Boston Student Faces Felony Charges for Antiwar Demo

Boston Indymedia

Joe Previtera, a twenty one year old student at Boston College, was
arrested Wednesday and charged with felonies after dressing as a hooded
Iraqi prisoner in front of a military recruitment center on Tremont St.
in downtown Boston. In his arraignment today a Suffolk County District
Attorney suggested that Mr. Previtera's bail be set at $10,000.
However, a National Lawyers Guild attorney and Mr. Previtera's mother,
also an attorney, persuaded the judge to free Previtera on personal
recognizance.

Previtera faces misdemeanor charges of disturbing the peace and felony
charges of making a false bomb threat and using a hoax device. The
charges apparently reflect the District Attorney's concern that Mr.
Previtera might have been mistaken for a terrorist. Witnesses say that
passersby seemed unconcerned by Mr. Previtera's actions.

hydrarchist writes:

"It's been a bad week on the repression front for the p2p community. Last weekend Isamu Kaneko was arrested (10 million yen — more than $100,000 — has already been raised by his supporters to assist in his defense). Shortly afterwards, the RIAA began proceedings against another 493 defendants in the United States. Lastly a private law firm has announced suits against 20 p2p users in Korea, mostly for downloading movies."

Isamu Kaneko, Winny, P2P Repression

Isamu Kaneko, author of Winny, the Japanese P2P software with
encrypted networking capability, similar to Freenet, has been
officially arrested on copyright-related charges. The charge of
violating copyright laws carries up to three years in prison or a fine
of up to 3 million yen ($27,000).

Michael Moore Has Film of US Hostage Berg

Contents of Interview with Beheading Victim Undisclosed

BBC News

Film director Michael Moore says he has interview footage of slain US hostage Nick Berg that was not used in his anti-Bush documentary Fahrenheit 9/11.

Moore, whose film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes festival, said the footage was about 20 minutes long.

He said it would not be released to the media and that he was dealing privately with Mr Berg's family about it.

Mr Berg's killing shocked Americans after an Arabic-language website showed a video of him being beheaded.

Neither Moore nor his representatives would discuss the nature of the interview with Mr Berg, or its contents, the Associated Press news agency reported.

"Missing Papers Have Reference to Rumsfeld"

Greg Jaffe and David Cloud, Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials said that among documents regarding the
Iraq-prison scandal that the Pentagon failed to give Congress is one
described as a "draft update for the Secretary of Defense" on
interrogation rules.

The date and contents of the document referring to Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld are unknown. But Col. Thomas Pappas, the senior
intelligence officer at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison, has suggested in
testimony to Army investigators that it discusses a set of rules to
guide interrogations in Iraq and suggests that military police should
"support interrogations," said a U.S. official.

2006 Cuts In Domestic Spending On Table

Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post

The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if
President Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include spending
cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of domestic programs,
including education, homeland security and others that the president
backed in this campaign year.

New York's Socialist Scholars Conference Board Splits

To: The Socialist Scholars Conference community.

From: Stanley Aronowitz, Nancy Holmstrom, Manning Marable, Leith
Mullings, Frances Fox Piven, Julia Wrigley.

At its meeting on the evening of May 19th, the Board of the Socialist
Scholars Conference voted by 8 to 7 to terminate the services of our
staff director, Eric Canepa. This move has been afoot for some
months, and we have tried hard to avert it. Now that this decision
has been made, we feel morally obligated to resign from the Board. We
note that the people leaving include a majority of the women and
people of color who have joined the Board.

"Gore Sez Rummy, Condi, Other Bushies Should Get Canned"

Associated Press

Former Vice President Al Gore called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, CIA director George Tenet, and national security adviser Condoleeza Rice on Wednesday in a fiery denunciation of Bush administration policies.

In a speech at New York University, Gore argued that officials, including several of Rumsfeld’s top civilian deputies, should step down because the situation in Iraq is out of control.

“I am calling today for Republicans as well as Democrats to join me in asking for the immediate resignations of those immediately below George Bush and Dick Cheney, who are most responsible for creating the catastrophe we are facing in Iraq,” Gore said, drawing strong applause from the partisan crowd.

A Dozen Long Island Activists Reported Under FBI Arrest

This morning up to ten Long Island-based animal liberation activists were arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to local activist sources, who report further below:

"Andrew Stepanian was
one of these activists and was arrested at his home at approximately 6:15
AM on May 26.  We are not sure who the other activists were, but we know
Kevin Jonas and Josh Harper were amongst the other activists the agents
mentioned to Andy's mother when they arrested Andy.  The agents refused to
produce a copy of this warrant at the time of arrest.  If you have any
information as to the location of these activists (we think they'e in Newark, but
they're being denied telephone calls), please respond to this email address:
Rock_Rat9@hotmail.com.

Monday evening two activists were arrested on Long Island in the vicinity
of a Forest Labs Demo at Cold Spring Laboratory. The two activists are Jon and Vanessa and they are being held at the Nassau County Second Precinct.  At this time, we do not know what the charges are but we are relatively certain that at least one of them
will be released with a desk appearance ticket. The other activist doesnt
have ID with her and may be held over night.  More details will be
posted as they become available.  For now we are asking for calls to
the precinct inquiring about the whereabouts and safety of the two
activists.

"Empty Runs: Truckers Call Trips in Iraq Wasteful"

Seth Borenstein, Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON — A Halliburton Inc. subsidiary sent empty flatbed trucks crisscrossing Iraq more than 100 times this year, putting their drivers and military escorts at risk and handing taxpayers the bill with a little added profit.

The drivers were in peril of insurgent attack while taking empty rigs on the 300-mile resupply run from Camp Cedar in southern Iraq to Camp Anaconda near Baghdad, said 12 current and former drivers for the company.

The subsidiary, Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), billed the government for hauling what the drivers derisively called "sailboat fuel."

"FBI Abducts Artist, Seizes Art:

Feds Unable to Distinguish Art from Bioterrorism,

Grieving Artist Denied Access to Deceased Wife's Body"

Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) collective member Steve Kurtz was already suffering from one tragedy when he called 911
early in the morning to tell them his wife had suffered a cardiac arrest
and died in her sleep. The police arrived and, cranked up on the rhetoric
of the "War on Terror," decided Kurtz's art supplies were actually
bioterrorism weapons.

Thus began an Orwellian stream of events in which FBI agents abducted
Kurtz without charges, sealed off his entire block, and confiscated his
computers, manuscripts, art supplies... and even his wife's body.