http://www.salon.com/…

Following up on this weekend’s extreme raids on various homes, at least 250 people were arrested here today in St. Paul, Minnesota. Beginning last night, St. Paul was the most militarized I have ever seen an American city be, even more so than Manhattan in the week of 9/11 — with troops of federal, state and local law enforcement agents marching around with riot gear, machine guns, and tear gas cannisters, shouting military chants and marching in military formations. Humvees and law enforcement officers with rifles were posted on various buildings and balconies. Numerous protesters and observers were tear gassed and injured.

Sunday night he reported:

Today’s Star Tribune added that the raids were specifically “aided by informants planted in protest groups.” Back in May, Marcy Wheeler presciently noted 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 excessive and truly despicable home assaults by the police yesterday.

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.

He goes on to speak of his disgust for those who claim these people deserve this and questioning why the liberals who were denouncing the Chinese for the very same actions weeks ago at the Olympics aren’t speaking out against this now?

I know why Glenn… it’s because they are part of this system. They not only are complacent in it’s creation, they desire it.

http://www.forfeituresupport.com/

Forfeiture Support Associates (FSA) brings together two proven service providers—MPRI, an L-3 Communications Company, and AECOM Government Services (AECOM-GSI). FSA’s management approach leverages the resources and experience of MPRI and AECOM-GSI for a single purpose—continuous high-quality service delivery in a variety of labor catergories. Our core business focus is in providing key staffing support for Department of Justice (DOJ) agencies and offices, other Federal Law Enforcement prosecutorial venues, and the Federal Law Enforcement community in general. Our largest customers include the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), United States Marshals Service (USMS), Executive Office of the United States Attorney (EOUSA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

Business Division 1 – DOJ Asset Forfeiture Support

FSA’s primary business is generated from our Department of Justice (DOJ) Asset Forfeiture contract. This long-term contract provides the Federal Law Enforcement community with a wide variety of support, in 30+ labor categories. This contract vehicle has been in existence for decades and is administered by the Asset Forfeiture Management Staff (AFMS) at DOJ. Currently the contract provides nearly 1500 ordered positions in over 450 Federal Law Enforcement office locations throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam. Click here for more information

Business Division 2 – GSA Schedule Support

FSA is currently in the process of becoming a GSA schedules contractor. Within the very near future FSA will be able to offer our Government customers the alternative of ordering our services directly from one of several GSA schedules.

Click here for more information

Business Division 3 – Commercial Support Contracts

FSA’s main business focus is in providing high quality labor support services to the Federal Law Enforcement community, or to other entities/companies that also provide like services. The FSA Commercial Services Division manages and supports all FSA business contract activities with US commercial companies.

Click here for more information

I wonder what their slogan is. “Helping the government steal your shit.”? “The paper pushers making sure your things end up in the forfeiture’s hands.”? Or something directed toward their clients? “Making sure they can’t get it back!” “Who wants a new gold watch?”

I wonder who’s buddy owns this company or it’s an ex DEA/FBI agent.

http://www.libertydollar.org/…

Alert #20: July 1st, 2008

Unfortunately, out of the blue… the US government aka the DOJ lobbed a bomb (in the form of a Complaint) against the Liberty Dollar’s seized property last Thursday, June 29. The civil forfeiture complaint, filed in the US District Court in Asheville NC, definitely moves your gold and silver closer to auction and the outright theft of your legal property. Fortunately, in a bizarre move, it was stayed for six months pending the ongoing criminal investigation by the FBI. Go figure.

Please click HERE to read the whole 52 page Complaint and TAKE ACTION BELOW!

Of course, nobody outside of government wants the DOJ to steal your $3.5 million Liberty Dollars in gold and silver. And a good number, almost 5,000 have signed up for the Class Action Lawsuit. But I would like to get “5,000 people involved”… so I am giving all late comers 48 hours… until 7:00 PM EDT on Wednesday… to add your name to the list.

Want to get your name in history? Well the attorney has agreed to include everybody’s name in our response. That’s right, we are going to list all the names in what might be the largest case in history. Please note this will NOT be a “Class Action Lawsuit” as that takes too much time and money. No, you will be personally represented by the attorney - if you sign up for the “Class Action Lawsuit” before 7:00 PM EDT on Wednesday.

Shortly after Wednesday, you will receive an “engagement letter” via email from the attorney. It will specify that you want him to represent you at no cost to you, except ten percent duty on all returned material. All you have to do is confirm your contact info, the approximate amount of paper and digital currency you wish to redeem, sign it and click send!

It can’t get any easier, better or cheaper! Please send this Last Call to everybody on your email list. This is your opportunity to stand tall for your monetary values.

Click HERE to sign up… if you have not done so.

Thanks for your support. I will continue to keep you informed as the big case shapes up.

Bernard von NotHaus
Monetary Architect / Editor

They mean my and thousands of others seized property?

Don’t you just love asset forfeiture cases? United States of America V. 3039.375 Pounds of Copper Coins; 5930.32 Troy Ounces of Silver Coins; 63.24 Troy Ounces of Gold Coins; 3 Platinum Coins; 168,599 Silver Troy Ounce Coins; 147 Gold Troy Ounce Coins; 710 Silver .5 Troy Ounce Coins; 11 Silver Bars and Silver Scrap Totaling 10,720.60 Troy Ounces; 1000.5 Troy Ounces of Silver Coins; 1000.5 Troy Ounces of Silver Coins; Dies, Molds, Casts; 16,000.05 Troy Ounces of Raw Silver; 100 Ounces of Copper Coins; $254,424.09 in United States Currency; 17 Gold .05 Troy Ounce Coins.

http://www.freep.com/…

Dr. Connie Calloway, the new superintendent who has spent her first year digging through dirt and incompetence and traditions that don’t make sense, revealed some startling news two weeks ago during an interview:

She confirmed what critics have known for some time, that DPS is not graduating nearly two-thirds of its students.

She confirmed that 22 of the city’s 27 high schools did not make required annual yearly progress — required progress.

She confirmed that DPS has been rife with such incompetence that students did not receive textbooks at the start of the year for 19 years.

She confirmed that the FBI investigation into DPS is not over.

And she confirmed that the district’s budget is about the same as it was eight years ago, even though the number of employees and students has dropped by a third. In 2000, the district spent $1.2 billion to pay 21,203 employees to serve 154,648 students. Last school year, the district spent the same amount of money to pay 15,535 employees and serve 105,000 students. What is being done with the extra money?

After those revelations, parents did not march, teachers did not rally, and Detroit legislators did not hold news conferences to say enough is enough.

But when district officials announced that there might be teacher layoffs to offset a budget deficit that is $400 million counting this year and next, folks jumped up then. The teachers aren’t wrong to protest. The district has so much fat and gristle it can cut plenty before it gets to teachers, including administrators — especially administrators.

As if the teachers don’t deserve to be shit canned? The whole lot of them appears to be pretty useless to me. They make up a super majority of the employees which make up the school system and they have a powerful union. If these people gave a shit about education and the children they are supposed to be serving this situation would not have occured. No privately run school could have ever gotten into this shape.

I guess filling out bile’s Firearm Reference Form for the second time inspired me call over to Nutley’s Police Department to inquire about my own ID. It’s been about nine months (Sep 19, my birthday) since I dropped off the paperwork and got fingerprinted. In those nine months I’ve seen bile, bosco, and ramuh get their ID’s and make their purchases. Ridiculous, I know. I suppose I could put a little blame on myself for not being overly persistent or aggressive, but I had little faith in my abilities to make anyone in the police department move any faster than they were currently going.

My experience throughout this process was that police officers and detectives have notably different attitudes about firearm possession. The police officers in my town always sounded “put-off” with any phone call I made–this includes my inquires about when I would be able to come down to process my fingerprints. They changed the times and dates on a weekly basis–to which I found out later were incorrect, thanks many to the detectives (who rolled their eyes when I explained how I was misled). The detectives were more than happy to answer any questions, go over my paperwork for accuracy, and fingerprint me twice (during the first round of printing, the computer froze and my prints were lost). They’re also very open about airing out their disgust of the system. They’ve critiqued the FBI’s ability to review prints in a timely basis and how the NJ Freeholder’s dragged their feet when they should have been verifying my mental background check. I was told that I should receive a phone call relatively soon:

I asked him what the phone call was for. He said, “Um, well, so you can pick up your ID; the nature of this conversation.” He sounded like he was holding back a laugh to avoid embarrassing me.

Being a stickler for following procedure, I had to ask, “But you guys never sent out the reference letters. Aren’t you planning on doing that?”

This time he laughed, “No.”

