"The War on Dissent: Heavy-handed Police and Propaganda Tactics Brought Baghdad to Miami"

Naomi Klein, Globe and Mail, November 25, 2003

In December, 1990, U.S. President George Bush Sr. travelled through South
America to sell the continent on a bold new dream: "a free-trade system that
links all of the Americas." Addressing the Argentine congress, he said that
the plan, later to be named the Free-Trade Area of the Americas would be
"our hemisphere's new declaration of interdependence . . . the brilliant new
dawn of a splendid new world."

Last week, Mr. Bush's two sons joined forces to try to usher in that new
world by holding the FTAA negotiations in friendly Florida.This is the
state that Governor Jeb Bush vowed to "deliver" to his brother during the
2000 presidential elections, even if that meant keeping many
African-Americans from exercising their right to vote. Now Jeb Bush was
vowing to hand his brother the coveted trade deal, even if that meant
keeping thousands from exercising their right to protest.

And yet, despite the Bush brothers' best efforts, the dream of a hemisphere
united into a single free-market economy died last week. It was killed not
by demonstrators in Miami, but by the populations of Brazil, Argentina, and
Bolivia, which have let their politicians know that if they sign away any
more power to foreign multinationals, they may as well not come home.

The Brazilians brokered a compromise that makes the agreement a
pick-and-choose affair, allowing governments to sign on to the parts they
like and refuse the ones they don't. Washington will, of course, continue to
try to bully individual countries and groups of nations into sweeping trade
contracts on the model of the North American free-trade agreement, but there
will be no single, unified deal.

Inside the Hotel Inter-Continental, it was being called "FTAA Lite."

Outside, we experienced something distinctly heavier: "War Lite." In fact,
the more control the U.S. trade representatives lost at the negotiating
table, the more raw power the police exerted on the streets.

"Our goal was to drown you out," one Miami-Dade police officer explained to
me, and that's exactly what they did. Small, peaceful demonstrations were
attacked with extreme force; organizations were infiltrated by undercover
officers who then used stun guns on activists; busses filled with union
members were prevented from joining permitted marches; dozens of young faces
were smashed into concrete and beaten bloody with batons; human rights
activists had guns pointed at their heads at military-style checkpoints.

Police violence outside of trade summits is not new, but what was striking
about Miami was how divorced the security response was from anything
resembling an actual threat. From an activist perspective, the protests were
disappointingly small and almost embarrassingly obedient, an understandable
response to weeks of police intimidation.

Listening to the incessant roar of helicopters and the march of police
boots, I couldn't shake the feeling that something new was going on. It felt
less like we were the targets of this operation than the target practice,
unwitting extras in an elaborate military drill.

The FTAA Summit in Miami represents the official homecoming of the "war on
terror." The latest tactical and propaganda techniques honed in Iraq -- from
a Hollywoodized military to a militarized media -- have now been used on a
grand scale in a major U.S. city. "This should be a model for homeland
defence," Miami Mayor Manny Diaz proudly said of the security operation that
brought together over 40 law-enforcement agencies, from the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

But in order for the Miami Model to work, the police first had to establish
a connection between legitimate activists and dangerous terrorists. Enter
Miami Police Chief John Timoney, an avowed enemy of activist "punks" who
repeatedly classified FTAA opponents as "outsiders coming in to terrorize
and vandalize our city."

With the activists recast as dangerous aliens, Miami became eligible for the
open tap of public money irrigating the "war on terror." In fact,
$8.5-million spent on security during the FTAA meeting came directly out of
the $87-billion President Bush extracted from Congress for Iraq last month
-- a fact barely reported outside of the Miami press.

But more was borrowed from the Iraq invasion than just money. Miami police
also invited reporters to "embed" with them in armoured vehicles and
helicopters. As in Iraq, most reporters embraced their role as
pseudo-soldiers with unsettling zeal, suiting up in ridiculous combat
helmets and brand-new camouflage flak jackets.

The resulting media coverage was the familiar wartime combination of
dramatic images and non-information. We know, thanks to an "embed" from the
Miami Herald, that Police Chief Timoney was working so hard hunting down
troublemakers that by 3:30 on Thursday, "he had eaten only a banana and an
oatmeal cookie since 6 a.m."

Local television stations didn't cover the protests so much as hover over
them. Their helicopters showed images of confrontations but instead of
hearing the voices on the streets -- voices of demonstrators pleading with
police to stop shooting and clearly following orders to disperse -- we heard
only from senior police officials and perky news anchors commiserating with
the boys on the front line.

Meanwhile, independent journalists who dared to do their jobs and film the
police violence up close were actively targeted. "She's not with us," one
officer told another as they grabbed Ana Nogueira, a correspondent with
Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now! who was covering a peaceful protest outside
the Miami-Dade county jail. When the police established that Ms. Nogueira
was indeed "not with us" (i.e. neither an embedded reporter nor an
undercover cop) she was hauled away and charged.

The Miami Model of dealing with dissent reaches far beyond a single meeting.
On Sunday, the New York Times reported on a leaked FBI bulletin revealing "a
co-ordinated, nationwide effort to collect intelligence" on the U.S.
anti-war movement. The memorandum singles out perfectly lawful protest
activities including non-violence training, videotaping of police actions
and Internet organizing. Anthony Romero, executive director of the American
Civil Liberties Union, said that the document revealed that, "The FBI is
dangerously targeting Americans who are engaged in nothing more than lawful
protest and dissent. The line between terrorism and legitimate civil
disobedience is blurred."

We can expect much more of these tactics on the homeland front. Just as
civil liberties violations escalated when Washington lost control over the
FTAA process, so will repression increase as the Bush crew faces the
ultimate threat: losing control over the White House.

Already, Jim Wilkinson, director of strategic communications at U.S. Central
Command in Doha, Qatar, (the operation that gave the world the Jessica Lynch
rescue), has moved to New York to head up media operations for the
Republican National Convention. "We're looking at embedding reporters," he
told the New York Observer of his plans to use some of the Iraq tricks
during the convention. "We're looking at new and interesting camera angles."

The war is coming home.

[Naomi Klein is the author of No Logo and Fences and Windows.