My email does not seem to appear on Protest.net.

Friends,

 

Thanks to Worker Bee and Pete Perry, we now know how to access the archives at Protest.net.  We have been unable to find my private email which was in the U.S. Capitol Police Intelligence Report for March 12, 2008.  There was testimony in Superior Court of the District of Columbia that my email appeared on the web site Protest.net.  I would appreciate if you could also do some research and confirm that my email was not listed on Protest.net.  I plan to proceed with a motion to the court to impeach the testimony of the witness who made this assertion.

 

First, let me remind you of the background of the matter.  You may remember during the trial of the Ghosts of the Iraq War, October 20-24, the U.S Capitol Police turned over to the government a 26-page Intelligence Report for March 12, 2008.  This was the day the Ghosts were arrested in the gallery of the U.S Senate.  Inside the report was a private email of mine which detailed my proposal for the gallery action.  Also noteworthy was that someone tried to cover up how my email was obtained by listing in the report this source: “Baltimore Nonviolence Center http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0511-01.htm.” This URL has nothing to do with the gallery action, but is instead a press release of mine, which Common Dreams posted, announcing a contempt hearing in another court case.  

 

After the trial of the Ghosts of the Iraq War ended with five acquittals and five convictions, I argued a motion for dismissal of the convictions on the grounds that the intelligence report surfaced during the trial.  In fact, we did not see the portion which listed my email until the prosecution rested its case.  In response, Judge Robert Morin called for an evidentiary hearing on November 7.

 

 At the hearing, Eric Orsini, a civilian employee of the U.S. Capitol Police, testified that he found my private email on Protest.net some time between 5 and 6 AM on March 12, 2008.  I did not believe his testimony, but for argument’s sake let us assume it was truthful.  Why, then, was the source for my email inaccurate?  Orsini testified that he would log into Protest.net on a regular basis and simply cut and paste relevant protests.  He said he never checked out the URL.  Under cross-examination, I asked him, “Don’t you try to provide accurate information in an intelligence report?” He stuck to his story.  Though, during the cross-examination his eyes constantly darted to the table where the prosecutor Andrew Warren and the Capitol Police lawyer sat.

 

On the surface, Orsini’s testimony seemed absurd. How did he know, eight months later, where he got that particular email?  His testimony indicated he was a web surfer of many progressive sites looking for listings of protests.  He also admitted getting information from police agencies.  So how would he remember where he found my email?

 

 The judge tried to pull up the archives for Protest.net.  He was not able to find any archives, and no one else in the courtroom knew how to find the archives.  He then denied my motion for dismissal.  He accepted Orsini’s memory as being accurate; yet there was no evidence on paper confirming that the email appeared on Protest.net.  

 

Actually, though, as recently discovered, Protest.net does have archives.   I googled Protest.net, and then went to the link List Regions.  There I selected Northeast Region.  This brought up the archives.  I then went to the year 2008, and selected March 12.  There I found two events posted: Stop-Loss Congress March 10-12 and Conference/Forum Royal Cash. Nothing else.  Our action in the gallery was not listed, nor did my email appear.  So I used the archive calendar to look at other dates in March.  Again there nothing about the gallery action.  I then selected December 2007, as my original proposal was sent to the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance organizers list on December 19.  Again nothing appeared about the gallery action.   When I inserted Ghosts of the Iraq War in search, I got an error message

 

I believed Orsini was fibbing on November 7, and this search of Protest.net would seem to suggest the fibbing has been confirmed.  But I would like others to do some research and confirm my findings.  If others confirm my analysis that the private email did not appear on Protest.net, then I will file a motion to impeach Orsini’s testimony.  This would then be followed by a motion to dismiss the convictions of five Ghosts of the Iraq War.  

 

Our sentencing hearing is December 15, so I hope to file the motions in a week or two.  I look forward to hearing from you.  How the Capitol Police obtained my email remains a mystery.  This is a mystery which may never be solved.

 

Kagiso,

 

Max

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs