UC Berkeley Raid, September 08 Update

[Berkeley Daily Planet]

UC Berkeley police, joined by federal and county law enforcement, raided the Long Haul Infoshop Aug. 27 in search of the source of threats to university researchers who experiment on animals.

The affidavit filed with Alameda County Superior Court Judge Judith Ford on Sept. 8 revealed that the search resulted from e-mails reportedly sent from the Infoshop's computers in March and June.

Two civil liberties organizations are working with the Long Haul to challenge the warrant: The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the National Lawyer's Guild.

The search warrant affidavit, written by UCPD Detective Bill Kasiske and signed the day before the raid, followed previous warrants served on Santa Rosa-based Internet provider Sonic.net by fax on March 20 and July 22 and on e-mail provider Google on June 16.

According to Kasiske's affidavit, many of the e-mails targeted Yang Dan, a professor of neurobiology specializing in the study of brain circuits used in the processing of visual information.

Her research figures in one website targeting 27 campus faculty involved in animal research, while a second website identifies her as the first among the six faculty members included in the "UC Berkeley Hall of Shame" for "stupid research on animals."

Police seized six computers from the Infoshop Internet room and nine other computers from offices in the building, including several taken from padlocked rooms, including one used by the nonprofit East Bay Prisoner Support.

--
full story:
http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-09-11/article/31112?headline=Animal-Researcher-Cyber-Stalking-Cited-as-Long-Haul-Raid-Rationale