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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
POLICE STATE TARGETS THE LEFT
by Jim Redden
Forget about the Militias. The feds are now targeting the Anarchists.
For most of the last decade, the domestic paramilitary forces of the
National Security state have been battling far-right political
dissidents.
Especially since the Oklahoma City bombing, the FBI, the BATF and
numerous
state and local police agencies have targeted the anti-government
Patriot
Movement. Law enforcement agents infiltrated militias, Christian
Identity
churches, anti-abortion groups and suspected terrorist cells.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a well-respected civil
rights
watchdog organization, coordinated law enforcement efforts broke the
back
of the radical right by the end of the century. "Where the FBI typically
worked about 100 domestic terrorism cases at a time in the early 1990s,
it
was investigating close to 1,000 as the millennium came to a close," the
SPLC reported recently. "Hundreds, if not thousands, were sent to jail
as
authorities cracked down on the far right - many in revolutionary
conspiracies that included planned mass murders."
Now the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have apparently shifted
their focus to left-wing political dissidents. The shift began in early
Summer 1999. That was when a coalition of labor, environmental, human
rights and other liberal organizations began planning a series of
massive
demonstrations for the World Trade Organization meeting set for late
November in Seattle.
The protesters shut down the WTO meeting and fought the police in the
streets of Seattle. The size and fury of the demonstrations seemed to
catch
the authorities by surprise. But, as the Seattle Weekly reported on
December 2, law enforcement officials had been spying on the activists
for
months before the demonstrations. According to the Weekly, "Sources say
...
that police and 30 other local, state, and federal agencies have been
aggressively gathering intelligence on violent and nonviolent protest
groups since early summer (FBI agents even paid personal visits to some
activists' homes to inquire about their plans). In past weeks,
undercover
officers have tailed several groups as they moved about the city in cars
and vans, and were doing so after the WTO meetings began."
The Weekly also discovered that members of the Pentagon's top secret
Delta
Force were deployed in Seattle during the demonstrations. This is the
same
unit which was secretly sent to the Waco stand-off. As the paper
reported
in its December 23 issue, the elite troops set up a command headquarters
in
a downtown hotel and operated undercover dressed as protesters. "Some
Deltas wore lapel cameras, continuously transmitting pictures of rioters
and other demonstrators to a master video unit in the motel command
center,
which could be used by law enforcement agencies to identify and track
suspects," the paper reported. "'These guys are the Army hot shots, the
cowboys,' says [a] former Ranger who shared a few beers with the unit in
Seattle."
Hundreds of protesters occupied an abandoned office building in downtown
Seattle during the protests. Numerous press reports quoted police as
saying
the squatters were being monitored by infiltrators.
Four months after the protests, the Seattle Police Department called for
the repeal of a city ordinance prohibiting political spying. The
ordinance,
passed in the wake of the Watergate Scandal, prohibits the police from
gathering any information on anyone solely because of their political or
religious beliefs. "The SPD Criminal Intelligence Section contributed
little hard intelligence because of our inability to investigate any of
the
individuals or groups that ultimately did the most damage," the report
said.
But by then the government had already increased its spying on the
anti-globalization movement which crystallized in Seattle. Many of the
same
groups were planning to protest meetings of the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund in mid-April in Washington DC. Operating
under
the umbrella organization Mobilization for Global Justice, they
scheduled
mass demonstrations for April 16, 17 and 18. But as these activists
began
planning their demonstrations, they were targeted by federal, state and
local law enforcement officials. The activists found their meetings
infiltrated, their public gatherings disrupted, their phones tapped, and
police posted outside their homes and offices.
On April 7, veteran political commentator Sam Smith reported that police
were visiting activists all over Washington DC. Writing in his
Progressive
Review newsletter, Smith said, "While the use of informers and agents
provocateurs by the police, military, and intelligence agencies is not
unknown in the capital, open efforts to intimidate participants prior to
an
event is virtually unknown."
Smith also reported that police were watching student activists at
Washington's America University, which was scheduled to hold a series of
public forums on the IMF and World Bank in the days leading up to the
mass
protests. As Smith discovered, university officials were cracking down
on
the activists at the urging of the police. Here's what UA one student
said:
"To our wonderful surprise we found out the metro police have been
tapping
our phones and emails and have been sending spies to our meetings. They
found out about two students leafleting against Marriott and sent 30
plain-clothed policemen to spy."
