One of Americans' favorite beach destinations, the Bahamas, is getting a new U.S. arrival - sophisticated equipment to detect radioactive materials in shipping cargo. But U.S. customs agents won't be on site to supervise the machine's use as a nuclear safeguard for the American shoreline that is just 65 miles away from Freeport. Under an unusual arrangement, a Hong Kong company will help operate the detector. The Bush administration says it is finalizing a no-bid contract with Hutchison Whampoa Ltd. It acknowledged the deal is the first time a foreign company will be involved in running a radiation detector at an overseas port without American customs agents present. Hutchison Whampoa Ltds billionaire chairman, Li Ka-Shing, also has substantial business ties to China's government that have raised U.S. concerns over the years.

The arm of the Chinese government that has repeatedly aided the nuclear weapons programs of Pakistan and Iran is now in line for a $5-billion loan deal from the U.S. government-for the benefit of two major U.S. corporations. The Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im), an independent federal agency that finances exports, has granted a preliminary commitment for the largest deal in it's history: $5 billion in loans and loan guarantees to the China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) to build nuclear power plants. According to U.S. government reports, CNNC has been tied to at least three instances of nuclear-weapons technology proliferation involving Pakistan and Iran. Yet, the Chinesegovernment agency is still eligible for Ex-Im financing because of a Clinton Administration decision-made at the behest of U.S. businesses-not to punish CNNC for its actions.

Congressional investigators successfully smuggled into the United States enough radioactive material to make two dirty bombs, even after it set off alarms on radiation detectors installed at border checkpoints, a new report says. The test, conducted in December 2005 by the Government Accountability Office, demonstrated the mixed progress by the Department of Homeland Security, among other federal agencies, in trying to prevent terrorists from smuggling radioactive material into the United States.

One-third of the world's 130 civilian nuclear research reactors lack security upgrades needed to prevent theft of materials that terrorists could use to build an atomic bomb, the chief U.S. nuclear proliferation official says. In an interview with USA TODAY, Linton Brooks, director of the National Nuclear Security Administration, said most of these reactors use highly enriched uranium, the easiest fuel used to make atomic bombs. (Related story: U.S. confronts issue of 'loose nukes' on several fronts)

Carol Fisher, 50, was brutalized by Cleveland Heights Police, charged with two felonies and handcuffed to a hospital bed after trying to put up a "Bush Step Down" poster on a telephone pole. Even when she agreed to take the posters down, officers felt it was better to manhandle her in an act of outright police abuse and brutality.

1 Apr 2006 - By Greg Szymanski

Carol Fisher left her Cleveland home early one morning to put up some anti-Bush posters on a busy downtown street. She never returned, being jailed after a run-in with police.

Instead of being allowed to peacefully express views, Fisher claims she was brutalized by Cleveland Heights police, charged with two counts of felony assault and held incommunicado under police custody in the hospital

The incident occurred Jan. 28 and the case is set for pre-trial hearing Monday on the 21st floor of the Justice Center in Cleveland Heights at 9 a.m..

"This outrage and others like it must be exposed and opposed by all who hate the direction that the Bush regime is taking this country and the world," said Fisher in a long email Friday, seeking support and detailing her story. "Most likely, the case will go to trial this Monday, April 3. Your support will make a strong statement that people are not going along with this "new normalcy" of intimidation and repression." "As it says in the Call, If we speak the truth, they will try to silence us. If we act, they will try to stop us. But we speak for the majority, here and around the world, and as we get this going we are going to reach out to the people who have been so badly fooled by Bush and we are NOT going to stop...The future is unwritten. Which one we get is up to us."

And Fisher's run-in with authorities is just another example of the long line of cases piling up across America showing the "real live day to day" lock down on freedom of speech and the use of police as the gestapo arm of the fascist Bush administration

In Fisher's case, why does a incident involving posting a "Bush Step Down" poster have to lead to violence? Obviously, in this case, law enforcement tempers were "boiling hot" and their ability to treat citizens as "friends not enemies" came through with flying colors.

Just ask Fisher, an employee of Revolution Bookstore in Cleveland, now facing jail time on felony charges: This is her detailed account of what happened the morning she tried to put up anti-Bush posters:

"I had set out from my house with a full agenda, to contact lots of people and get out materials about our upcoming Cleveland event to Drown Out the State of the Union address, and the call to march around the White House on Feb. 4th. My first stop was the an area known for its community of artists and progressives, where I stapled up posters for blocks and was greeted warmly by those who saw and appreciated what World Cant Wait is doing. I talked to an artist, and a Palestinian store owner who took fliers to distribute to customers.

"Next stop, to the east side. I drove down a street in Cleveland Heights, another area known for its diversity and progressive history. This street was badly in need of postering too and though i was in a big hurry, I couldn't drive on without getting up a few signs. Before long a cop called from across the street: "Ma'am! Hundred dollar fine for doing that!" Oh really, since when? Another way of keeping us from getting the word out, eh?

"But not wanting to get arrested, I said ok and put up my staplegun and walked away. But that wasn't the end of it. "Ma'am! Hundred dollar fine unless you take those posters down." He is pursuing me across the street. Damn! OK fine, I say, I will take them down (not wanting to get into a confrontation, because I have lots to do today!) But this too is not enough for the cop. He wants my ID. I say I don't have my ID. He grabs my arm. I say let go of me, I am not doing anything wrong, I will take the posters down. People are watching to see what happens, are outraged but very afraid. The cop wont let go, he clearly wants more grief from me, and he is in the spotlight. He wants people to be scared. He pushes me against a store window and next thing I know I am face down on the sidewalk with two cops on top of me, one with his knee in my back. I am trying to call out to people, to tell them what the posters are about.

"They keep pushing my face into the sidewalk. I cant breathe. I have osteoradionecrosis in my jaw, resulting from radiation treatments for cancer. My jawbone is slowly deteriorating, is very fragile, and doesn't heal well. I am 53 years old, not exactly a spring chicken. A hand comes down again to push my chin against the concrete. By this time there are four cops on the scene. My hands are tightly cuffed behind my back. They lift me up and shove me onto a park bench and shackle my legs. I am still calling out, telling people what this is about. One of the cops says to me, "Shut up or I will kill you!", "I am sick of this anti-Bush shit!" "You are definitely going to the psyche ward." Then somebody calls the EMS, and a fire squad shows up.

"The cop supervisor appears and puts his finger in my face: "I don't like it when people treat my men like this and if you don't obey the law you will suffer the consequences." I am lifted into the EMS truck, hands still cuffed behind my back. I ask to make a call and this is refused, but a fireman offers to make a quick call for me. If not for this, no one would have known where I was or what was happening, a fate shared by many immigrants in this country. At the hospital, I am treated as an arch-criminal. Escorted by four policemen, I shuffle into the emergency room, legs still shackled, covered with leaves and mud. I think to myself, if I was Black, I would not have made it this far. I would probably be dead by now."

According to the facts of the case, through Fisher's attorney, she clearly wanted to obey officers in taking down the signs, but it appears hot tempered officers wanted to arrest her anyway.

In recent developments, the prosecution has refused to drop charges in return for a promise to seek charges against the officers for brutality. As a counter, Fisher has refused to accept a reduction to a misdemeanor, saying she did nothing wrong.

"The facts show that I was willing to take the posters down as the officer requested. But I was arrested anyway. Yet the prosecution intends to distort the facts and police still promote the lie that I was arrested because I refused to comply, and attacked them," said Fisher. "The real point here is, there need to be more posters all over the place demanding an end to the Bush Regime! The facts clear and simple: I was wrongly arrested and assaulted for putting up anti-Bush posters. I was further punished for defying them. What about my injuries, trauma, intimidation, a threat on my life, being labeled a crazy wildcat, held incommunicado for six hours, forced to undress in front of four male policemen, and now the loss of my job? And most of all, what about the fact that all this happened because I put up a poster calling for active opposition to the Bush Regime!" - arcticbeacon.com

Big News Network.comWednesday 5th April, 2006 (UPI)

Massachusetts is poised to become the first state to require mandatory health insurance coverage under the risk of fines.

Tuesday's votes approving the bipartisan bill -- 154 to 2 in the House and 37 to 0 in the Senate -- were the culmination of two years of negotiations, the Washington Post said. Republican Gov. Mitt Romney supports the measure, although he hinted he may exercise his line-item veto on some elements.

All residents will have to purchase coverage by July 1, 2007, and provide details about their policy on their state income tax returns in 2008. Those who do not have insurance would first lose their personal state tax exemption and later face penalties equal to half the cost of the cheapest policy they should have bought.

Those earning less than the federal poverty threshold would be able to purchase subsidized policies that have no premiums, and would be responsible for very small co-payments for emergency-room visits and other services.

The administration's proposal would modernize the nation's complex of laboratories and factories as well as produce new bombs.

By Ralph Vartabedian - Times Staff Writer - April 6, 2006

The Bush administration Wednesday unveiled a blueprint for rebuilding the nation's decrepit nuclear weapons complex, including restoration of a large-scale bomb manufacturing capacity. The plan calls for the most sweeping realignment and modernization of the nation's massive system of laboratories and factories for nuclear bombs since the end of the Cold War.

Until now, the nation has depended on carefully maintaining aging bombs produced during the Cold War arms race, some several decades old. The administration, however, wants the capability to turn out 125 new nuclear bombs per year by 2022, as the Pentagon retires older bombs that it says will no longer be reliable or safe.

Under the plan, all of the nation's plutonium would be consolidated into a single facility that could be more effectively and cheaply defended against possible terrorist attacks. The plan would remove the plutonium kept at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by 2014, though transfers of the material could start sooner. In recent years, concern has grown that Livermore, surrounded by residential neighborhoods in the Bay Area, could not repel a terrorist attack.

But the administration blueprint is facing sharp criticism, both from those who say it does not move fast enough to consolidate plutonium stores and from those who say restarting bomb production would encourage aspiring nuclear powers across the globe to develop weapons.

The plan was outlined to Congress on Wednesday by Thomas D'Agostino, head of nuclear weapons programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration, a part of the Energy Department. Though the weapons proposal would restore the capacity to make new bombs, D'Agostino said it was part of a larger effort to accelerate the dismantling of aging bombs left from the Cold War.

D'Agostino acknowledged in an interview that the administration was walking a fine line by modernizing the U.S. nuclear weapons program while assuring other nations that it was not seeking a new arms race. The credibility of the contention rests on the U.S. intent to sharply reduce its inventory of weapons.

The administration is also quickly moving ahead with a new nuclear bomb program known as the "reliable replacement warhead," which began last year. Originally described as an effort to update existing weapons and make them more reliable, it has been broadened and now includes the potential for new bomb designs. Weapons labs currently are engaged in a design competition.

The U.S. built its last nuclear weapon in 1989 and last tested a weapon underground in 1992. Since the Cold War, the nation has had massive stockpiles of nuclear weapons to deter potential attacks. By contrast, it would increasingly rely on the capability to build future bombs for deterrence, D'Agostino said.

The blueprint calls for a modern complex to design a new nuclear bomb and have it ready in less than four years, allowing the nation to respond to changing military requirements. Similar proposals in the past, such as for a nuclear bomb to attack underground bunkers, provoked concern that they undermined U.S. policy to stop nuclear proliferation.

The impetus for the plan is a growing belief that efforts to maintain older nuclear bombs and keep up a large nuclear weapons industrial complex are technically and financially unsustainable. Last year, a task force led by San Diego physicist David Overskei recommended that the Energy Department consolidate the system of eight existing weapons complexes into one site.

Overskei said Wednesday that the cost of security alone for the current infrastructure of plants over the next two decades was roughly $25 billion. Security costs have grown, because the Sept. 11 attacks have led the Energy Department to believe terrorists could mount a larger and better armed strike force.

Peter Stockton, a former Energy Department security consultant who is now an investigator for the Project on Government Oversight, criticized the plutonium consolidation plan in House testimony, saying it would delay the difficult work too far into the future. Stockton added in an interview that the plutonium transfer at Livermore could be accomplished in a few months.

Until now, Livermore lab officials have sharply disagreed with the idea of removing plutonium from their site, saying it was essential to their work. On Wednesday, a lab spokesman said the issue was "far less controversial" and the "decision rests in Washington."

