Ve haff vays uff makink zoo talk...

I came home and mowed the lawn instead of zipping over to this gathering, so I thought that a post would serve as some form of penitence (that's the best I can do to tie into the recently passed holiday...) even though I'm dog tired after the effort (damn winter not letting my grass grow so I need to cut it and stay in shape!).

Democracy Now last Thursday:

New revelations have linked the FBI to the interrogation and detention of anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. According to unearthed police records, a secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain and question a group of protesters in a downtown parking garage in April 2002. Some of the protesters were interrogated on videotape about their political and religious beliefs.

Ah, shades of the good old days:

The actions and orders of the GESTAPO were not subject to judicial review. Under the law of 30 November 1933 the only redress available was by appeal to the next higher authority within the GESTAPO itself.

The reason assigned for the arrest and commitment of persons to concentration camps usually was that, according to the GESTAPO, the person endangered by his attitude the existence and security of the people and the State.

The most casual remark of a German citizen might bring him before the GESTAPO, where his fate and freedom were decided without recourse to law.

Casual remarks, like, "The war in Iraq is illegal."? Or maybe, "The highest members of the administration are guilty of crimes against humanity and should be impeached." ? I thought what Paul Craig Roberts said in his interview on The Monitor here was a bit of a stretch, but after hearing about this latest escapade along with this from 2004 I'm not so sure any more. What makes me see red more than anything else in the case of the DC episode is the long term effect that it has had on one of the protesters, Nat Meysenberg:

I don’t think I’ve been to a protest in D.C. since. Secondly, I have become vastly more distrustful of police orders. I cooperated with police requests and acted in good faith, that I would be let go if I merely cooperated with them. And throughout, they violated my rights, from my very right to show up and speak out against the war to my rights to be free from incarceration and harassment.

These people are supposed to be there to defend the laws and defend my rights, and instead we find them covering things up in federal court for year after year.

However, while he chooses to avoid DC:

But also, more generally it’s galvanized me in a way to speak out about what happened to me and the type of illegal tactics used by police departments all over the country to silence dissenting voices and protesters.

Yet another example of the resilience of the human spirit to express itself that these thick skulled dunderheads in authority can never get through their heads. More info about the fight to preserve Civil Rights and freedom of expression can be found here.