And Smith also discovered that the police were checking up on area high
schools. He found that school authorities in suburban Montgomery County
were circulated a flyer urging people to be on the look out for
mobilization materials in the schools, and to report them to the school
safety office. The memo, from the schools' Department of School Safety
reads as follows:
"This office has received the following information from the Montgomery
County Department of Police, Special Investigations Divisions. Detective
Thomas Cauffiel asked Mr. Douglas Steel, field security coordinator, to
notify school based staff to be observant for any material referring to
the
upcoming International Monetary Fund rallies which are scheduled for
April
9-17, 2000 in Washington, DC Police are concerned that a group named
"Mobilization for Global Justice" might attempt to recruit high school
students to join in a planned rally. The police reported the following:
"Splinter groups, possibly associated with this group, took part in the
recent demonstration in Seattle that turned violent." If you see any
materials on your campus which refer to these rallies, please contact
the
Department of School Safety and Security at 301/279-3066."
Some of the best reporting on the police harassment was done by Jason
Vest,
a former Business Week editor and Village Voice reporter who now works
for
the SpeakOut.com website. Among other things, Vest discovered that
activists at George Washington University were under surveillance. "We
know
they're reading our emails, and I'm fairly convinced my phone is tapped
too," GW student Dan Calamuci told Vest over a phone line replete with
loud, regular clicking noises. "Last week, we did a speakout - just
seven
of us with a bullhorn - at the corner of 21st and H. Within a few
minutes,
five cops showed up, three of whom were undercover, or trying to be -
talking into cell phones saying, "We have three guys and four girls on
the
corner and this is what they're saying.'"
Vest also reported that the authorities were harassing people providing
housing to the demonstrators gathering in Washington. "Last Tuesday
[April
11], Bettie Hoover, the head of the DC chapter of the American Friends
Service Committee and a veteran social justice activist, was surprised
to
learn that two Howard Country police detectives were casing her Maryland
farm," Vest wrote. "'One of my family found these detectives walking
around
my property,' says Hoover, who had listed her farm on the a16 [April 16]
organizing Web site as a camping haven for protesters. 'I said, "Excuse
me,
who told you to come by," but they never really did tell me. But they
did
threaten me with zoning violations if I let people camp. 'This guy
didn't
know diddly - he didn't know what the regulations were and I did - and I
said to him, "I don't appreciate this harassment." He said, "Oh, no,
ma'am,
we're not harassing you, we're just here to help.""
Vest also discovered the city tried to shut down a homeless shelter when
protesters were staying."In all the years he's run the homeless shelter
at
11th and M streets in Northwest Washington, Harold Moss has never had
the
fire marshal show up demanding to inspect the premises," Vest wrote.
"Never, that is, until last week. Moss opened his doors to the Midnight
Special Legal Collective, a handful of progressive activist lawyers from
Seattle in town for the massive protests against the International
Monetary
Fund and the World Bank. Suddenly, the fire marshal was interested in
going
over the place with a fine-tooth comb. 'I couldn't prove it one way or
another, but in all probability, he showed up because of [the
protesters]
being here,' said Moss, who has managed to stave off the inspector
inspection."
Even the establishment media reported the government was harassing
activists in the days leading up to the mass protest. "Some protesters
think they are being watched. They are correct." the Washington Post
reported on April 1O.
Executive Assistant Washington Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer confirmed
the police were infiltrating the protest groups. "If it's an open
meeting
and it says, 'Come on over,' then anybody's welcome," Gainer told the
paper.
And the Post printed this account of an encounter between police and
activist. After Detective Neil Trugman of the intelligence unit got word
that an organizer named Adam Eidinger was planning to lead six crews to
hang protest posters around town, he and his partner stopped by for a
talk.
"Eidinger said the detectives identified themselves and said he didn't
have
to speak to them," the paper reported. "Eidinger agreed anyway, and they
talked on the stoop. The detectives, Eidinger recalled, said they hoped
there wouldn't be any violence, and Eidinger said he hoped so, too. Then
the detectives warned him against hanging posters, saying protesters
could
be arrested. 'I felt intimidated,' Eidinger said."
A few days later, on April 13, USA Today reported government agents were
going undercover online to thwart the protesters. "[T]hey have been
monitoring 73 internet sites where the groups have been exchanging
messages
to learn more about their plans. Sometimes, officers have even gone
online
posing as protesters," the paper said.
