'Surveillance, Infiltration, and Harassment of Environmental

[marykmusic]

...Organizations', a speech by Hope Marston in front of the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene, Oregon, speaks clearly and scarily about what we're facing now. It's bad... very bad.<br><br>An excerpt out of the middle:<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> Section 602 - it's titled Interference with National Special Security Events. It amends Section 1752 of Title 18, United States Code, so that anyone who willfully or knowingly enters or remains in a posted off or cordoned off area, where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is visiting, will be subject to a fine or imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both if the person carries a deadly or dangerous weapon or if significant bodily injury results. The second penalty would be a fine or imprisonment for not more than a year or both - that is, if there is no weapon or injury involved. <br><br> So, I looked up Section 1752 of Title 18, US Code, and learned that, prior to this provision, if you knowingly and willingly entered or remained in an area that was posted off or cordoned off by the Secret Service you could've gotten a fine or six months in jail. And what we are talking about here is when the President comes to visit. The Secret Service says, "It's going to be in this airplane hanger, and everybody who comes in here is our guest," and if you're there and they want you to leave, you better go, because if you don't leave you can be arrested. So, it used to be a fine or six months in jail for remaining in those exclusion zones. Well, now, it's either a fine and/or a year in prison or a fine and/or 10 years in prison. When I read this sneaked-in provision back in July or August, I thought, "Why is the government trying to over-regulate these presidential and vice presidential events? Then, immediately, I flashed back to 2004 during the presidential election campaign. I don't know how many of you are aware that, in this community and in communities all over the country, there were people who tried to attend Bush/Cheney events, and they were either arrested or they were sent out or they were harassed in some other way. <br><br> I mean, this isn't just Perrie Patterson, a soccer mom here in Eugene, who shouted "No!" at a Cheney event and was arrested, and this isn't just the three teachers in Medford, Oregon, who were wearing T-shirts that said "Protect our civil liberties" and were kicked out. This is also a high school kid in Iowa, who had a ticket to a Bush/Cheney event, and was asked to remove his button, which said "Bush/Cheney '04, leave no billionaire behind." That wasn't the scary part. The scary part was when the Secret Service staffer said to him, "If you protest, it won't be me taking you out, it'll be a sniper." The high school student reportedly said, "That kind of scared the heck out of me."</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <br><br><br>It's all here: <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031106C.shtml" target="top">www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031106C.shtml</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> --MaryK<br> <p></p><i></i>

[professorpan]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>This is also a high school kid in Iowa, who had a ticket to a Bush/Cheney event, and was asked to remove his button, which said "Bush/Cheney '04, leave no billionaire behind." That wasn't the scary part. The scary part was when the Secret Service staffer said to him, "If you protest, it won't be me taking you out, it'll be a sniper." The high school student reportedly said, "That kind of scared the heck out of me." <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Holy crap. That is appalling.<br><br>Sadly, every day under this Cabal brings another round of atrocities. <p></p><i></i>

[StarmanSkye]

<!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>This is also a high school kid in Iowa, who had a ticket to a Bush/Cheney event, and was asked to remove his button, which said "Bush/Cheney '04, leave no billionaire behind." That wasn't the scary part. The scary part was when the Secret Service staffer said to him, "If you protest, it won't be me taking you out, it'll be a sniper." The high school student reportedly said, "That kind of scared the heck out of me." <hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br>Ditto re: 'appalling'.<br><br>Where the HELL do they GET these SS guys who think this type of rabid 'comply or suffer and die' responses are appropriate? It's like they have become mindless God-cult devotees who have lost all sense of perspective -- where even the slightest divergence from the acceptable group-mind message 'Bush=All Good' is strictly Verbotten, Danger-sign potential threat.<br><br>There's GOTTA be some high degree of programming going on that encourages a slavish devotion and discourages common-sense discretion among at-least the closest circle of SS guys who 'protect' Bush at public venues.<br><br>I mean, C'MON! '...Leave no Billionaire Behind.' That's a red-flag deserving an or-else 'sniper' threat?<br><br>This is my hands-down jaw-dropper for the day.<br><br>The 'Prez' is such an all-around good-guy whose security freak-out over a high-school kid with an 'unapproved' political button?<br><br>What's scary is -- Who, what-kind of rightwing fanaticism does this kind of 'message' pander to and encourage, where even the most mild form of criticism is not only NOT tolerated, but deserving of such over-the-top teeth-baring hostility?<br><br>My response if I was the kid? I'm not quick on my feet, the 'perfect' reply probably woundn't occur for several hours, or days, after going through all possible range of emotions.<br><br>Mebbe: "I hear ... I will obey. I hear ... I will obey. I hear ... I will obey." Repeated non-stop in a stilted, robotic monotone just below normal conversational volume, lips moving as little as possible, with slow, deliberate, non-threatening movements and a deadpan, listless expression with eyes non-focusing on any one person or direction as I get up and/or allow myself to be led away.<br><br>(All the while thinking to myself, Fuck-ME! Heil-Bush! God-DAMN!)<br><br>Chalk-up another lifelong Volunteer-activist in the struggle for justice and freedom, against tyranny and repression and abuse of power.<br><br>Starman <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=starmanskye>StarmanSkye</A> at: 3/12/06 5:36 pm<br></i>

[slimmouse]

