Interrogating the Protesters

Published: August 17, 2004

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/opinion/...4fbf479e1e5b3b4
or several weeks, starting before the Democratic convention, F.B.I. officers have been questioning potential political demonstrators, and their friends and families, about their plans to protest at the two national conventions. These heavy-handed inquiries are intimidating, and they threaten to chill freedom of expression. They also appear to be a spectacularly poor use of limited law-enforcement resources. The F.B.I. should redirect its efforts to focus more directly on real threats.

Six investigators recently descended on Sarah Bardwell, a 21-year-old intern with a Denver antiwar group, who quite reasonably took away the message that the government was watching her closely. In Missouri, three men in their early 20's said they had been followed by federal investigators for days, then subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. They ended up canceling their plans to show up for the Democratic and Republican conventions.

The F.B.I. is going forward with the blessing of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel - the same outfit that recently approved the use of torture against terrorism suspects. In the Justice Department's opinion, the chilling effect of the investigations is "quite minimal," and "substantially outweighed by the public interest in maintaining safety and order." But this analysis gets the balance wrong. When protesters are made to feel like criminal suspects, the chilling effect is potentially quite serious. And the chances of gaining any information that would be useful in stopping violence are quite small.

The knock on the door from government investigators asking about political activities is the stuff of totalitarian regimes. It is intimidating to be visited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, particularly by investigators who warn that withholding information about anyone with plans to create a disruption is a crime.

And few people would want the F.B.I. to cross-examine their friends and family about them. If engaging in constitutionally protected speech means subjecting yourself to this kind of government monitoring, many Americans may decide - as the men from Missouri did - that the cost is too high.

Meanwhile, history suggests that the way to find out what potentially violent protesters are planning is not to send F.B.I. officers bearing questionnaires to the doorsteps of potential demonstrators. As became clear in the 1960's, F.B.I. monitoring of youthful dissenters is notoriously unreliable. The files that were created in the past often proved to be laughably inaccurate.

The F.B.I.'s questioning of protesters is part of a larger campaign against political dissent that has increased sharply since the start of the war on terror.

At the Democratic convention, protesters were sent to a depressing barbed-wire camp under the subway tracks. And at a recent Bush-Cheney campaign event, audience members were required to sign a pledge to support President Bush before they were admitted.

F.B.I. officials insist that the people they interview are free to "close the door in our faces," but by then the damage may already have been done. The government must not be allowed to turn a war against foreign enemies into a campaign against critics at home.

Send the FBI, the ATF, send all the law authorities to harrass and arrest these cretins. Send them to Camp X-ray. These groups are advertising the fact that they will be breaking the law!

Wired.com reports: Hackers are aiming to disrupt Republican websites during the Republican National Convention.

Hardened electronic activists are planning to jam up the servers of GeorgeWBush.com, GOP.com and related websites, once the Republican National Convention gets underway Aug. 29.

"We want to bombard (the Republican sites) with so much traffic that nobody can get in," said CrimethInc, a member of the so-called Black Hat Hackers Bloc. It's one of several groups planning to distribute software tools to reload Republican sites over and over again. These FloodNet programs are similar to hackers' distributed denial-of-service attacks, which overwhelm a server with thousands and thousands of simultaneous requests for information.

I don't recall any stories about evil conservatives trying to hack and shut down Democrat websites during the Democratic National Convention. Huh. Maybe there were such attacks but the media decided to ignore them.

It gets worse...

According to Wired:
The point of the electronic demonstrations isn't to take down a site, according to Ricardo Dominguez, co-founder of the Electronic Disturbance Theater, or EDT, which is releasing a FloodNet program of its own. Unlike hackers' denial-of-service attacks, which often hijack computers against their users' will, EDT's JavaScript-based software depends on how many people use the program. "It's a way to let people around the world gather and let their presence be felt," Dominguez said.

Not that he would mind if a Republican server just happened to crash along the way. In 2002, at the EDT's direction, 43,000 people flooded the site of the World Economic Forum during its meeting in New York. The organization's website went offline for several hours following the demonstration.

The Black Hat Hackers Bloc is hoping to cause a whole lot more trouble when the Republicans start to gather in New York. The groups will be targeting not only GOP computers, but "e-mail, faxes and phones, too," CrimethInc said, as well as unspecified "financial disruption."

