LAPD: ‘Pre-emptive’ arrests made to get terror info

In response to the national terrorism alert, Los Angeles police have made “a number of pre-emptive arrests,” a high-ranking LAPD source said Tuesday.

Those arrests were made in the past 48 hours and included people who came to authorities’ attention after the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda terror attacks in the United States.

The source stressed that none has been charged with any terrorism-related offense but were rounded up on unrelated charges — in one case, credit card fraud — in an effort to get information about possible threats. None of those picked up was identified.

This is just a lit-tle bit too Orwellian for me. A “pre-emptive” arrest? And just what might that be?

All I want for Christmas is my constitutional rights…

Thanks go to Shock and Awe for the link to the story!

Update: The CNN story quoted above has vanished from CNN, with the link now pointing to a story with no mention of preemptive arrests. A news.google.com search can’t find the story either. Hmmm.

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Nader will NOT run as a Green, may run as independent

“My understanding is that, if Nader runs, he does not want to run a mediocre campaign, and he is trying to assess the political and resource variables on how he would run the most serious campaign possible to unseat George Bush,” <Green spokesperson Ross> Mirkarimi said. He said there appears to be “no consensus” within the Green Party over its approach to the 2004 campaign.

The divisions within the party were evident at a national meeting in July. The meeting was closed to the news media, but participants said it centered on party strategy in 2004.

Those present divided themselves into three groups: Those who wanted to run the strongest possible campaign throughout the country, those who wanted to run only in those areas where the Green Party candidate would not be a threat to cost the Democratic Party nominee electoral votes in the contest with Bush, and those who wanted to skip the 2004 campaign entirely and throw Green Party support behind the Democratic nominee.

Nader did the politically correct thing here. Support for him within the Green Party (GP) was lukewarm at best. And, to tell the truth, he hasn’t a whole lot of faith in the ability of the GP to run a national campaign either. So, this means the GP will probably run a party activist for President, and the front-runner currently appears to be David Cobb.

Trouble is, no one outside of GP activists knows who David Cobb is. This means Cobb will have serious trouble getting anywhere near the same media exposure that Nader gets, something which doesn’t bode well for getting votes. If the GP only polls 1-2% in 2004, then it may be seen, fairly or not, as having peaked in 2000.

Plus, given the strong and growing belief on the Left that Bush must go, a GP Presidential run will unquestionably be seen, again fairly or not, as a spoiler that could reelect Bush, and will thus be subject to withering attacks from all sides of the Left, and I’m not sure the GP has the resources or stamina to stand up to the attacks that I fear will be launched against it should they run a candidate for President in 2004.

The other option for the GP is to not run anyone, to loudly and openly say Bush must go, so hold your nose if needed and vote for the Democrat. This could be seen as a principled stance, and meanwhile, the GP could (and should) concentrate on running candidates at the local and state levels. Trouble is, given the bad blood between the GP and the Democratic Party, and the painful inability of the GP to arrive at consensus for anything remotely controversial, I don’t see this happening.

Nader did the right thing. The remaining choices for the GP, run someone most people have never heard of, or run no one at all, are both filled with peril.

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And one Xmas, let’s hope this does happen!

From Slugger O’Toole, a fine blog covering politics in Northern Ireland

It’s a dangerous business trying to predict the future of Northern Ireland’s politics, but here’s one possible outcome of the year ahead.

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Judge says DC police spy on antiwar groups without cause

Lead editorial, Washington Post, Dec 17

It starts by quoting U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler

“The District of Columbia, through [assistant police chief Alfred Broadbent] seems to be admitting that it maintains widespread, extensive spying operations on the activities and operations of political advocacy organizations, such as Plaintiffs [International Action Center, et al.], on the basis of their political philosophies and conduct protected under the First Amendment.

Moreover, Chief Broadbent admitted in his testimony that such operations are carried on even in the absence of allegations of criminal activities by the organizations being spied upon.”

Judge Kessler made that disturbing observation in denying the city’s motion to reconsider a court order of Aug. 30, 2002, requiring the police to disclose the identities of D.C. undercover officers who had infiltrated organizations that were exercising their right to free speech and assembly.

ANSWER responds their campaigns and legal proceedings to force light on this repressive bullshit are working! There will now be hearings on these abuses of power and targetting of dissidents.

The lead editorial in the December 17 Washington Post, commenting on a public D.C. City Council investigation into police spying, brutality and pre-emptive arrests against demonstrators, is evidence that the national campaign to defend the First Amendment is effectively striking back at the war waged today by various law enforcement agencies against dissent in the United States.

As the spotlight on police and law enforcement misconduct gets brighter as a result of the litigation and political action campaigns, elected officials in Washington D.C. have scheduled two days of hearings to scrutinize the police department in the District of Columbia.

FOIA requests were filed on behalf of ANSWER and IAC by the National Lawyers Guild and Partnership for Civil Justice, and I believe lawsuits have also been filed.

It sounds to me like Chief Broadbent just ignores laws he finds inconvenient and which block him from targetting those whose politics differ from his. “Who will police the police”? The people, that’s who. The lawsuits, possible coming injunctions, and unfavorable national publicity may force him to change - or force him to resign.

Let’s keep the pressure on.

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Wounded and evacuated US soldiers in Iraq nearing 11,000.

The total number of wounded soldiers and medical evacuations from the war in Iraq is nearing 11,000, according to new Pentagon data provided in response to a request from United Press International.

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Soros shrinking from Dean, says right wing columnist

Maybe… Or maybe Dean is making them nervous.

From Robert Novak, right wing columnist and mouthpiece for Bush.

Left-wing billionaire investor George Soros, who appeared to support Howard Dean for president, now is privately expressing doubts about the Democratic Party’s front-runner. In one such chat, Soros suggested he is interested in retired Gen. Wesley Clark.

In conversations with political friends, Soros confided he has become alarmed by Dean’s recent performance and wonders whether the former Vermont governor is capable of defeating George W. Bush.

Uh, huh. Or maybe this is just Bushie propaganda aimed against Dean - which implies Dean scares them. Note how Novak doesn’t attribute the comments to anyone who can be asked about them. And why would any Democrat share anything with this apologist for Bush Adminstration, when there are far more sympathetic and reliable news sources for them to leak to?

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