<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>From Glenn Greewald's latest series on mass arrests etc. in St. Paul. Note the part calling for infiltration of "vegan groups". They are <i>the worst</i>, good to know Homeland Security / FBI is placing agents inside 'em:</div><div><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(251, 243, 214); "><font face="Georgia" size="4" style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; ">As the police attacks on protesters in Minnesota continue -- see <a href="http://qik.com/video/250215"><font color="#8c3d97" style="color: rgb(140, 61, 151); ">this video</font></a> of the police swarming a bus transporting members of <s>Earth Justice</s> an environmental activist group, seizing the bus and leaving the group members stranded on the side of the highway -- it appears increasingly clear that it is the Federal Government that is directing this intimidation campaign. Minnesota Public Radio <a href="http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/08/30/more_raids/?refid=0"><font color="#113787" style="color: rgb(17, 55, 135); ">reported</font></a> yesterday that "the searches were led by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office. Deputies coordinated searches with the Minneapolis and St. Paul police departments <b>and the Federal Bureau of Investigation</b>."</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(251, 243, 214); "><font face="Georgia" size="4" color="#113787" style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; color: rgb(17, 55, 135); "><a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/27703754.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUX">Today's <i>Star Tribune</i></a></font><font face="Georgia" size="4" style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; "> added that the raids were specifically "aided by informants planted in protest groups." Back in May, Marcy Wheeler <a href="http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/05/21/in-minneapolis-vegan-terrorist/"><font color="#113787" style="color: rgb(17, 55, 135); ">presciently noted</font></a> that the Minneapolis Joint Terrorist Task Force -- an inter-agency group of federal, state and local law enforcement led by the FBI -- was actively recruiting Minneapolis residents to serve as plants, to infiltrate "vegan groups" and other left-wing activist groups and report back to the Task Force about what they were doing. There seems to be little doubt that it was this domestic spying by the Federal Government that led to the <a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/08/30/police_raids/index.html"><font color="#113787" style="color: rgb(17, 55, 135); ">excessive and truly despicable home assaults</font></a> by the police yesterday.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(251, 243, 214); "><font face="Georgia" size="4" style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; ">So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do. And as extraordinary as that conduct is, more extraordinary is the fact that they have received virtually no attention from the national media and little outcry from anyone. And it's not difficult to see why. As the recent "overhaul" of the 30-year-old FISA law illustrated -- preceded by the endless expansion of surveillance state powers, justified first by the War on Drugs and then the War on Terror -- we've essentially decided that we want our Government to spy on us without limits. There is literally no police power that the state can exercise that will cause much protest from the political and media class and, therefore, from the citizenry.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(251, 243, 214); "><font face="Georgia" size="4" style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; ">Beyond that, there is a widespread sense that the targets of these raids deserve what they get, even if nothing they've done is remotely illegal. We love to proclaim how much we cherish our "freedoms" in the abstract, but we despise those who actually exercise them. The Constitution, right in the very First Amendment, protects free speech and free assembly precisely because those liberties are central to a healthy republic -- but we've decided that anyone who would actually express truly dissident views or do anything other than sit meekly and quietly in their homes are dirty trouble-makers up to no good, and it's therefore probably for the best if our Government keeps them in check, spies on them, even gets a little rough with them.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(251, 243, 214); "><font face="Georgia" size="4" style="font: normal normal normal 13px/normal Georgia; ">After all, if you don't want the FBI spying on you, or the Police surrounding and then invading your home with rifles and seizing your computers, there's a very simple solution: don't protest the Government. Just sit quietly in your house and mind your own business. That way, the Government will have no reason to monitor what you say and feel the need to intimidate you by invading your home. Anyone who decides to protest -- especially with something as unruly and disrespectful as an <b>unauthorized</b> street march -- gets what they deserve.</font></div></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/01/protests/index.html">http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/09/01/protests/index.html</a></div><div><br></div><div><div><br></div><div>In 2004 Derrick Jensen wrote:</div><div><br></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48px; line-height: 19px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="5" style="font: 16.0px Times New Roman">Here are some questions I’ve been thinking about lately. If Nazis or other fascists took over North America—long pause, the raising of one eyebrow—what would we all do? Consider Mussolini’s definition of fascism: “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power.” What if this occupied country called itself a democracy, but most everyone understood elections to be shams, with citizens allowed to choose between different wings of the same Fascist (or, following Mussolini, Corporate) party? What if protesting and other nonviolent dissent were opposed by storm troopers and secret police? Would we fight back? If a resistance movement already existed, would we join it?</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48px; line-height: 19px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="'Times New Roman'" size="4"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px; line-height: normal;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48px; line-height: 19px; "><font face="Times New Roman" size="5" style="font: 16.0px Times New Roman">And what would we do if those in power then instituted laws allowing them to put one-third of all Jewish males between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five into concentration camps? Substitute <i>African-American</i> for <i>Jewish</i> and ask yourself the same question.</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48px; line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; text-indent: 48px; line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; "><div><a href="http://www.derrickjensen.org/fear01.html">http://www.derrickjensen.org/fear01.html</a></div><div><br></div></span></span></div></span></font></div></div></div></body></html>