<br><br> Its easy Starman, they train them. I suppose its up to all to retrain them, and I strongly believe this is starting to happen. And once the damn is penetrated !;<br><br> <!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>After three months in Baghdad, Ben Griffin told his commander that he was no longer prepared to fight alongside American forces.<br>         <br><br>Ben Griffin told commanders that he thought the Iraq war was illegal<br><br>He said he had witnessed "dozens of illegal acts" by US troops, claiming they viewed all Iraqis as "untermenschen" - the Nazi term for races regarded as sub-human. <br><br><hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><br> This guy was SAS.<br> <br><br> There may be a touch of spin on this overall article, but think dam, and think consensus reality alteration.<br><br> Keep the faith folks <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START ;) --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/wink.gif ALT=";)"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br> Full article ; <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk">www.telegraph.co.uk</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br>/news/main.jhtml?xml=<br>/news/2006/03/12/nsas12.xml&sSheet=<br>/news/2006/03/12/ixhome.html <p></p><i></i>

[sceneshifter]

the moral surely is that disturbance generates fascism and repression, intoleracne [i'll leave the typo] and gestapo-ism<br><br>the hyperinflation in germany, the wiping out of all savings, led to nazi-ism - people say: we need a tough man with absolute powers to get us out of this hole, we need someone who is going to repress dissension<br><br>and the amount of disturbance is going to be proportional to the range of pay-per-hour<br><br>this planet has pay-per-hour range from 1 cent to one billion cents - from $0.01 to $10,000,000<br><br>that is, an inequity factor, a disturbance factor, an acceleration of disturbance factor, and a fascism factor of one billion<br><br>this injustice ie theft could be reduced by limiting fortunes - the lower the limit is set, down towards the actual maximum individual selfearned lifetime fortune [about $4 million], the greater the reduction of disturbance and gestapo-ism <p></p><i></i>

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Chilling is psychological warfare and that is where the 'action is.'<br>Police will often arbitrarily grab someone at the beginning of a protest to 'establish a tone.'<br><br>Cindy was charging up the anti-war movement with her conviction and courage so last protest at the UN they injured her. Now she is telling about it only to her supporters on the internet, not to the people who just watch TV.<br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12295.htm">informationclearinghouse....e12295.htm</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>More anti-war people are on the internet than pro-war people so sending 'a message' on our frequency has the cost-benefit analysis of chilling more anti-war than it disillusions pro-war who might think "hey, that's not right."<br><br>Be smart but not chilled. Playing Paul Revere and warning "the fascists are here" as best you can is still the right thing to do.<br><br>And then the townsfolk will ask-<br>"Who was that unmasked man?"...lol.<br><br> <p></p><i></i>

[StarmanSkye]

"... they train them."<br><br>Too true. But this story sure is a hopeful sign that even career-soldiers can see the light and have the courage of their convictions to say "NO!"<br><br>Re: SAS trooper Griffin who quit over what he saw as the illegality of the war and the atrocities he saw being committed regularly:<br><br>"The decision marks the first time an SAS soldier has refused to go into combat and quit the Army on moral grounds."<br><br>THAT'S the kind of true bravery and honor as opposed to cheap and fake courage that we as civilized peoples OUGHT to respect, encourage and reward -- And possibly, because those values are SO at-odds with America's tradition of waging General Sherman's version of brutal all-out-war, ie. total destruction and free-fire-zones, indeed even written into modern warfare doctrine, that basis for dignity and decency which reflects an absolute respect for human rights must be undermined and rendered impractical, counter-productive, foolish and impossible by the Pentagon war-cultists and social-engineering propagandists. To that extent, I think that the military must be encouraging unreasoning rage and violence and abuses, which subtly makes ones' soldiers complicit with (and thereby apologists for) the hardass military culture that tacitly endorses war crimes and atrocities -- playing off the 'us vs them' team-spirit mindset which breaks everything down into the simplest equation -- good vs bad, with no room for gray.<br><br>What's really freaky is -- How many of these veterans who have managed to 'buy' into the anything-goes attitude necessary for a person to reconcile the contradictions and moral inconsistencies of an illegal, brutal war, will be snapped-up by tomorrow's police depts., security and intelligence agencies? A LOT of police dept's esp. in the bigger cites (like NY and LA) already have officers who have an 'us vs them' attitude, in which they are at 'war' with the public and if anything are zealous when it comes to showing their contempt for those they confront in public protests and demonstrations with excess force, as 'terrorist sympathizers' or 'liberals' and 'leftists' (many probably think they're all the same!)<br><br>But OK -- Not to digree too far. The silver-lining perhaps is that Griffin's highly principled, moral stance has been highly-regarded as not just an abberation or a fluke --<br><br>(--quote from the telegraph article cited--)<br><br>""I did not join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy," he said. He expected to be labelled a coward and to face a court martial and imprisonment after making what "the most difficult decision of my life" last March.<br><br>Instead, he was discharged with a testimonial describing him as a "balanced, honest, loyal and determined individual who possesses the strength of character to have the courage of his convictions".<br><br>Last night Patrick Mercer, the shadow minister for homeland security, said: "Trooper Griffin is a highly experienced soldier. This makes his decision particularly disturbing and his views and opinions must be listened to by the Government."<br><br>--unquote--<br><br>Hear-Hear!<br><br>I hope ex-trooper Griffin becomes a model and inspiration for the thousands of Brit troops now mired-down in the US's miserable foreign policy tragedy-fiasco warcrime, and helps energize the anti-war folks.<br><br>Starman <p></p><i></i>