2007-08-08

Repression against the radical left G8 mobilisation

The federal criminal bureau explained several times to the press that
the following house searches had neither anything to do with the raids
on 9 May nor with the anti-G8 movement. However, as previous experience
in 129-related investigations and trials has shown, search warrants can
be obtained based on construed “research findings”. This allows the
authorities to gather additional information on the radical left
movement. In this way, these “findings” contribute to investigative
procedures in respect to future attacks; “facts” which are supposedly
“linked” with G8. Only 2% 129 cases lead to conviction.

The investigative files on the 9 May raids alone add up to about 80,000
pages, about 200 notebooks. Apart from the raids, dozens of
phone-tapping permits have been issued, as well as bugging cars and
meetings. A witness who supposedly identified a “suspicious person”
after the arson attack on Thoas Straubhaar’s car turned 80 photos in to
the federal criminal bureau.

Some of the persons concerned are accused of initiating a “militant
group” against the G8 2007. These allegations are based on telephone
conversations where members of the “Global Agriculture” working group
spoke of “stepping up” the campaign. The accused became suspects after
visiting the web sites of the companies they are criticising or having
spoken on the phone about the locations of the companies. This campaign
would necesitate IT experts who specialise in setting up mailing lists,
servers and managing web sites.

A large part of the files consist of analyse of “self-incriminating
writings.” This entails comparing how sentences are formulated,
punctuation, grammatical errors such as “weakness in the genitive case,”
or whether letters are capitalized. Additional factors looked at are
where the date is placed (right or left of the page), written without or
without zeros, use of words such as “imperialism” or “precarity”,
references made by the author to particular campaigns and left groups,
whether the spelling is „dissent!“, „dissent“ or „Dissent“ (G8 or
G-8) etc. Comparisons are also made between texts for similar
expressions such as “raking in the money”, “IWF”, etc.

After every analysis a profile is drafted of potential authors of the
text: city of origin, political affiliations, educational background,
and position of the author within their political spectrum. Some of the
texts are subsequently attributed to specific persons.

Data is compiled on the accused house mates, with whom s/he has phoned,
phone and internet service providers, at which demonstrations the
accused was detained, or which collaborative projects the person is
working on.

Much of the data is not intended for exclusive use in the investigation
of a particular case. On the contrary, it appears that inquiries for
further information collection regardless of context were placed by the
BKA at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
(Verfassungsschutz), political “crime unit” of the BKA. In any case, the
circumstances clearly indicate that the authorities have probed
extensive information on the radical left and anti-G8 movements since
the beginning. Surveillance permits for the radio cells in and around
Mehringhof and the HWP high school were requested for at least the first
two “dissent!” network meetings in Hamburg and Berlin, both of which
were attended 250 persons. In this vein, the authorities probably have
logged every mobile phone which registered with the local network there.
The presence of informants at the meeting itself also comes as no surprise.

The investigations based on the raids of 9 May are founded on shaky
constructs. No stone is left unturned in a desperate attempt to
attribute an interest in militant attacks to some of the persons
accused. Even association with the persons in question is grounds for
suspicion! This proves again that we are all 129a!

• Solidarity group based on 31 July raids: http://soli.blogsport.de
• Solidarity group based on 13-19. June raids:
  http://soligruppe.blogsport.de und http://soligruppenord.blogsport.de

• All court case informaiton can be found at:
  http://gipfelsoli.org/Repression/129a

[Gipfelsoli Info Group]