“Gitmo on the Platte”

“Gitmo on
the Platte”  Secret Service, CIA,
Military Plans to Suppress Protest at the DNC in Denver

by Debra Sweet 

With the
Olympics has come plenty of criticism of China from the “west” over the
Chinese government’s crackdown on protest. 
Parks far from the Olympics are designated for protest, which are rare,
and protesters have been dragged off towers while displaying protest banners,
and swiftly deported.

Nicholas
Bequelin of Human Rights Watch said the Chinese government was using “protest
pens meant to segregate demonstrations”a system that has been set in place to
deflect criticism about the lack of freedom to protest, the lack of freedom of
assembly and demonstration in China.” 

Time magazine
reported that “George W. Bush, on his way to watch the Games as a
self-professed sports fan, got into the act by expressing “deep concern” about China’s
human-rights record. “America
stands in firm opposition to China’s
detention of political dissidents and human-rights advocates and religious
activists,” Bush said in a speech in Bangkok a
day before leaving for China.
“We speak out for a free press, freedom of assembly, and labor rights not to
antagonize China’s leaders,
but because trusting its people with greater freedom is the only way for China to
develop its full potential.”” 

But
anyone who studies American history knows that freedom of assembly is always
conditional on who is assembling, and why. Forty years ago, when students and
youth poured into Chicago aiming to stop Democratic Party support for the
Vietnam war , as the Mayor of Chicago sent the police into the streets to gas
and beat the protesters bloody.  Bedlam
broke out inside the convention over the war in southeast Asia, and the war
outside on the streets, as the youth chanted “The whole world is watching!”

Denver,
CO (USA): Since early 2007, even before the city was announced as the location
for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, activists have been planning to
hold what Mark Cohen, of the Denver coalition Recreate68 calls the “biggest anti-war demonstration in Denver since Vietnam” in
response to the convention.  This plan
has taken on even more urgency and righteousness as the Democratic Party now
owns this war, having voted funds for
it six times since taking over Congress in 2006.

For more than a year, the
city of Denver
stalled and blocked the granting of permits for marches, citing “national
security” as the reason they couldn’t disclose “confidential” information on
permits, which they
wouldn’t accept applications for. The Secret Service designated both the DNC
(August 25-28), and the Republican National Convention (Sept 1-4 in St. Paul MN)
as National Special Security Events.  $50
million in federal funds for “security” went to each city.

The New York Times
reports that “Federal and local authorities are girding for huge protests,
mammoth traffic tie-ups and civil disturbances.” In an intensifying atmosphere less
than two weeks before the convention, a “designated protest zone” is being built
in the parking lot at the Pepsi
Center, where the
convention will be held.  The 47,000
square foot pen of cha

in link fence will be double-fenced, with 8″ between
fences to prevent “escape.”  The closest
edge of the zone is more than 700 feet from the convention center doors, almost
completely blocked by huge media tents, and barely visible from the convention
center.  Reportedly, the cages will be
ringed by concrete barriers and rows of police, with concrete barriers inside so
that the crowd can’t surge together.  See photos here 

Recreate68 and a dozen
other groups filed a lawsuit this spring to force the city to grant protest
permits.  The ACLU brought the suit against the city of Denver and the Secret Service.  Cohen
says, “The city said  they couldn’t disclose
information because the Secret Service wouldn’t tell the city their plans. But
once we filed suit, suddenly the started releasing information. Then the second
phase of the suit was to challenge the constitutionality of the security
arrangements, which the judge of course upheld.”

March permits were
granted in June for each day of the convention, but only during the hours of
11am to 3pm, so that permits expire before the convention starts each day.  Permit routes end more than a third of a mile
from the convention center, and from the Invesco Mile High Stadium, where
Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech on Thursday, August 28. Another
“freedom cage” will be erected there. Rally permits were granted for Civic Center
Park, about a mile from the
convention, but ultimately denied for City Park,
and larger venue further away.

During the
trial on the lawsuit July 29, The Denver Post reported, “Mark Cohen testified
that the security conditions around the DNC will make demonstrators look like
animals in a cage and that the delegates won’t hear them. He also said that the
public demonstration zone is blocked by a media tent and other structures that
limit “sight and sound” access to the delegates. “It is not the image of fellow
citizens but rather prisoners in a cage with no clear connection to the purpose
of their being there,” Cohen said.”

“Before the
trial started, members of Recreate 68 staged a quiet protest outside the U.S.
District Courthouse against the Secret Service and the city while wearing
orange jail jumpsuits with the words “Dissent is not a crime yet.” They also
placed silver duct tape over their mouths.” 

Under the
rubric of the “war on terror,” the government argued that there should be no
restrictions on their determination of what constitutes “national security”
risks, nor on their ability to restrict the movement of people, or the methods
or timing of protest.  The federal
district court judge sided with the government, ruling that the restrictions on
protest are justified by “national security” concerns.  “We are going to file our appeal in the street,” Glen
Spagnuolo of Recreate68 said after federal Judge Marcia Krieger announced her
decision.

The ACLU also brought
suit against the government to determine what types of security equipment have
been purchased.  ACLU of Colorado Legal
Director Mark Silverstein told The Denver Post the
ACLU had “learned that a manufacturer of pepper-ball guns had earned a contract
with the city because the information was posted on the manufacturer’s website,
but the city has refused to say whether the purchase was made.”  Ultimately the ACLU postponed the lawsuit, in
exchange for an agreement that the city would disclose purchases.  But all the ACLU received was a non-specific
list, including more than $500,000 in equipment for the purpose of mass
arrests.

Preparations for mass
detentions, and crowd-control weapons, including use of portable plastic fences
used in NYC in 2004 at the Republican National Convention, and “exercises” of
BlackHawk helicopters flying over the city in June give an indication of just
how much the local and federal authorities are concerned that mass protest may
break out in Denver.

