Rainbow Children Detained in the name of Homeland Security!!!!

[Guest guest]

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/06/27/18283162.php

 

 

Rainbow Children Detained in the name of Homeland Security!!!!

by 1st Ammendment at risk

Tuesday Jun 27th, 2006 11:54 AM

 

right to assemble

 

Rainbow Children Detained in the name of Homeland Security!!!!

 

 

 

Please take the time to read this and do your part to help. Details

are at the bottom on how to help.

 

 

Thanks: The Freedom Files w Heretic.X

I Have Woken UP!

Corporations_Ate_My_BABY!

 

Summary:

 

Since 1972 people from all over the US and the world make a trek to

the National Forests for something called " The Gathering Of The

Tribes " to express activism mixed with alternative spiritual practices

and prayer.

 

The Bush Administration has spent millions of dollars trying to stop

the Rainbow Gatherings. 500 people who have been issued citations, are

then being herded into " trials " like none anyone has seen before in

America.

 

These pseudo trials are likely prototypes for what Homeland Security

will use in the cases of insurrection or even a plague. Defendants

inexplicably lose the right to a public hearing (this year these

hearings are being held behind closed doors in a firehouse garage near

the site.)

 

Attorneys and legal observers have been denied the right to even view

these trials. The defendants are not explained their rights nor

afforded the right to an attorney, the right to summon witnesses, the

right to a jury trial, even fresh water!

 

We must understand that if these citizens lose their constitutional

right to gather, we all lose such rights. This year the Rainbow

Gathering is being used to set precedents that will be turned against

drug policy, civil liberty, anti-war or other activists in the near

future. Phone Numbers and A list Of Actions You Can Take Are listed at

the end of the full story posted below and marked with **asterisks**.

 

 

Original Post

 

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------

Fight American Fascism

 

EVERYONE!. This is serious businesss. This is not a joke, or anytime

to ignore what is really going on. I am posting this again in an

attempt to get EVERYONE involved. These people are having all of their

rights violated and being thrown into all of those nice prison camps

that we have heard so much about. It is your American duty to help

these people. I have inclosed latest letter that I recieved right

below. PLEASE help in every way possible so we can show the department

of Homeland Security that we are not afraid and that they can not do this!

 

LEXX

 

My Original post has been deleted and they will not let me post this

any more.

At last contact, there are about 2-300 sites on other side of

Roadblock. They are arresting EVERYONE! Any one on road or in area are

being taken to a round up point to be taken to Detention camps! The

family has been determined to be a threat to Homeland Security, so

begins the first MASS ARRESTS!

THIS NEEDS TO GET OUT VERY SERIOUSLY! THIS IS A WACO TYPE SCENARIO

ABOUT TO HAPPEN!

PLEASE GET THIS OUT TO EVERY ONE YOU KNOW

THANKS,LEXX

==============================================

 

I don't care who you are, or what you're beliefs are, you NEED to help

with this in order to protect our freedoms. Please read this article

and voice you're support by calling you're representatives and

everyone else. I know most of you don't read or act on what I post but

PLEASE do it this time. We have now lost our free internet because we

didn't do enough, let's not lose our right to assemble.

 

 

LEXX

 

Dear Friends and Family,

 

I need your help to protect my family, the collective efforts of tens

of thousands of citizens known as the " Rainbow Family. " This week,

near Steamboat Springs, Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service has taken

illegal action to stop this annual assembly for expression and prayer,

in gross violation of the participants essential Constitutional rights.

 

The 'Rainbow' Gatherings have borne a legacy of spiritual & cultural

pilgrimage to the National Forests since 1972, the purest exercise of

open consensual assembly in our time. The annual 'Gathering of the

Tribes' draws thousands over the first week of July, focusing on the

4th as a holy day of prayer for peace and freedom. In recent years

small regional events in this mode have emerged, and such gatherings

have taken place in many nations around the world.

 

THE GATHERING EXPERIENCE --

 

Some say the " Rainbow " Gathering is the continuation of the idealism

of Woodstock. I think of it more as my annual spiritual retreat and

family reunion. Since 1980, I have gathered with my family to compare

ideas and pray for peace. I arrive loaded with the burdens of my work,

depressed about the world situation. Each year I depart with my faith

in humankind renewed and with the energy to fight the beast another year.