A little confused and interested, I explained what the procedure was (to my knowledge) and asked him why they weren’t going to bother with the references.

He replied, “We aren’t issuing the reference letters because it’s your Second Amendment right to own a firearm. Plain and simple.” He said that so clearly, as if his intention was to ensure that I never confused that right with anything else anyone would or could have said to me to skew it. For a moment I was speechless, due to half-expecting some run-around, asinine reply. Attempting to regain some ground in the conversation I stammered, “Well, yea. Exactly!” I could have just as easily said, “well duh,” and it would have been the same effect.

Still surprised, I continued the conversation further, “You know, in Fort Lee, they wouldn’t take that for an answer when I filled out the reference letter for my boyfriend. They called me up, told me they didn’t really want my opinion on gun control, and asked me to fill out another form if I was seriously interested about being a reference.”

He laughed, “Well, let’s be reasonable. If I am your worst enemy, are you really going to make me your reference? References don’t mean anything.”

We talked a little about gun politics and how if a criminal wants a gun, they’re going to get it through illegal means anyway, and how all these references and background checks really don’t do much.

It was a pretty refreshing conversation, I’m not going to lie.

It’s totally possible that my file has been sitting on their counter for months, and the only reason I have a pick-up date is because I called in today. Since the detectives have consistently kept positive, down-to-earth attitudes towards me, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt this time and shelf my cynicism… at least until next Wednesday.

http://articles.citypages.com/…

Paul Carroll was riding his bike when his cell phone vibrated.

Once he arrived home from the Hennepin County Courthouse, where he’d been served a gross misdemeanor for spray-painting the interior of a campus elevator, the lanky, wavy-haired University of Minnesota sophomore flipped open his phone and checked his messages. He was greeted by a voice he recognized immediately. It belonged to U of M Police Sgt. Erik Swanson, the officer to whom Carroll had turned himself in just three weeks earlier. When Carroll called back, Swanson asked him to meet at a coffee shop later that day, going on to assure a wary Carroll that he wasn’t in trouble.

Carroll, who requested that his real name not be used, showed up early and waited anxiously for Swanson’s arrival. Ten minutes later, he says, a casually dressed Swanson showed up, flanked by a woman whom he introduced as FBI Special Agent Maureen E. Mazzola. For the next 20 minutes, Mazzola would do most of the talking.

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality-they kept saying I was friendly and personable-for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant-someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement. The effort’s primary mission, according to the Minneapolis division’s website, is to “investigate terrorist acts carried out by groups or organizations which fall within the definition of terrorist groups as set forth in the current United States Attorney General Guidelines.”

Carroll would be compensated for his efforts, but only if his involvement yielded an arrest. No exact dollar figure was offered.

“I’ll pass,” said Carroll.

For 10 more minutes, Mazzola and Swanson tried to sway him. He remained obstinate.

“Well, if you change your mind, call this number,” said Mazzola, handing him her card with her cell phone number scribbled on the back.

(Mazzola, Swanson, and the FBI did not return numerous calls seeking comment.)

Carroll’s story echoes a familiar theme. During the lead-up the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City, the NYPD’s Intelligence Division infiltrated and spied on protest groups across the country, as well as in Canada and Europe. The program’s scope extended to explicitly nonviolent groups, including street theater troupes and church organizations.

There were also two reported instances of police officers, dressed as protestors, purposefully instigating clashes. At the 2004 Republican National Convention, the NYPD orchestrated a fake arrest to incite protestors. When a blond man was “arrested,” nearby protestors began shouting, “Let him go!” The helmeted police proceeded to push back against the crowd with batons and arrested at least two. In a similar instance, during an April 29, 2005, Critical Mass bike ride in New York, video footage captured a “protestor”-in reality an undercover cop-telling his captor, “I’m on the job,” and being subsequently let go.

Minneapolis’s own recent Critical Mass skirmish was allegedly initiated by two unidentified stragglers in hoods-one wearing a handkerchief over his or her face-who “began to make aggressive moves” near the back of the pack. During that humid August 31 evening, officers went on to arrest 19 cyclists while unleashing pepper spray into the faces of bystanders. The hooded duo was never apprehended.

Given the current political environment… I’m wondering if another 1968 is possible. It came close at times in 2004. Perhaps if the D’s appear to have little or no contest come November things will be less tense. Then again St. Paul is a lot more out of the way then New York City so that alone may lessen the protester turnout.