According to USA Today, law enforcement agents were physically following
suspected anarchists throughout the capitol city. "They have been
monitoring the movements of nearly two dozen self-proclaimed anarchists
who
have arrived in Washington,"the paper reported, adding that police had
been
reviewing "dozens of videotapes" from the Seattle protests, identifying
suspected leaders and plotting riot-control strategies.
What did the law enforcement agencies learn? That's a secret - but they
reacted like it was a prophesy for the end of the world. Police agencies
all around the Washington area were mobilized. All 3,500 DC police
officers
were put on alert, along with unknown number of law enforcement agents
from
12 federal and state agencies, including the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms. The authorities spent over $1 million on new body
armor and bullet-proof shields. They set up three mass detention centers
where arrested protesters would be taken. They removed 69 mailboxes
where
bombs could be hidden.
"They ain't burning our city like they did in Seattle," Police Chief
Charles Ramsey told USA Today. "I'm not going to let it happen. I
guarantee
it."
The authorities started cracking down on the activists the weekend
before
the IMF/World Bank meetings were scheduled to begin. On April 9,
administrators at American University abruptly cancelled the town hall
meeting on globalization set for Wednesday. As Vest reported, "Carrie
Ferrence, an AU student activist, says she asked David Taylor, chief of
staff to AU's president, for the rationale behind the cancellation.
According to Ferrence, Taylor replied that Washington's Metropolitan
Police
Department (MPD) told him that 'they had information from both on and
off
campus sources that this event would be targeted for some kind of
disruption,' but that 'they said they wouldn't provide any security for
the
event.'"
On April 13, three days before the protests were scheduled to begin,
seven
activists driving to a planning meeting were pulled over by the police.
According to a Washington Post account of the incident, the Secret
Service
frisked one passenger, showing him a photo that had been taken of him
earlier.
The activists were charged with possession of the implements of a crime.
The National Lawyers Guild protested the arrests. In a letter to U.S.
Attorney General Janet Reno, NLG President Karen Jo Koonan said the
"implements of a crime" were materials and tools for building signs and
banners. According to the Post, the police seized 256 PCV pipes, 45
smaller
pipes, 2 rolls of chicken wire, 50 rolls of duct tape, gas masks, bolt
cutters, chains, an electrical saw, and lock boxes. "These activists
construct signs, puppets, sound stages, and other tools for expressing
their political views," Koonan wrote. "They were in fact arrested for
possession of implements of First Amendment activity. We have been told
by
an MPD officer that the FBI directed them to make this arrest."
Koonan also complained that the authorities had turned Washington DC
into
an armed camp: "The Foggy Bottom neighborhood resembles an occupied
city.
Streets are closed, and public sidewalks are open only to people with
acceptable identification. An officer with a video camera sands on the
roof
of the PEPCO building at all times, and other officers wander the area
taking still
photographs and video of people in the area, even if they are not
attempting to enter the restricted zone. Anyone wearing buttons or
carrying
signs is given especially close scrutiny. The result is a chill on the
expression of political views."
Said Denis Moynihan of the Mobilization for Global Justice, "Despite
assurances to the contrary, we are beginning to see an escalation of
police
tactics similar to the gross violations witnessed in Seattle."
A short time later, Vest reported a follow-up to his original stories.
"Since then, a number of other activists and organizers (as well as a
few
journalists) have also been subjected to measures ranging from
surveillance, implicit threats and bureaucratic intransigence apparently
designed to marginalize the effectiveness of their mission," he wrote.
"What makes the situation all the more maddening is that such actions
are
apparently being taken based on the ridiculous view that every protester
or
activist is an anarchist time bomb waiting to go off - a view apparently
buttressed by unspecified police 'intelligence' that may or may not be
true."
On the morning of April 15, law enforcement authorities unexpectedly
raided
a warehouse that served as the demonstrators' headquarters. According to
eyewitness accounts, the agencies involved in the raid included the
federal
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Washington Metropolitan
Police
Department and the Washington Fire Department. Claiming the warehouse
violated fire codes, the authorities threw all the activists out and
closed
the building. Police claimed they found a Molotov cocktail in the
building,
a charge denied by the activists. "They found a plastic bottle that had
rags in it that were being used to get paint off of people's hands,"
organizer Eidinger said.
