Related documentary sources are I-Witness video and Twin Cities Indymedia.
FBI & St. Paul Police Carry Out "Preemptive" House Raids Democracy Now!'s Elizabeth Press files a report on police action in
COLEEN ROWLEY: Well, I can tell you what it's supposed to be. And then I retired in 2004, and so these fusion centers have grown, of course, since that time, and who knows what it actually now amounts to? What it actually is supposed to be is in a major event, such as the RNC, the FBI is really to take the lead on the counterintelligence aspect, which, of course, if there was a true threat--let's say there was a domestic terrorism group, which is--this is what we're talking about. We're talking about at the very most nonviolent civil disobedience. So the confusion with true intelligence for a terrorist threat is quite enormous. There's a big range there. But in a real case, obviously, if you really did have, let's say, the Aryan Brotherhood or something like that, a group bent on terrorism, the FBI is supposed to take the lead on that and coordinate the intelligence gathering. AMY GOODMAN: What is your experience with preemptive raids? COLEEN ROWLEY: Well, the word "preemptive," of course, is-- should send a red flag up, because that word came into play right before the Iraq war. And, of course, we all know that it's very, very difficult to determine ahead of time what is a true threat. And so, when you start this word "preemptive," and now, unfortunately, it seems to have migrated to domestic law enforcement. You cannot determine--we always talk about intent and capability, and if you really know that a group is going to pull off a bank robbery, you really have to make sure that an overt act is committed in furtherance of that. It's not enough to know, for instance, that somebody's talking about a bank robbery. So that's a problem here, and certainly when you get into satire and, you know, taunts and this type of thing, it seems to be a terribly misguided and an overreaction on the part of police.
ELIZABETH PRESS: Attorney Bruce Nestor, president of the Minnesota chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, explains the charge. BRUCE NESTOR: If they had concrete evidence of criminal activity, that could have been presented by a prosecutor to a judge, and a criminal arrest warrant would have been obtained. Instead, what we've had to date is that the police alone, or the sheriff's office, has arrested people for probable cause without any input or review by a prosecutor or a judge. That allows them to hold them for thirty-six hours. And because the charge is conspiracy, it really drags in the whole kitchen sink to support the charge. [...] ELIZABETH PRESS: The officers said they were not looking for information related to protests at the RNC. They soon left. But then, two hours later, the St. Paul police arrived in minivans with civilian license plates and stormed up to the house. They detained two people outside the house and surrounded the building with assault rifles in hand as they waited for their warrant to arrive. And while everyone waited, Denis Moynihan of Free Speech TV received a statement from the inside by Eileen Clancy of I-Witness Video.
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