New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Fury at anarchist convention threat
By PATRICE O'SHAUGHNESSY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, July 11th, 2004
Fringe elements are hoping to spark major disruptions at the Republican National Convention with a series of sneaky tricks - including fooling bomb-sniffing dogs on trains bound for Penn Station, the Daily News has learned.
Internet-using anarchists are telling would-be troublemakers to decoy specially trained Labrador retrievers with gunpowder or ammonium nitrate-laced tablets in a bid to halt trains or even spur the evacuation of Madison Square Garden.
Top cops are girding against the attempt to foil strong anti-terrorist strategies aimed at protecting conventiongoers - including President Bush - as well as peaceful protesters during the Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 GOP fete.
"Where is the legitimate protest in trying to endanger the public?" an angry Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told The News.
"It is the height of irresponsibility," he added. "These hard-core groups are looking to take us on. ... They have increased their level of sophistication and violence."
So in addition to guarding against the most vile, organized and destructive of terrorists, Kelly and company have to combat a shadowy, loose-knit band of traveling troublemakers who spread their guides to disruption over the Internet.
The dog decoy ploy is the among most insidious in the fringe groups' bag of tricks - which includes throwing marbles under the hooves of police horses and using slingshots to pelt the animals.
"They're trying to use up our resources with false alarms. ... The sensitive dogs would become burned out with too many alerts," said a police source.
Preliminary plans call for state and city cops with the dogs and hand-held chemical detection devices to board commuter and subway trains one stop before they reach Penn Station, under the Garden.
The trains will be swept for suspicious packages and terror suspects before being allowed to continue into the station - the country's busiest, with about 600,000 passengers on a regular workday.
"We're going to make certain there is absolutely no disruption of the train," Kelly said in announcing the procedures on April 28.
Two days later, an Internet posting detailed how to stoke disorder by miscuing the bomb dogs.
The posting instructed people to "go to a rifle, pistol or skeet shooting range, spend an hour shooting to saturate clothing with smell of gunpowder, go directly to a New Jersey Transit, LIRR or subway train headed for Penn Station.
"Try to have at least two people on a train in different locations, sit or stand near the doors as the train approaches the station, try to get near police and dogs, loiter as long as possible around the dog, try to pet it if possible.
"If the dog alerts on your scent, do not leave or resist; the situation will cause a major disruption of the train schedule. ... If there is more than one person on the train that causes a dog to alert, you can bet that the train will not be going anywhere for a long time ... neither will any trains behind it."
The message instructs to "Play dumb for as long as possible" before telling the police you unwittingly got the gunpowder on your clothes at a shooting range. "It is important that the police call in all possible resources to investigate the situation. ... With any luck, Madison Square Garden will be evacuated."
"Rush hours are ideal, the final night of the convention, very good, too," the posting said.
After being alerted to the gunpowder posting, investigators uncovered Internet mentions of dispersing traces of ammonium nitrate on the trains.
Ammonium nitrate is one of the most common farm fertilizers in the world. The dogs are trained to detect the fertilizer because it has been used in major bombings, from the 1993 World Trade Center attack to Oklahoma City to Bali, Indonesia.
The NYPD also is preparing for possible "Black Bloc" tactics by small groups of anarchists, in which demonstrators wear black clothing and bandannas over their faces - and wield pipes, bottles and commit acts of vandalism against corporate "enemies" such as the Gap, Starbucks and McDonald's.
Cops have been trained to isolate violent individuals among peaceful protesters, and will employ an 1845 law that prohibits people from wearing masks in street gatherings, except for masquerades.
The NYPD has sent cops to Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Miami, sites of previous political conventions, and to Boston, which will host the Democratic convention this month, to collect intelligence.
"There is the same hard-core element that we have seen move from city to city where violence has marred protests," another police source said.
Trail of global mayhem
Here's a look at major events in recent years that were disrupted:
SEATTLE, December 1999: Tens of thousands of protesters storm into the usually laid-back city to protest global economic policies at meeting of the World Trade Organization. The ragtag group of anarchists, students and labor organizers takes cops by surprise, fights pitched battles with riot police and derails the opening ceremony.
QUEBEC CITY, April 2001: Riot police fire water cannons and rubber bullets to keep 25,000 demonstrators at bay during the Summit of the Americas aimed at creating the world's largest free trade area. The leaders of 34 nations meet behind a 2.3-mile fence as protesters besiege summit site, but fail to derail meeting.
