"The Black Tea Society, which sees Democrats as collaborators with Republicans, has permits to march, but not near Causeway Street near the FleetCenter.

Officials have created a demonstration zone, which is bordered by double fencing and Jersey barriers. Officials are putting in netting so that the demonstrators will not be able to throw things out of the area.

"If you put people in a confined area, where there is not enough room for them and you put horses in there, and you surround it by an 8-foot fence -- that's a recipe for disaster," Black Tea Society member Elly Guillette said.

The elevated highway is above the zone, and the only exit and entrance is a narrow one at one end of the zone.

"It's the same in a movie theater, you can end up with a stampede. It is not a safe situation," Lang said. - Free-Speech Zone Near DNC Contested

Confusion reigns as security rules

Activists sue to stop random MBTA bag searches

Black Tea Society

I am thrilled to have the chance to showcase Boston not only as a vibrant city with its historical atmosphere and its contemporary, international flavor, but also as a premier destination for tourists and conventioneers alike. Most important, the world will discover what we already know - that diversity is the strength of our city.

The winning convention bid brings with it new prospects for the people of our city, and the opportunities it will provide will be open to everyone. It is an important economic development tool and a huge step forward for all Bostonians, but it is only the beginning. The impact of the convention will undoubtedly extend well beyond the last week of July.

I know many of you are eager to get involved, and I appreciate your enthusiasm and support for this endeavor. We will need all of the help we can get!

I am proud of how Boston's corporate, community and cultural leaders worked together to secure this victory. We have made tremendous progress, thanks in large part to their support, but this is only the beginning. Now we all have a lot of work to do and much to anticipate as well. I hope we can continue the momentum with which we started as we move ahead to organize and execute the best convention in DNC history. - Boston 2004

At a recent public terrorism awareness forum at the Tempe Public Library, Tomasi and other anarchists cringed to see law enforcement officials lump the Phoenix Anarchist Coalition with white-supremacist National Alliance and militant Islamic groups.

Law enforcement officials told the audience that anarchist graffiti and tattoos were possible indicators of terrorism and should be reported immediately, Tomasi said.

Painting anarchists as terrorists essentially criminalizes dissent, they say. It effectively gives the green light for police to gather intelligence on groups exercising their right to criticize government policies, they say.

"The idea of attacking people like us on the fringe is that they can get away with it now," Tomasi said. "A lot of this war on terror has little to do with fighting terror abroad and everything to do with controlling dissent at home."

Dan Elting, terrorism training coordinator for the community policing institute and a Phoenix police officer, said whether anarchists are terrorists depends on their behavior.

Elting uses the FBI's definition: Someone who commits an illegal act to serve a social or political objective. Some anarchists fit that bill, he said.

"Which is not to say that all anarchists are terrorists," Elting said. "We mention them to know some of their tactics."

It's wrong to think that anarchists want complete chaos, said Jack Crittenden, an Arizona State University political science professor.

Traditionally, anarchism has been defined as the abolishment of government over the people, who should be entitled to make collective decisions on the rules governing their lives, said Crittenden, who teaches political theory and philosophy.

"You can't make a blanket statement and say all anarchists are violent," Crittenden said.

- Do E.V. anarchists pose terror threat?

more horror stories here

Officials confirmed on Tuesday [3rd Aug 2004] that some of the information used to identify specific threats in New York, Washington DC, and Newark, New Jersey, dated back to 2000 and 2001 - before the 11 September 2001 attacks.

[snip]

Raids in Pakistan reportedly turned up hundreds of photos, sketches and written documents, which included details on the number of pedestrians passing named buildings, and whether explosives would be able to melt the steel holding them up. - BBC

"Old information isn't irrelevant information - particularly with this kind of enemy," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Wednesday in Nashville, Tenn.

"Horseshit," muttered a DHS agent who, for obvious reasons, asked that his name be withheld. "We're chasing ghosts and we're chasing our tails. How many times must this clown lead us around by the nose before we learn we have been made fools of once again?" - Suspect in New Terror Alerts Fed U.S. False Info in 2002

"I live in NYC, literally yards away from the barricade that stops protestors from entering the RNC convention area. On Sunday, the crowds were very peaceful. They gathered at the barrier and chanted, but it was a nice sunny day and everyone, police and protestors, seemed to be in a friendly mood.

Last night, however, it got very ugly. I have been watching the news coverage, and they describe it as a 'scuffle' (if they mention it at all.) That is the understatement of the year. The protestors gathered at the barrier and started a concerted effort to break through and head up to Madison Square Gardens. They managed to push the barriers aside and overwhelm the couple of dozen cops who were defending it.

Somebody hit the panic button because, out of nowhere, HUNDREDS of cops descended on the intersection. Many of them were in full riot gear with nightsticks drawn. They formed a line and pushed the protestors back, right underneath me as I watched in amazement from my apartment. I personally witnessed several people being beaten by police during the incident. It was an overwhelming display of force, so much so that I think it scared the protestors out of escalating it further. But it was very ugly indeed, and there were definitely injuries inflicted on the protestors.

