Connect the dots

Connect the dots

F.B.I. “scrutinizes” antiwar rallies

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected extensive information on the tactics, training and organization of antiwar demonstrators and has advised local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads, according to interviews and a confidential bureau memorandum.

The memorandum, which the bureau sent to local law enforcement agencies last month in advance of antiwar demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco, detailed how protesters have sometimes used “training camps” to rehearse for demonstrations, the Internet to raise money and gas masks to defend against tear gas. The memorandum analyzed lawful activities like recruiting demonstrators, as well as illegal activities like using fake documentation to get into a secured site.

Why is the FBI snooping into activities that they themslves say are completely legal? Golly, could there be a political agenda?

Peaceful FTAA demonstrators in Miami attacked, beaten, jailed

Police have attacked protestors with tear gas, pepper spray, concussion grenades, stun guns and by shooting activists with rubber bullets. Medics have not been allowed in through the police lines to treat the injured.

Protestors have been grabbed, seemingly at random, and taken off the street in snatch operations conducted by police in unmarked vehicles. The police are also directly targeting the legal support for the demonstrators, including National Lawyers Guild Legal Observers. Many who have been taken away have been beaten.

From an ANSWER newsletter

Under Bush and Ashcroft the exercise of First Amendment rights has become synonymous with terrorism. Today’s front page report in the New York Times revealing that the FBI was targeting the recent national anti-war demonstrations in Washington and San Francisco must be understood as the tip of the iceberg,” said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard attorney with the Partnership for Civil Justice and the National Lawyers Guild. The Partnership for Civil Justice and the NLG are litigating First Amendment cases against the FBI, Secret Service and Washington DC police as well as other law enforcement authorities for their unconstitutional disruption actions against political demonstrators.

The FBI is “investigating” demonstrations at the same time that police went berserk in Miami. These facts are not unconnected.

Ok, ok, I’ll let you in on a little secret. We at the ANSWER Coalition do, in fact, have planning meetings. To demonstrate (hey, that’s a pun!) just how devious and cunning we are, we post meeting times and locations in plain sight on websites, and the meetings are open to whoever walks in the door. Sshhh. Don’t tell the FBI.