GENOA, ITALY, July 2001: A protester is shot dead as more than 100,000 rock-throwing demonstrators battle cops at the G8 summit of wealthy nations. Heavily armed cops even mount predawn raids on the media center and protest organizers, arresting dozen of leaders.
MIAMI, November 2003: Cops use tear gas and overwhelming force to break up throngs of hundreds of labor activists gathered at a free-trade summit. The police keep a lid on protests with mass arrests, but critics say they fueled anger by overreacting.
The cost of security
The security tab for the Police Department is about $76 million, most of which will be reimbursed.
Nearly $50 million will go toward overtime for the 10,000 officers around Madison Square Garden, and the cops who fill in for them.
Almost $12 million is being spent on training in counterterrorism, as well as in First Amendment rights of protesters and media.
Some $17.5 million is being spent on equipment, such as the construction of Delta barriers - metal lift plates - around the Garden area to stop trucks for inspections.
The words on Web that incite hatred
Here are excerpts from an Internet posting advising how to trick bomb-sniffing dogs:
"Go to a rifle, pistol or skeet shooting range, spend an hour shooting to saturate clothing with smell of gunpowder, go directly to a New Jersey Transit, LIRR or subway train headed for Penn Station.
"Try to have at least two people on a train in different locations, sit or stand near the doors as the train approaches the station, try to get near police and dogs, loiter as long as possible around the dog, try to pet it if possible.
"If the dog alerts on your scent, do not leave or resist; the situation will cause a major disruption of the train schedule. ... If there is more than one person on the train that causes a dog to alert, you can bet that the train will not be going anywhere for a long time ... neither will any trains behind it.
"It is important that the police call in all possible resources to investigate the situation. ... This will result in the maximum disruption. ... With any luck, Madison Square Garden will be evacuated.
"Rush hours are ideal, the final night of the convention, very good, too."
Russkies once again:
2004-07-12 GEORGIA AND SOUTH OSSETIA ON THE BRINK OF WAR
MOSCOW, June 12 (RIA Novosti commentator Arseny Paliyevsky).
Georgia and South Ossetia, a self-proclaimed republic, are on the brink of war.
The situation in the region suddenly aggravated after blood was first shed. Fortunately, none was killed, but some were wounded.
In this situation, Moscow is trying to formulate articulately its position on the issue: any serious incident in South Ossetia can cause a tragedy. According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, "the Russian leadership is seriously concerned over the continuing tensions in South Ossetia. Shots have been heard here for a few days now. Any serious incident can lead to an uncontrollable flare-up of violence."
Such developments do not meet the interests of Russia, a Caucasus power and a country neighbouring Georgia, especially considering that the majority of South Ossetians are Russian citizens.
Today Russian diplomats are doing their best to return the process back into the legal field, using the mechanism of the joint control commission and the inter-ethnic peacekeeping forces.
Each peacekeeping party has the right to have one battalion - 500 people each. However, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, "facts testify that, in blatant violation of its obligations in the valid agreements, the Georgian side illegally brought hundreds and even thousands of armed people who do not have the status of peacekeepers or any documents, to the conflict zone.
Arithmetically, the number of Georgia's armed people deployed in the conflict zone is higher than envisaged by earlier agreements and limitations supported by Tbilisi."
The Russian foreign minister also recalled, "provisions of the December 6, 1994 agreement entrust the commander of peacekeeping forces with fairly serious authority, including forced measures," but the commander has not applied this authority yet because "all our efforts," the minister said, "are aimed at peaceful settlement of this crisis."
However, the Georgian side has recently demonstrated its willingness to influence the situation mostly by force, which has already escalated the conflict into an armed confrontation.
Mikhail Saakashvili's threats that the conflict can evolve into an interstate confrontation because "some forces" in Moscow are allegedly interested in developing it into an armed conflict arouse Moscow's concern but no fear.
These statements are rather meant for internal consumption to consolidate the nation in the face of an imaginary enemy from the North.
But then, is it worth spoiling relations with Moscow?
Such militant sentiments certainly do not correspond to Mikhail Saakashvili's goal - to re-unite Georgia. All Russian peacekeepers are legally stationed in the conflict zone, and the other side - the South Ossetian leadership - sees Russia as "a guarantor of calm in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict zone."
The Russian ambassador at large, Lev Mironov, who has urgently arrived in South Ossetia, has stated, "the way to preventing escalation lies through implementing all the agreements achieved earlier."
In the current circumstances, it means above all withdrawal of all the armed formations having no mandate of the interethnic peacekeepers, from the zone of the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict, and also returning the sides to the negotiating table within the joint control commission.
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