Committing crimes in the pursuit of a political objective isn't free speech, or "protesting" or "activism"

It is terrorism.

In this case, it will be terrorism in support of John Kerry.

Will he denounce it? Will he call, now, for these e-terrorists to call off their attacks? He should.

DDoS attacks are a crime in at least 14 states, not a "legitimate tool,"as the BHHB asserts. DDoS attacks also are considered a crime by the Feds.

What a Nazi! You are worse than I previously thought.

Hopefully people like you are removed from power ASAP. I guess anyone who doesn't fall in line with your way of thinking needs to be sent to Camp X Ray! That is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they created this nation.

And you are an Anarchist!

Do you condone DDOS attacks, even though they are ruled to be illegal?

I guess any violence or vandalism that occurs that week, you would say was someone expressing free speech? :?: :?:

Tell me, why do you think this kind of free speech would be ok during this time, but illegal any other time?

Oh, and you give me more credit than I deserve. I am not in a position of power, never went looking for it either. :Y:

Yeah but you're still a Nazi. And a dishonest one twisting what Erin said.

I didn't twist anything. Kerry and the dems will be pinned with orchestrating this anarchy when your kids show up in NYC.

Hmmm? God forbid! The last time this kind of "protest" occured was during the Vietnam War! Yea :rolleyes: I remember the "anger and uproar" concerning "anarchy" then...........also! But, then again THAT same "anarchy" ended a WAR didn't it :?: :Y: :Y: :Y: ( way too soon for some, I am sure)

OH WELL :blink: :blink: :blink:

I sometimes WONDER what the REPUBLICANS are "really afraid of" :?:

Looseing the AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE? Yep, I'm sure your correct...........this is FAR MUCH BETTER NOW :( Yea buddy! PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW THEIR PLACE ........DON'T THEY :?: PRAISE JESUS :clap:

OH WELL :dripple:

REMEMBER THESE FAVORITE SLOGANS FROM THE REPUBLICANS THEN:
"America......LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT"
"Better DEAD THEN RED"
"DAMM HIPPIES"
"BEAUTIFY AMERICA........GET A HAIRCUT"
"Only GOOD COMMI is a DEAD COMMI"
"Nuke-Em"
Aw yes.............good memory's :good:

Tuesday Jan. 9, 1968 AMARILLO, TEX: (Panhandle Outdoor Advertising Co.)

SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) some of the "KIDS" who helped STOP A WAR :clap:

YES......Were RETURNING TO THE GOOD OLD DAY'S :dripple: :blink: :?:

OH WELL

MAYBE George Bush and his COHORTS are just FINISHING THE JOB and making sure it gets DONE RIGHT this time around :?:

Good Luck

Been there and done that.....................Andrew Paul

THIS WAR IN IRAQ IS ILLEGAL PAL, and I don't see you grousing about that. From what I have read, yes, there may be some anarchists there bent on destroying property ( who BTW, were the same groups at the Democratic National Convention as well. Were you upset about that too? I bet not.), and I don't condone that. However, the majority of those protesting will be peaceful. There will be young, old, students, professionals, children, and people of all walks of life who will be marching because they are SICK AND TIRED of these lying murderers running OUR BELOVED COUNTRY INTO THE GROUND. I surmise from your posts and the attitude of your fuehrer Bush, that ALL disagreement is now unpatriotic, and that isn't AMERICAN. Your words prove what you are, and I actually PITY YOU, because you have no idea of what the spirit of America is. This country was born from rebellion, and if it takes another BOSTON TEA PARTY to get it back out of the clutches of people like you who only wrap yourselves in the flag when it is convenient and shit on it when it isn't, I'm ready to dump some tea.

Jan

HERE, HERE.....Jan (loud applause) I could not have said it better myself :good:

BOSTON TEA PARTY :?: Cool :D :D :D

Aw yes..............I remember learning in grade school about that other "holligun and protester".........What was his name? Patrick Henry? Who said: "Give me LIBERTY or give me DEATH"! Understand...... I don't have a death wish but he was a pretty cool dude ;) AMERICA has been their before :read:
Patrick Henry; March 23, 1775
Note: Substitute THE BUSH MINISTRY for the BRITISH MINISTRY :clap:




Have a good one............................Andrew Paul