Sometime in June of this year I wrote this text which was meant to be
published in a magazine which eventually never got to the printer (but
still might, so they say). Just in case some people who (only) read
English still pass by this blog I'm now dropping it here (in a slightly
edited version):
Blogging
against surveillance, or: who's the terrorist?
On July 31 of last year, at 7 in the morning armed police stormed
into the apartment where my partner Andrej Holm, I and our two children
live. We learned that day that he was a terrorism suspect and that an
investigation had been going on for almost a year. Andrej was arrested
and flown to Germany's Court of Justice the next day. The search of our
home lasted 15 hours. I was forced to wake my children, dress them and
make them have breakfast with an armed policeman watching us. That day
my new life started, a life as the partner of one of Germany's top
terrorists.
Andrej spent three weeks in investigative detention. The arrest warrant
was signed on grounds that caused a public outcry, not only in Germany
but also in many other countries. Open letters were sent to the court
that were signed by several thousand people protesting against the
arrests. Among the signatures were those of David Harvey, Mike Davis,
Saskia Sassen, Richard Sennett and Peter Marcuse. (weiter)
Man fragt sich, warum so intensiv anderswo nach welchen gesucht wird, wenn sie selber soviele haben..
Die US-amerikanische Bürgerrechtsorganisation ACLU hat heute gemeldet, dass inzwischen eine Million Namen auf der Terrorist Watch List der Vereinigten Staaten stehen und ruft Menschen, die davon ausgehen, dass sie auf der Terror-Liste stehen und etwa Probleme beim Fliegen hatten, dazu auf, sich über das Watchlistformular zu melden.
.. sagte Mark Bartlett, Bundesanwalt im Verfahren gegen Briana Waters, die heute zu sechs Jahren Haft verurteilt wurde. Eine 32-jährige Frau, die eine dreijährige Tochter hat und darauf besteht, unschuldig zu sein, obwohl genau das im us-amerikanischen Justizsystem zu höheren Verurteilungen führt.
Vorgeworfen wird ihr, bei einem Brandanschlag auf ein Gentechnik-Institut Schmiere gestanden zu haben. Ich bin keine Expertin, was dieses Verfahren angeht, aber es kommt mir sehr seltsam vor, dass in den USA in solchen Verfahren Deals möglich sind, die sich darum drehen, zu weniger oder gar keinen Strafen verurteilt zu werden, wenn man gegen die Mitbeschuldigten aussagt und sich selbst als schuldig bekennt. Im Umkehrschluss bedeutet das, dass die, die darauf bestehen, unschuldig zu sein, die höchsten Strafen bekommen. Und dass Terrorismus-Bekämpfung in den USA eher grobschlächtig betrieben wird, wundert wahrscheinlich auch niemanden.
Nochmal aus dem eben erschienenen Bericht das gesamte Zitat plus:
"Terrorism is the antithesis of America," Bartlett told the court.
"It is the polar opposite of how democracy works in a free and open
society. Terrorists attempt to impose their elitist views .... As a
result, terrorists are treated more harshly by the law, and they should
be."
But Waters' attorney, Neil Fox, questioned the government's use of
the term "terrorist." And he asked the court to sentence his client to
no more than 18 months behind bars.
"The court should be cognizant of the misuse of the term
'terrorism.' The term clearly has been manipulated by those seeking to
advance their own political agendas," Fox said in a filing with the
court. "It is the scare word of the day, and the consequences of the
expansion of the use of the term to brand defendants can lead to grave
injustice."
Gegen den us-amerikanischen Künstler, Wissenschaftler und Aktivisten Steve Kurtz vom Critical Art Ensemble läuft seit 2004 ein Verfahren, erst wegen Bioterrorismus, später wegen eines Gesetzes, zu dem es im deutschen Recht kein Pendant gibt: 'Mail and Wire Fraud', am ehesten übersetzbar als 'Post- und Überweisungsbetrug'. Klingt unaufregend, bringt aber gewaltige Ermittlungen und Strafen mit sich.
