The face of fascism grows more plain each day. The specific parallels with the Third Reich exceed coincidence. We must remember that folks like Allen Dulles were Nazi collaborators ...and were also architects of postwar US foreign policy. We've now had our 'Reichstag Fire' (on 9/11) and our 'Sudentland annexation' (Afghanistan) and now we're ready for a 'defensive' 'invasion of Poland' (Iraq). We've got our 'Jews' (those of non-Jewish Middle-Eastern extraction) who can be rounded up and imprisoned with impunity. We've got our first(?) concentration camp (Guantanamo), and below we hear about our storm troopers in the streets... rkm ============================================================================ Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2002 11:12:25 -0400 To: (Recipient list suppressed) From: Aaron Koleszar <•••@••.•••> Subject: Family Pepper Sprayed at Anti-Bush Demo http://www.gulufuture.com/portland/ Followed by "Statement by Pepper Sprayed Family" "We Are Not The Enemy!" - The Battle of Portland by William Rivers Pitt t r u t h o u t | Report Saturday, 24 August, 2002 The image is chilling. A middle-aged woman, plainly dressed, with a puff of auburn hair, is clutched in a hammer-lock by a Portland police officer dressed in full riot gear. His riot baton is jammed high under her chin. Around her, three more armor-clad police officers swarm in, face-masks down. The woman's face is contorted in terror. In her hand is a sign protesting George W. Bush. This was the scene on the streets of Portland, OR, on the evening of August 22nd as captured by a photographer for the Associated Press. Thousands of peaceful protesters had descended upon the Hilton Hotel where Mr. Bush was attending a political fundraiser for Senator Gordon Smith. They held signs reading, "Drop Bush, not Bombs," and other similar slogans. Among the protesters were pregnant women, parents with infants and small children, elderly citizens, and citizens in wheelchairs According to a report by CBS News, the protest became unruly when some of the fundraiser attendees were "jostled" as they moved through the crowd towards the entrance to the hotel. At that point, the riot police swarmed in, swinging clubs and dousing the crowd with pepper spray. Rubber bullets were also fired into the crowd, and snipers were seen on the roofs surrounding the scene. The protesters responded by hammering on the hoods of police cars and screaming, "We are not the enemy!" A man named Randy, who attended the protest, reports the sequence of events as follows: "I was between 5th and 6th on the sidewalk. Maybe the ones in front were warned to move, but I didn't hear any warning. It had been a peaceful protest. Suddenly the police came forward spraying pepper spray. A man nearby with an infant in a backpack got hit real good. The baby's face was so red I thought it had quit breathing. From the other direction came cop cars through the crowd and rubber bullets were fired at those closest to the cars. I kept retreating but the cops kept spraying. Lots of people were sprayed, including the cameraman from Channel 2 KATU." Other eyewitness accounts from the streets of Portland similarly describe what appears to have been a terrifyingly violent response from the police to a peaceful protest by assembled American citizens. This is a profoundly disturbing turn of events. Mr. Bush is protested wherever he goes these days, and the crowds which attend them are growing. These are not black-clad anarchists kicking in windows, however. The woman who was attacked by the police looked as ordinary as any small-town librarian, and anarchists are smart enough to leave their children at home if there is a riot in the offing. The streets of Portland were filled on August 22nd by average American citizens seeking to inform the President of their disfavor regarding the manner in which he is governing their country. They were rewarded with the business end of a billy club, a face-full of pepper spray, and the jarring impact of a rubber bullet. If America needed one more example of the cancer that has been chewing through the guts of our most basic freedoms since Mr. Bush assumed office, they can look to Portland. The right to freely assemble and petition the government for a redress of grievances has been rescinded at the point of a gun. The imperative is clear. Such violence by the authorities cannot go unchallenged. The next time Mr. Bush appears in public, there must be even more concerned Americans to greet him. They must face the baton and the pepper spray, they must stare into the shielded faces of the police, and they must stand in non-violent disobedience of the idea that they are not allowed to be there. The men and women who faced the brunt of police fury in Portland are to be lauded as American patriots, and their actions must be duplicated by us all. The groups which organized this protest, and the ones to come, deserve our praise. The media, which spent much of the evening reporting that only a few hundred protesters were in attendance, must be browbeaten into reporting the facts from both sides - from the police, who reportedly detained people like the woman in the picture "for their own safety," and from the protesters who took a savage beating for daring to stand against Mr. Bush. If the battle of Portland is allowed to cast even more fear into the hearts and minds of Americans, we have lost yet another swath of freedoms. Stand and be counted if you can. The whole world is watching. ------- William Rivers Pitt is a teacher from Boston, MA. His new book, 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence,' will be published soon by Pluto Press. © : t r u t h o u t 2002 ==================================== Statement by Pepper Sprayed Family From the father of the pepper-sprayed children by Don Joughin 8:51pm Sat Aug 24 '02 (Modified on 10:13pm Sat Aug 24 '02) This is an open letter describing our experience and an urgent call to action. First and foremost I want to thank from the bottom of my heart the kind human beings who