The Bush plan, described at a hearing of the strategic subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee, would consolidate much of the weapons capacity, but not as completely or quickly as outside critics would like.

The overall plan would not be fully implemented until 2030.

A crucial part of restarting U.S. nuclear bomb production involves so-called plutonium pits, hollow spheres surrounded by high explosives. The pits start nuclear fission and trigger the nuclear fusion in a bomb.

The plutonium pits were built at the Energy Department's former Rocky Flats site near Denver until the weapons plant was shut down in 1989 after it was found to have violated environmental regulations.

In recent years, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico has tried to start limited production of plutonium pits and hopes to build a certified pit that will enter the so-called war reserve next year. Los Alamos would be producing about 30 to 50 pits per year by 2012, but the Energy Department said that was not enough to sustain the U.S. nuclear deterrent.

In his testimony, D'Agostino estimated plutonium pits would last 45 to 60 years, after which they would be unreliable and might result in an explosion smaller than intended. Critics outside the government sharply dispute that conclusion, saying there is no evidence that pits degrade over time and that the nation can keep an adequate nuclear deterrent by maintaining its existing weapons. - LA Times

WNBC-TV CAMDEN, N.J. - Four teenagers accused of plotting to kill about 25 people in a lunch-period massacre at Winslow Township High School were charged Thursday with terrorism, a crime no one has ever been convicted of in New Jersey. Images: Teens Charged With Allegedly Planning School Massacre Plot

The boys, between the ages of 14 and 16, were arrested Wednesday after police heard about the alleged plot from administrators at the school, where three of the teens are students. Authorities did not release their names because of their ages. The boys initially were charged only with low-level crimes and were not eligible to be moved to adult court. Authorities said the teens planned to target students, and teachers and others.

The terrorism charge and other charges added Thursday -- two counts each of conspiracy to attempt murder -- are serious enough that prosecutors could ask a judge to move the case from family court to adult criminal court, where the penalties could be much stiffer. Prosecutors have 30 days to consider whether to request moving the case; no decision on that was made by Thursday afternoon.

The four boys -- including a 15-year-old from Hammonton whose arrest Wednesday night had not been announced -- appeared together in family court. Superior Court Judge Angelo DiCamillo ordered them held until the state Department of Human Services could complete thorough psychological and psychiatric evaluations.

DiCamillo said the court counselors who had interviewed the teens Wednesday recommended they not be released to their parents' care until a full picture of their mental conditions could be learned.

Public defenders for the teens argued that they should have been able to go home with their parents. "My client is rather frail and vulnerable," public defender Ruth Ann Mandell, who was representing a 14-year-old, told the judge. "No one was hurt in this case."

Authorities said the boys did not have any weapons to carry out the alleged plot. But one law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the teens attempted to buy a handgun.

DiCamillo on Thursday also disclosed that some of the teens charged have had brushes with the law in the past. Two of them were charged with fighting while they were still in elementary school; both cases were diverted out of the court system.

The 14-year-old was charged Wednesday with grabbing a girl by the neck and threatening to kill her.

The father of one of the 15-year-old boys said after the hearing Thursday that the charges were a mistake. "I think it's just kids hanging out together and having a little wild time, that's all," he said.

State judiciary spokeswoman Winnie Comfort said no one in New Jersey has been convicted of terrorism, a charge lawmakers created four years ago in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. Under the statute, people convicted of the crime in adult court must be sentenced to at least 30 years in prison and are not eligible for parole for 30 years.

Prison sentences that long would be far steeper than those meted out to three teenagers in another Camden County town, Oaklyn, after they pleaded guilty in a case in which they were caught with guns, ammunition and swords in 2003. Each of them received a prison sentence between four and 10 years. - msnbc

Intelligence experts warn that a proposal to merge two Pentagon intelligence units could create an ominous new agency.

WEB EXCLUSIVE - By Mark Hosenball - Newsweek - April 12, 2006 -

A threatened turf grab by a controversial Pentagon intelligence unit is causing concern among both privacy experts and some of the Defense Department's own personnel.