On August 13, CBS4 News
broadcast footage of a previously undisclosed detention facility the city is
preparing in a warehouse in northeast Denver.  They report, “Inside are dozens are metal
cages. They are made out of chain link fence material and topped by rolls of
barbed wire”Each of the fenced areas is about 5 yards by 5 yards and there is a
lock on the door. A sign on the wall reads “Warning! Electric stun devices used
in this facility.”” 

CBS4 news also reported
that activists immediately called the facility “Gitmo on the Platte” referring
to the local Platte
River.  The facility is “reminiscent of a political
prisoner camp or a concentration camp,” said Zoe Williams of Code Pink,
who was shown the footage.  And the blogs
filled up. “”They hate our freedoms.” Gee, George W. was right after all!
Whoops, wrong country.”  “If an
organization were to plan to hold hundreds of dogs in those cages, the Humane
Society would have to get involved.”

The Denver Post reports August 14 that the city is saying “the center
will have air conditioning, water, restrooms and medical staff, as well as
telephones for detainees to reach family and attorneys.” But Mark
Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado said, “Colorado law requires
that confidential attorney visits be accommodated at the temporary detention
facility as well.” 

According
to the New York Times, “The Secret Service, the Pentagon, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and scores of police departments are moving thousands of agents,
analysts, officers and employees to Denver
for the Aug. 25-28 convention. They will operate through a complex hierarchy of
command centers, steering committees and protocols to respond to
disruptions”The Denver Police Department will nearly double in size, according
to federal officials involved in the planning. The city is bringing in nearly
1,500 police officers from communities throughout Colorado
and beyond, even inviting an eight-person mounted unit from Cheyenne, WY.” 

In 2002, the ACLU sued the city when it was revealed that
the Denver Police Department had been keeping what came to be called “spy
files,” criminal intelligence files that labeled as “criminal
extremists” people and organizations who had committed no crime, but only
engaged in First Amendment-protected free speech activities. In These Times reported
in 2003, “Ignoring a city prohibition against the collection of First
Amendment-related intelligence, the Denver Police developed files on 208
organizations and 3,200 individuals. The department appears to have continued
its surveillance until the fall of 2002, despite the ACLU lawsuit. Monitored
groups included the American Friends Service Committee (a pacifist Quaker
group), Amnesty International and many others with no history of criminal
activity. Documents obtained by the ACLU describe how police intercepted
e-mails, recorded the license plate numbers of vehicles at demonstrations, and
infiltrated advocacy group meetings.” That suit resulted in a new policy
for the city’s intelligence bureau establishing that files could be kept only
when there was probably cause to believe criminal activity was taking place,
but it did not affect federal agencies. 

Democracy
Now reported August 1 that intelligence is being gathered by a new “fusion
center,” one of 40 in the U.S. “Federal and state law enforcement officials in
Colorado plan to increase intelligence operations during the Democratic
National Convention in Denver and run a fusion center, where intelligence
analysts will collect and analyze reports of suspicious activity. Civil rights
advocates fear the fusion center could enable unwarranted spying on protesters
exercising their First Amendment rights at the convention.”  

Mike
German, a counter-terrorist operations specialist and former FBI agent who is
now national security counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union’s
legislative office in Washington., D.C told Democracy Now, “These centers have
very robust police powers and domestic intelligence-collecting powers, and what
we’ve seen in the past is that when police agencies are given secret powers to spy,
they abuse those powers. And where there is very unclear line of
accountability, the chances of something bad happening under that system were
very high.” German said he was very concerned that the military and the Central
Intelligence Agency are integrated into the collection of intelligence on
civilians. 

There are
specific orders for the fusion centers on what intelligence can be gathered and
kept, including on normal activities that are not considered crimes.  Erin Rosa, of the Colorado Independent said
that fusion centers are “meant to facilitate communications between federal,
state and local law enforcement agencies to share information about,
quote-unquote, “suspicious activities,” which can include taking pictures or
taking notes. The definition is very broad when it’s defined by them.”  German told Democracy Now, “One of the
precursor behaviors to terrorism that’s identified in the order is taking
video. And we put in our report a couple of instances where people taking video
were stopped by police officers simply for taking pictures or video. And in
some cases, particularly where they”re taking photographs or video of police,
it actually resulted in arrests.”

 What’s
Wrong with Fusion Centers? 

Anticipation
is growing as thousands – the government predicts tens of thousands – are planning
to be on the streets of Denver, protesting the Iraq war, a US
war on Iran,
government spying on the people, and the expected wave of repression.  Many will be there with the hope that the
Democrats and Obama will meet their demand for change.  Many others will be acting on the
understanding that no matter who the president is, only you, not your
government can bring this to a halt. 

Is there
another way than accepting the change you”re allowed to believe in, and fitting
your protest into a cage?  People in Denver  Just read the blogs in response to the “freedom
cages”.  “This isn’t Tiananmen
Square, it’s a political convention.”  “The Dems are becoming what they loathed.
 Free speech suppressing hacks.  I wonder if one is going to have to
sign a “loyalty oath” at Invesco the day of the event?”  “Watch them almost break all of the
rules, and get down and dirty!  Order now and get your free
AT&T/telecom immunity tote bag!” are opening up
their homes to protesters, making their restaurants and stores and churches available
for gatherings, and many are not liking the police-state atmosphere. 

The
political battle in Denver
is going to be two-sided.  Last month the
Mayor’s State of the City speech got completely upstaged when Rene Marie, a
jazz singer scheduled to sing the national anthem switched up, and instead, substituted
“Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” the Black National Anthem.