A short time later, the Troy Skeels of the Independent media Center
reported that the authorities were preventing them from printing and
distribution their publications. "As we are attempting to go to press
with
the 'Blind Spot,' IMC's print publication due to hit the streets
tomorrow,
we are confronting a serious technical difficulty: Citing 'riot
activity'
the Kinkos print shops in the area are either closed already or thinking
about it." Skeels wrote. "I learned about this turn of events this
afternoon as I and some people I was trading literature with were asked
to
leave a Kinkos near the White House. The employee at the Kinkos we were
at
was polite as he asked us to leave, but explained that our presence was
putting his shop in danger of being closed. Continuing our discussion on
the sidewalk, I learned that other Kinkos had already been closed at
police
direction."
Continued Skeet, "Philip, from Oberlin College, Ohio, sporting a box of
freshly printed pamphlets told me that he had left one Kinkos (24th and
K
street) that closed after police came in and harassed people printing up
pro-demonstration, or simply anti-IMF literature. There was of course,
no
riot activity in sight. At least three Kinkos have already closed. It
remains unclear how long the other popular '24 hour' printing outlets
will
remain open."
Reviewing the events unfolding in the Capitol, Smith wrote, "Illegal
sweep
arrests. Print shops intimidated into closing by police. Universities
canceling public forums under pressure from officials. Homes of
opposition
leader' broken into and ransacked. Headquarters of the opposition raided
and closed by police. These were the sort of things by which we defined
the
evil of the old Soviet Union. These were some of the reasons we said we
had
to bomb Yugoslavia. And now they have become characteristics of the
federal
government's handling of the current protests.
By the morning of Saturday the 16th, the police had blocked off 50
blocks
around the headquarters of the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund. The first mass arrests happened that afternoon when thousands of
protesters marched toward the headquarters of the two financial
institutions. The police blocked their way, then isolated and arrested
approximately 635 activists - far more than the 525 protesters arrested
during a full week of demonstrations in Seattle - declaring their march
illegal.
The authorities quickly revealed that they were obsessed with
identifying
the protesters. As the Associated Press reported, those who provided
identification were fined $50. Those who didn't were fined $300. Of
course,
all of the names provided to the police were quickly entered into the
vast
web of computer databases used by law enforcement organizations across
the
country.
Demonstrators clashed with police all Sunday. The activists were not
able
to prevent the international finance ministers from meeting, but the
protests were still the most direct challenge to global capitalism ever
seen. Even the police admitted the activists had gotten their message
out.
"The media is here, and that's how I gauge success," a uniformed captain
told the NBC Evening News.
By Sunday evening, the Establishment Opinion Cartel was clearly worried.
"Police said they must keep the World Bank and IMF open at all costs,"
CNN
reporter Bob Franken said with a straight face.
By Monday it was apparent that these global financial institutions are
more
important than the U.S. government itself. Because of the protests, most
downtown federal workers were given the day off. At the recommendation
of
federal and local law enforcement officials, nonessential workers at the
State, Treasury, Commerce and Interior departments, and other key
agencies
in the area around the World Bank/IMF headquarters, were told to stay
home.
"This is obviously a decision that we don't take lightly. It's very
unusual
and very rare," a spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management said.
As a result, the anti-globalization protesters forced a partial
shut-down
of the federal government - something the Patriot Movement has not
achieved
after nearly a decade of bombings, shoot-outs, armed confrontations and
rallies.
Organizers declared victory even before the protests ended. "A few days
ago
most Americans didn't know the first thing about the World Bank or the
IMF," Patrick Rensborough, a spokesman for Mobilization for Global
Justice,
told the New York Times on Sunday. "These institutions can't survive
public
scrutiny. This is the first step toward shutting them down."
Beca Economopoulos of Mobilization for Global Justice agreed. "In
Seattle
on November 29th, nobody had heard of the World Trade Organization and
the
impact that it had on the degradation of the environment and people's
lives
on the planet," she told reporters early Monday. Now folks can tell you
about the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, its violations
of
human rights, its degradation of the environment and lowering of labor
standards."
Even the IMF released a communique which acknowledged the protesters had
made its policies a matter "of growing public debate." As the ABC
Evening
News reported on Monday, "The demonstrators outside the building did
their
best to be heard. The delegates inside the building said they got the
message.
And that's why the anti-globalization activists are the new Public Enemy
Number One.
4/17/2000
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(Note: Yes the rulers use the Left to get control. Why because they are
naive. Once in place, they control and left has no place! The whole idea is
control by a few! There is no freedom once they take control - Bill )
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