Headline News: FBI intimidates protestor ahead of RNC convention

[ksatriyakiller]

wow, rudi bakhtiar looked pissed interviewing that girl.

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3061282,00.html

Warnings precede party conventions
FBI, police visits to young people rile ACLU official

By Karen Abbott, Rocky Mountain News
July 24, 2004

Law enforcement officers visited several Denver young people Thursday to warn them against committing violence at the Democratic and Republican national conventions.

"This is part of an ongoing FBI investigation with the Joint Terrorism Task Force," Colorado FBI spokeswoman Monique Kelson said Friday. "That's all that we can comment right now."


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The Joint Terrorism Task Force includes officers from local law enforcement agencies.

Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Colorado, said young people living at two locations in Denver reported the visits to the ACLU and that similar visits have occurred elsewhere in the United States in recent days.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[aquart]

1. Astute young woman.

And they thought it couldn't happen here. With the Patriot Act, it has.

[dflprincess]

2. I just posted this in a similar thread, but it bears repeating

It's from an editorial in the Minneapols Star Tribune about this very behavior.

http://www.startribune.com/stories/561/4931361.html

But as Monday's New York Times notes, law enforcement is no longer limiting itself to such crude protest-containment measures. A surer strategy is to scare would-be protesters from showing up at a political event in the first place. This seems to be the idea behind a recent rash of FBI visits to citizens who may be planning to participate in protests at the GOP convention starting Aug. 30.

FBI investigators deny any wish to silence lawful dissent. Their sole purpose, they insist, is to avert possible violence by protesters in New York. But their door-knocking campaign has worked well to intimidate Bush opponents who had been inclined to join convention protests. As one woman visited by six FBI agents a few weeks back told the Times, the agents were trying "to let us know that 'hey, we're watching you.' "

What's wrong with being watched? Nothing, unless you believe the Constitution's free-expression guarantee means what it says. The assurance conveys no mere suggestion to government, but an absolute obligation: It must bow to citizens' rights to say what they wish, to whom they wish, where they wish. Anything that dampens, muffles or muzzles such protest flouts the most fundamental of American promises.

[struggle4progress]

15. Issue is gaining much-needed attention:

Anti-war protesters not potential terrorists
Tuesday, August 17, 2004

<snip>
Stung by criticism that it was asleep at the wheel in the months leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been given another opportunity to prove itself to the nation.

So who is the FBI tracking across the country?

Anti-war activists, their friends and their family members.
<snip>

http://www.masslive.com/editorials/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-1/1092734703304750.xml


Dissent at your own risk
Originally published August 17, 2004

<snip>
According to news accounts, agents are monitoring and interrogating suspected protesters and infiltrating their organizations.

They claim to be simply seeking information that would help them thwart acts of violence, but they are spying upon and harassing innocent citizens.

It's just like the good old days, when Mr. Hoover and the bureau kept dossiers on peaceniks, civil rights leaders, lefties of all stripes and Mr. Hoover's political enemies.
<snip>

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.protest17aug17,1,2264086.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines


Tuesday, August 17, 2004
FBI visits add a chill
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

<snip>
The internal decree that authorized the protester shakedown came from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy -- the same outfit that authorized the use of torture against terrorism suspects in some circumstances.
<snip>

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/186509_fbied.html


August 17, 2004
Lawmakers worry that homeland security overshadows civil rights
By Chris Strohm

The FBI was criticized for conducting surveillance on activists during a congressional hearing Tuesday called to consider a broad range of options that would increase the government's homeland security powers.

Two Democratic lawmakers on the House Homeland Security Committee said the FBI may have gone too far by monitoring people and groups across the country planning to protest at the Republican National Convention in New York from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2. The New York Times reported on the surveillance effort on Monday.
<snip>

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=29241&dcn=todaysnews


Mom! Dad! It's the FBI!
Anti-GOP protesters and their families questioned by federal agents
August 17th, 2004 1:10 PM

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces, rather than routing out terrorist networks, have spent much of the summer picking on college kids heading to the Republican Nation Convention.

Police detectives and FBI agents in at least five states have been calling on young activists at their homes, trying to frighten them into canceling their plans to protest, said those who have been questioned.

Agents have asked the activists, who meet on their college campuses and at each other's apartments, whether they intend to commit criminal acts. In New York, Massachusetts, Missouri, Colorado, and California, the feds have also questioned parents, friends, and landlords about activists' political views.

"It is a prodigious waste of time and money for them to harass nonviolent protesters," said Zachariah Artstien, a 20-year-old student at SUNY-Purchase.
<snip>

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0433/convention.php



FBI agents tracking anti-Bush activists
Officers to pose as convention protesters
By Tom Hays | Associated Press
Published on Tuesday, August 17, 2004

NEW YORK -- Federal agents and city police are keeping tabs on people they say might try to cause trouble at the Republican National Convention, questioning activists, making unannounced visits and monitoring Web sites and meetings.

The law enforcement effort has been going on quietly, overshadowed in public by talk of counterterrorism measures planned for the Aug. 30-Sept. 2 event.

"We're not engaging in surveillance of groups or individuals without legal predication," said Jim Margolin, spokesman for the New York office of the FBI.

Ann Roman, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service, said agents expect to respond to an increase in possible domestic threats against President Bush and other dignitaries as the convention at Madison Square Garden nears. The Secret Service is also playing a lead role in planning convention security.
<snip>

http://www.sfexaminer.com/article/index.cfm/i/081704b_fbi


Aug. 17, 2004, 6:37AM
Protesters say show will go on
Local activists unfazed by stories of FBI questioning
By MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Houston area anti-war activists said Monday they plan to go ahead with protests at the Republican convention in New York despite reports that the FBI had questioned at least two groups of dissidents about the potential for violent demonstrations.
<snip>

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/2740222

[Fridays Child]

3. Unbe-freaking-lievable. We have to get these thugs out of office.

.