An informal panel of senior Pentagon officials has been holding a series of unannounced private meetings during the past several weeks about how to proceed with a possible merger between the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), a post-9/11 Pentagon creation that has been accused of domestic spying, and the Defense Security Service (DSS), a well-established older agency responsible for inspecting the security arrangements of defense contractors. DSS also maintains millions of confidential files containing the results of background investigations on defense contractors' employees.

The merger was initially suggested by a government commission set up to recommend military base closures last year. The commission said that the Pentagon could achieve some savings by relocating both CIFA, now housed in a building near Washington's Reagan National Airport and DSS, headquartered in nearby Alexandria, Va. The panel suggested moving the two agencies to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., where FBI training and laboratory facilities are also based.

The Base Realignment and Closure Commission also suggested that the Pentagon could "disestablish" CIFA and DSS and "consolidate their components into the Department of Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency."

Pentagon officials began discussions about merging the two after the commission issued its recommendations. An initial round of meetings about the merger, however, failed to come up with a plan. In the meantime, CIFA, a mysterious and secretive unit created in 2002 and charged with making Defense counterintelligence efforts more effective, became the subject of two public controversies.

The first erupted late in 2005 when documents surfaced indicating that CIFA (whose mission, according to its own officials, is supposed to be limited to analysis of counterintelligence data produced by other agencies) was discovered to have put together a database that included reports on anti-administration demonstrators, including peace activists protesting alleged "war profiteering." (NEWSWEEK's Michael Isikoff reported on this in depth earlier this year in this story.) CIFA and Pentagon officials subsequently assured Congress in writing that CIFA's activities would be more carefully focused in the future on genuine potential terror threats to defense facilities and personnel and that data collected on legitimate peaceful protestors would be destroyed.

Another controversy over CIFA took hold during the corruption scandal surrounding former San Diego congressman Randall (Duke) Cunningham, who before he resigned in disgrace earlier this year, had been a member of both the House Intelligence Committee and the Armed Services Committee. Federal prosecutors alleged Cunningham used his congressional influence to direct CIFA to grant defense contracts to a company called MZM. Earlier this year, Cunningham and MZM's former president, Mitchell Wade, both pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges. (The CIFA contracting probe has been covered in depth by investigative blogs Warandpiece.com and TPMMuckraker.com, as well as The Washington Post.) Pentagon spokesman Cmdr. Gregory Hicks said the CIFA contracting issue was the focus of a continuing "review by appropriate organizations within the Department [of Defense] and it would be premature to discuss any possible outcomes of that review."

As stories about the CIFA scandals circulated earlier this year, talk about merging the controversial unit with the less controversial DSS appeared to stall. But in the past few weeks, Pentagon officials said, such discussions have regained momentum, with an informal committee led by Robert Rogalski, a deputy to Stephen Cambone, the under secretary of Defense for intelligence, meeting regularly to discuss the agencies' consolidation.

But both Pentagon insiders and administration critics remain queasy about the merger idea. Some veteran officials recall that DSS itself became the subject of unwelcome public attention during the Clinton administration when political appointees in the Pentagon press office got hold of the DSS security file on Linda Tripp, the disgruntled bureaucrat who blew the whistle on President Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The file contained reports about an embarrassing incident from Tripp's past that were leaked to the media. The Pentagon Inspector General investigated, and security procedures surrounding the security files supposedly were improved.

Both Pentagon insiders and privacy experts fear that if CIFA merges with, or, in effect, takes over DSS, there would be a weakening of the safeguards that are supposed to regulate the release of the estimated 4.5 million security files on defense-contractor employees currently controlled by DSS. Those files are stored in a disused mine in western Pennsylvania.

According to one knowledgeable official, who asked for anonymity because of the extreme sensitivity of the subject, since its creation CIFA has on at least a handful of occasions requested access to the secret files stored in the mine without adequate explanation. As a result, the source said, DSS rejected the requests. A merger between CIFA and DSS would weaken those internal controls, the source said.

