CIA RECRUITS TERRORIST AGENTS AT GUANTANAMO....LAPD WANTS TO BAN SKI MASKS FROM DEMONSTRATORS' WARDROBES
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Subject: [unioNews] CIA RECRUITS TERRORIST AGENTS AT GUANTANAMO....LAPD WANTS TO BANSKI MASKS FROM DEMONSTRATORS' WARDROBES
NEW AFRIKAN MILLENNIUM
2004 JANUARY
Forwarding:
Courtesy of [log in to unmask], Issue #1229
IN THIS MESSAGE
* CIA Recruits Terrorist Agents At GUANTANAMO
* LAPD wants to ban ski masks from demonstrators' wardrobes
______________________________________________
CIA RECRUITS TERRORIST AGENTS AT GUANTANAMO
U.S. efforts to infiltrate Al QAEDA BEGIN WITH CAPTURED COMPATRIOTS
By Martin Dillon
http://www.americanfreepress.net/01_02_04/CIA_Recruits/cia_recruits.html
Behind the barbed wire, gun turrets and searchlights of the GUANTANAMO
concentration camp, the CIA is running a secret program to recruit
turncoats to infiltrate al QAEDA and other organizations to which they
formerly belonged.
The secrecy surrounding GUANTANAMO has been an essential ingredient in
permitting CIA agent handlers to assess detainees over a lengthy period of
time to determine if they are vulnerable to inducements and emotionally
capable of returning to the world of terrorism as secret tools of the U.S.
intelligence community. The fact that the identities of the detainees have
been classified and they have not been permitted legal representation has
aided those in the CIA who desperately need agents to blend into the
Islamic world.
The lack of terrorist agents within the U.S. intelligence apparatus in the
1990s ensured that al QAEDA and similar groupings were able to operate with
virtual impunity, and to plan operations without the risk that any of their
cells had been penetrated by informers.
Prior to Sept. 11, the CIA had been forced to rely mainly on electronic
means to monitor terrorists. That strategy was flawed because satellites
and telephone intercepts alone were an insufficient means of assessing the
potential and intentions of the enemy. In fact, little was known about al
QAEDA'S plans because terrorists had become familiar with the techniques of
electronic intelligence gathering. The events of Sept. 11 proved that
HUMINT-human intelligence-is far more effective in learning about planned
terrorist operations.
The CIA's lack of HUMINT was partly due to a belief within the U.S.
political and judicial apparatus that the CIA had, in the past, run rogue
operatives, with terrible consequences. In some respects, that was true and
for several decades there had been little oversight of the agency's
handling of agents, particularly those recruited from the criminal world or
from organizations with a dubious past.
However, the attacks of Sept. 11 exposed a serious weakness, namely the
CIA's lack of human "assets" within the world of terrorism.
Employing terrorists as agents of the state is never an easy option but in
a world in which terrorists operate in closely-knit cell structures whose
members are bonded by family links, as well as social and cultural ties,
the terrorist agent is the only real option. The Harvard graduate recruited
by the CIA will never be accepted into a world in which outsiders are
easily identified.
Recruiting terrorists is a difficult and risky process, if it is conducted
in the Middle East or Afghanistan. However, when the CIA has hundreds of
individuals in one place-GUANTANAMO - the process is made easier.
For example, there is time to individually process detainees, to learn
their family histories, monitor their reactions to confinement, determine
their social, spiritual and sexual weaknesses and build detailed
psychological profiles on those who could prove useful if they were
properly trained and released back into their own communities.
For the past year, the CIA has been working on recruiting among those held
at GUANTANAMO with the intention of running them as agents. The objective
has been to train them, place them under the control of agent "handlers"
and release them back into Afghanistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iraq
and Pakistan. The hope is that they will, over time, join terrorist ranks
as agents of the CIA. In that way, the CIA will have a constant flow of
information from within the world of terror.
Recruitment of a terrorist agent begins with identifying a detainee as
someone worthy of scrutiny-a person likely to have been a serious "player"
or an unwilling operative. That is followed by the use of techniques to
break his spirit-hooding, sleep deprivation, "white noise" and long periods
of questioning and isolation.
Not all of those seized, during and after the war in Afghanistan and in
Iraq, have been subjected to special treatment, but those who have are the
ones who may have provided information on al QAEDA'S leadership, tactics
and plans for future attacks.
The CIA interrogation teams at GUANTANAMO have been careful in their choice
of captives to be subjected to intense interrogation. Most of those
selected have been either key figures in the al QAEDA network and Taliban,
or foot soldiers with little ideological commitment.
