Federal authorities retreated Tuesday in their investigation of an Iowa anti-war demonstration, withdrawing grand jury subpoenas delivered last week to four peace activists and Drake University.

 

The shift came as the investigation drew nationwide condemnation from civil liberties advocates, politicians and peace activists.

 

Also Tuesday, a federal judge lifted a gag order on Drake, where employees had been ordered not to discuss an inquiry into a meeting the anti-war activists held there Nov. 15. Federal authorities had asked for records of the campus chapter of the National Lawyers Guild – which hosted the anti-war conference – and for the impressions campus police had of the gathering.

 

“Whatever one’s views of the political positions articulated at that meeting,” Drake President David Maxwell said in court papers unsealed Tuesday, “the university cherishes and protects the right to express those views without fear of reprisal or recrimination.”

 

Brian Terrell, one of the four activists originally ordered to appear before the grand jury, announced the government switch at a noontime rally Tuesday in front of the federal building in Des Moines.

 

“Friends, the piece of news that I have is historic. The subpoenas against the four of us were dropped today,” Terrell said to the cheers of about 150 people.

 

Federal officials declined to say why they asked the grand jury to quash the subpoenas.

 

Al Overbaugh, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Des Moines, declined to comment Tuesday, other than to say the moves didn’t necessarily signal that the investigation had ended.

 

The federal investigation became public last week when a Polk County sheriff’s deputy – identifying himself as a member of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force – delivered several subpoenas.

 

Facing growing concern, the U.S. attorney in Des Moines, Stephen Patrick O’Meara, took the unusual step Monday of acknowledging the secret grand jury investigation. He denied the investigation was in any way related to terrorism.

 

The investigation, he said in his statement, involved an alleged attempt to enter the fenced, secure perimeter at Camp Dodge, the home of the Iowa National Guard. Federal authorities said Monday that part of their investigation was focused on whether a “prior agreement to violate federal law” was hatched at the Nov. 15 conference.

 

The peace activists’ conference and nonviolence training session – held at Drake after police and the media were notified – was called “Stop the Occupation! Bring the Iowa Guard Home!” The next day, activists went to the Iowa National Guard headquarters at Camp Dodge, where 12 people were arrested for trespassing.

 

Polk County authorities agree with demonstrators’ assertions that no one tried to scale a fence. The only arrest that appeared to come close to fitting O”Meara’s description was that of Elton Davis, one of the subpoenaed activists who was charged with trespass at a Camp Dodge gate roughly one-quarter mile south of the main demonstration.

 

Davis on Tuesday denied he crossed an official boundary. Instead, he said, he simply walked up to a gate and asked to speak to a commanding officer.

 

“I told him I was there to establish an ongoing presence at the base,” Davis said. “I would like to occupy the base. I would like his help with accommodations, would like an office . . . to work with the command authority to bring home people who were trapped in Iraq by a failure of foreign policy.

 

“At which point he almost fell down laughing.”

 

Court papers say Davis was arrested after he “entered onto federal property and remained there after being ordered to leave” by federal officials. Documents say he pleaded no contest and served three days in jail.

 

Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, also voiced skepticism of O’Meara’s explanation.

 

“If this was just a trespassing investigation, then why seek the records of the National Lawyers Guild?” he asked those at the rally.

 

Drake law professor Sally Frank, the university’s local contact for the guild, told those at the rally that “what we’ve had here for the last week in Des Moines is an intense effort to stifle dissent.”

 

Frank and others in the crowd symbolically placed tape or cloth over their mouths, while two Des Moines police detectives videotaped the event from a hotel room across from the federal building. The detectives said they were told to monitor the event “in case someone caused problems.”

 

Several in the crowd carried signs critical of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.

 

U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin went a step further, asking Ashcroft in a letter to make sure civil liberties were not trampled on in this case. “Prosecutors should be especially vigilant about using extraordinary steps in cases when such a treasured American value as free speech is at stake,” Harkin wrote.

 

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley also expressed concern about the impression left on peace activists that they had been subpoenaed by the anti-terrorism task force.

 

“I will be following this case closely to help make sure that the Department of Justice protects and defends people’s constitutional rights,” Grassley said.

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