Kommune Null on 24 Apr 2001 19:46:27 -0000


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[rohrpost] FBI Raids Indy Media Center


http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0424-04.htm

(...) Security plans intended to protect Western leaders attending a
trade summit in Quebec City were stolen from a car there over the
weekend and posted, hours later, on a Seattle-based Web site,
authorities said yesterday.

On Saturday night, FBI agents raided the offices of the Independent
Media Center in downtown Seattle, seizing computer-log records,
according to federal sources.No arrests have been made.

Center spokeswoman Sherry Herndon said she and other staff have been
told "not to talk about" the incident under threat of being held in
contempt of court. (...)

No mention of the FBI raid could be found yesterday on the IMC Web
site. But the organization's home page carried a boldface note
stating, "Everything is fine at the Seattle IMC. We will keep you
posted on any further developments."

One federal criminal justice source said the speed with which the
sensitive stolen document appeared on the Internet speaks to the
sophistication of the movement that is opposed to unrestricted global
trade.

"The fact that you have something of this magnitude out there on the
Web, it really shows these groups are strong, resourceful and
resilient," the source said.

The IMC calls itself "a collective of independent media organizations
and hundreds of  journalists offering grass-roots, non-corporate,
non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues."

The organization has committed "no clear-cut violation of U.S. law" by
posting the document on the Web, and the action may be protected as
free speech, according to federal criminal justice sources. (...)

The breach of security, however, is another embarrassment for the
Canadian government, which recently lost a highly sensitive,
anti-terrorism document. It was stolen from a government official's
car while he was attending a hockey game.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police referred a call for comment on the
IMC incident to Quebec Provincial Police, which was in charge of
security at the summit. No one was available to comment on the matter
yesterday at police headquarters in Montreal.


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