Sheasby along w/Joel Kovel, is a neo-marxist Green, one of the more grounded in reality folks there. Has written pieces for Against The Current. The "someone" is Mitchel Cohen of the Brooklyn Greens, who (used to?) write for Z. Michael Pugliese
------- Start of forwarded message ------- From: Walt Sheasby <WSheasby at CS.COM> To: SPSM-LIST at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU Reply-To: Society for the Philosophical Study of Marxism Listserve <SPSM-LIST at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU> Subject: Fwd: Re: GROUNDED: The Feds DO maintain an air travel blacklist Date: 11/17/02 12:55:26 PM
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 15:55:26 EST
From: Walt Sheasby <WSheasby at CS.COM>
Subject:Re: GROUNDED: The Feds DO maintain an air travel blacklist
To: SPSM-LIST at LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU
My apologies for posting this here; it is only in response to an earlier
one.
In a message dated 11/17/02 4:20:42 AM Pacific Standard Time,
someone wrote somewhere:
>In November 2001 Nancy Oden of the Greens /Green Party USA was
denied boarding on a plane leaving Bangor, ME for Chicago. Across the US
there were even some GREENS who sided with the police and accused
Nancy and the G/GPUSA of frabricating the whole story and blowing it out
of proportion.
They even accused Ms. Oden of escalating her encounter with the
authorities at the airport. Well, the following appears in an article in
today's edition of Salon. I am reproducing it here in its entirety because
the whole text is available only to premium subscribers and I think it's
important this information gets out to as wide an audience as possible.
- Someone <
Hi Someone-
Your recycling of the Salon.com article on the No-Fly list without
any further checking is typical of the way this incident has been
broadcast without any attempt to ascertain the reality. Salon.com
has made substantial corrections in this sloppy article that you
re-posted, the main point of which seems to be an attack on the
skeptical Greens who did not buy Nancy Oden's story of being
spotted on a computer list of Green Party activists. Recently there
was a second airport incident involving a Green Party activist, and
after being questioned he admitted that he made up the part about
being spotted on a computer listing his Green Party connection.
We in the Green Alliance, and the spokespersons for the Green Party
United States who challenged Nancy Oden's report, never denied that
there was a Federal government No-Fly list, only that the Green Party
was included in that list as of November 2001. We have always opposed
such a list. Here is what I actually wrote back on Nov. 9, 2001. Those
sites like Counterpunch that ran with the original article attacking me
for my skepticism never posted this message and as far as I know
never posted my letter to Cockburn and company. My comments about
"Other domestic groups had been identified as so-called "terrorist" groups
in a May 10, 2001 FBI report by Louis J. Freeh on the "Threat Of Terrorism
to the United States...." were ignored.
-Walt
Subject: RE: More on Bangor Airport incident
From: Bob (bob at com)
Date: Fri Nov 09 2001 - 14:39:54 EST
Walt Sheasby, whose original rebuttal to the Nancy Oden brouhaha was
widely posted, follows up with more comments... ( He said I could post
this here )
-----Original Message-----
My original post regarding the incident at the Bangor Airport disputed
Nancy Oden's contention that she had been tagged by a computer search
as a Green Party opponent of the bombing in Afghanistan: "I was targeted
because the Green Party USA opposes the bombing of innocent civilians in
Afghanistan."
In all of the flurry of news releases denouncing this as a sectarian
plot by the Green Party of the United States, which yesterday received
FEC recognition, to undermine its tiny rival, the GPUSA, which had tried
to block the FEC decision, neither Nancy nor the other GPUSA publicists
offered any other explanation for the incident. They insisted the FBI
had tagged her as a Green and so prevented her from boarding the plane.
Given the implausibility of this explanation, some Greens admittedly
gave greater credence to the version given by airport staff and
security. On Nov. 4 Jeff Russel, who is with airport security at Bangor
International Airport, said, "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."