Das Critical Art Ensemble setzt sich seit Jahren kritisch mit Biotechnologien auseinander. Zuletzt erschien auf deutsch 'Die molekulare Invasion', (englisch vollständig online), in dem u.a. diskutiert wird, warum wichtig ist, dass auch NichtwissenschaftlerInnen begreifen, wie Gentechnik funktioniert und warum der Widerstand dagegen nicht zwangsläufig progressiv ist, sondern etwa 'das Bewahren des Natürlichen' auch sehr konservativ sein kann. Andere Bücher beschäftigen sich mit 'elektronischem zivilen Ungehorsam' oder 'digitalem Widerstand'.
Das Verfahren gegen Steve Kurtz wird im Film 'Strange Culture' von Lynn Hershman dokumentiert, der vergangenes Jahr bei der Berlinale lief. Er beschreibt eindrücklich die Auswirkungen einer Terrorfahndung auf Betroffene und ihr Umfeld.
Wir haben im Herbst eine Veranstaltung in der Berliner NGBK organisiert, bei der Teile des Films gezeigt und die Parallelen der Verfahren diskutiert wurden (Dokumentation).
[Ich kann den Film nur dringendst weiterempfehlen. Er ist vorläufig noch nicht vollständig untertitelt. Sollte sich aber auf diesem Weg ein Verleih finden, der daran interessiert ist, Strange Culture in deutschen Kinos zu zeigen, könnt Ihr mich kontaktieren: ich würde ihn liebend gern fertig übersetzen.]
Steve Kurtz wird vom CAE Defense Fund unterstützt, der gestern eine Pressemitteilung dazu herausgab, dass das Verfahren eingestellt wird. Offen ist vorläufig, ob die Staatsanwaltschaft in Berufung geht:
JUDGE DISMISSES MAIL FRAUD CASE AGAINST BIO-ARTIST KURTZ
Buffalo, NY--A process that has taken nearly four years may be coming
to an end. On Monday, April 21, Federal Judge Richard J. Arcara ruled
to dismiss the indictment against University at Buffalo Professor of
Visual Studies Dr. Steven Kurtz.
In June 2004, Professor Kurtz was charged with two counts of mail
fraud and two counts of wire fraud stemming from an exchange of $256
worth of harmless bacteria with Dr. Robert Ferrell, Professor of Human
Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public
Health.
Dr. Kurtz planned to use the bacteria in an educational art exhibit
about biotechnology with his award-winning art and theater collective,
Critical Art Ensemble.
Professor Kurtz' lawyer, Paul Cambria, said that his client was
"pleased and relieved that this ordeal may be coming to an end."
The prosecution has the right to appeal this dismissal. How the
prosecution will proceed is unknown at this time. If an appeal were
undertaken the case would move to the New York Second Circuit Court of
Appeals in New York City.
Lucia Sommer, Coordinator of the CAE Defense Fund, which raises funds
for Kurtz' legal defense, said, "We are all grateful that after
reviewing this case, Judge Arcara took appropriate action." She added
that "this decision is further testament to our original statements
that Dr. Kurtz is completely innocent and never should have been
charged in the first place."
BACKGROUND ON DR. STEVEN KURTZ AND CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE
Critical Art Ensemble (which Kurtz co-founded in 1987 with Steven
Barnes) has won numerous awards for its bio-art, including the
prestigious 2007 Andy Warhol Foundation Wynn Kramarsky Freedom
of Artistic Expression Grant, honoring more than two decades of
distinguished work. The group has been commissioned to exhibit and
perform in many of the world's cultural institutions--including the
London Museum of Natural History; The ICA, London; the Whitney Museum
and the New Museum in NYC; the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington,
DC; Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de
Paris; der Volksbüne, Berlin; ZKM, Karlsruhe; El Matadero, Madrid;
Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; Museo de Arte Carrilo Gil,
Mexico City and many more.
For more information about the case, please visit: caedefensefund.org
The international competition to define 'Terrorism' was officially just closed, but entries keep trickling in. One of my current favourites is a video made in Amsterdam in front of the Central Station last week by Eleonora Oreggia, aka xname. Seeing the latest entries I think the panel is going to have a difficult time chosing the best ones.
"What is terror?"
A collection of opinions on terror and its derivatives,
the real voice of random passengers.
Question to the viewers:
Can you identify the three key-words missing in the video?
EU states show an increasing willingness to categorize as terrorism
actions only remotely connected to the planning and commission of
violent attacks, with damaging consequences for expression, privacy,
and in some cases liberty.
