Stanley Cohen, Civil Rights and Criminal Attorney, text account

Cohen opened his speech by extending "special greetings to the FBI agents and wannabe agents" in the audience. With a mischievious tone he requested that they transcribe everything carefully.

Cohen used the bulk of his time to list the long litany of assaults on civil liberties that have occured in the United States, both before and after 9/11, most of which are familiar to activists already: the Palmer raids of the 20's, the internment of thousands of Japanese-americans during World War II, McCarthyism in the 50's, surveillance of activists by COINTELPRO in the 60's and 70's, the profiling and harrassment of Muslims (for at least the last ten years), the USA PATRIOT Act, Homeland Security, and the recent arrest of Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye here in Portland.

But Cohen also brought some of his own unique perspective to the issues. I recommend listening to the audio uploaded to portland indymedia becasue Cohen's entertaining delivery served as the spoonful of sugar that helped the medicine go down. Personally, he was a little too flip for me, but you certainly can't call him dry, and I know a lot of people might appreciate his light style in these dark times. This delivery also makes it difficult to write about what he said, as so much of it was in timing, tone, etc. However, here's a few highlights:

• There's a fine line between terrorists and heros. The difference is based on who wins.
  
  
• Nelson Mandella supported armed struggle, and is now one of the most admired men in the world.
  
  
• Bush is a "simple man living in a simple world" of good/evil, you're-with-us-or-them dichotomies.
  
  
• "The world is getting younger and browner and the United Sates is getting older and more controlled by white people".
  
  
• Message to the mosques of this city: "What you're going through, many communities have gone through. You are not alone. All the communities that have gone through this have grown stronger."
  
  
• As a way of testing whether his phone was bugged, Cohen tried an experiment. In NYC, your phone gets shut off right away if you are more than 30 days past due. Cohen stopped paying it, and it didn't go off. He called the phone company and was told there was no problem. So now he knows! Hee hee.
  
  
• Congress is no longer a meaningful check-and-balance on the presidency (or pResidency in this case); Cynthia McKinney, "a wonderful, independent, strong, black woman" who was one of the few to speak out agains the PATRIOT Act, xenophobia, Israeli policy, the "war on terror", etc., was attacked by the establishment, including her own party
  
  
• One result of the increasing number of local police officers becoming deputized by the FBI (under such arrangements as the Joint Terrorism Task Force) is that people who were writing tickets or directing traffic previously are now "interpreting intelligence". Whoah!
  
  
• Slavery, no vote for women, and Japanese internment camps among other things were Constitutional at the time, so what is and isn't "Constitutional" is only one factor to consider. "The Constitution is just the beginning, not the end. The People are the end, and people have to organize, stand up and say 'NO'!"
  
  
• The media have become the drum majors for the government and are no longer the watchdogs. They print unsubstantiated rumours fed to them by the FBI without checking them out and destroy lives in the process. For example, the Oregonian headline when the Sheik was arrested said that traces of explosives were found in his luggage. Was there a headline when the FBI lab came back with its finding that this was a mistaken result and that there was no evidence of explosives? Nope.
  
  
• FINALLY, someone brings up this point: Cohen asked how many in the press have been saying ALLEGED terrorists, ALLEGED cells, ALLEGED plots? Everyone accepts what the government says through the media.
  
  
• "Journalists in this country have forgotten their role. If you want to be a cop, get a badge. If you want to be a soldier, get a gun. If you want to be a journalist, get a backbone."
  
  
• "The answer to the war on terror is not more laws, jails, and cops. It's more love, respect, dignity and understanding."

Cohen ended on a hopeful note. "We will survive and prevail because we're right." He advised the attendees to live their lives and not let fear rule them, and stressed the importance of organizing resistance among different communities together in solidarity. Let the powers that be know that if they come for you one, they come for all.

He also offered this proverb, which he saw scrawled on a wall in Palestine: "Those who plunder others will always live in terror."

Legal advice
During the question and answer period, Cohen dispensed some legal advice for dealing with the FBI:

• If the FBI wants to talk to you, JUST SAY NO. DO NOT TALK TO THEM.
  
  
• "I've never met anyonw who talked themselves out of trouble."
  
  
• Knowing misrepresentation when answering questions is perjury. If the charges are related to "terrorism", the result can be 30 years in prison.
  
  
• Another approach -- though this means not being absolutely silent -- is to tell them to submit their questions in writing to a lawyer. Cohen says that, in his experience, this approach has always resulted in the FBI giving up.

The Islamic Center of Masjed AsSaber, which sponsored the lecture, will be selling videotapes of Cohen's speech in the near future. I believe the funds raised will be going to the legal defense fund for the Sheik. You can contact the Center at: 503-293-6554.