Date: Wed, 07 Nov 2001 21:52:12
From: Mitchel Cohen <mitchelcohen-AT-mindspring.com>
Subject: Screwing the Greens?


Screwing the Greens?

by Mitchel Cohen

For the last few days, a letter written by Walt Sheasby of California has
been making the rounds in which the author discounts and seeks to discredit
the ordeal faced by Green Party USA co-coordinator Nancy Oden at the Bangor
Maine International airport. A press release issued by GPUSA reported the
story: ^Ó^ÑAn official told me that my name had been flagged in the
computer,^Ò a shaken Oden said.^Ô

Without bothering to check with Oden, Sheasby termed Oden^Òs statement a
^Ófib^Ô, and therein severely hindered gathering the support that Oden (and
many others) need. He wrote: ^ÓNancy Oden was apparently not barred because
of a computer check, but because she did not comply with standard screening
for weapons.^Ô

How did Sheasby arrive at this conclusion? Did he call Nancy Oden? Did he
even call the FBI and ask about the existence of such a list of individual
activists?

Sadly, the answer is no. He relied solely on a public relations official^Òs
denial to a Bangor newspaper, which read: ^ÓShe [Oden] was uncooperative
during the screening process. ... Obviously if they can^Òt submit to
screening, [Federal Aviation Administration] regulations require that they
not be allowed to board the plane.^Ô

>From this, Sheasby concluded: ^Óit appears that her [Oden^Òs] name was not
flagged by a computer search of potential terrorists or their supporters.^Ô

Is Sheasby really that gullible?

In fact, Oden was targeted as soon as she gave her name to pick up her
ticket. She was told this was NOT a random procedure. A uniformed soldier
with automatic rifle started lecturing her about terrorism. Oden -- a woman
alone at the airport surrounded by armed military men -- was indeed
searched, as were her bags. She was deemed ^Óclean.^Ô Nevertheless, as has
occurred in numerous venues across the country, she was banned from her
flight, and from ALL flights from that airport. 

Sheasby knew all of this but omitted it from his report, choosing instead
to rest his case on the spin of a corporate flak -- a statement Sheasby
knew to be wrong.

Why did Sheasby do this, and cast doubt about Oden^Òs story at a time when
she most needed support? And why did a few people who should know better
accept and repeat Sheasby^Òs smear, without investigating for themselves?

One person who refused to accept Sheasby^Òs report is Fred Myers, an antiwar
activist and Green in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Myers, who is often critical
of Oden and the Green Party USA, nevertheless had the integrity to
challenge Sheasby^Òs account. He wrote:

^ÓWait a minute.... This doesn't add up. Why was she not allowed to board
the flight? If she allowed the completion of the search of her person and
baggage, then what grounds were there to deny her right to fly?
 
^ÓFurthermore, the Bangor Daily article did indeed say that agents would not
confirm or deny that her name is on a list. ... [T]here's no denying the
last point in the Bangor article:  If she did something wrong, then she
should be charged. If not, then denying her right to fly is absolutely
unjustified. And posting a headline implying she ^Ñfibbed^Ò is quite sleazy
to say the least.^Ô

Another person who did her homework is Amy Goodman, host of the ^ÓDemocracy
Now^Ô radio show. Unlike Sheasby, Goodman made the appropriate calls and
featured a phone interview with Nancy Oden on her show. Oden explained how
the whole incident started at Bangor airport. She said she gave her name
and the ticket agent immediately recognized it and did not even ask for
additional identification.

Many rank-and-file greens have expressed their outrage at the treatment of
Oden, first at the hands of the authorities and secondly by Sheasby and his
faction. Sure, there are many worse things happening in the world. But they
all start somewhere. This is one such instance.

So Sheasby has now issued another statement. Without in any way apologizing
for the harm he caused, he reverses field and now writes that he ACCEPTS
the fact that Oden was indeed barred, as she reported, from getting on an
airplane to Chicago to attend the GPUSA national board meeting because of
her political work -- this, after 4 days of bombarding listserves asserting
the contrary. But, peering once again into his crystal ball, Sheasby now
claims that the military barred Oden because of her involvement with
anti-genetic engineering work, not her antiwar activity. 

Oden^Òs name ^Óis certainly familiar to the authorities in Maine,^Ô he argues,
^Óand the association with the corn field incident [in which Oden defended
activists who had torn out genetically engineered corn at an experimental
field at the University of Maine] may be the precipitating cause of her
victimization. It now does not appear that her connection with Greens/Green
Party USA had anything to do with her harassment at the airport, but it
does seem that her other activities had brought some unwanted attention.^Ô

Uh, excuse me, but who can know this for sure, and WHO CARES? The point is
that Oden (and many people, including other Greens) are being targeted
because of their politics.

^ÓOden had announced the day she planned to fly out, and of course everybody
concerned knew which airport and her destination in advance,^Ô writes GPUSA
gadfly Paul Prior, whose website <www.globalcircle.net> has been
instrumental in questioning the bombardment of Afghanistan, the connections
between the Bush family and the Bin Ladens, and the quest to control oil in
Asia."

The Green Party USA, which has for years condemned US^Òs gluttonous reliance
on oil and which has organized around its program for shifting energy
consumption to one based on sustainable and renewable energy (solar, wind,
etc.), has been very active in opposing the bombardment of Afghanistan. You
can view GPUSA^Òs oil-related antiwar statements by linking to
<www.greenparty.org>.

^ÓIn fact," Paul Prior continues, Oden's "opposition to military presence in
the Mideast is public at <www.greenparty.org/911.html>. She has enemies and
the party has enemies. Nobody doubts the party has informants in its ranks
and that they have an inside line to airport security and anybody else they
need in intelligence. Anyone who would use that incident to try to
discredit her and the party is only helping the fascist takeover,^Ô Prior
rightly scolds.

Just this week, the FBI has finally admitted to having arrested 1,147
people under the new anti-terrorism laws for ^Ócrimes^Ô having nothing
whatsoever to do with terrorist attacks. Not a single one of them is
charged with any connection to the Sept. 11 horror.

Among the organizations the FBI admits to targeting is the
anti-globalization Reclaim the Streets, which is actually listed as a
terrorist group on the FBI^Òs lists.

Many activists are learning for the first time that the FBI is actually
compiling and distributing lists of American citizens -- some are called
^Óterrorist profiles,^Ô others are more explicit lists -- and people have
reported many instances at airports (and elsewhere) in which their civil
liberties have been violated. It is often by someone ^Óin charge^Ô abusing
their authority; at other times it occurs because they ^Ófit^Ô a profile; and
still other times it happens because their name appears on one of the FBI^Òs
lists.

The Oden case exposes some of this; it serves as a wakeup call to all
Greens and others to put their sectarian differences aside and work to
restore the Bill of Rights. With more than a thousand people in jail, no
one knows who or where they are. The FBI is not releasing their names, nor
are they charged with any terrorist-related crimes. Most are charged with
overstaying their visas by a few weeks. And others are just picked up for
^Óbreathing while looking Arab.^Ô The situation is outrageous, and we need to
expose what^Òs really going on. Nancy Oden^Òs situation is but the harbinger
of far more repressive times to come, unless we act quickly and stand united.

- Mitchel Cohen
Brooklyn Greens / Green Party USA