Germany
The arrest of two academics in July raised questions about academic
freedom and free speech in the context of counterterrorism. The federal
police arrested Andrej Holm, a professor from the University of
Humboldt, and another academic identified only as “Mattias B.,” citing
their academic writings and accusing them of being intellectual
supporters of a militant left-wing faction allegedly responsible for a
series of arson attacks since 2001. Neither of the men is a suspect in
the arson investigation, but Holm is accused of meeting with one of the
suspected arsonists earlier in 2007. Holm was detained and placed in
solitary confinement until bail was granted in August. Charges of
membership in a terrorist organization are pending against both men.
And elsewhere?
In Denmark an activist who unexpectedly returned home interrupted a secret house search by the police recently. Now who believes this is a singular event that would take place only in Denmark?
In the UK, if you're of muslim origin, admittely anarchist and e.g. have taken part in protests against the G8 summit in Germany, be ready to expect to regularly be questioned by the Special Branch at the airport. At least. Regular surveillance measures included.
Our conversation touched questions such as who or what the 'war on terror' is really aiming at (in Germany) and how it is used to create more fear in order to create public acceptance of more control. We talked about the history of anti-terror legislation in Germany, whether control actually makes sense from the point of view of those who exercise it - can all the data be evaluated or does full-scale surveillance rather create chaos? What sense does it make?
What possible strategies are there against being controlled by fear and what can blogging do for you? We also talked about some details of the case against Andrej - why was he made a terrorist by the police and what role did 'conspiratorial behaviour' play in the investigations. Rather than panicking and thinking that now anyone will be made a terrorist - at random, so to say - it's important to realise who is being targeted to understand what is going on. And finally we touched privacy and why it should be protected, precisely because some people are subjected to police action because of it.
Every now and then, I have phone calls with the BKA (Federal Criminal Police Office). Or rather, I always have phone calls with the BKA, because everytime I
am on the phone, the BKA is listening. To make it clear, because
apparently concerning this, everythin is being misunderstood by everybody: I do
not talk to the BKA. You just can'tt avoid that they are listing. And
to make sure that the BKA is not misunderstanding this: I do not
actively try to avoid it. Because, according to the files, every
attempt to avoid this is "conspirative behaviour" and thus at least in
Andrej's case virtually the direct indication that attacks are being
planned, executed or at least confessed in written. Or that it is being
prepared to plan, execute or confess. Insofar, I will keep my hands of
behaving in any way conspiratively, which incidentally with such
extensive surveillance measures is not particularly easy. That's not
right, I still use GPG. Not exactly consequent, but on the other hand
I am not accused and in effect I have a certain right to privacy
according to the constitution (Grundgesetz) and the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht).
Which reminds me that I recently used the phrase "and then they
will certainly think again that we are planning attacks", while to
my knowledge nobody thinks that I am plannning attacks at all and then internally bit my
tongue, because I'll have to fear that the BKA and the attorney general
will now maybe think that I might want to plan attacks. Which is not
the case (hello BKA, once more for your notes: I am not planning any
attacks), but maybe they will interpret it in the way that I identify
myself so much with all of this politically-repressive mess, that I am
a part of it. Although, it is just the case that I am included in the
surveillance and thus take it pretty personally, too. About the effects
of having it in the written that all phone calls are monitored, I could
write a lot more, maybe later.
Back to todays phone calls, they took pretty absurd turns:
Andrej's mobile "didn't work" - that happens often, which is not really
a problem, except for maybe that the attorney says that the phone
should stay on at all times, to make the impression ... cf. above. He
calls himself from a landline and reaches my mailbox instead of his
mobile. He then calls me from the same landline with the request to
call his mobile, which I then do. And I reach my own mailbox with the
challenge to enter my mailbox PIN, which normally only happens if I
call it from a phone different then my mobile. Does something like this
happen, because different agencies are listening in at the same time,
or because the circuits were messed up? Are there communication
technology apprentices that are practicising on us?
Furthermore, our emails partially do not arrive. Demonstrably,
tested several times. I am completely mystified on how that can happen
at all, but it does.
A nice example for this is Andrej's attempt from yesterday
evening, to subscribe himself to a so36.net mailinglist: no reaction at
all to his -subscribe mails. Thus I tried the same thing as list
administrator, yesterday night at 22:56, no reaction until today 21:28.
