Media. House May Limit Detention After Arrest on U.S. Soil. Lawmakers are considering amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act. One of them, sponsored by Representative Adam Smith of Washington, a Democrat, and Representative Justin Amash of Michigan, a Republican, would scale back a highly contested provision about indefinite detention created in last year’s version of the law, by saying it does not apply to domestic arrests. The provision created last year expressed Congressional approval for the idea that the executive branch was implicitly given the power to detain, without trial, suspected members of , its allies and their supporters when Congress in 2001 authorized the use of military force against the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks.
That provision was hotly contested because it made no exception for United States citizens or for people arrested on American soil. Lawmakers could not agree on whether that authority already existed or should exist. On Wednesday, Judge Katherine B. Judge Forrest, whom Mr. LogicalFallaciesInfographic_A1. Mary mad. David Graeber: New Police Strategy in New York – Sexual Assault Against Peaceful Protestors. By David Graeber, a Reader in Social Anthropology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and an author and activist currently based in New York A few weeks ago I was with a few companions from Occupy Wall Street in Union Square when an old friend — I’ll call her Eileen — passed through, her hand in a cast.
“What happened to you?” I asked. “Oh, this?” She held it up. “I was in Liberty Park on the 17th [the Six Month Anniversary of the Occupation]. When the cops were pushing us out the park, one of them yanked at my breast.” “Again?” We had all been hearing stories like this. “Yeah so I screamed at the guy, I said, ‘you grabbed my boob! Actually, she quickly clarified, only one wrist was literally broken. On March 17, several hundred members of Occupy Wall Street celebrated the six month anniversary of their first camp at Zuccotti Park by a peaceful reoccupation of the park—a reoccupation broken up within hours by police with 32 arrests.
Here is a video of the incident. Latest Batch of DHS Occupy Documents Contains New Details About Surveillance. (Photo: Alex Wellerstein / Flickr)The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released another batch of documents Thursday morning in response to Truthout's wide-ranging Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request pertaining to the agency's role in monitoring the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protest movement. The materials show that DHS and other federal law enforcement agencies under DHS's control received and disseminated numerous internal intelligence reports and threat bulletins about OWS's activities and monitoring of the group was widespread. The heavily redacted documents total 335 pages (28 pages were released in full). The letter DHS sent to this reporter detailing the exemptions the agency applied in justifying the redactions can be read here.
Truthout was the first news organization to file a FOIA request with DHS for OWS-related documents. The previous port shutdown, which Occupy Oakland organized on November 2, had support from the air. New Occupy Crackdown Documents Show Federal Involvement. Excerpt: "Two days before the NYPD's eviction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, Brookfield Properties' security was in direct communications and sharing information with the US Park Police in Washington DC, and communicating with other cities around the country, according to newly released internal documents from the National Park Service. " By Partnership for Civil Justice Fund 21 April 12 Click here to view the NPS Production (77 pages) wo days before the NYPD’s eviction of the Occupy Wall Street encampment from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, Brookfield Properties' security was in direct communications and sharing information with the US Park Police in Washington DC, and communicating with other cities around the country, according to newly released internal documents from the National Park Service.
These initially released documents show: Activists sue Obama, others over National Defense Authorization Act. President Barack Obama speaks during a fundraiser at the film studio of… (AP Photo/David Goldman ) A coalition of well-known journalists, activists and civil libertarians have sued President Obama, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and other members of the U.S. government to push them to remove or rewrite this year’s defense appropriations bill, saying it chills speech by threatening constitutionally protected activities such as news reporting, protest and political organizing in defense of controversial causes such as the Wikileaks case.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was launched by former New York Times foreign correspondent Chris Hedges, claim that the new provisions, which went into effect March 1, not only put them at risk of arrest but also allows indefinite detentions of U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, and that the provisions are too vague. Environmentalists have also registered their opposition.
Activists, however, say they are not buying it. ClassicWHO: US Government on Rights of Foreigners…Vs. Americans. Occupy Wall Street refleurit. C'est le printemps : en partenariat avec L'Atelier des médias de RFI, OWNI vous invite à retrouver, aux États-Unis, le mouvement Occupy Wall Street qui vient d'achever d'hiberner. Reportage plein de sève d'Arnaud Contreras qui a suivi les préparatifs des principales figures d'Occupy. Barricade et hashtag © Arnaud Contreras We sow seeds in the Fall… They blossom in the Spring in « The Declaration of The Occupation of New York » Un peu moins présent cet hiver sur la scène médiatique depuis son éviction de Zuccotti Park en novembre 2011, le mouvement Occupy Wall Street n’a cessé pendant l’hiver d’accroître sa présence en ligne, de s’organiser, de préparer des actions en espérant peser sur la campagne électorale américaine et permettre à la population de débattre de thèmes que certains disent « endormis » par les autorités.
Margot Wellington, 80 ans, me regarde avec la tendresse d’une grand-mère. Manifestation ©Arnaud Contreras Alexa O'Brien en février à New-York par Arnaud Contras © The Homeland Battlefield: ‘Hedges v. Obama’ Lawsuit Challenging NDAA Begins Today in NYC - The Sparrow Project. [NEW YORK, NY] The first rounds of statements from seven high-profile plaintiffs suing President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, House Speakers and DOD Representatives for injunctive relief barring the implementation of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)‘s “Homeland Battlefield” provisions of indefinite detention and suspension of Habeus Corpus will be heard in federal court today, March 29, 2012. The hearings will begin at 9am at the US District Court Building at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan (Room 15A) and will be immediately followed by a press conference outside the court at 2:30pm beside the center statue at nearby Foley Square (Junction of Center Street & Federal Plaza map link).
The plaintiffs in Hedges v. “I have had dinner more times than I can count with people whom this country brands as terrorists. “The Homeland Battlefield Law is as Orwellian as its name implies. The Occupy Files: DHS Investigated Anonymous and Kept Tabs on Political Hackers. (Photo: Ramtin Amiri) Protesters wearing a Guy Fawkes mask and maybe a black hat or cape have been a common sight at Occupy protests across the country. On the street, they were just another group of protesters, but on the Internet, the Anonymous hacker movement they represent was seen as a serious security threat during the first few months of Occupy, according to internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents and emails released to Truthout last week.
The Occupy Files reveal that DHS monitored Occupy Wall Street (OWS) and affiliated protests in the fall of 2011, but refrained from wholesale surveillance of the Occupy movement because of civil liberties concerns. The federal agency's cyber wing did, however, investigate Anonymous, a highly visible faction of the Occupy movement, after several successful hacks made headlines. Read More: Homeland Security: The Occupy Files Unlike prolonged public camping and sign holding, hacking is almost always illegal. Scores Arrested as the Police Clear Zuccotti Park. OCongress: [Photo] Cecily McMillan la...