This article IS very distorted. Amy Goodman and other reporters were abused and had their credentials forcibly removed when they were displayed; they were held and charged in order to keep them silent. What is sad, shraidha, is that the rights that patriots have died for are being stripped away from the nation that they fought to protect; the liberties they believed were essential to democracy are shunted aside as relics from an age long past and people like you applaud the fact while completely ignorant of the fact that those same rights and liberties have been stripped from you as well. We MUST have a free press, and free speech, and freedom of religion or we simply do not live in a free society in which government can or will be held accountable to the people they are supposed to represent; if we are no longer free then we live in a tyrannical, fascist society and, like the framers masquerading as Indians, are justified in our protests and in hiding our identity. Either everyone is free or no one is.
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Having a Riot in St. Paul
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In addition, the group organized an "action camp" in Geneva, Minn., this summer where its members erected a stage labeled the "Xcel Center" and then practiced throwing mock Molotov cocktails at it, according to the complaint. "A simulated delegate vehicle was targeted by throwing rocks, slashing tires, and attempting to overturn the vehicle," the complaint states. Discussions at the "action camp" included plans to block bridges, slash tires and using "large puppets to conceal and transport materials such as Molotov cocktails" as well as bricks and caltrops—described as "a device with nails or other sharp objects protruding from it used to disable vehicles."
Local law enforcement kept members of the group under watch as they arrived in St. Paul and rented apartments. Last weekend, on the eve of the convention, local sheriff's deputies raided the residences and arrested some of the RNCWC members. Still, the first night of the convention was unusually tense, as hundreds of protestors flooded the streets around the Xcel Center. Some of the protestors wore black masks and hurled rocks at police cars, officials say. "It was scary," said Susan Gaertner, the Ramsey County Attorney who is prosecuting the accused RNCWC members. (During the police response, three journalists—Amy Goodman, the host of the popular liberal talk-radio show "Democracy Now," and two of her producers—were arrested covering the event. Goodman, who was later released, said she was handcuffed and locked up by police despite repeatedly trying to display her press tags and shouting, "I'm a reporter.")
On its Web site after the arrests, the RNCWC denounced the law-enforcement officials for "entrapment" of its members. One member—listed as its press contact who would identify himself only as "Andy"—said the group was merely trying to provide "logistical support" for those who wanted to come to St. Paul to oppose "Bush-McCain policies." Asked about the charges that members were plotting violence, he responded: "They're just saying this as a reason to crack down on dissent."
Terror Watch appears weekly on Newsweek.com
© 2008
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