BY TONY LANE

MINNEAPOLIS - "This grand jury subpoena is not about law enforcement, it's about intimidation and intelligence gathering," said Tom Hansen, director for Pastors for Peace speaking to the Militant on the government probe which began in February in Buffalo, New York. The grand jury is charged with investigating the Pastors-organized Friendshipment caravans to Cuba, which passed through Buffalo in 1994 and 1995.

Hansen reported that the judge in the case had just granted the government an indefinite extension. Earlier the judge ruled that the government had to respond within a month to the Pastors' motion for quashing the investigation on the grounds that some of the information used in the subpoena was gained by illegal wiretaps.

The filing of a motion to quash the investigation, Hansen explained, "was based on the evidence we had. This included an illegal wiretap we discovered in San Diego, the high-tech surveillance we have witnessed on every caravan, and an inter- agency task force report we got hold of.

Included in this task force was the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's office, the Border Patrol, the Treasury Department, the fire and police departments in San Diego, and the California Transportation Department. One or all of these agencies could have had us under surveillance."

Hansen explained that one of the facts mentioned in the subpoena, the name of the ship used to transport material to Cuba, they believe could only have been gained through such intelligence.

The Pastors' motion is part of an effort to narrow the scope of the subpoena. While the basis of the subpoena is the fourth and fifth Friendshipments, which took place in November 1994 and July 1995, the government is demanding "every piece of paper, every piece of correspondence, lists of all the people who have been on the caravans, all the files including the financial files from these two years," Hansen said.

Hansen explained that his organization was involved in many activities during those two years which would come under the spotlight of this probe. These included "study trips to Cuba; caravans and trips to Central America; caravans and humanitarian trips to Chiapas, Mexico; speaking tours of the United States; and organization of demonstrations," he said.  
 
 
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