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Bush's Monitoring of Protests Belies His Stated Support for Free Speech
President Bush has expressed repeated support for protestors' rights to express themselves, exclaiming to the Australian parliament in October, "I love free speech." But federal law enforcement is showing up at political demonstrations, routinely monitoring such protests for the first time since the 1970's. . . . Last week, the president responded to interviewer David Frost's question about the protestors expected to greet his presence in London, "Freedom is a beautiful thing, I would first say, and aren't you lucky to be in a country that encourages people to speak their mind. And I value going to a country where people are free to say anything they want to say." [COMMENT: Notice he values going to a place that values free speech. Obviously, he knows it is no longer available in this country.] . . . The New York Times reported Sunday, however, that a weekly bulletin published by the FBI and distributed to local law enforcement included information about organizing tactics of anti-war demonstrators in cities such as Washington and San Francisco. . . . the memo details and analyzes legal activities, such as using the Internet for fundraising, and tactics used by organizations to recruit demonstrators. . . . Indeed, the administration has sent mixed signals on free speech after September 11th. Weeks after the attacks, [Presidential] Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said that Americans, "need to watch what they say, watch what they do." And Attorney General John Ashcroft, came under heavy criticism for saying that critics of the Patriot Act "aid terrorists." . . . Reports of the FBI's monitoring have drawn comparisons with the program known as COINTELPRO, created during the Cold War and in effect until the 1970's, when the FBI routinely sent agents to infiltrate organizations protesting the Vietnam War.

[Click on the above link for annotated references to the above story. . . . COINTELPRO is an acronym for the FBI's domestic "counterintelligence programs" to neutralize political dissidents in the USA. Although covert operations have been employed throughout FBI history, the formal COINTELPRO's of 1956-1971 were broadly targeted against political organizations in the US that did not follow the Republican Party Line.]

posted by Lorenzo 11:49 AM

 

What You Can Do to Stop the War on Drugs
When you are looking for up-to-date, and very accurate, information about anything to do with psychoactive substances, I believe you already know that the ONLY place to begin your search is on the Erowid.org Web site. It is so far ahead of the next most comprehensive library on the subject that you will seldom need to search farther. And don't think that this Web site is only for those who are interested in using these substances. It is a fact that the Erowid team also receives many notes of thanks from parents who are dealing with the issue of drug use with their children and have not been able to find valid information on the subject elsewhere. This is truly one of the most important Web sites on the Internet. ... AND THEY NEED OUR HELP!

Access to Erowid is free and does not require membership, but it is through contributions from our visitors that the site is able to be maintained and developed.

Due to a series of unexpected challenges, 2003 is proving to be a difficult financial time for them. Whether you are a frequent visitor to Erowid or simply someone who wants to see this type of information remain freely available via the web...they need your support.

Erowid is trying to reach 800 contributing members by the end of 2003. Today they have about 750 supporters. It takes less than $1 a week to do your part to keep this important resource available. Perhaps you could find it in your heart to make an early holiday present to the team of wonderful volunteers who keep Erowid alive by making a small donation. .... Thank you in advance! [Just click on the link above to go to the Erowid donation page.]

posted by Lorenzo 9:23 AM

 

