Take down that bridge, NOW!
Posted on 05/01/2012 2:26:23 PM PDT by Las Vegas Dave
CLEVELAND, Ohio – FBI officials today said that while the members of a group arrested in an attempt to blow up a bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park were also involved in the Occupy Cleveland movement, that organization is not under federal investigation.
"Let me be clear, the FBI and Department of Justice are not conducting an investigation of any specific group," said Steven M. Dettelbach, U.S Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio. "We do not investigate movements or groups, we investigate individuals."
The Occupy movement is never identified by name in the affidavit filed by federal officials today, but interviews have since indicated that the five arrested had been involved with – and somewhat dissatisfied with – the Occupy Cleveland movement in Public Square.
Still, that the five men arrested were connected with that movement – including attending an Oct. 21, 2011, event on Cleveland’s Public Square – had caused ripples throughout the day.
The group also issued a statement Monday, saying that “while the group arrested Monday evening by the FBI were associated with Occupy Cleveland, they were in no way representing or acting on behalf of Occupy Cleveland or the event that was planned for later today at the GE Lighting building."
The May Day event at GE was sponsored by Occupy Cleveland, the North Shore AFL-CIO, Cleveland Jobs with Justice, Fight for a Fair Economy and SEIU Local 1, the statement said. The event was cancelled, however, because of “the alleged actions of the autonomous group arrested (Monday) night,” the statement said, adding that “Occupy Cleveland has had affirmed principles of non-violence since its inception on October 6, 2011.”
"Today's event Occupy GE (General Electric) was canceled because there were rumors these guys were involved,” said Debbie Kline of Jobs with Justice. “They were NEVER at the table.
“It’s been over a month we've been planning this. We will do this in the future. We'll do this again. But it would have been in bad taste to do today."
Bomb plot suspect Brandon Baxter came to a Jobs with Justice “spring training” event this year to learn about non-violent action, she said.
"When you're in a movement, you can't kick people out when they are volunteers," Kline said. "These five were acting on their own, they didn't have any part of the greater movement."
"There are ‘fringey’ people all over the place."
View full sizeThomas Ondrey, The Plain DealerThe Ohio 82 bridge as it crosses the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Brecksville. The FBI arrested five men this week in connection with a plot to blow up the bridge today for May Day protests.
The FBI arrested Baxter and four others Monday evening, saying they had planted what were believed to be explosive devices under the Ohio 82 bridge over Cuyahoga Valley National Park as part of a May Day protest today.
The five men were “self-proclaimed anarchists,” who intended to detonate two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) under the bridge in Sagamore Hills, but had purchased the inert devices from undercover FBI agents, officials said
Also arrested by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and charged with conspiracy and attempted use of explosive materials were: Douglas Wright, 26 and Anthony Hayne, 35.
Wright had also talked about "getting a car that they can drive into the Federal Reserve Bank" in Cleveland to blow it up, according to an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Ryan Taylor. (See the affidavit in the DocumentCloud reader below.)
“Despite the defendants’ worst intentions and aims during the entire course of yesterday’s operation, the public was never in danger,” Dettelbach said. “The defendants never possessed at any time any really explosive materials and the arrests warrants were signed before they got in the car and went to the bridge.”
Also arrested, but not charged, were Connor Stevens, 20 and Joshua Stafford, 23. Anthony said Stevens and Stafford were currently being charged, officials said.
Meanwhile, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park issued a news release this afternoon saying that park rangers worked with FBI during the course of the investigation and that “park visitors were not at risk during the operation.”
“At no time were the Brecksville Station or the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad considered targets for the plot,” the news release said.
The national park encompasses 33,000 acres along the Cuyahoga River between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio.
Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson also issued the following statement: “I would like to express my appreciation to FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Stephen D. Anthony and the Cleveland Office of the FBI for their diligence in identifying and exposing a potential threat to our community, and for keeping Cleveland's safety leadership informed on the progress of the investigation.”
Reporter Rachel Dissell contributed to this story.
They don't? What about militias in the 90's, as just one example?
I was hiking the towpath and metro parks yesterday, CREEPY!
I bet it would be easier to train 4 kittens to walk in formation than it would be to organize 4 occupiers.
Re choir practice. My voice is so bad people pay me NOT to sing.
Also, I don’t like to preach to the choir. I like raw audiences of any persuasion since it will be a test of my presentation and knowledge to wake them up if they are asleep at the wheel, to provide them with new information so that they can begin to see the dimensions of a problem, and to bring them over to our side if they like and understand what I am saying.
However, I have a policy, “if you feed me, I will come”. Even the reds once gave me a cookie (my food tester said it was ok).
Re your comments. Yes, most reporters on criminal issues aren’t worth a damned. To lazy to do their homework. SOme of the TV shows on cable that deal with Cold Case Files, Disappeared persons, cold-blooded killings, etc. actually have investigators and authors who DO read everything relating to a case. It often gives them more of an insight into the case, the people, potential motives, and often overlooked leads or evidence.
