Home > Feds Drop Subpoenas in Iowa Iraq Protest Case
U.S. Officials Drop Activist Subpoenas
Judge lifts Drake gag order in probe of anti-war
protest
by Jeff Eckhoff and Mark Siebert
Published on Wednesday, February 11, 2004
by the Des Moines Register
Federal authorities retreated Tuesday in their
investigation of an Iowa anti-war demonstration,
withdrawing grand jury subpoenas delivered last week to
four peace activists and Drake University.
The shift came as the investigation drew nationwide
condemnation from civil liberties advocates,
politicians and peace activists.
Also Tuesday, a federal judge lifted a gag order on
Drake, where employees had been ordered not to discuss
an inquiry into a meeting the anti-war activists held
there Nov. 15. Federal authorities had asked for
records of the campus chapter of the National Lawyers
Guild - which hosted the anti-war conference - and for
the impressions campus police had of the gathering.
"Whatever one’s views of the political positions
articulated at that meeting," Drake President David
Maxwell said in court papers unsealed Tuesday, "the
university cherishes and protects the right to express
those views without fear of reprisal or recrimination."
Brian Terrell, one of the four activists originally
ordered to appear before the grand jury, announced the
government switch at a noontime rally Tuesday in front
of the federal building in Des Moines.
"Friends, the piece of news that I have is historic.
The subpoenas against the four of us were dropped
today," Terrell said to the cheers of about 150 people.
Federal officials declined to say why they asked the
grand jury to quash the subpoenas.
Al Overbaugh, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office
in Des Moines, declined to comment Tuesday, other than
to say the moves didn’t necessarily signal that the
investigation had ended.
The federal investigation became public last week when
a Polk County sheriff’s deputy - identifying himself as
a member of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force -
delivered several subpoenas.
Facing growing concern, the U.S. attorney in Des
Moines, Stephen Patrick O’Meara, took the unusual step
Monday of acknowledging the secret grand jury
investigation. He denied the investigation was in any
way related to terrorism.
The investigation, he said in his statement, involved
an alleged attempt to enter the fenced, secure
perimeter at Camp Dodge, the home of the Iowa National
Guard. Federal authorities said Monday that part of
their investigation was focused on whether a "prior
agreement to violate federal law" was hatched at the
Nov. 15 conference.
The peace activists’ conference and nonviolence
training session - held at Drake after police and the
media were notified - was called "Stop the Occupation!
Bring the Iowa Guard Home!" The next day, activists
went to the Iowa National Guard headquarters at Camp
Dodge, where 12 people were arrested for trespassing.
Polk County authorities agree with demonstrators’
assertions that no one tried to scale a fence. The only
arrest that appeared to come close to fitting O"Meara’s
description was that of Elton Davis, one of the
subpoenaed activists who was charged with trespass at a
Camp Dodge gate roughly one-quarter mile south of the
main demonstration.
Davis on Tuesday denied he crossed an official
boundary. Instead, he said, he simply walked up to a
gate and asked to speak to a commanding officer.
"I told him I was there to establish an ongoing
presence at the base," Davis said. "I would like to
occupy the base. I would like his help with
accommodations, would like an office . . . to work with
the command authority to bring home people who were
trapped in Iraq by a failure of foreign policy.
"At which point he almost fell down laughing."
Court papers say Davis was arrested after he "entered
onto federal property and remained there after being
ordered to leave" by federal officials. Documents say
he pleaded no contest and served three days in jail.
Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil
Liberties Union, also voiced skepticism of O’Meara’s
explanation.
"If this was just a trespassing investigation, then why
seek the records of the National Lawyers Guild?" he
asked those at the rally.
Drake law professor Sally Frank, the university’s local
contact for the guild, told those at the rally that
"what we’ve had here for the last week in Des Moines is
an intense effort to stifle dissent."
Frank and others in the crowd symbolically placed tape
or cloth over their mouths, while two Des Moines police
detectives videotaped the event from a hotel room
across from the federal building. The detectives said
they were told to monitor the event "in case someone
caused problems."
Several in the crowd carried signs critical of U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft.
U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin went a step further, asking
Ashcroft in a letter to make sure civil liberties were
not trampled on in this case. "Prosecutors should be
especially vigilant about using extraordinary steps in
cases when such a treasured American value as free
speech is at stake," Harkin wrote.
U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley also expressed concern about
the impression left on peace activists that they had
been subpoenaed by the anti-terrorism task force.
"I will be following this case closely to help make
sure that the Department of Justice protects and
defends people’s constitutional rights,’’ Grassley
said.
Copyright © 2004, The Des Moines Register