Posted on 07/12/2004 3:59:33 AM PDT by kattracks
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 mayhemHere'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."
Originally published on July 11, 2004
Consider this the American political equivalent of knowing how many soccer hoodlums for the travelling team are showing up for a match.
Let them come to my shooting range. Me and the boys would be glad to saturate them with gunpowder.
I remember that too.A cowworker said he was going to Seattle for the protests and I said "well,have fun getting your a** kicked".Living in this town has made me the firebreather I am today.Same town turned most of my schoolmates into libs.Co-worker came back looking like he'd fallen down 5 flights of stairs.He was showing off his bruises to another little neohippie when I chimed in "hey look, the cops missed a spot".Needless to say we did'nt get along too well.When I was about 10 I moved here from Alameda County.I really liked it here.Now I'm saving up to move my fiance and I the heck out .
I'll save some scraps,send em your way.
Heh. I wonder how many of these twits also claim to the animal rights enthusiasts. I guess hurting animals is OK, if it's for a good cause.
I think tranquilizer guns should be permissible. If a cop sees someone with his face covered, tranq em! If they got their face covered, they're up to no good, anyway, so head off the problem before it gets started!
You know, these people have to have money to be able to get around, have a place to live, eat, etc. I wonder who is paying all these people so that they have the ability to travel around the world generating mayhem?
Follow the money.
I know what you mean. I'm fortunate in that I got property here decades ago, when it was still affordable, and I live at the end of a private road in the mountains. That setting is perfect for my hermit-ness. Can't stand the people around here, but I love my property. Solution: locked gates.
Given this info, I'm assuming that all these sites in the Metro-NY area ought to be placed on alert for people who don't normally come there to start showing up often, then check those folks out and keep them under surveillance. If they're caught later on the train, it will be easy to eliminate them as a serious threat, and the trains can go on as usual.
The cool thing is that the cops won't even need to law a hand on them. Just throw them into a holding cell with the right perv., and these punks will find their brand of anarchy ain't squat compared to some of the scum the NYPD deals with on any normal day.
Fixated adolescents with adjustment issues and oppositional-defiant disorder. Convention antics provide a great excuse for the Beavis and Butthead types. Surprised there is no mention of stink bomb formulas.
With these guys, it not an act.
Got a granny-unit for rent(just kidding)?Yeah, my grandparents bought a house on Cindy Ln. nr Soquel High in the 70's for a heck of a lot less than it sold for.People I know who lived here before UCSC said that was what really ruined S.C.Good old Berkeley-by-the-Sea.I've only got about a year to go,then I'm outta here.
I moved here just about the same time that UCSC opened, and yes indeed, bringing in that school destroyed "old" Santa Cruz. Thanks, Tom Hayden.
She and her protestor friends have access to finacing to permit them to travel the globe causing trouble. It's not like protestors produce enough goods and services to provide for their own welfare - that's what they have the government for. Even then, that's not enough to travel internationally.
If they had to be totally finacially self-sufficient without outside assistance, they only could pull this $@!T in their own back yards for lack of mobility & money.
To echo SuziQ - follow the money.
Not that it really matters, but these groups are really domestic terrorist with a Marxist/Communist ideology that makes them favor Demorats.
Lets hope that NYPD keeps it under control and doesn't have to kill any of them. Not that I care about killing the Commies, but the NYPD will be in a world of sh!t if they have to use lethal force on any of this scum.
I have labeled the enviral terrorists as Enviral Jihadists or Watermelon Jihadists.
They are very useful to the real Islamofascists who probably fund the Enviral Jihadists.
Of of them work 24/7 with a hate America core and do anything to weaken America actions.
Grrrrr...made me see that pic of Hanoi Jane on the Anti Aircraft gun in Vietnam in my head....Ted Turner mentions do the same...ahhhhh,calm now.
That was the 1st thing I thought of. These Fn brownshirts!
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