 

The rainbow family is not organized in any way; it is an exercise in

self-determination and cooperation in the public interest, without

need of government controls. We understand that no matter what comes

down, it is the respect and care for each other that win in the end.

We have no leaders or leadership, we have no offices or officers, we

have no treasurer or treasury. We sit in counsel, often for days at a

time in order to make mutual decisions, but there is no power to

enforce these decisions on any individual. In the end, just like in

society, it works because enough responsible people make sure that

what needs to be done gets done.

 

We have been doing rainbow gatherings for over 30 years, each time in

a different national forest across the country. We come in and set up

a village in the woods. Cooperative kitchens pour out a wide variety

of foods. Seminars on just about any topic are run by the hour.

 

The Rainbow is known as a healing gathering; people with various

ailments come for help. Here in one place they can receive healing,

from herbalists, acupuncturists, chiropractors and masseuses working

with osteopaths and physicians. These healers work as a team and share

their knowledge in a holistic approach that teaches all involved a lot

about the roots of medicine.

 

Religious groups, ranging from Christians to Hare Krishnas set up

camps. It's truly a free society. We go pretty far back in the woods

to get away from the ills of civilization like alcohol and hard drugs.

We have our gathering and then restore any damage we cause to the

woods. And we have a perfect record of restoration of the forest.

 

It's great to walk through a gathering and see so many people but not

a scrap of paper on the ground, not a cigarette butt in sight. Each

year we train thousands of newcomers how to get along in the woods

without destroying the place. Knowledgeable Forest Servide 'Resource'

personnel love us; it's the Federal bureaucrats and police from

Washington who are on our case.

 

REPRESSIVE FEDERAL POLICIES --

 

The Bush Administration has spent millions of dollars trying to stop

the Rainbow Gatherings. They are enforcing a 'Noncommercial Group Use'

permit regulation that is impossible for unaffiliated individuals to

comply with. 36 CFR 251.54 They require that that someone sign as an

agent for a fictional group entity named as permit Holder -- which

then must assume full liability from the Government and bind

participants vicariously to its terms.

 

By the creed of the gatherings, no one can appoint themselves to such

a position. More importantly, such an ad hoc gathering has no legal

capacity to designate agents or act as a group party in any way. As a

result, individuals are denied personal standing in First Amendment

exercise and subjected to harsh criminal prosecution for being

anywhere near the area

 

The Forest Service requires that a permit be applied for in advance of

the gathering. And they use any excuse possible to deny a permit

application when we manage to submit one. This year their denial was

based on the fact that a logging company had a permit to log in a

nearby parcel of the national forest, even though there is no logging

activity present whatsoever. The site is far remote from any

inhabitants -- but still the Forest Service is all over our case.

 

Millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to block this harmless

gathering from taking place. The scariest aspect of all this is how

Homeland Security is using these gatherings to perfect their

techniques of martial law. Regulations written for the Federal

Emergency Management Authority to deal with natural disasters are now

being used to crush dissent in this country.

 

Each year the Rainbow Gathering is declared a " National Incident " and

federal military law ensues. A Special Agent is appointed " Incident

Commander " , with a Delegation of Authority, a large law enforcement

" Team " , and huge budget to control the gathering. Qualified Forest

Service administrators lose their power, while the county sheriff and

other officials are brought into targeted law enforcement actions by

inclusion in the Incident Team and other inter-agency agreements.

 

Each year Homeland Security gains more power over the individuals

involved.

 

RIGHTS CRISIS IN COLORADO --

 

At this writing Forest Service law enforcement has issued over 500

tickets to the early arrivals at the gathering in Colorado. They have

blocked the road and have prevented food and water from reaching those

who managed to get into the gathering before the police roadblock was

set up.

 

The 500 people with tickets are being herded into trials like none

anyone has seen before in America. These pseudo trials are prototypes

for what Homeland Security will use in the cases of insurrection or

even a plague. Defendants lose the right to a public hearing (this

year these hearings are being held behind closed doors in a firehouse

garage near the site.