I was so stunned to see this happening right outside my front door that it took me a while to realize I should be taking photographs. Unfortunately, my digital camera doesn't do well in low light conditions, and I only caught the tail end of it all, but I have attached some pictures here. Feel free to publish them if you so desire. The pictures don't do it justice. The street was filled from sidewalk to sidewalk with protestors being forced back by the riot cops. I'll make sure I keep my camera handy over the next couple of days.

All of this is a long way of saying that I think the web bot run is right on the money. From what I saw last night, I fear that things are going to get out of hand in a big way some time in the next couple of days. Madison Square could be our Tian'anmen Square.

Please do not use my name if you publish this. I am not a US citizen, but am a green card holder. Thanks to the Patriot Act, I lost my Bill of Rights protection and I don't want to lose my green card for 'dissent.' "
- thanks to urban Survival

indymedia UK

indymedia NYC

photos from the Detention center

[memory hole]

Kerik was also authority, when handed over a passport from one of the Sep11th planes, first located by FBI agent Barry Mawn, coincidentally best friend of O' Neill. On September 16th, Kerik declared the passport as belonging "to one of the hijackers" but already "discovered a few days ago".

Officially, according to ABC, it was found in front of WTC 7 and belonged to Sataam Al-Suqami. It wasn't revealed, why the name wasn't disclosed earlier. Rumour has it, that the first statement included the name of Mohammed Atta, a rumour, which still circulates around. - INN info on Kerik

President Bush will nominate former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik to take over as secretary of homeland security, two administration officials said Thursday.

Kerik, 49, led the New York City Police Department through the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath.

He is currently a senior vice president of Giuliani Partners, the consulting firm founded by Rudy Giuliani, who as mayor of New York appointed him police commissioner in 2000. (Profile)

In 2003, Kerik went to Iraq at Bush's request to help train the new Iraqi police force, and he campaigned for Bush's re-election, making at speech at the Republican National Convention in August.

An administration official told CNN that on at least two occasions Giuliani made a personal pitch to the White House that Kerik be named to succeed Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge, 59, who announced his resignation Tuesday. - CNN

Kerik rules by FEAR: - Kerik: Another 9/11 likely with Kerry as Prez

Within the heavily guarded perimeters of the Defense Department's much-discussed Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, the CIA has maintained a detention facility for valuable al Qaeda captives that has never been mentioned in public, according to military officials and several current and former intelligence officers.

The buildings used by the CIA are shrouded by high fences covered with thick green mesh plastic and ringed with floodlights, officials said. They sit within the larger Camp Echo complex, which was erected to house the Defense Department's high-value detainees and those awaiting military trials on terrorism charges.

The facility has housed detainees from Pakistan, West Africa, Yemen and other countries under the strictest secrecy, the sources said. "People are constantly leaving and coming," said one U.S. official who visited the base in recent months. It is unclear whether the facility is still in operation today. The CIA and the Defense Department declined to comment. At Guantanamo, a Prison Within a Prison

Detained indefinately...without trial

"The Bush administration is preparing plans for the possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists, including hundreds whom the Government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts..."

"One proposal would transfer large numbers of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees from the US military's Guantanamo Bay detention center into new US-built prisons in their home countries. A senior official is quoted as saying the prisons would be operated by those countries, but the State Department, where this idea originated, would ask them to abide by recognised human rights standards and would monitor compliance." -
ABC report

1.11.2005 A soldier shows his M4 firearm equipped with a M203 grenade launcher to be present at the upcoming Bush Presidential Inauguration on January 20, 2005.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, described security as unprecedented. "Security will be at the highest levels of any inauguration."

The Federal Aviation Administration has announced a 23-mile radius no-fly zone, around Reagan National, Dulles and Baltimore-Washington International airports. Source: Security Info Watch, Reuter via Free Press International

It's another four years for a leader who considers himself as God's own prophet, a man who says he can't even imagine someone serving in the White House "without a relationship with the Lord." Like it or not, we have a president who just convinced half a nation that Republicans and Republicans alone have a clear-channel, exclusive pipeline to God. - Newsday

That is what crowns and halos represent, and they are associated by tradition only with royalty, with holy people and with supernatural beings such as angels. Originally-that is, when human society arose-leaders and heads of state were quite literally considered to be god-kings or agents of divinity. There was no difference between a spiritual leader and a political leader. Those who led the people in either sphere of activity were one and the same. That position is still present in a theocracy, where the nation or organization is headed by someone who is regarded as divine or an agent of divinity, such as the Pope, the Dalai Lama, the Emperor of Japan, and the mullahs of Iran and Afghanistan. - |American MASON

The US House of Representatives passed legislation February 10 that would intensify a repressive crackdown against immigrants and refugees under the pretext of combating terrorism.

The bill, known as the "Real ID Act," would effectively slam the door in the face of refugees fleeing persecution, facilitate the deportation of both asylum seekers and legal residents and deny drivers' licenses to the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the US. Another provision would grant the Secretary of Homeland Security extra-legal powers to complete the walling off of a section of the US-Mexican border. More from World Socialist web site