Rights trampled in arrests linked to FTAA, lawyers say
(Christy McKerney and Ann W. O'Neill, Sun-Sentinel, November 21, 2003)
A teenager from New Jersey is locked up because police say he rode a bicycle through the streets of Miami in the middle of the night and refused to say what he was up to. Bail: $20,000. . . . Such major bail was ordered for such minor crimes, the public defender says, because the defendants were FTAA protesters. . . . "The bonds appear to be excessive and more in line with felony charges than the misdemeanors in question," said Public Defender Bennett H. Brummer, whose office filed the papers in the Third District Court of Appeal. . . . The issue is not a new one. . . . It has arisen at other protests with mass arrests, including the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, where Miami Police Chief John Timoney was police commissioner. . . . The pattern includes high-profile mass arrests, followed by high bail, culminating in a few weeks or months with low-profile dismissals. . . . Thursday's legal move came after a series of unusual bonds were imposed earlier in the day on protesters accused of minor crimes. . . . Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Korvick ordered a $20,000 bond for Jesse S. Dewlow, 18, of New Jersey, and a $10,000 bond for James Anthony Samaro, 19, of Coral Springs, for loitering and prowling. The standard bond is $500, the public defender's office said. . . . "Unless there is evidence that these people are a danger to the community, asking for these high bonds is simply punitive," Ruskin said. . . . "They're using high bail to try and keep people in jail," said Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorney Fred Haddad. "It's just pure tyranny." . . . The young people, who appeared handcuffed via video camera in the judge's courtroom, came from all over the country. All claimed to be homeless or living with parents. . . . Joshua Davison, 23, of Chicago, said he was unemployed. Robert Matthew Gilbert, 21, of St. Petersburg, said he was starting a new job as a cook. Nicholas Gauger, 24, of San Francisco, said he did construction work but was currently homeless. James Lennox, 25, said he grew up in Los Angeles but has been unemployed for a year. . . . When asked by the judge how he supported himself, Lennox said, "I've been living in an abandoned building and eating trash, sir." . . . James Davidson, of Allentown, Pa., also said he was eating trash and living in abandoned buildings. . . . Harrison Richard Bartlett, 19, of San Francisco, said he was a former schoolteacher, now homeless. . . . Throughout the day, public defenders representing the protesters objected to what they referred to as unfair targeting of FTAA protesters to keep them off the streets while others arrested in similar cases received far more-lenient consideration. . . . Assistant Public Defender Elliott Snyder said in court that stamping "FTAA" across the arrest affidavits violated the protesters' rights to equal protection. . . . And, he said, they were the only defendants who were handcuffed behind their backs.

posted by Lorenzo 10:35 AM

 

Free-speech, other groups file briefs opposing Patriot Act
(Associated Press, November 4, 2003)
A coalition of 20 immigration, civil rights, free-speech and publishing groups are taking aim at the USA Patriot Act. . . . The coalition described the Patriot Act as the latest in a long line of abuses of rights in times of conflict. Their filings are aimed at supporting a lawsuit filed in Detroit in June by the American Civil Liberties Union and a number of Muslim and Arab groups. . . . "The government can become thought police," Judith Platt, communications director for the American Association of Book Publishers, told The Detroit News. . . . The ACLU's lawsuit is one of the first direct challenges to the provision under Section 215 of the act that would allow FBI agents secretly order librarians and others to disclose reading lists or other information. The ACLU says such a practice violates constitutionally protected free speech, as well as due process. . . . The ACLU says the provision could also apply to religious leaders, charity directors or doctors and infringes on the right to free speech right while also violating due process. . . . According to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, other groups signing an amicus brief in the case include the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, Association of American Publishers, Association of American University Presses, Center for First Amendment Rights, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Feminists for Free Expression, First Amendment Project, Freedom to Read Foundation and PEN American Center. . . . Government attorneys have moved to dismiss the lawsuit. A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 3.

posted by Lorenzo 5:47 PM

 

FBI to Web site owner: We Are Watching You
(Elaine Cassel, Counterpunch, November 7, 2003)
CRYPTOME is a web site dedicated to investigating and publishing accounts of government improprieties, particularly as they relate to secrecy and First Amendment violations. On November 4, FBI agents visited the website's New York City office and met with site owner John Young. . . . Both agents, who are identified on the site and who left their official cards, said that they had information that Cryptome was a source of information that could be used to "harm the United States." Prior investigations by the FBI, the agent admitted, had not found any evidence of criminal wrongdoing, but the FBI was fearful that information on the site would end up in the "wrong" hands. Cryptome was asked to report to the FBI any "gut feeling" they had that its information would be a "threat" to the U.S. . . . One agent said that visits like these are increasingly common as the government seeks out information on threats to the U.S. The agents said they would "write up" a report on their visit. The agents asked that their names not be published, but Cryptome refused to honor that request. One reason for their request of anonymity is so that information about them cannot be pulled from one of many databases available online. (Funny how government agents don't want to be the source of data mining, but they certainly want to use it against us.) . . . Cryptome has a host of documents on its website, most government documents obtained from various sources. The site says it will not remove any document without a valid court order and no order has ever been served on them. . . . Young is no doubt aware that the FBI has probably already given his name to NYPD and that they will keep their eye out on him, pursuant to new regulations in which the feds ask local cops to help them rein in "suspicious" persons. Lucky for us that Young is watching the FBI.

posted by Lorenzo 3:57 PM