CIA Police and the Power of Arrest

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/26939

CIA Police and the Power of Arrest
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2007-09-18 17:53. Media

By Malachy Kilbride

snip//

For many months I have been watching to see what happens to a piece of legislation that has been held on the Senate legislative calendar. The legislation can be found here: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:S.3237:

One of the things that concerns me is that it expands the power of arrest of this CIA police force. In light of the fact of what happened to Jose Padilla, the wire-tapping, the arrest and detention of people alleged to be involved in some kind of terrorist conspiracy, and the victims of the larger "war on terror" and its implications on our civil liberties I find this legislation deeply troubling. Who will monitor this police force? Do we want people like Negroponte to have the power to arrest people off the streets of our communities?

On Monday September 10 a Code Pink activist was walking on the sidewalk outside of the Cannon House Office Building. She was not demonstrating or breaking the law. A US Capitol Police officer approached her and wanted to know why she was there because she had a stay-away order. The activist told the police officer that she didn't have a stay-away order. The activist was arrested and held in jail overnight until she was released after appearing before a judge the next day. There was no stay-away order.

Those of us in the peace/antiwar movement know that the heat is being turned up. These types of incidents are not the exception. Police surveilance and intimidation is increasing. Since the Democrats won control of both houses of congress the US Capitol Police appear to be taking orders from the political top to exercise a more forceful attitude towards those who dissent in or near the US Capitol.

In any event, the legislation now sitting on the legislative calendar that will expand the police powers of the CIA and NSA must be stopped.

We are all suspect.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB230/index.htm

snip

The ability to acquire and analyze suspicious activity reports for indications of possible terrorist pre-attack activities is an absolutely critical component of the intelligence support to force protection mission. Terrorists have the advantage of choosing the time and venue for their attacks, but normally have to conduct extensive pre-attack preparations to maximize their chances of success. The pre-attack phase of a terrorist operation, however, is the period of greatest vulnerability to the terrorist group, since it must surface to collect intelligence and conduct physical surveillance and other activities of the target... Therefore, an effective system for detecting terrorist pre-attack activities is a high priority task for the intelligence community, law enforcement, security elements, and local community authorities.

snip

A very different type of TALON report from August 2004 concerned the arrest, in Atlanta, Georgia, of a Navy enlisted man for driving under the influence; a subsequent search of his vehicle revealed "a picture of Usama bin Laden displayed as a screensaver on cellular telephone. But it was a third type of TALON report, concerning the anti-war movement, that would prove to be controversial. One of these was a report submitted by the 902nd Military Intelligence Group, the Army Intelligence and Security Command's domestic counterintelligence unit. The report, which was listed in the database as pertaining to a "threat," concerned a small gathering of activists at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Florida, to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. (Note 16)

Another example of an event that attracted the attention of the 902nd was a March 2005 peace march through the streets of Akron, Ohio, that involved about 200 people and included stops outside a Marine Corps recruiting center and FBI office to listen to speeches against the Iraq war. Based on a tip from the Pentagon the marchers were followed by police cars. In addition, analysts with 902nd downloaded information from activist web sites, intercepted e-mails, and cross-referenced the data they acquired with information in police databases. In that or other instances photographs and records of protesters and their vehicles have been reviewed to determine if different activities were being organized by the same individuals. The analyst's conclusion was that "Even though these demonstrations are advertised as 'peaceful,' they are assessed to present apotential force protection threat." (Note 17)

There were approximately four dozen reports concerning anti-war meetings or protests, including reports that remained in the database long after it was concluded that the targets were unrelated to any threat. Among the meetings that attracted the attention of military counterintelligence authorities were a large anti-war protest in Los Angeles in March 2005, a planned protest against military recruiters in Boston in December 2004, a planned demonstration outside the gates of the Fort Collins, Colorado, military base, and a planned protest at McDonald's National Salute to America's Heroes - a military air and sea show in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. It was concluded that the Ft. Lauderdale protest was not a credible threat and a column in the database noted that it was a "US group exercising constitutional rights." (Note 18)