A CIFA merger with DSS could also alter the job responsibilities of the 280 inspectors employed by DSS to inspect security arrangements and procedures at defense contractors' offices. According to the official source, these inspectors are responsible for making sure that contractors have taken proper measures to protect classified information. But if DSS merges with CIFA, there are fears that CIFA will pressure the DSS inspectors to expand their mandate to include inspecting contractors to see if they are protecting information that could be considered "sensitive but unclassified"—a term the Bush administration has tried to use to expand restrictions on access to government records. Security professionals regard that expansion as too elastic and open to misinterpretation. By acquiring control of the DSS inspector force, a merged CIFA-DSS would also have something that CIFA at the moment claims not to have, which is a force of field investigators. Today CIFA has to rely for raw field reports on other defense and military intelligence agencies, such as branches of Army, Navy and Air Force intelligence.

Defense analyst and washingtonpost.com blogger Bill Arkin, who first brought allegations about CIFA's domestic spying to light, says that in its efforts to trying eliminate waste and better coordinate intelligence activities, "we are creating an American military secret police that is clearly acquiring way too much information and way too much power."

But Cindy McGovern, a spokeswoman for DSS, maintains that even if CIFA does merge with DSS, officials will not be able to get access to secret security files unless they have a "legitimate need and we verify that ... People who have access to these records need to have a verified need, a legitimate bona fide need." Asked how many times CIFA requests for access to DSS files were turned down because of lack of adequate justification, McGovern said she did not have that information at hand. Hicks, the Pentagon spokesman, said there was "no clear answer" to this question, adding: "There are protocols in place to request information that CIFA follows, but there is no quick grasp as to how many times or instances that has been sought."

In an e-mail to NEWSWEEK, Hicks added: "The Defense Security Service takes the release of personnel files and the information contained therein very seriously ... For the purposes of disclosure and disclosure accounting, the Department of Defense is considered a single agency. Notwithstanding, disclosures of DSS records within DOD are only authorized when a justifiable official need for the information exists. These same safeguards would apply in the event of a merger with CIFA." - msnbc.msn.com

Katie Markowicz and Zev Vernon-Lapow

Military recruiters left the UC Santa Cruz campus Tuesday, after an hour and a half standoff with student protestors. The protest, organized by Students Against War (SAW), was tense, but remained non-violent. One student was arrested and two students claim university police and campus administrators assaulted them. SAW's mission to get recruiters off campus was achieved through non-violent direct action and was based on two platforms-action against war and the belief that the university violated its own discrimination policy by allowing military recruiters on campus, in reference to the 'don't ask, don't tell policy.'

"SAW feels it has a moral responsibility to keep recruiters off campus," SAW member Janine Carmona said.

Military recruiters have been kicked off campus by student protestors for the third time in the past two years. Most notable was the protest on Apr. 5, 2005, which landed SAW in the Department of Defense's (DOD) terrorist database, labeled as a "credible threat." Following the MSNBC report of the DOD's survallience of SAW, the student group has continued to attract national media attention.

Earlier this year SAW filed a lawsuit in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to expediate the release of information regarding the DOD's surviallance of the group.

Tuesday's protest began at McHenry Library where close to 100 students and community members rallied. The group marched across campus, with SAW's bike patrols sent ahead, diverting student commuters, city buses and campus shuttles to clear Heller Drive for the march.

In a cloud of red smoke, protesters neared the entrance of College Eight, armed with a street-wide sign with two messages: "Destroy the war machine" and "no troops=no war."

SAW member Mariah Kornbluh expressed her concerns of the potential of militarization at UCSC. "Students have a right to decide who can be on campus. This is our campus and we don't support the war," Kornbluh said. "We're reclaiming our education."

According to Liz Irwin, Assistant Vice Chancellor, the university had three goals in regard to the protest at the job fair- ensure participant safety, respect students' right to protest and adhere to the Solomon amendment so federal funds would not be jeopardized.

Under the Solomon Amendment, public universities must allow military recruiters on their campuses in order to receive federal funding. Last year UCSC received approximately $80 million from the federal government, according to a UCSC press release.

Campus spokesperson Jim Burns said, "We had obligation to permit recruiters to come. It's not an endorsement of the 'don't ask, don't tell policy,' but the Supreme Court made it a rule last month that [recruiters could come on campus]."

