-Caveat Lector- http://www.laweekly.com/ink/01/09/offbeat.shtml January 19 - 25, 2001 Offbeat: Bush Web Intrigue by Johnny Angel Edited by Gale Holland Secret Service intimidates anti-Bush webmaster The 2nd of January was already a pretty rotten day for Wheaton, Maryland, resident Mike Hershdorfer, laboring at his computer under the pall of one of the harshest Eastern winters on record. But it got a lot rottener at 2:20 p.m., when the Webmaster for the anti-Bush political site www.bushoccupation.com answered a knock at the door to find two Secret Service agents and a Montgomery County police officer. The agents gave a vague explanation of investigating a tip about Web-site activity, Hershdorfer said. As he stood in the doorway with the dogs barking, the agents repeatedly pressed to enter his home. �I got the distinct impression that they were not going to leave unless I let them inside, so I did,� Hershdorfer recalled in an interview this week. The agents declined to say who made the tip, or what was said. They asked Hershdorfer for a list of Web sites he had visited, and for permission to search his house and review his medical records. They also asked him how he felt about the Clintons and Bush � and whether he had ever threatened to blow up the White House. Meanwhile, the police officer stood in the corner, saying he was there �to protect me,� an incredulous Hershdorfer remembered. In the course of the hourlong interrogation, Hershdorfer�s roommate Patty happened to telephone. After he had explained the situation, she rang up her lawyer stepfather, who instructed her to tell Hershdorfer to keep quiet and to refuse a search. Hershdorfer told the agents he suspected the tip had come from someone with the right-wing Free Republic Web site, which he had begun monitoring following media accounts of Freeper harassment of Democratic veep candidate Joe Lieberman and others. �I told the agents I felt intimidated and that my rights were under threat,� Hershdorfer said. They packed up their notes and left. Hershdorfer told OffBeat he closely monitors bushoccupation.com and a related e-group; neither has posted a threat, he claims. �I�m trying to organize in the middle left, not with people who want to blow things up,� he said. The strongest language on bushoccupation.com is: �We are dedicated to opposing the extraconstitutional and illegitimate occupation of [the] U.S. government by George W. Bush and the people using him as a front man for the extreme right-wing anti-democratic operatives.� Hershdorfer also has put up �Wanted� posters with photographs of the five U.S. Supreme Court justices who halted the Florida ballot recount, handing Bush the presidential election. Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin refused to comment on Hershdorfer�s case, but said it�s standard procedure to investigate any report of a threat against the president or president-elect. �It only takes a minute to pull a post off a Web site, as you know,� said Mackin. �We don�t care about anyone�s politics.� Hershdorfer remains shaken by the experience, and thinks that he will probably never know who his accusers were � just that they made a miserable day more miserable. Mission accomplished, one imagines. �Johnny Angel __________ EcoNews Service - Always online for Exopolitics & a Universe Ecology. EcoNews http://www.ecologynews.com/ Prague http://mujweb.cz/www/ecologynews/ mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html <A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of [EMAIL PROTECTED]</A> http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ <A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A> ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