The task of getting them to divulge information or to agree to become
future assets for U.S. intelligence agencies has not been easy. Some of the
more seasoned detainees have proved harder to break under interrogation and
may not be ideal for agent recruitment, whereas foot soldiers, many of whom
are concerned with survival, have shown a greater willingness to change sides.
For the CIA interrogation teams in GUANTANAMO, the interrogation process is
a highly complex one, much like a chess game in which every move is
carefully choreographed. Once a terrorist is selected for in-depth
interrogation, there are military doctors on hand to constantly monitor him
to ensure he can withstand lengthy questioning and extreme pressure.
After long hours of solitary confinement, "white noise" and hooding, some
terror suspects mentally disintegrate to the point that they are incapable
of providing critical information and unlikely to make terrorist agents if
recruited and released back into their own world.
The aim of in-depth interrogation is to break the will of a terrorist to
the point where he is detached from reality and vulnerable to
suggestion-the suggestion that he might like to work for his enemy to
guarantee his own survival. It is also geared to undermining the
ideological commitment that led him into terrorism and to convince him that
the beliefs he held were flawed.
A regular CIA tactic is to confine a detainee to a cell with no windows so
that he can never determine whether it is day or night. "White noise" is
then played into the cell so that, over a prolonged period, it has a
disorientating effect.
Another part of the interrogation routine is sleep deprivation-wakening the
detainee after he has slept for one hour or maybe three or just five minutes.
After weeks of this procedure, most terrorist captives are emotionally and
intellectually defenseless, and vulnerable to suggestion and inducements.
A professional terrorist may also be subjected to the "helicopter
technique." He is hooded and placed in a helicopter, which lifts off the
ground and into the air. After a flight of only several minutes, he is
thrown out of the helicopter when it is only feet off the ground. The aim
of the exercise is to further increase his fear and vulnerability and to
convince him that his interrogators have the power to end his life at any
time.
DIFFICULT TO BREAK
Several of the more experienced al QAEDA operatives have reportedly proved
difficult to break. In some instances, they have resisted in-depth
interrogation for months. But, in every case, they have finally succumbed
to pressure.
A typical example was 31-year-old Omar al FARUQ, suspected of being a top
al QAEDA leader in Southeast Asia who was tracked to the village of CIJERUK
near Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Al FARUQ had been top of a list of al
QAEDA operatives whose identities were revealed by Abu ZUBAYDAH, the
highest-ranking terrorist in U.S. custody. ZUBAYDAH had been subjected to
months of sensory deprivation before he began "singing" to his
interrogators. Yet, when first captured he had tried to fool them by
providing tidbits of information. Finally he named, among others, al FARUQ aruq
who was believed to have masterminded bombings in Malaysia.
From the moment al FARUQ was arrested and handed over to British and
American interrogators, he strenuously denied that he had been al QAEDA'S
point man in Southeast Asia. For three months, he resisted all efforts to
break his will. But, just as ZUBAYDAH ubaydah had collapsed under the strain of
sleep deprivation, hooding, harassment and "white noise", al FARUQ offered
to "cooperate."
Yet, it is not men like al FARUQ who are being recruited as terrorist
agents at GUANTANAMO but lesser figures down the chain, some of whom were
seasoned bombers and gunmen. For instance, if al FARUQ were released to
operate as a terrorist agent, he would not be effective. His fellow
terrorists would know that someone of his stature would not be freed unless
he had struck a deal with the CIA.
The CIA has found, through its terrorist recruitment program, that lesser
figures with a low terrorist profile are ideal for release because they
will more successfully blend back into their own communities-men who have
not been missed in the turmoil of the war in Afghanistan.
Their CIA handlers have briefed them to return to a normal life in their
respective communities and then to slowly integrate once again into
terrorist ranks. Some will be sleeper agents, meaning they will not be
activated as agents until their handlers require them to join a terrorist
organization.
======================================
JANUARY 9 - 15, 2004
FACE OF A PROTESTER
LAPD WANTS TO BAN SKI MASKS FROM DEMONSTRATORS' WARDROBES
by Robert Greene
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/printme.php?eid=50115
The Los Angeles Police Department is seeking the fast track for new laws to
ban face coverings, gas masks or even goggles at public demonstrations,
where the devices could weaken officers who want to control crowds with
pepper spray and other chemicals. The proposal advanced this week after
Police Commission members dismissed any First Amendment objections as
premature.
Deputy Chief Mike Hillman, who heads the LAPD'S special operations bureau,
told the commission it's important to move quickly and get the laws on the
books before expected anti-war demonstrations on March 20, the anniversary
of the U.S. attack on Iraq. In fact, Hillman said, the LAPD would just as
soon get the new rules in place to deal with an even earlier expected
assault on public order - at the February 15 NBA All-Star Game at Staples
Center.