helped my children, my wife and me after we were pepper sprayed by the Portland Police. We were aided immediately by fellow demonstrators, the black cross and passers-by caught in the crossfire. These people shielded us with their bodies and soothed us with their treatments and words, and argued with police, putting themselves in danger, to secure our safe passage through the cordon. Their actions stand in beautiful contrast to the savage inhumanity of the police. We brought our children to a peaceful protest, we stayed in the back and we were walking on the sidewalk. The march stopped at the intersection of 2nd and Alder we could not see why from our position on the SW corner of the intersection. Police quickly moved up behind us and a moment or two later sprayed pepper spray into the crowd from the NE corner of the intersection. the crowd ran toward us to escape the spray. We asked the officer closest to us how we should exit the intersection. He pointed and said to exit to the NE, into the spraying police opposite him. as the crowd pressed toward us I yelled to him to let us through (south on 2nd) because we had three small children. He looked at me, and drew out his can from his hip and sprayed directly at me. I was at an angle to him and the spray hit my right eye and our three year-old who I was holding in my right arm. In the same motion he turned the can on my wife who was holding our 10 month old baby and doused both of their heads entirely from a distance of less than 3 feet. My six year old daughter was holding my left hand and was not hit directly. We ended up on the sidewalk a few feet down alder with fellow protesters holding my screaming children and and pouring water on our eyes. Someone yelled that the police had said that we could pass through the cordon on alder with the children. I picked up the baby and other protesters brought my wife and other children to the police line. We attempted to pass through but they leaned in shoulders to block us. I yelled at them to let us pass for about two minutes and finally some officer up the line nodded me and the baby through. they were not going to let my wife and other children out but after a few minutes of pleading from the crowd and another signal from up the line they let them out. As we passed the officers were laughing and said something to the effect of "that's why you shouldn't bring kids to protests". I immediately called 911 as we moved up to the corner of 3rd and alder. I explained that a baby had been directly pepper sprayed and that I needed an ambulance. They informed me that they would not send one and that all protesters were to report to a first aid tent on the other side of the police lines. Fellow protestors aided us until Black Cross arrived. Business people brought water from the nearby offices and someone bought some juice for the children. Two KBOO staffers drove up in their Volvo and took us to Emmanuel ER. One of the protestors who had helped us from the beginning accompanied us to the hospital and waited with us until the kids were admitted (special thanks!). The children were examined for respiratory problems and chemical burns. Luckily all were only suffering "normal" pepper spray reactions that have no treatment but to wait. The Pediatrician kept us a little longer so that she could call poison control to check for other recommended procedures as she had never in her career seen an infant pepper spray victim. On the way to the E.R. my three year old said that those guys back there were trying to get us and said we should call the police. That is the story. ============================================================================ Date: Wed, 28 Aug 2002 21:52:11 -0500 From: Jeff Moebus <•••@••.•••> ("No one will believe you." "That is exactly as it is meant to be." Salavi laughed. "But tell them anyway. Tell them once. Then tell them they have been told and leave." - The Vision of Salavi Chichimeca story from ancient Mexico as related by Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) The Coup of September 11, 2001 is a success. All near-term tactical and strategic objectives have been achieved. The search for the truth about The Event that day --- what actually happened... how it happened... who made it happen... who let it happen... was diverted within hours of the collapse of the North Tower, quietly aborted, and ultimately abandoned. The People have been rendered "comfortably numb" as they embrace, resource, and surrender to the architects, engineers, craftsmen, and cheerleaders of this so-called War Against so-called Terrorism abroad and at home. There is no protest in a war zone. There never is; there cannot be. There, there is only resistance, insurgency, sabotage, and revolution. Here, there is only acquiescence, compliance, perpetuation, and participatory complicity. The Terrorists have won. All that remains is for a simple, single, second Event, and The People will demand a seizure of total, unconditional, unchallengeable authority, power, domination, and control. A "dirty" nuclear device detonated in a major metropolitan area in the days just before the 2002 Congressional Elections (transparently traceable to Saddam) will do just fine. And it will be the end of the beginning of the beginning of the end of The Terror. 8.28.02 -- ============================================================================ cyberjournal home page: http://cyberjournal.org "Zen of Glbal Transformation" home page: http://www.QuayLargo.com/Transformation/ QuayLargo discussion forum: http://cyberjournal.org/Productions/ShowChat/?ScreenName=ShowThreads cj list archives: http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?lists='cj' newslog list archives: http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?lists='newslog' cj_open list archives: http://cyberjournal.org/cj/show_archives/?lists='cj_open' subscribe addresses for cj list: •••@••.••• •••@••.••• subscribe addresses for cj_open list: •••@••.••• •••@••.••• ============================================================================
