For
Immediate Release
August
9, 2006
Contact:
FBI
attempts to intimidate Author from speaking out about break-in
This past Saturday (August 5), at about 2 p.m., my neighbor, Calvin McDonald, and Mason Bob Vanbibber witnessed two men in suits pull up to my house in a dark sedan. They pulled what appeared to be a large tote up to my house.
In broad daylight, the men broke into my house, and spent half an hour doing something. I noticed that my computer had been accessed, because a freedom of information act request that I made of the FBI two weeks ago was top in the list of files that had been accessed.
I reported this to the FBI and my local sheriff. An Athens County Sheriff Deputy said he would come out to investigate, but never came until I called again hours later.
They
did not take any finger prints, or do any serious investigative work.
Also, a box of
In addition, my phone has been blatantly tapped. I had Athens County Commissioner Mark Sullivan come over and he said that clearly there was a click as if it were being tapped, as I have been reporting to AT&T for months.
Within minutes of reporting to the sheriffs that it was tapped on Sunday, August 6, my phone line suddenly went dead for about 10 minutes. When it finally did come back on, I tried calling AT&T, but they were closed. When I tried to hang up the phone, it would not hang up, as if someone had another receiver on the line off the hook. I live alone, so it was clearly someone else tapping the line.
FBI special agent Charles Seymour, based in Athens, called me yesterday morning, and tried to intimidate me by saying "There is a strong motivation to interrupt what you are doing," either referring to my efforts to publicize this and other abuses of my civil liberties or my efforts to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He also asked for my social security number, the name of the person I had a land contract with for my house and the names and phone numbers of the witnesses to the men in suits coming to and breaking into my house. This was despite his saying that burglaries were a local matter, and outside the FBI jurisdiction.
In
addition,
It is possible the Athens County sheriff’s department was involved because a sheriff deputy followed me from Athens back to Nelsonville just after the men broke into my house, as if to let them know when I was returning.
When two men in suits can break into my home in broad daylight, and get away with it without any serious police investigation, something is very wrong with the Republican tyranny.
With the police failing to properly investigate, I request that the media and interested citizens step forward.