Actual video of an FBI visit last week, seeking information on the release of 1,200 mink in Iowa

Oct 11th, 2011
by Peter Young
Voice of the Voiceless

Any time I do a repost I feel compelled to apologize, because I want VoV to focus on exclusive content. But this one was too good to pass on, and there is nothing I can say here that Will Potter didn't already cover, so here it is: Video of an FBI visit surreptitiously recorded by a video store owner in Des Moines, Iowa.

The store owner has been frequently visited by the FBI over the years, and refused to talk on every occasion. He is the same store owner featured in a previous VoV article, when agents attempted to bribe him into talking by giving him a $50 gift card, as part of the investigation into the 2004 ALF raid of the University of Iowa.

Here's the video from Green is the New Red.

"It's not often that we get to see the FBI in action as agents harass activists. This video is of two FBI agents visiting the owner of Best Place Ever, a video store, and questioning him about last night's release of mink from a fur farm in Jewel, Iowa. The agents suspect the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) was behind the raid, and question the man about any communication he may have with former ALF prisoner Peter Young. The FBI is investigating the mink release as "domestic terrorism."

The video is pretty funny and worth a watch (and kudos to the gentleman at the store for taping it!). But I think it's really important to point out that if you are ever visited by the FBI, for any reason, the best thing to do is to say absolutely nothing. Not a little bit, not a sentence or two � nothing.

I'm not saying this because of what the person in the video says (I actually can't make out anything he says, because it has been dubbed over) but because it is always, without a doubt, the best way to protect your rights and the rights of those in your community. As a lawyer friend of mine noted, anything you say could be twisted against you: "If, for instance, this gentleman said he knew nothing but actually did, they could get him on lying to a federal officer. So, like the overdubbing says, just say you're not interested in talking to them."