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Jan 24, 2002 more than 25 federal agents from the FBI and Secret Service
Joint-terror Task Force armed with sub-machine guns, shot guns, and bullet-proof vests
surrounded Sherman Austin, webmaster of RaisetheFist.com in his home. He was 18 years old. Federal agents raided the house under the USA Patriot Act. They came armed and ready to kill.
They seized all computer equipment and political literature, interrogated him for hours, and Special Agent John I. Pi who conducted this entire operation told him he had "crossed over a line"
A week later he attended the World Economic
Forum protests in New York where he was arrested by the FBI , taken into a back room in hand-cuffs and interrogated again by
the FBI and Secret Service, then put into a 24-hour maximum security federal prison cell, and labled a "teen terrorist."
However Sherman never distributed or authored any
information about explosives. In fact the
FBI referred to a completely different site (not this one) authored by somebody else in the FBI Case Discovery - which is not SEALED due to reasons of National Security (don't worry, we have a copy and will be posting it soon!).
..In fact, the FBI visited the author of this "explosives material" (again, not sherman) at his home and confirmed that Sherman never authored any such web site on explosives.. So what did the FBI do?
They left, and fabricated statements in court documents stating Sherman admitted to authoring the explosives material - an entirely different web site titled "The Reclaim Guide".
Sherman, a young black male who refused to be silent, we threatened with 25 years in federal prison under a "terrorism enhancement".
The FBI worked in a set-up in cahoots with John Ashcroft, Senator Dianne Feinstein, federal prosecuters, and other agencies to railroad and persecute Sherman Austin.
What law did Sherman break? None. However the FBI eventually succeeded in having him convicted and sentenced to a year in federal prison
on Aug 4, 2003 for
"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"
The FBI knowingly had Sherman prosecuted for an alleged crime he did not commit.
He was released a year later with 3 years of strict
probation which prohibited access to any computer. He couldn't even own an I-Pod.
Not to mention undercover federal agents moved directly across the street from his family after his release for 6 months. (not so "undercover" after all). But that of course was nothing rare following the years of phone lines being tapped, being followed by federal agents, receiving countless death threats, suspicious cars parked outside his home..
.. And that's not even the tip of the Iceberg
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