Protestors claim that the military's 'don't ask, don't tell policy,' which requires gay men and women to hide their sexual orientation, violates campus discrimination policy. Although this is only one part of the protest platform, third-year UCSC student and SAW member David Zlutnick said, "The bottom line is if queers are included in the military we'd still be anti-military…[discrimination] is definitely part of the bigger picture."

As requested by protestors, the four recruiters from the Army and National Guard were kept in a room adjacent to the job fair. Captain Will Griffin, a recruiter who has been in the military for 16 years, was not initially concerned about the protest and stated that he had no intention of leaving. Griffin told City on a Hill Press (CHP) that he believes the freedom to protest is "one of the great things about this country."

Yet as protestors' chants erupted outside, recruiters inside the building showed signs of nervousness-pacing, sitting down, standing up, scratching and compulsively twisting water bottles. Tensions rose as protestors waited, debating tactics, unclear on how to proceed while police forces mounted. A series of agreements passed back and forth between similarly decentralized administration and protesting students. Student protestors remained undeterred. Jade Fox, a senior not affiliated with SAW, said, "When they leave I can go to class but I won't leave till they leave."

Faculty Against War (FAW) was present to support students and to help brainstorm tactics to limit violence. Feminist Studies Professor Bettina Aptheker said, "We don't want anyone hurt; that's our main concern."

Catherine Byrne, professor of peace psychology and member of FAW, negotiated with police to stop surveillance. In reference to Byrnes negoiation with recruiters, Faye Crosby, professor of psychology and chair of the academic senate said, "It is my belief that Catherine Byrnes was instrumental in helping military recruiters think about if they would be willing to leave."

Finally surrendering to the protestors' demands, recruiters left, rushing through a maze of buildings while protestors played the Beastie Boys "Sabotage" from a bike rigged with stereos.

According to UCSC Spokesperson Burns the military voluntarily departed.

Protestors were conscious of their impact. Kornbluh said, "I think it's amazing that students can kick off recruiters. I hope this motivates students to voice their dissent wherever they are."

During the protest students were rallied by a voice on the megaphone, "What we do today matters to the country and the rest of the world."

Anxious to watch the military leave, some students chased after the recruiters retreating white vans, one student allegedly threw a rock at the car. Spokesperson Burns claimed that SAW member Kot Hordynski actively blocked a police camera from filming the perpetrator who threw the rock. Hordynski was arrested on charges of interferring with the duties of a police officer-a misdeamnor offense. Hordynski claimed his actions were an attempt to document police and military surveillance, which Chancellor Denice Denton has disapproved of in the past. But University Spokesperson Burns said that the police can use camera surveillance if students break the law.

While Hordynski was detained in College Eight Classroom 240, police blocked the front entrance as students banged on the back doors and windows.

Burns said, "We're sending a complaint to the District Attorney's office. They will decide if they want to press charges."

Despite his run-in with the law, Hordynski said he was "happy and proud of how the protest went…I don't feel I was doing anything wrong."

Monday night before the protest, Hordynski told CHP that "civil disobedience leads to many repercussions and many people are prepared to deal with them." Prepared for potential arrest if necessary, protest organizers distributed a flier containing information on what students should do in the case of arrest, along with imploring students to avoid violence. Hordynski acknowledged the controversial nature of SAW's action at UCSC. The night before the protest, Hordynski told CHP, "I think there's a wide band of people who don't like what we are doing."

Indeed, not all UCSC students stand in solidarity with SAW.

Zane Griffin, a first-year student and job fair attendee told CHP that he is interested in the military academy as a possible career step. Although protesters blocked the entrance to the room where the military recruiters were stationed, Griffin made his way into the room in the midst of the protest. "In some way [the protest] gave me more of an incentive to check them out," Griffin said, though he was not trying to make a political statement by talking to recruiters. "It heats me up a bit," Griffin added, irritated that it was such an ordeal for him to talk with recruiters. His efforts to speak with recruiters were met with boos and discouragements.

Griffin wasn't the only student who disapproved of SAW's action. UCSC senior Elisa Navarini, who watched as the protest passed Science Hill, said, "People are free to express themselves, but there may be [other] people who want to join the military."