I have found that in reading captured communist and PLO documents from Vietnam/Cambodia, Grenada, Lebanon, etc., often there is ONE LINE that changes the whole tenor of it. You just have to be on the look-out for such a sentence, name, etc.
I had to do this type of searching in FBI wiretap transcripts, newspaper articles, etc. when I worked on an organized crime task force. It was that one name that provided the link for asset seizures.
However, you must know what you are looking for, and also something about the context in which it appeared.
Too many reporters didn’t learn this in journalism school. I learned mine from those names I previously mentioned, plus from a couple of Pulitzer Prize writers I used to have lunch with. You just sit and listen to the pros talk. Then you ask questions. Much better than journalism school (to which I never went).
Also, you learn on the street, usually from the policemen on the beat, or CIDs who are friends of yours.
It also is nice to how a police officer in the family. He cleaned up my garden yesterday. I trained him well, as did the Army and the Albuquerque PD.
Because that would be illegal?
Startled yet? Scared even a little? Worried?
Good thing they caught this amateur group.
Too bad their advertising the ‘how’ they caught this group though. Buying devices? Well guess we will see some homemade stuff later as they learn from this mistake.
It is going to be a long hot summer...
As far as them not investigating the OWS Cleveland group...yeah that is disinformantion. But...is yesterday’s take down also just a distraction for a larger investigation too.
You see the democrats can control the OWS group to a certain point, but they cannot control the contemporary Anarchists. I think it is important to understand this contemporary Anarchist has evolved and is not what we normally define or understand as an anarchist.
I posted a link yesterday for a FReeper to a socialist website explaining the evolution of the American-style Anarchist in the Marxist movement. Interesting, but heavy reading. Anarchists are usually linked to the far fringe right, but it is clear that the socialist/marx movement is claiming them as their own. I think this acknowlegement is important, http://www.isreview.org/issues/72/feat-anarchism.shtml, they admit the anarchist is a left centered creature.
Social Basis for Anarchism:
“Anarchism began its life as a philosophical reaction to the oppressive growth of early capitalism. Essentially rooted in liberal, enlightenment thought, anarchism’s social basis lay in the small craft and artisanal classes—what Marx called the petty bourgeoisie, then being eradicated with the growth of industrialism. The anarchist Albert Metzler agrees with Marx’s assessment of anarchism’s birth.”
The problem, as they even acknowledge, is they can’t control them. Which if they are claiming to be anarchists...they cannot be truly linked to OWS.
Well the OWS folks have handed to Romney the 2012 Presidential elections by “default!”
Sounds like you have a book to write some day - good reading, too...
You’re not reading between the lines. Dettelbach said that they don’t investigate groups, they investigate people—like, for instance, members of Occupy Cleveland.
This group was infiltrated by an undercover FBI agent. Where do you think the FBI agent met these guys, at the Piggy Wiggly? Maybe—just maybe—he ran into these fellows at the Occupy Cleveland protests. Just sayin.
They learned everything they know in life from Spongebob cartoons.
Except when the group is called "The Michigan Militia"....
The entire Occupy movement should taken down under RICO.
The same was done against the Klan and other national terrorist racketeering organizations.
But they are communistity organizers like the little bastard in the White House. He’s cool with it.
Even Bill Ayers threw some bombs in his day and says he could be spurred to do it again.
Another thing to consider, with this administration’s claims of “terrorism” and “racism” among the tea party protests...
If there WERE people who joined the tea party movement who could’ve been tempted by FBI agents into planting bombs, we would have heard it by now.
I do not doubt they infiltrated the group. Especially in the wake of what’s been learned from Fast and Furious.
There is a core difference between the tea party patriots and occupy communist/anarchist/socialists. One seeks to keep America in accordance with the founding principles of this nation, the other seeks to tear down the system and replace it with some sort of socialist system. Even political “anarchists” want universal healthcare (which means a tax system to pay for it) so there goes their claims of no centralized government.
That's what happens with all these plots. They're instigated by the FBI who then "rescues" us! Nice scam. They haven't caught a real terrorist in years.
They're instigated by the FBI who then "rescues" us! Nice scam.
Respectfully disagree. Five 0.99% Occutards actually believed they hooked up with the "right" people. Otherwise we could be reading a much different headline today; and wondering what's wrong with the FBI.
Fortunately many "good actors" at work in the Cleveland Office. JTTF Cleveland "connected" many Islaminazi terrorist plot "dots" in the Great Lakes region alone between 2001-2007. Thinking I lost count at about 125.
From my point of view, more kudos to the hard working Cleveland Office agents!
Cheers,
OLA
They don't? What about militias in the 90's, as just one example?[/Q]
that is obviuously a statement of political cover for a pet radical movement of the current administration,
the FBI statement would be much different if the perps were with the Tea Party movement
bump
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