If protesters wear scarves around their noses and mouths and swim goggles
to protect their eyes at public gatherings, Hillman told the commission,
"the ability of that officer to gain compliance is restricted."
Police Commission President David Cunningham III warned that the proposals
raise severe constitutional questions, especially since some of the items
to be added to the banned list could be used for legitimate purposes. But
the five-lawyer commission gave the LAPD the go-ahead to work with the City
Attorney's Office and the City Council to prepare draft amendments to the
city Municipal Code.
Civil rights lawyers and activists said they were outraged that the city
would consider new restrictions on how demonstrators could express or
defend themselves, especially since trials are right around the corner in
two lawsuits over police response at the 2000 Democratic National
Convention at Staples. Trial is to start February 24 in a class action
brought on behalf of demonstrators and passersby injured by rubber bullets
at the DNC. A second trial, seeking an injunction to change current LAPD
crowd control practices, is set to begin in mid-May.
Attorney Carol SOBEL, who represents plaintiffs in the May trial, scoffed
at the proposals, which are in their initial stages.
"In Los Angeles, the only time a problem has arisen is when the police have
rioted," SOBEL said. "They have pepper spray and OCS on hand, and it has an
expiration date. They want to use it before it goes bad. And I'm not being
facetious."
The Municipal Code currently bars thick wooden sticks and bottles from
demonstrations, on grounds that they could be used as weapons. The LAPD is
seeking to amend sections 55.07 and 55.08 to include metal poles and
sticks, devices known as "sleeping dragons" that protesters use to chain
themselves to fixed objects, masks "and similar devices intended to filter
air," rocks, projectiles, spray cans, wrist rockets, aerosol cans and
chemical agents.
Hillman said the list grew from a body of knowledge the department has
gained during the course of demonstrations like the 1999 protests at the
World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle and the DNC in Los Angeles. The
LAPD also encountered a mini-riot in June 2000 at Staples after the Lakers
beat the Indiana Pacers to win the NBA title. Police in riot gear and on
horseback battled fans who set two police cars on fire in a celebratory and
often violent spree.
Hillman told the panel that other cities adjacent to Los Angeles have laws
similar to those the LAPD is seeking, and that those laws have not been
challenged. Hillman could not be reached after the commission meeting for
comment.
But SOBEL noted that she represented plaintiffs who won a suit against a
Monterey Park ordinance in the 1980s that barred protesters from covering
their faces. In that case, she said, Taiwanese demonstrators were trying to
keep their faces from being caught on videotape that would be used against
them by officials in their home country. In fact, many protesters use face
coverings in their demonstrations as integral parts of their expression -
and federal courts have repeatedly struck down laws purporting to outlaw
anonymous protests.
Scott SHEFFER of the Los Angeles office of International ANSWER (Act Now to
Stop War and End Racism) said members of his group often used masks as part
of their demonstrations and probably would continue to do so at the March
20 protest, slated for Hollywood and Vine. "The best thing to do would be
for the police to not infringe on the rights of the demonstrators in the
first place" by needlessly using gas and rubber bullets against the crowd,
SHEFFER said.
That sentiment was echoed by attorney James Muller, who is representing the
plaintiff class in the suit set for trial next month. "The idea of banning
gas masks is perfectly reasonable - if the police department is behaving
reasonably at these demonstrations," Muller said. "But we saw that these
officers are very capricious, and not respectful. At least that's what we
saw at the DNC."
Protesters should be able to wear masks or goggles to protect their eyes
from rubber bullets, Muller said, noting that one person was blinded by a
rubber bullet at the DNC and that others have suffered the same fate at
other protests around the country.
ADENA TESSLER, public safety deputy for Councilwoman Cindy MISCIKOWSKI,
said the council and the city attorney would make sure that any final
proposal would take into account First Amendment protections. She said that
officers who are given the power to tell protesters to remove hoods
probably would be less likely to throw bottles or engage in other illegal
activities.
SOBEL said recent rulings have underscored the right of protesters to wear
masks. Besides, she said, why is it so important to get the laws in place
before the NBA game?
"Has there been anywhere in the country," she asked, "where there has been
a riot after an all-star game?"
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QUOTATION:
"All of us may not live to see the higher accomplishments of an African empire, so strong and powerful as to compel the respect of mankind, but we in our lifetime can so work and act as to make the dream a possibility within another generation"
-<html><A HREF="http://members.aol.com/GhanaUnion/afrohero.html">Ancestor Marcus Mosiah Garvey <i>(1887 - 1940)</i></A></html>
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