While this sentiment may be shared by other students across campus, it was not apparent in front of the job fair.

Meanwhile, inside the career fair students and employers said they felt safe. Mike Haws, store manager at Walgreen's in Los Gatos and returning Career Fair employer, said he received an e-mail about the tightened security yet found there to be "more of a turnout than the last [career fair]. As far as the protest was concerned Haws said, "it doesn't bother me one way or another."

The career center hired extra police from UC Berkeley and lost some employers as a result of last years protest. The IRS, for instance, decided to not come this year when they found out they would be placed near the military according to April Goral, career advisor.

However, Events Coordinator Laura Lopez said the protest did not affect the success of the job fair, adding that this year had "the most employers since 1999."

Despite the upheaval outside, overall the administration was happy with the outcome of the job fair. University Spokesperson Jim Burns said, "We are grateful no one was hurt, it was a somewhat dangerous situation … We are [also] pleased that 700 students met with employees, because we feel that they have a right to do that."

Professor Crosby was relieved with the outcome. Citing the need for individual freedom and safety, Crosby emphasized that the goals of all involved UCSC parties were met. "I don't think you found any difference between the end goals of the academic senate, the administration, and the students." - chp.ucsc.edu

Submitted by studentsagainstwar on Fri, 04/14/2006 - 12:00am.

After our successfull counter recruitment action on Tuesday, the right wing decided to resort to personal threats and intimidation. SAW Press team members received hundreds of threatening emails and phone calls, after inflammatory blogger Michelle Malkin [pictured in full flow left] put the students' personal information on her blog. More than a dozen other websites followed suit. She refused to remove the information, even after she was politely asked - more

April 19, 2006 By KATIE MELONE, Courant Staff Writer WEST HARTFORD --

A holocaust memorial outside Chabad House was spray-painted with a red swastika for the second time in two days, prompting a handful of clergy and state and local officials to denounce the act as heinous at a Tuesday afternoon press conference.

Staring out at a group of 20 or so residents and activists gathered at the Chabad House, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said the show of support from the community demonstrated that "we are absolutely united in saying no, we will not accept, condone this act of hatred."

He called the vandalism a "defiance of human etiquette" and pledged that the state would bring those responsible to justice in both the civil and criminal court.

Police are still looking for leads in the case. Chief James Strillacci asked the public to come forward with information about the incident.

"If you're out there, I'm pleading with you to do the right thing," Strillacci said at the press conference. "Show that you believe that everybody has the right to live freely in this town."

Rabbi Joseph Gopin of Chabad House said the community has raised $10,000 as a reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.

The second swastika - discovered about 8 a.m. Tuesday -- appeared a day after Yossi Olmert, the brother of the Israeli president, spoke to about 150 people at Congregation Tikvoh Chadoshoh in Bloomfield, and two days after authorities began investigating the first red swastika discovered on the Albany Avenue memorial Sunday morning.

The synagogue had successfully cleaned the first swastika from the memorial on Monday, Gopin said.

"It's heartbreaking to see it," said Moses "Fred" Jacobs, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who has lived in town for 50 years.

Marcia Adler, a congregant at the nearby Beth David synagogue who attended the press conference, said she felt it was important for the community to be vocal about such incidents.

"I think we sometimes pretend this kind of thing doesn't happen but it does," Adler said, flanked by her daughter and son. "With every passing generation, we're more and more removed from the Holocaust."

Strillacci said that the vandals could face charges of third-degree criminal mischief and desecration of property, both misdemeanors, and intimidation based on bias, a felony that is punishable by a maximum of five years in prison.

Blumenthal said he would also try to recover damages that resulted from the vandalism and that any parents who withhold information about their children's involvement in such a crime can also be held accountable under the law. - http://www.courant.com

Usually watching CNN with one eye as we blog from our undisclosed location doesn't give us much new fodder, except for the occasional "stuck landing gear" crisis. But today we are aghast at the coverage of Chinese President Hu Jintao at the White House.

At an outdoor ceremony, Bush told Hu:

China has become successful because the Chinese people are experience the freedom to buy, and to sell, and to produce -- and China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely, and to worship.