Political Dissidents in USA

[Ivo Skoric]

During 20th century we saw stories like these mostly coming from 
behind the 'iron curtain' - are we going to see them coming out of 
the U.S. in the 21st? Are Americans going to seek political asylum in 
Europe now?
ivo

Journalist Detained:

>>
Washington, DC --  John Buchanan, the Miami Beach investigative 
journalist who ran as the 'truth candidate' against President George 
W. Bush in the January 27 New Hampshire Republican primary, has 
issued a formal demand for a Congressional inquiry into his February 
4, 2004 detention by the U.S. Secret Service at Baltimore-Washington 
International Airport.

The incident is now being investigated by Republican staff members of 
the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, with whom Buchanan met 
February 5.

Series of "False Police Reports"

Buchanan, 53, charges in a detailed written presentation to the 
Judiciary Committee that his two hours of questioning at the airport, 
as he was en route to speak at The National Press Club last Wednesday 
evening, were the culmination of a still-unexplained series of false 
police reports filed against Buchanan between October 19, 2003 and 
last week as part of what Buchanan claims is an ongoing program of 
harassment and political dirty tricks.

Buchanan s deputy campaign manager, Mimi Adams of Albuquerque, NM, 
agrees that the long-shot candidate is under attack.  His campaign 
has been sabotaged in every way imaginable, including an 
inappropriately aggressive interrogation by the Secret Service and a 
veiled threat to go back to Miami and keep his mouth shut, says 
Adams, who worked on both Texas gubernatorial campaigns of Ann 
Richards.

"The Bush administration is in for a shock, because John Buchanan won 
t quit until justice is done," said Adams.  "He feels, and I agree, 
that everything this country has ever stood for is at stake right 
now."

Buchanan Broke Bush/Nazi Story into Mass Media

Last September, Buchanan became the first journalist in U.S. history 
to see newly declassified government documents, at the U.S. National 
Archives and Library of Congress, that prove the 27-year history of 
collaboration with the WW II German Nazis by Prescott Bush, the 
grandfather of George W. Bush, and by George Herbert Walker, his 
maternal great-grandfather.  In October and November, Buchanan 
published a series of articles on this topic in The New Hampshire 
Gazette, founded in 1756 and the oldest newspaper in America.  Those 
articles can be read online at:

http://www.nhgazette.com

In mid-October, the Associated Press (AP) ran a story worldwide that
credited Buchanan with his scoop.

Police Harassment Started Shortly Thereafter

On October 19, Miami Beach Police knocked on the reporter's apartment 
door and questioned him based on an alleged "tip" that he was 
plotting to kill the President.  The next day, Miami Beach detectives 
appeared at Buchanan s door, this time on a complaint from The Miami 
Herald that Buchanan might be a terror suspect plotting to blow up 
the headquarters of Knight-Ridder newspapers. Despite a phone 
complaint by Buchanan to the Washington and Miami offices of the FBI, 
no action has been taken to look into his allegations.

Miami Beach Police have apparently made no attempt to investigate the
sources of the false police complaints, nor has Mayor David Dermer 
offered any help, according to Buchanan.

"He has known me and my work for six years," says Buchanan.  "Ever 
since this drama began when I found the Bush-Nazi documents, Mayor 
Dermer has been inexplicably silent.  He has shown no courage, and is 
therefore, in my opinion, unfit for office."  Buchanan is now calling 
for Mayor Dermer s resignation or removal from office by the Florida 
Attorney General.

Buchanan also claims that during the time he was campaigning for 
President in New Hampshire last month, the state chair of the New 
Hampshire Republican Party, Jayne Millerick, "filed a false police 
report against him for harassment".  Buchanan claims that 
eyewitnesses -- including a Buffalo, NY newspaper reporter, a van 
driver, and two members of his campaign team -- saw her instruct two 
individuals to eject him from her Concord office.  Buchanan also 
alleges that Concord Police and the FBI refused to investigate the 
matter.

<<

Protesters kept for up to 12 hours in detention:

>>
February 12, 2004 by Reuters
New York Police Sued Over Anti-War Protest Arrests
  --------------------------------------------------------------------
----
by Grant McCool

NEW YORK - Civil rights lawyers on Wednesday sued the New York Police
Department on behalf of 52 people arrested at an anti-war protest, 
the latest in a series of lawsuits nationwide challenging police 
conduct at rallies opposing the U.S.-led war on Iraq.

The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court charged the NYPD
"unlawfully arrested peaceful protesters and detained them for
excessively long periods" after the April 7, 2003, rally outside an
investment bank they accused of war profiteering.

A spokeswoman for the city's law department said counsel had not yet
read the legal papers, but "will be reviewing them thoroughly" when 
they do.

Center for Constitutional Rights lawyers said their lawsuit, which
charged the police with violating free speech rights, was also filed
with an eye to demonstrations planned for the Republican National
Convention in New York in August.

"We believe these arrests and detentions were part of a nationwide
pattern ... a concerted effort to keep people off the streets and 
deter people who would protest from coming out," lawyer Nancy Chang 
said.

"We don't want to live in a country where people do not feel free to
express themselves," Chang said.

The suit was filed a day after U.S. prosecutors in Iowa dropped
subpoenas issued last week ordering anti-war activists to testify 
before a grand jury. Under pressure from civil liberties advocates, a 
subpoena was also withdrawn on Drake University to provide 
information on a campus anti-war forum.

Chang said civil rights groups had filed lawsuits against authorities 
over police handling of anti-war rallies in cities such as Oakland, 
California, Washington and Seattle.

CIVIL LIBERTIES DEBATE

These and other cases are part of a raging debate over civil 
liberties as the Bush administration fights its war on terrorism 
following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on America. Law enforcement 
officials, free speech advocates and courts have all acknowledged the 
attacks and the U.S. war on Iraq created a different atmosphere for 
policing and security.

At the April demonstration in New York, an ad hoc group of activists
called "M27 Coalition" rallied outside an affiliate of the Carlyle
Group, which has ties to the defense industry.

Officers arrested the activists, who said they followed police
guidelines for the sidewalk demonstration. Some were held for up to 
12 hours, but disorderly conduct charges were dismissed against the 
52 named in Wednesday's lawsuit.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary compensation and a declaration 
that police actions were "retaliatory and unconstitutional."

New York activists organized one of the largest anti-war 
demonstrations on Feb. 15, 2003, when hundreds of thousands took to 
the streets five weeks before the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq 
over its purported stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. No 
weapons stockpiles have been found.

© Copyright 2004 Reuters Ltd
<<