Page 8 - the NOISE February 2013

When 26-year-old Brandon Raub was arrested on August 16, 2012, the for- mer Marine and Virginia resident had been deemed a threat by authorities because of his
postings on Facebook. Citing an extra-judi- cial law allowing involuntary detainment of a citizen for psychiatric evaluation, the FBI, Secret Service and local law enforcement agencies surrounded Mr. Raub’s property to seize him. (Watch the arrest on YouTube. Search: “Brandon Raub Facebook arrest vid- eo.”)
Mr. Raub was handcuffed in front of his neighbors but never read his Miranda Rights. He was taken to the John Randolph Mental Hospital. Government officials, after a secret hearing, decided that “Raub’s Facebook posts required his detention.” Four days later, Mr. Raub was involuntarily committed to the Veteran’s Affairs Medical Center in Sa- lem after a Special Justice concluded he was
“mentally ill and presented a danger to others.” Virginia law allows the police to detain peo-
ple for mental evaluation under emergency situations, but it is even now difficult to know what the legal threshold for that emergency was.
After a week of detention, Prince George County Circuit Court Judge W. Allan Sharrett, ruled on August 23 that the involuntary com- mitment order was illegal. Judge Sharrett or- dered Mr. Raub’s immediate release, stating:
“the petition is so devoid of any factual allega- tions that it could not be reasonably expected to give rise to a case or controversy.” And the government’s interpretation of what Mr. Raub said in his posts are being questioned by the same judge who released him.
Exactly what did Mr. Raub post that rang alarm bells for the FBI, among other govern- ment agencies?
On Friday, November 11, 2011, he wrote:
“The Federal Reserve is wrong. They have designed a system based off of greed and fear. They designed a system to crush the middle class between taxes and inflation... We have al-
lowed ourselves to be deceived and seduced by case to the public for war in Iraq,” as the New of Virginia, claims, “federal agents were not
8 • FEBRUARY 2013 • the NOISE arts & news • thenoise.us
the powers of the printing press.
“It is not a good system. It discourages sav-
ings: the foundation for all stable economic activity. The Federal Reserve is artificially ma- nipulating interest rates and creating phony economic data. This thing has deceived our entire nation...
“There is a better way. It’s called freedom. Freedom is called a lot of things. But there is a true meaning. It means very simply that you have the right to do whatever you want as long as you don’t infringe on the freedoms of other people.”
Days before his arrest, Mr. Raub posted on August 12, 2012:
“There has been an overwhelming amount of evil enacted and planned against you, your chil- dren, and your countrymen. It is great in scope. Your government is evil. It is as simple as that. And the Calvary is coming.”
On August 14, he posted pictures of the Pentagon with a missile hole in the side: “This is the Pentagon right after our leaders shot a missile into it.” Later the same day, he posted
“The Revolution will come for me. Men will be at my door soon to pick me up to lead it.”
He was arrested on August 16. From No- vember 11, 2011 to August 14, 2012, Mr. Raub exercised his first amendment right, as a citizen, to speak his mind freely. His posts suddenly became deranged and the big com- plaint came because he posted lyrics from a heavy metal band that the FBI claimed were considered “threatening by several people.” Musicians and artists have always said things protected by the First Amendment.
These “radical statements” are fast be- coming conventional wisdom as more people get their news from alternative media. Both of the wars Mr. Raub fought in were sold to the American public under false pretenses as the Downing Street Memos now demon- strate. Tony Blair and George Bush “centered around WMD’s as the consensus to make their
York Times disclosed.
Mr. Raub lost brothers in arms, fellow sol-
diers, in a war he was lied into. He fought in Afghanistan and Iraq from 2005 to 2011 as a Marine, so he speaks as an authority on bat- tlefields.
As his posts indicate, Mr. Raub is also “guilty” of believing in conspiracy theories ranging from the “US Government’s complicity in the 9/11 attacks” to the “elite’s scheme to consoli- date world power through the banking sys- tem.”
According to the New York Post, “49% of New York city dwellers believe the govern- ment was involved in the 9/11 tragedy or let it happen,” and many Americans believe, after the 2008 public bailout of the private central banks, that the elite are running our financial system.
As a patriot, Mr. Raub was willing to die for our freedoms, so he was frustrated by his inability to use his freedoms. In recent rul- ings involving prosecuting whistle-blowers, Bradley Manning has served over 900 days behind bars for exposing war crimes and war criminals. The ones who perpetrated the war crimes are still free and protected by this gov- ernment. Being a patriot is now rewarded with incarceration.
In one post, Mr. Raub says “we should kick- start resistance and a popular revolution against the unconstitutional forces control- ling the will of the people.”
No direct threats were posted but his dark- er implications concerned some who felt his statements were inciting riots. If we erode away our freedom of speech, what’s next?
The facts are: Raub was detained for a “psy- chological evaluation” without the rights af- forded by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, unreasonable seizures and due process. Mr. Raub had no history of mental illness, yet his Facebook post was immediately flagged as
“subversive.”
What constitutes a subversive statement?
Dee Rybiski, an FBI spokeswoman based out
monitoring Raub’s Facebook page but that they got a few complaints of what were per- ceived as threats” in his post.
John Whitehead, Mr. Raub’s laywer in court, is a constitutional lawyer with the Rutherford Institute, which dedicates itself to defending civil liberties. Mr. Whitehead spoke with The Noise, and stated that “the page was private and recently created,” and that “surveillance of a private Facebook group without a search warrant is illegal.”
Regarding the content of Mr. Raub’s posts, Mr. Whitehead responds: “There were no spe- cific threats here. They [the FBI] over-reacted.” Mr. Whitehead believes that Mr. Raub’s state- ments where meant as a metaphor for the power of truth. This is exactly what the fed- eral courts are addressing in the larger NDAA case. Can people’s “thought crimes” condemn them to indefinite detention, without repre- sentation, before they actually break a law?
Mr. Whitehead thinks Mr. Raub was tar- geted because he’s a 9-11 truther. “Psychia- trists think that’s crazy, but do you know how many people believe that in the US? Over a million! You have a right to say what you be- lieve. There were no specific threats to any- one. Operation Vigilant Eagle is targeting returning veterans as anti-government types because they’re trained killers and have seen the abuses of power.”
Mr. Whitehead knows of over 20,000 civil commitments having occurred in Virginia alone, and he received a call from a Los An- geles County Attorney who witnessed over 80,000 civil commitments in California.
As a former Marine, Mr. Raub fought for our freedoms, yet he was not free to exercise the basic First Amendment rights in his Facebook postings. At this crucial juncture in history, let it be noted that Mr. Raub’s arrest was contro- versial not only because his First Amendment rights were violated, but because of the re- cent passing of the National Defense Autho- rization Act (NDAA), which allows “indefinite detention without due process.”