 

Attorneys and legal observers have been denied the right to even view

these trials. The defendants are not explained their rights nor

afforded the right to an attorney, the right to summon witnesses, the

right to a jury trial, etc. Defendants ordered to appear each day at

9:00 a.m. and sit in the hot sun without water or sanitary facilities

until their trials. Some have now been waiting for several days. These

abbreviated trials only take a few minutes. Last year I tried to help

a string of defendants defend themselves in these trials but felt

helpless to do much as the system was clearly stacked against them.

 

This year is especially frustrating to me as I have to watch this come

down from 6000 miles away. Right now I am in Hungary at a medical

conference for my employment. I am flying home on Thursday and plan on

being in court Saturday, July 1st, to defend some of my best friends

who got a ticket for illegally gathering as they drove down a public

highway.

 

WHAT TO DO --

 

The confrontation this year is getting more intense by the minute,

which is why I am asking for your help. The only way to stop a massive

conflagration in Colorado in the next few days is to get thousands of

people to contact their political representatives as well as the

responsible administrators at the Forest Service to demand that this

repression stop immediately.

 

Please, even if you can never conceive of yourself at a Rainbow

Gathering, you must understand that if these citizens lose their

constitutional right to gather, we all lose such rights. This year the

Rainbow Gathering is being used to set precedents that will be turned

against drug policy, civil liberty, anti-war or other activists in the

near future.

**********************

Following are some instructions on who to write and/or call

 

We hope to start flooding the Department of Agriculture and the Forest

Service with complaints starting Monday morning and not stopping until

harassment stops. It is especially important that we get a few

Congressional representative and Senators concerned enough to write

the Forest Service for an explanation of why so much money is being

spent to keep people from camping in the National Forest set aside for

exactly that purpose.

 

Please keep the pressure on these bureaucrats until we are able to

spread the word that the government has backed off and that the

gathering can proceed unhindered.

 

If you do not know the contact information for your Congressman or

Senator, you can find this here. You can call your representative at

212-224-3121. Besides your representatives in Washington, please call

and write the following people to voice your protest to this harsh

treatment of people who just want to go on a camping trip in the

woods. Keep the calls coming until word is passed around that the

government has called off their dogs. Please forward this letter to

your friends and feel free to re-post it on any listserv or website

you wish. Email me if you have any questions.

 

Don E Wirtshafter

Attorney at Law

Box 18 Guysville, OH 45735

740 662 5297

don [at] hempery.com

 

USDA, Natural Resources & Environment

Mark Rey, USDA Undersecretary

1400 Independence Ave. SW, .. 217-E

Washington, DC 20250

202-720-7173 Fax: 202-720-0632

mark.rey [at] usda.gov

 

Kathleen Gause, Director 202-205-8534

USDA Forest Service

Civil Rights Staff

Stop Code 1142

1400 Independence Ave., S.W.

Washington., DC 20250-1142

Tel (202) 205-1585

 

 

Office of the Chief

Dale Bosworth, Chief

USDA Forest Service

Yates Federal Building (4NW Yates)

201 14th Street, SW - Washington, DCÊ20250

202-205-1661; Fx: 202-205-1765

Executive Assistant...Karla Hawley, 202 -205-1195

 

Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests,

Mary H. Peterson, Supervisor

2468 Jackson Street -- Laramie, WY 82070-6535

307-745-2300 Fax: 307-745-2398

 

U.S. Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Region (R-2)

Rick Cables, Regional Forester

Mail: P.O. Box 25127 -- Lakewood, CO 80225-0127

303-275-5451

Richard Stem, Deputy Regional Forester, Resources: 303-275-5451

 

Steve Silverman, Office of General Counsel, Regional Attorney:

303-275-5536

 

Bill Fox, Law Enforcement & Investigations, Special Agent in Charge:

303-275-5253

 

Jerome Romero, Deputy Director of Civil Rights: 303-275-5340

 

Some resources to research these issues further:

 

The best Rainbow website:

http://www.welcomehome.org

 

A good article written before the feds came down hard:

http://www.csindy.com

 

More recent coverage:

http://www.rockymountainnews.com and

 

http://www.denverpost.com