spoken to in 2 years. He left a message asking if I

wanted to "hang out". A few weeks prior he sent me an email about going to an

anti-capitalist demonstration together to "smash the state". I later learned the

FBI visited this individual, stood over his shoulder, and dictated the very words

he sent me in the email. And as for the phone call, this was also a setup. He was

an informant. The FBI forgot to black this out in the 1000+ pages of case

discovery.



But that wasn't the only thing they forgot to black out.



The white kid who I mentioned earlier. The one who authored the site on how to

build home-made explosives. He was visited by the FBI as well. What did the agents

do? Arrest him? No. They confirmed he authored, implemented, and created the web

site on how to build Molotov cocktails, pipe bombs, and other recipes, then they

left. What happened next? The FBI fabricated statements saying I admitted to

authoring, implementing, and creating the web site on how to build explosives.



2 weeks later federal prosecutors call my public defender and say the FBI didn't

find anything illegal on the computers they seized but didn't want to let me off

the hook. Basically they wanted me to sign a plea admitting guilt to something I

didn't do.This only happened after spending 2 weeks in a 24-hour lock-down maximum

security federal prison cell where I was only allowed out for legal visits, and my

closest neighbors on the cell block being those convicted for the U.S.S Cole

bombings and the bombings of the US Embassy in Kenya. I was called "terror boy".

Then of course I was released after 2 weeks when prosecutors decided not to indict

me on anything until they had gone through all of the computers. A 6 month period

of death threats, wire taps, harassment, government threats, being followed and

surveilled by undercover agents, sheriffs and local police continued..



I still continued to organized and refused to remain silent. The feds didn't like

that.



"18 U.S.C. 842 (p)(2)(A): distribution of information relating to explosives,

destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction with the intent that such

information be used in furtherance of a federal crime of violence."

This was the statue written and sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein and passed

under Clinton's 1997 anti-terror law. It was never before enforced. Not until

August 4, 2003 when I was sentenced to a year in federal prison and 3 years

"supervised release". I was threatened with over 20 years in prison under the

terrorism enhancement. I was never indicted.



What happened to the white kid who actually wrote the explosives information and

put it on-line with the intent that it be used at an upcoming protest against the

International Monetary Fund in New York? Nothing.



The FBI walked out of the court room with smiles. My mom, family and friends were

in tears.



And of course It was only standard routine for the U.S injustice system. Another

young black male, railroaded by the system. Convicted and sentenced for a crime he

didn't commit.



I went in when I was 20 and got released in 2004 when I was 21. I lived with my mom

for the first few months when I got out. 2 undercover agents moved into an

apartment complex directly across the street. They kept the blinds on the windows

closed 24/7. We later learned they worked at the Westwood Federal Building. That's

the same federal building that the FBI on the case worked out of. Sometimes they

made the mistake of not taking off their security badges whenever they came and

left the apartment. It was a bad job of being undercover...



As was the entire case. A bad messy job. Fabricated evidence filled with

contradictions and obvious lies and allegations created by the feds. Yet the

obviousness of the truth wasn't enough. The blatant fraud, a blatant setup wasn't

enough to stop the judge from handing down a year prison sentence.



This case had nothing to do with information related to explosives being made

available to the public on the internet. If it did then I wouldn't be on the one

writing this right now with my pencil and paper as the stipulations of my probation

state I still can't touch a computer.



I would say to those who believe this is too far fetched to be true, just go look

at the case discovery and see for yourself. The obvious lies are supported by the

contradicting articles FBI agents forgot to black out. The truth is right there.

But recently we've learned that the entire case was SEALED by the feds.

Not even a lawyer can get access to the case files now.

However, a copy of the entire case discovery was obtained before this happened. And

that copy hasn't been sealed.





---------------------------------------------------------------

For a comprehensive background on Sherman Austin's case , please see:

"Raise the Fist"

http://www.RaisetheFist.com

"Secret NSA surveillance and the case of Sherman Austin"

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/02/148031.php?theme=1

"Zack de la Rocha on the case of Sherman Austin"

background music by upstate::uprise

http://www.shermanaustinmusic.com/media/mp3s/zackdelarochaonshermanaustin.mp3

"Senator Feinstein Urges Department of Justice to Aggressively Enforce Bombmaking

Statute September"

http://feinstein.senate.gov/03Releases/r-bombmaking3.htm

"A Strange and Tragic Legal Journey: The Case of Sherman Martin Austin by

Chowkwanyun, Merlin"

http://counterpunch.org./merlin10112003.html

"What the FBI Doesn't Want You to See at RaisetheFist.com"

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/raisethefist/



General Case Background



On January 24, 2002 the FBI and the Secret Service armed with a search warrant

raided Austin's home. Austin was 18-years-old and home with his twin sister, agents

questioned him without an attorney for six hours and seized all of his computer

equipment and political literature.



A week later Austin attended the anti World Economic Forum protests in New York City where he was arrested by the FBI for "distribution of information related to explosives or weapons of mass destruction".



Conviction Austin an 18-year-old African American male, claimed that he never authored any

information about explosives. Nick, a 16-year-old white male from Orange County

admitted to authoring and posting the 'Reclaim Guide" on a free hosting space

located on Sherman's server. FBI dsicovery files referred to an area of the Raise

the Fist server ("www.raisethefist.com/exit ) which was entitled Reclaim Guide

authored by Nick, who was questioned by the Special Agent John I. Pi and never

admitted to authorship of the information.



The FBI never charged Sherman but instead coerced him into signing a plea for distributing Reclaim Guide. Sherman was cooerced into entering a guilty plea to violation of 18 U.S.C. 842(p)

which makes it a crime to distribute bombmaking information knowing or intending

that the information will be used for a violent crime. Sherman was never formally

charged with any crime.



The government threatened him with a "terrorism enhancement" to the charge under

the USA PATRIOT Act and, if the case went to trial and he was convicted of such, a

potential 20 year sentence. On August 4, 2003, he was sentenced in U.S. District

Court by Judge Stephen V. Wilson to 12 months in a federal jail, a $2000 fine,

three years probation, and as well as other restrictions. His time was served in a

federal institution in Tucson, Arizona.



Release

Austin was released one month early in July 2004 with 3 years of probation which

prohibits him from having access to a computer as well as knowingly associating with

individuals who "espouse violence for political change".



Public opinion

In February 2006, Austin released a statement on Indymedia claiming that the

National Security Agency had installed illegal wiretaps before and during the

investigation against him.



Austin's mother, Jennifer Martin Ruggiero, is an outspoken advocate for her son.

Many Americans consider Austin a political prisoner. Since his arrest, Austin has

become a cause cÃ©lÃ¨bre on the internet for anarchists, with many sites dedicated

to "freeing" Austin. Zack de la Rocha, lead vocalist of the band Rage Against the

Machine, came out in support of Austin.



Carnegie Mellon University professor David S. Touretzky, who posted a mirror of the

Reclaim Guide on his web site in reaction to the FBI raid on Austin, has not been

charged or arrested. Touretzky has distanced himself from Austin's politics, which

he characterizes as "mindless", and has dismissed the Reclaim Guide as amateurish.

He points out that books like Home Workshop Explosives, which offer better

information about making explosives, are sold on the popular website Amazon.com. contribute to this article

contribute to this article add comment to discussion view discussion from this article