He was demonstrably not on the subscriber list. This evening, the IT
experts of BKA and co. seem to have sorted so far that mails are coming
through again, by now he is subscribed.
Nearly exactly two months ago, the Berlin LKA
forced open our door at 7 am, knocked my sweetheart to the floor,
stormed our bedroom and the rooms of our children with drawn guns and
since then, our life has been turned upside-down. I cannot say that I
got used to it, especially because the authorities are doing their best
to not let normality rise (that is maybe the idea behind it). Therefore,
and because I am no longer that stunned as at the start, I have decided
to document the daily insanity. More at einstellung.so36.net/en.
(First published in German Oct 3, 07. Thank you, 24c3 translators!)
we have not managed for a while to put together a summary of what is happening concerning 'our' terrorism case. Unfortunately there was no more English language coverage in the media and we are moving closer to
our personal limits when it comes to keeping up with the pace of this
campaign. Now, near the end of the year when hopefully most of you and
us will find the time to sit back and relax, I'd like to send you a
short email with the latest developments.
Also please note the information at the end of this email about a
lecture in English language I will be giving next Thursday in Berlin
during the CCC Congress which will be streamed via internet and later
will be ready for download.
We would also like to use the opportunity to ask you one more time to
consider donating for the campaign. We have received an amazing lot of
donations, thank you all. Unfortunately law cases are expensive - as you
all know - and we continue to depend on more donations to be able to pay
an group of very dedicated lawyers, and support the seven accused plus
close to 20 witnesses. In German law they are all threatened with up to
six months of coercive detention and/or high fines if they refuse to
testify against their friends, collegues or (former) room mates.
http://einstellung.so36.net/en/donations
The great news ist that already Nov 28 the other three who were arrested
in July were set free. Arrest warrant still in place, but the Federal
High court decided that they should be let out of prison on bail. It was
not easy to raise the €90.000 Euro, but one day later everyone set free.
The other important detail is that the court in this same decision
decided that all seven are no longer accused of forming a terrorist
organisation. An intense public debate in most of the big German media
preceded this, discussing how a terrorist organisation can and should be
defined today. Most statements after the decision by the High Court
agreed with us that this constitutes another 'slap in the face' of the
Federal Prosecutor. On the other hand the court also decided that all
seven are now to be prosecuted for forming a 'militant organisation',
§129 instead of §129a of the German penal code, possible sentences up to
5 instead of up to 10 years of prison.
Not what we had hoped for, but a lot more than most had thought possible.
=====================================
During this time we have extended our campaign calling for the end to
all $129a-proceedings on the grounds that these inquiries are mainly
used to intimidate and spy on activist movements. Several other
investigations under this article against activists are being conducted.
// For background on the German anti-terrorim article §129a see again
"Crime by association - Terrorist law used to criminalise critical
research", by Statewatch (http://einstellung.so36.net/en/ps/392). //
We have organised two larger events in Berlin in November and December
that attracted large audiences. Both were recorded and are online - for
those of you who do understand German. One drew the parallel to the case
against the american artist Steve Kurtz, member of the Critical Art
Ensemble and accused of bioterrorism in 2004 (details at
http://www.caedefensefund.org). We showed excerpts of the excellent
documentary by Lynn Hershman 'Strange Culture',
http://strangeculture.net/ and if you have the chance to see it don't
miss it!
The other event, "We are all terrorists", took place in the Volksbühne
theatre. Actors did a reading of excerpts of adapted case files in the
beginning and then suspects in four different terrorism cases against
political activists presented details from their respective cases. Often
similar absurdities such as it being considered suspicious that a group
of young antifascists did not participate in the protests against the
G8, did not mention certain issues in their phone calls, did not
discuss antimilitarim - they, too, are accused of setting fire to army
vehicles. Again only in German, but very much worthwhile watching.
We'd love to have the capacities to translate all of this into English,
but for the moment we don't.
If anyone can think of possible funding for translations/subtitling of
any of this please let us know.
What is terrorism? And who is terrorising whom?
I'll be giving a 1h lecture about life with surveillance as the partner
of a terrorism suspect about life with surveillance and blogging about
it. Details at http://events.ccc.de/congress/2007/Fahrplan/events/2381.en.html
In the last days some material was produced that gives a lot of background to what is happening to Andrej and the six others accused of being terrorists.
