"See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her -- but now murderers! Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves; they all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless; the widow's case does not come before them."  Isaiah 1: 21, 23

911 truth at SPP Summit in Montebello

THE INDEPENDENT

21 December 2003


IoS Investigation: The 'IoS' looks on as a secret, military-style operation is planned, complete with decoy suspect

By Jonathan Thompso

More than 50 fathers are planning campaigns of civil disobedience to bring mass disruption to Britain's roads and courts in the coming weeks, The Independent on Sunday can reveal, as 21-year-old drama student Darryl Westell spends his third day on a crane above the offices of the children's minister, Margaret Hodge.

The IoS has gained unprecedented access to the secretive world of Fathers 4 Justice, which first came to public attention in October when two men dressed as Batman and Robin scaled the roof of the Royal Courts of Justice and unfurled a banner proclaiming: "Caped Crusaders for Justice, Stop Family Law Injustice Today."

The group maintains that many fathers are being wrongly or even illegally denied access to their children. The organisation has achieved huge publicity and a growing number of radicalised recruits - as many as 10,000 members by next May, reckon its leaders. But the controversial group has been criticised for its hardline stance, the disruption caused by its stunts, and the cost to the taxpayer of policing them.

Its campaign gained huge publicity in November when an activist dressed as Spiderman brought London traffic to a standstill and closed roads by occupying a crane above Tower Bridge for six days.

But that, it seems, was only the start. In a luxury, two-bedroom flat in the City of London, the group met on Thursday to plot its latest stunt. Bankrolled by, among others, a wealthy stockbroker who lives in the flat, seven men - an inner circle of Fathers 4 Justice activists - briefed their new volunteer, promising an escalation in the group's activities.

Fathers 4 Justice told the IoS that the group now has more than 50 fathers ready to volunteer to climb a crane, scale buildings, invade courtrooms or block major roads.

By Thursday night Mr Westell was receiving his military-style briefing. Like a Hollywood movie bank job, every detail was picked over, each piece of equipment double-checked. Digital photographs of the target building site in Great Peter Street in central London were analysed for weaknesses and possible points of entry. One member of the group had brought a crowbar to break any locks.

This was the group's third protest in a week. Five men stood on top of a pedestrian walkway in Liverpool on Thursday, forcing police to close the road below. On the A40 in London on Wednesday morning another disgruntled dad performed a similar stunt whose main repercussion was general traffic chaos, which prevented Jonathan Sacks, the chief rabbi, reaching the BBC's Today studio in time for his "Thought for the Day".

"We are moving towards a campaign of civil disruption," promised Matt O'Connor, the founder of Fathers 4 Justice, "We are going to step it up a gear in 2004. By the summer we will have an army of 10,000 people to enforce the changes we want. They are literally queuing up to break the law. But we are committed to peaceful, non-violent protest."

Mr O'Connor was speaking on Friday, the day after the Thursday night stunt was planned. He wasn't at the Barbican flat because he is convinced he is being followed by police, and instead was acting as a decoy to allow the meeting to go ahead uninterrupted. But on Friday he was dressed as Father Christmas with about 300 other Santa lookalikes who marched through central London, picketing a family law firm on the way to its final rendezvous outside Mrs Hodge's offices. High above them, standing on the arm of a crane 140ft up, was Mr Westell, also dressed as Santa. His banner read: "Save Father Christmas".

The 21-year-old drama student from Nottingham, father of an 18-month-old boy, volunteered a few weeks ago. He claims he has been allowed to see his son only seven times since his birth. On Thursday night it wasn't entirely clear he knew what he was letting himself in for. "I don't want to sound dramatic, but I'm not going to be thrown in jail am I?" asked a nervous-looking Mr Westell.

"Of course you're not," replied one of the organisers, adding, "but whatever you do, don't let the police negotiators get inside your head."

The group's reconnaissance expert - he would only give his name as Mike - took Mr Westell through the lay-out of the site, flipping through the digital photographs he had taken there earlier while posing as a courier.

"Don't worry about the security guards," said Mike. "It's going to be cold tonight and they're lazy."

After a few hours the group departed the flat, immobilising phones to avoid being traced. A black Audi waited outside, its engine running and lights dimmed.

