by Ademo | May 31, 2012 |
It’s been brought to my attention that the FBI has been snooping around the Keene area for several months. First they called in a fellow Free Keene blogger (who asked not to be identified) and asked him if violence was advocated amongst those who frequent the Keene Activity Center. The Free Keene blogger clearly told them they had the wrong people and that if violence was ever advocated, it would be rejected as a means to the end by any real “Free Stater” (a term I use only as a way to identify a group, it should be understood that ‘free staters’, like everyone else, are individuals responsible for their own actions and thoughts).
Top this off with a few sketchy visits from new movers, who I now believe to be FBI agents or informants, and it’s almost comical – if not so scary – how pathetic the FBI’s attempts are at infiltrating the Keene Activity Center (KAC). One guy, ‘Michael’, came to the KAC for a visit (which is typical of new movers) and after a long conversation – where I asked him directly if he was an agent of the state (he said he was not) – it was decided that “Michael’s” views are not acceptable to those who frequent the KAC and he was asked to leave. He has never attempted a return but it should be noted that this man may still be trying to infiltrate liberty groups.
Fast forward a couple a months and the FBI – Phil Christiana – decides to interview another liberty minded person, Rich Paul. Known for his self ownership activism, relating to the war on drugs – particularly marijuana – Rich was targeted for allegedly making voluntary exchanges of substances the government deems illegal. Funny thing is, Phil and the state agent that was assisting him didn’t even care about the drugs. What did Phil and the FBI want? They wanted Rich to wear a wire into the Keene Activity Center. (more…)
by Garret Ean | May 19, 2012 |
After a 27 hour journey with activists from around Massachusetts and New Hampshire, early yesterday morning we arrived in the windy city. Expending almost every battery for the recording devices that I own, there is now upwards of 14 gigabytes of video, image, and audio files waiting to be processed. Throughout the day I filmed scenes from a scheduled rally in Daley plaza (where a cell phone jamming device was being used), an unpermitted march throughout downtown Chicago, and an evening assembly in Grant park. The Chicago Tribune has published photos from Friday’s festivities. Today crowds are expected to continue swelling. Here’s a juxtaposition preview of some of the coverage you’ll soon be seeing at Free Concord. The first image was a much more common sight than the second.
This post originally published at freeconcord.org.
by Garret Ean | Apr 30, 2012 |
From freeconcord.org:
Japanese Kempeitai officer, secret police
The Concord Monitor’s Felice Belman writes on her blog from the newspaper’s website that the Concord police have stopped including narratives of the events surrounding an arrest in releases to the press. Recently, they began only including the name and charges against an individual who has been seized by their organization. This is to have stemmed from complaints filed by an attorney on behalf of city councilor Fred Keach, who was arrested for attempting to drive while intoxicated in October 2010. Keach was unhappy with the amount of detail provided by the police in the account of the arrest as published in the Monitor.
The article also overviews that a statutory change pending in the NH legislature will specify the amount of information to be released by police following an arrest. It is hard to imagine anyone would support a more secretive local police force that didn’t work for the police or prosecutor’s office. In case you may be curious as to what a typical arrest narrative given to a defendant would look like, here’s a scan of the report I received with my discovery packet from the Chalking 8 trial.
by Garret Ean | Apr 8, 2012 |
From FreeConcord.org:
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement are apparently now operating under a policy of not disclosing information about those that they arrest. Making their arrests and ultimate deportations essentially disappearances, ICE operations have progressively degraded the civil rights of those deemed to be undocumented immigrants. When even the nativist NH newspaper, the Union Leader, criticizes the practices of the federal paramilitary organization, it is worth taking notice.
An unsigned editorial published today wanted to clarify that it was not advocating for the rights of those arrested to not be disappeared. In obedient praise of federal immigration policy, the newspaper so subjectively reported, “We are all for getting illegal bad guys off the street.” Language focused against a targeted demographic couldn’t get more presumptuously loaded than “illegal bad guy”. But while the UL is happy to report the word of the federal government that the immigrants arrested were all dangerous criminals, they will not idly accept news of NH arrests without the most basic unit of information attached: the name of the arrested party. (more…)
by Garret Ean | Apr 3, 2012 |
From freeconcord.org:
The issue of censorship has recently been raised in the Concord Monitor, in pieces by Felice Belman which appeared last week as well as today. In a March 27 article, the editor discussed how some individuals who had been quoted from stories in the past wished to conceal themselves from a search query, as they no longer wished to be associated with their statements. While addressing their concerns, the matter is concluded flatly that, “The Monitor isn’t in the business of rewriting history. Our online news archives are an important historical resource, for the public and for the newsroom staff.”
In a story published today titled The Letter You Won’t Read, we learn about a retracted letter to the editor. The letter included a name in the attached contact information, but was signed as anonymous. With the Monitor having a policy against publishing unsigned articles (except when someone is able to sign their article as ‘Monitor Staff’), they contacted the author, informing her that they would be willing the publish the article with an authentic name attached. On those conditions, she withdrew the letter. (more…)
by Garret Ean | Mar 19, 2012 |
- Robert Bales
A soldier accused of having gone on an unauthorized killing spree in an Afghan village was identified by the military yesterday. On the night of March 12, 2012, it is alleged that Staff Sergeant Robert Bales sneaked out of Camp Belambay in the Kandahar province and gunned down 16 civilians in their homes, nine of whom were children. The 38 year old soldier was on his fourth tour since enlisting after 9/11/2001, and is noted to have suffered at least two injuries on duty. One of the injuries resulted in a concussion, though no brain damage was detected after a military health screening. He was identified after being flown to the United States to await trial in the Fort Leavenworth detention center.
The Army had an article posted on their site which had quoted Bales after a January 2007 battle in Iraq. The detached description of combat feels as though it could have been penned by Matthew Modine’s character Private Joker from Full Metal Jacket. The article, dated February 9, 2009, vanished from servers at army.mil days ago. A cached copy provided an archived version of the story, which thanks to the power of the internet did not disappear. One of the more circulated quotes from Bales in the article is the following, “I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day, for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us. I think that’s the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm’s way like that.”
In the interest of combating censorship, below is the full text of the Don Kramer’s original article, since removed from the army’s public information site. (more…)
It’s been brought to my attention that the FBI has been snooping around the Keene area for several months. First they called in a fellow Free Keene blogger (who asked not to be identified) and asked him if violence was advocated amongst those who frequent the Keene Activity Center. The Free Keene blogger clearly told them they had the wrong people and that if violence was ever advocated, it would be rejected as a means to the end by any real “Free Stater” (a term I use only as a way to identify a group, it should be understood that ‘free staters’, like everyone else, are individuals responsible for their own actions and thoughts).