[LiberalFighter]

4. 6 officers?

Was that necessary?

Isn't that overkill?

Whoops maybe that is their plan.. with the emphasis on kill.

[Wilber_Stool]

5. I wouldn't worry about it

they'll just file their report and then lose it.

[colonel odis]

12. good point. after all, three years ago they couldn't figure out that

reports of young arab men taking flight lessons -- without bothering about takeoffs and landings -- might be a sign something was up.

[0007]

14. .....and if they don't lose it they'll lie about it. Like the FBI did

at Wen Ho Lee's trial.

[IndianaGreen]

6. As long as the PATRIOT Act is on the books, none of us is safe

And we are not safer with Kerry as President if he keeps PATRIOT Act on the books.

PATRIOT should be repealed in its entirety!

[ninkasi]

20. I agree, IG

The entire Patriot Act needs to be abolished. It scares me more than terrorists, since it has the capacity of turning our government into something no less dangerous than any terrorist could be.

There are enough things in life to worry about...our own government abusing citizens should not be one of them.

[DieboldMustDie]

7. "She is an intern with the American Friends Service Committee..."

Damn! Ya gotta keep an eye on them Quakers; they're a dangerous bunch. :crazy:

[IndianaGreen]

9. Quaker terrorists!

Let's not forget the terrorists from Pax Christi!

[truthisfreedom]

8. these idiots are making the same psychological mistakes at home that they

are making in Iraq and Afghanistan... using intimidation and fear tactics to manipulate human beings creates more resentment, generates more terrorists, and increases the desire to protest. complete and total idiocy.

[Selteri]

10. Just another brick in their wall.

Too bad they don't seem to understand they're on the wrong side of the wall...

For the love of God Monstressor!

[Moderator]

11. ksatriyakiller

DU requires that a poster only post four paragraphs from any copyrighted piece.

[yorgatron]

13. i would have 3 questions for THEM

1.why aren't you looking for terrorists,like you were SUPPOSED to before 9/11? 2.have you ever read the part of the constitution (the first part,right up front where you can't miss it) that allows peacable assembly? 3.are all you guys cross-dressing closet cases like Hoover? :evilgrin:

[Joanne98]

16. Welcome to DU

Can i call you killer for short? :)

[PSU84]

17. This has N-O-T-H-I-N-G to do with fighting "terrorism."

This is ALL about TERRORIZING law-abiding AMERICAN CITIZENS who dare to critize * .

Please, please, please go to your public library and read "IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE" by Sinclair Lewis. Seventy years ago, he saw what could happen to this country if ordinary people let it.

The goddam fascists are in charge in Washington and THEY MUST BE STOPPED!

[mhollis]

18. OK, so I'm old...

The FBI used to regularly infiltrate anti-war protests and take photographs. They generally stuck out like sore thumbs in creased jeans and slacks with hair that was just a little too short and behavior that was more than just a little bit stiff.

And who is head of the DOJ? Oh, that's right, John Ashcroft the man who couldn't win a Senate seat when he was running against a dead man.

Kerry has stated a number of times that the problem with the Patriot Act is John Ashcroft. I disagree. Not since the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 has the US Government attacked the basic rights of its citizens in such a fundimental manner. And the result of the persecution of German farmers in Pennsylvania and publishers in New England, Philadelphia and elsewhere aroused the public and they elected Thomas Jefferson as their President, blaming John Adams for having signed a bill that studiously violated the Bill of Rights.

I was against the War in Vietnam. We were an occupying army in a country that was not a democracy and kept down by US Troops supporting an unpopular puppet government. That's what we're currently doing in Iraq.

In a letter to the Marquis de Lafayette, Jefferson apologized for his support of the French Revolution, opining that, in countries that had no history of elected governments, the adoption of such governments was fraught with the dangers of excesses and the danger that the subsequent power vacuum would give rise to a military dictatorship.

Iraq has never had a popularly-elected government. Niether has Afghanistan. No seeds have been sown to engourage the popular support of democracy or republican forms of government in those countries and one cannot just "graft" that kind of popular will onto the psyche of an entire population. Jefferson learned that this couldn't happen after he saw the rise of an even worse danger than a monarch in Napoleon Bonaparte.

Our troops will need to be in Iraq for many, many years, if not decades to provide a "buffer" of time for the Iraqis to learn how to have a republic with liberal values that support the kind of polycultural society that is needed in that country. To do this is horrendously expensive and amounts to a great National Project undertaken by the United States of America. Unfortunately, Iraq is not our nation.

Our Great National Project ought to be colonization of the Moon, Mars or an all-out war on poverty in the United States. I believe that President Johnson thought in terms of Great National Projects and his thinking is reviled by Republicans as being "tax and spend." In order for this country to take on such a "Great National Project," the population of the United States ought to be asked to sacrifice for it. That includes paying more in taxes, spending time volunteering, planting "victory gardens" so that the excess food may be distributed to those less well off than we are and doing our part for the good of the nation.

Instead, it's all about the "Great National Project" of spending the taxpayer's money on Halliburton, Bechtel and other big corporate donors to the Republican Party so that they can go overseas and rebuild some foreign country and prop up an unpopular government "appointed" by the leaders of this one.

Small wonder there are protesters.

This is the "bad old days" of the FBI "gathering information" in hopes that the information might be used to keep the current officeholders in power, something that was the hallmark of the Nixonian "Imperial Presidency." Only this time, Shrub doesn't have the "election in the bag" as Nixon had against McGovern.

[newyorican]

19. NEWSFLASH: Democratic Convention is Over

:eyes: