Posted on 08/18/2004 3:09:02 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The FBI (news - web sites) anticipates violent protests at the upcoming Republican National Convention in New York but does not have enough evidence to move against any group or person, the bureau's top terrorism official said Wednesday.
New York officials have said they expect hundreds of thousands of people to stage demonstrations around the convention, which begins Aug. 30.
Concern over the convention comes amid heightened security across New York over fears that foreign terrorists might strike the city again. New York remains on a "high" terrorism alert level, while most of the country is on elevated alert.
Federal investigators have infiltrated some organizations and are monitoring plans for protests being published on the Internet. The FBI also interviewed some protesters around the country before last month's Democratic convention in Boston and in anticipation of the GOP convention.
"We don't have any specific plot where we have all the variables we need to go out and take pre-emptive and judicial action," said Gary Bald, assistant director of the FBI's counterterrorism division.
The FBI has noted that some activist Web sites critical of Republicans and the convention include links to a site that lists Molotov cocktails, slingshots and bolt cutters as appropriate "offensive weapons" to carry during protests.
Three Democratic lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) have criticized the FBI's interviews of protesters around the country. They asked the Justice Department (news - web sites)'s inspector general to investigate what they called "possible violations of First Amendment free speech and assembly rights."
The committee's ranking Democrat, Michigan's John Conyers, along with Reps. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott of Virginia and Jerrold Nadler of New York, said in a letter that the FBI "appears to be engaged in systematic political harassment and intimidation of legitimate anti-war protesters."
Bald, speaking with about 20 reporters at the bureau's headquarters, said FBI agents have interviewed only protesters they believed were plotting to firebomb media vehicles at the conventions or might have known about such plots. All these investigations are being treated as terrorism cases, Bald said.
"I've got more than enough to keep my people busy than to worry about if a protester is pro or con on some issue," Bald said. He called it "critically important that citizens have the ability to exercise their First Amendment rights."
Bald added, "We don't monitor rallies; we don't monitor people at rallies." But the FBI will open an investigation if it learns from tips, informants or other methods that protesters are planning to commit violent acts, Bald said.
The warning of a possible attack against media trucks, disclosed days before the Democratic convention, was based on claims by an informant who described an alleged plot by self-described anarchists in the Midwest to throw Molotov cocktails at television vans, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said.
Mark Silverstein, the Colorado legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites), said he was "very skeptical of the FBI's claim." The ACLU, which was contacted by some of the protesters who were interviewed by the FBI, said agents never asked directly about such an alleged plot.
Meanwhile, in New York, an anti-war group planning a massive demonstration the day before the GOP convention asked a judge Wednesday to overrule city officials and let protesters gather in Central Park. Lawyers for United for Peace and Justice argued that the city's denial violates the state constitution.
City officials had said the expected crowd at the Aug. 29 rally, which could exceed 250,000 people, would damage the grass.
"FR might get hit."
Count on it.
Indeed. Not that I care if they drag their own party down, but I'd hate to see people get hurt in the process.
Yep.
Ahh....note to self. Bring tape for my hands in case I have to defend myself. (Note to FBI lurkers - I won't start trouble....my former FBI congressman would kick my ass if I did.)
you should have told him that you never, ever would have supported Gene McCarthy!....lol
I, too have always been a Democrat. In the aftermath of 9/11 I am one no longer, hence my chosen nick.
Me too. Add their intentions of disrupting the city to the terror threats, targets that have been cased and the fact that the pan Arabists have come out in favor of John Kerry today. The al Qaeda types will just blend in with the REST of the Kerry supporters.
No doubt the professional protesters last seen in Seattle will be present again. The FBI surely knows that this little group of organized anarchists [sic] is going to be trying to do as much damage as it can, again.
We allow the leftists to push security around our President. But the protestors at the RAT convention were firmly quashed to a distant compound. There is some PC logic for you.
But the Republicans won in '68.
***Sad to say the lawn areas in CP have become a symbol of the "image is everything" governance of NYC (speficically Manhattan) that started under Rudy.***
So what are you saying? That they should allow 250,000 protesters to occupy Central Park?
________________________________________________
No, I am giving a recent history of the city's view toward CP for the 97% of freepers who do not know it. You may of course twist it any way that suits you.
Is that the x26 taser?
Be assured that Nadler, with a girth that makes M. Moore look like an Olympic swimmer, just by virtue of his size would be on the front line, especially the front of the line at hot dog stands.
A reasonable society would arrest any high-level moles who provide tangible or intangible support, cover or assistance that facilitates such violence. In this case, Conyers, Scott and Nadler. We're at war, @&%*$%!
This is 2004 NYC under Bloomie. The terrorists will be fine as long as they don't light a cigarette.
People like George Soros who fund these protesters, are the "internationalists" who don't want to see America led by a courageous and determined man like GW...they would rather go with the status quo and appease terrorists with other people's money. They scream about a wealthy man from Texas helping the Fast Boat Vets get their book published but take money from a hate monger like George Soros and want a playboy who will do nothing, to lead the country. Hanoi, the al Qeada, the Arabs and the United Nations love John Kerry – the non-American, he will leave them alone and the United States to rot in Socialism. Lock ‘em up and throw away the key!
I've been reading the DU and other lib board posts too. There are plenty of them that are just so burning with hatred they are going out with a bang. They've sat around boiling mad since the 2000 election and they perceive the RNC as their one chance to act out against the "selected pResident" and the "corporate war machine". You bet they'll be out and they are planning to get mean and get arrested. They post things like "take pictures of the pigs beating people then drop the film, addressed to yourself in the mailbox, so when you get arrested and they confiscate your camera, it'll be there waiting for you." Lovely bunch.
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