"I don't want to do this," said Mr Westell, as he pulled on a thermal T-shirt. "I'd rather be anywhere else than risking my life climbing a crane when it's -1C, but what else can I do? I've talked and talked and it hasn't worked. Now it's time for action."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=475144

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Saturday, Mar 18, 2006

PARIS (AP) - Police loosed water cannons and tear gas on rioting students and activists rampaged through a McDonald's and attacked store fronts in the capital Saturday as demonstrations against a plan to relax job protections spread in a widening arc across France.

The protests, which drew half a million people in cities across the country, were the biggest show yet of escalating anger that is testing the strength of the conservative government before elections next year.

More than 500,000 students and workers march in Paris, France, and other French cities, Saturday. (AP/Francois Mori)

In Paris, seven officers and 17 protesters were injured during two melees at the close of the march, at the Place de la Nation in eastern Paris and the Sorbonne University. Police said they arrested 156 people in the French capital.

Four cars were set afire, police said, and a McDonald's restaurant was attacked along with store fronts at the close of the march.

Tensions escalated later Saturday as about 500 youths moved on to the Sorbonne, trying to break through tall metal blockades erected after police stormed the Paris landmark a week ago to dislodge occupying students. The university has become a symbol of the protest.

Police turned water cannons on the protesters at the Sorbonne and were seen throwing youths to the ground, hitting them and dragging them into vans.

"Liberate the Sorbonne!" some protesters shouted. "Police everywhere, justice nowhere."

In an apparent effort to set fire to a police van serving as a blockade, protesters instead torched the entrance of a nearby Gap store, apparently by accident, engulfing the small porch in flames.

With commerce snarled in some cities, people asked whether Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin would stand firm on implementing the change that he says is needed to encourage hiring. The usually outspoken leader was silent Saturday.

Protest organizers urged President Jacques Chirac on Saturday to prevent the law from taking effect as expected in April.

The group issued an ultimatum, saying it expects an answer by Monday, when leaders will decide whether to continue protests that have paralyzed at least 16 universities and dominated political discourse for weeks.

"We give them two days to see if they understand the message we've sent," said Rene Jouan of the CFDT union.

Protests reached every corner of France, with organizers citing 160 marches from the small provincial town of Rochefort in the southwest to the major city of Lyon in the southeast.

In Marseille, extreme leftist youths climbed the facade of City Hall, replacing a French flag with a banner reading "Anticapitalism." Police used tear gas to disperse them and made several arrests.

Police also fired tear gas at a protest in Clermont-Ferrand, a central city where 10,000 people marched and about 100 youths threw beer cans and other projectiles at a building.

The Paris protest march was the biggest, attracting some 80,000 people, according to police. Organizers put the number at 300,000.

Some demonstrators became violent as the march ended. Youths set a car on fire, smashed a shop window, trashed a bus stop and threw stones, golf balls and other objects at police. Police responded with tear gas during skirmishes that lasted several hours.

Widespread discontent with the government has crystalized around a new type of job contract that Villepin says will alleviate France's sky-high youth unemployment by getting companies to risk hiring young workers.

Critics say the contract abolishes labour protections crucial to the soci al fabric.

"Aren't we the future of France?" asked Aurelie Silan, a 20-year-old student who joined a river of protesters in Paris.

Government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope insisted on the need for a "spirit of dialogue."

"The hand is extended, the door is open," he said on France-3 TV network. However, he limited dialogue to "improving" Villepin's plan - not withdrawing it.

Waves of red union flags topped the densely packed crowd in Paris, which overflowed into side streets and stretched more than five kilometres under bright sunshine.

"Throw away the job contract, don't throw away the youth!" chanted a group of students shaking tambourines. Many wore plastic bags to illustrate their feeling that the new law reduces young people to disposable workers.

The law would allow businesses to fire young workers in the first two years on a job without giving a reason, removing them from protections that restrict layoffs of regular employees.

Companies are often reluctant to add employees because it is hard to let them go if business conditions worsen. Students see a subtext in the new law: make it easier to hire and fire to help France compete in a globalizing world economy.

Youth joblessness stands at 23 per cent countrywide, and 50 per cent among impoverished young people. The lack of work was blamed in part for the riots that shook France's depressed suburbs during the fall.

Chirac has pushed Villepin to act "as quickly as possible" to defuse the crisis, but has backed the measure.