See this new video on Current TV that also covers the Berlin demonstration Sept 22 against data retention and surveillance:
(I am still struggling with code for this site, for the moment you can just as well watch it on uk.current.com. Don't forget to register and vote for it!)
A long piece describing and analysing the case and terrorism jurisdiction in Germany in general will be publised shortly on Statewatch, it's already on the Einstellung website:
Florian Opitz was arrested in Nigeria by the Nigerian State Security Service (SSS) and has to appear in court today. He is accused of 'endangering national security' and faces up to 14 years in prison.
Florian Opitz is a freelance documentary filmmaker, author and journalist. His last very successful documentary "The Big Sell-Out"
"is a political film. In various episodes the abstract phenomenon of privatisation is depicted in stories about very concrete human destinies around the globe. The documentary tells tragic, tragicomic but also encouraging stories of the everyday life of people, who day by day have to deal with the effects of privatisation politics, dictated by anonymous international financial institutions in Washington D.C. and Geneva, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO)."
Arrested with him were filmmaker Andy Lehmann (Berlin), Danjuma Saidu (Nigeria) and Judith Asuni (US/Nigeria), doing research in the Niger delta for their next film. They were alledgedly taking pictures of oil refineries, pipelines and ships. The Niger Delta has seen many bloody conflicts about resources, oil revenue and distribution of wealth, often depicted as 'ethic conflicts' by neighbouring tribes.
No, there is no
gender discrimination in tech. We’re all the same. Nobody really
understands why it is that there are so few women in tech, esp. FLOSS.
Just another stupid comment to Carla Schroeders My Fabulous Geek Career, linked to from LWN.net
You know, I’m thinking about subscribing, but these
random, feminist bullsh*t articles are becoming frequent enough to
really hurt the signal-to-noise ratio of the site. Why does this crap
keep getting posted?
[You] definitely need a thick skin in the FOSS world.
It’s a self-selected group, so it’s chock-full of mavericks, the
socially-inept, just plain trolls, and all manner of folks who don’t
understand the importance of courtesy and respect.
Annalists (from Latinannus, year; hence annales, sc. libri, annual records), is the name given to a class of writers on Roman history, the period of whose literary activity lasted from the time of the Second Punic War to that of Sulla.
They wrote the history of Rome from the earliest times (in most cases)
down to their own days, the events of which were treated in much
greater detail.
An|na|list der; -en, -en <zu → ...ist>: Verfasser von Annalen.
an|na|li|sie|ren <zu → annal u. → ...isieren>: die Ereignisse eines Jahres aufzeichnen.
An|na|len die (Plur.) <aus gleichbed. lat. (libri) annales>: Jahrbücher, chronologisch geordnete Aufzeichnungen von Ereignissen
Ideen?
Wer Themen, Links, Ideen hat, über die ich hier schreiben sollte, kann die gern schicken. Ich verspreche nicht, alle aufzunehmen (das hat auch mit Zeitmangel zu tun), aber ich freue mich auf jeden Fall.
Ausgewählte Tweets
Anne Roth
Ich lebe in Berlin, bin Medienaktivistin, Journalistin, Übersetzerin, Mutter zweier Kinder und seit Juli '07 vor allem bekannt als Partnerin von Andrej Holm, der morgens um 7 Uhr in unserer Wohnung als Terrorist festgenommen wurde. Seitdem blogge ich über das Innenleben einer Terrorismus-Ermittlung (vor allem hier nachzulesen, mehr in der Mediathek) und, seit nicht mehr so spürbar ermittelt wird, zunehmend über Terrorismus und den "Krieg gegen Terror" an sich. Das §129-Verfahren dauert allerdings an, auch wenn die Bundesanwaltschaft seit Juli '07 nichts gefunden hat, das den Vorwurf erhärtet hätte. Die Überwachung geht weiter.
Das Auge stammt vom Plakat "Europäisches Unterbewusstsein I" der Künstlergruppe bankleer. Mehr darüber hier.
Der Name
'annalist', der Name des Blogs, hat nichts mit meinem Namen zu tun. Ich heiße nicht Anna List. Annalisten wurden im alten Rom die Geschichtsschreiber, oder Chronisten, genannt (von 'Annalen'). Mehr dazu hier.