There are 46 organizations identified on the terrorist list for the new
USA Patriot Act, none of them domestic. Other domestic groups had been
identified as so-called "terrorist" groups in a May 10, 2001 FBI report
by Louis J. Freeh on the "Threat Of Terrorism to the United States," but
were not connected in any way with foreign-sponsored acts of terror, but
simply with anti-globalization vandalism:
"Anarchists and extremist socialist groups -- many of which, such as
the Workers' World Party, Reclaim the Streets, and Carnival Against
Capitalism -- have an international presence and, at times, also
represent a potential threat in the United States. For example,
anarchists, operating individually and in groups, caused much of the
damage during the 1999 World Trade Organization ministerial meeting
in Seattle."
All Greens, socialists, and others oppose this characterization of
these groups as terrorists, however much we may disagree among ourselves
on the tactics of any particular group, and we all oppose any attempt to
revive McCarthyism, blacklisting, or witch-hunting in any fashion. We
all support the basic human right of freedom of travel, and no one I
know in any way condones the profiling or unwarranted searches of flight
passengers, regardless of their political affiliations.
Some of us did and still do insist that Nancy Oden's statement "I was
targeted because the Green Party USA opposes the bombing of innocent
civilians in Afghanistan." was incorrect and irresponsible.
Paul Prior, a Web publicist with GPUSA, maintains in reference to my
post: "Obviously, the writer below had no evidence for claiming 'It now
does not appear that her connection with Greens/Green Party USA had
anything to do with the harassment at the airport'. The only way we
could ever know that is to see the FBI database ourselves."
While I doubt that is going to happen any time soon, it should still be
the practice of the government to announce changes to any list of
suspected terrorist groups, domestic or foreign, and if that is no
longer true, then civil liberties are in worse shape here than anyone
suspected. The actual attacks on the rights of habeas corpus by
imprisoning hundreds of alleged "material witnesses" are enough to
demand the concentrated resistance of all democratic constitutionalists
and civil libertarians, and we do not need to muddy the situation with
assertions that go way beyond the facts.
In the last few days more of the details about the actual events in
Bangor, Maine, have come to light, partly in interviews given by Nancy
Oden herself. As a NYC supporter described the interview with Amy
Goodman of Democracy Now: "I heard Ms. Oden on Democracy Now this
morning (Amy Goodman interviewed her by phone) and she explained what
happened to her at Bangor airport: ...She gave her name and the ticket
agent apparently immediately recognized it and did not ask for
additional identification;"
Democracy Now describes Nancy Oden as an "organic farmer in Maine and
part of the Northeast Resistance Against Genetic Engineering." Nancy
apparently is relatively well-known through accounts in the local media,
particularly the Bangor Daily News. In particular, an incident in 1999
had brought her to the attention of law enforcement.
One story about the incident, involving destruction of a genetically
modified corn field, "Vandals hit modified corn at UM" from the Bangor
(Maine) Daily News on August 20, 1999 p. B1 is posted on the web at
http://www.tao.ca/~ban/899maine.htm "Environmental activist Nancy
Oden of Jonesboro said Thursday that while she did not destroy the
plants, she commended those who did. 'I'm glad they did it,'' Oden said
during an interview at the Bangor Daily News offices. 'It may not have
been legal, but it was the moral thing to do.' ... In an Aug. 16 e-mail
sent to other activists and also sent to the NEWS, Oden gave explicit
directions to the location of the cornfield...."
Confirming what I posted about this, GPUSA's Paul Prior of New Mexico,
pointed out on Nov. 6 that, "The truth is, Nancy Oden has been a target
of Monsanto and just about everybody else for years. They had her
targeted for an 'ecoterrorist' long before this war."
Whether or not her name was known to the FBI, it is certainly familiar
to the authorities in Maine, and the association with the corn field
incident may be the precipitating cause of her victimization. It
certainly does not appear that her connection with Greens/Green Party
USA had anything to do with the harassment at the airport, but it does
seem that her other activities had brought some unwanted attention.
Needless to say, freedom of travel is a fundamental human right, and
whatever interest Monsanto has in all this, political activities should
not bar anyone from being able to exercise their rights.
Viva la Causa Verde!
Walt Contreras Sheasby
-- -------- End of forwarded message --------