 

By MELANIE ASMAR Monitor staff
April 29. 2006 8:00AM

 
PRESTON GANNAWAY / Concord Monitor

Dressed as Nazis, Jim Johnson and Lauren Canario demonstrate their opposition to a federal identification card at yesterday's State House protest. At left, Russell Kanning jokingly prepares to show his I.D.

Database was a dirty word yesterday at a rally to oppose New Hampshire's participation in a national identification card system that would digitally catalog personal information.

More than 100 people - some dressed as Nazis, others wearing three-cornered hats - gathered on the State House lawn. Though the group's political leanings spanned the spectrum, they agreed that the system is a bad idea, citing identity theft, Big Brother and the violation of the United States Constitution.

"We have to decide . . . if we're going to stand by like sheep as they brand us," said Carol Shea-Porter, a Rochester Democrat (who was not in costume) running for Congress against Republican Jeb Bradley.

Known as Real ID, the card system would require motor vehicle officials to more thoroughly screen people applying for driver's licenses, issue licenses that contain anti-fraud precautions such as computer chips, and create a database with digital copies of drivers' birth certificates and other identifying documents. Anyone flying on an airplane, opening a bank account or entering a federal building would need to have the national ID card or a passport.

Congress passed the Real ID Act last year, and New Hampshire and Kentucky were offered $3 million grants to test the program. All states must comply by 2008.

But the New Hampshire House voted last month to refuse to do so, calling the program "contrary and repugnant" to the Constitution. Now it's up to the Senate to decide whether to take the federal grant money and overhaul the state's licensing system or not.

At yesterday's rally, speakers urged the Senate to buck the new law, comparing the United States to Nazi Germany and warning against everything from a police state to the start of the apocalypse. Tim DeBenedictis, of Wakefield, was one of a handful of people with stickers bearing the number "666" stuck to their foreheads.

DeBenedictis, a member of the Constitution Party, said Real ID is a precursor to the "mark of the beast" told of in the Bible, where every man must have "666" on his hand or forehead to buy or sell anything.

The Rev. Garrett Lear, known as "the Patriot Pastor" for his knowledge of the Constitution and colonial dress, praised those who wore the stickers and said he was ashamed that more Christians hadn't showed up. He told the crowd the Real ID system is contrary to the liberty-for-all wishes of the founding fathers, many of whom were Christian.
"Thanks be to God that the House voted" against Real ID, he said.

Katherine Albrecht, a consumer advocate and leader of the anti-Real ID movement, read a chapter from her book, Spychips, about how the government plans to track people through product ID tags. Albrecht of Nashua said that in the wrong hands, a national identification system could have disastrous effects.

It's like "putting a noose around your neck and hoping the government doesn't pull the rope," she said. "You could think you're giving the rope to Mother Theresa but find yourself looking into the eyes of Adolf Hitler."

To illustrate that point, Lauren Canario and Jim Johnson of Winchester, members of the Free State Project, dressed in Nazi beige and stood watch over a mock guard shack at the edge of the lawn. To pass through the fake gate to the free popcorn stand and rally ahead, passersby had to say "F U."

"You can't get by without cursing the Nazis," said Canario, who was holding a sign that read "Say Yahvol to Real ID."

Rep. Elbert Bicknell, a Deerfield Republican who also spoke at the rally, called Real ID an unfunded mandate similar to special education and the No Child Left Behind Act. He said the identification system won't help protect our borders from illegal immigrants or terrorists, but will take away our privacy. Americans shouldn't have to sacrifice their freedoms for "what those butchers did to us" on Sept. 11, 2001, he added.

"Someone has to tell Uncle Sam 'Whoa, this is enough. We've had it,'" Bicknell said.

Those at the rally credited Rep. Neal Kurk for planting the seed with the impassioned speech he made on the House floor last month. After the Weare Republican spoke in favor of an anti-Real ID bill, the House overturned a committee recommendation and approved it.

Yesterday, Kurk said lawmakers had "moved the cannon into position to fire a shot that will be heard around the world," meaning that other states are paying attention and will hopefully follow suit. But if the state is going to make history, Kurk said, the cannon must be loaded and Gov. John Lynch must pull the trigger.

"Let the nation hear that New Hampshire is first and takes the lead in the fight for liberty," he said.

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060429/REPOSITORY/304290001