Naomi Klein on the meaning of FTAA crackdown

[Michael Pollak <mpollak@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4805314-103677,00.html

   America's enemy within

   Armed checkpoints, embedded reporters in flak jackets, brutal
   suppression of peaceful demonstrators. Baghdad? No, Miami

   Naomi Klein
   Wednesday November 26, 2003
   The Guardian

   In December 1990, 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, Bush's two sons joined forces to try to usher in that new
   world by holding the FTAA negotiations in 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 was
   vowing to hand his brother the coveted trade deal, even if that meant
   keeping thousands from exercising their right to protest.

   Despite the brothers' best efforts, the dream of a hemisphere united
   into a single free-market economy died last week - killed not by
   demonstrators in Miami but by the populations of Argentina, Brazil and
   Bolivia, who let their politicians know that if they sign away 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 continue to
   bully countries into sweeping trade contracts on the model of the
   North American Free Trade Agreement, but there will be no single,
   unified deal.

   Inside the Inter-Continental hotel, it was being called "FTAA lite".
   Outside, we experienced something heavier: "War lite". The more
   control the US trade representatives lost at the negotiating table,
   the more raw power the police exerted on the streets.

   Small, peaceful demonstrations were attacked with extreme force;
   organisations were infiltrated by undercover officers who used stun
   guns; buses of union members were prevented from joining permitted
   marches; people were beaten with batons; activists had guns pointed at
   their heads at checkpoints.

   Police violence outside trade summits is not new; 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 small and obedient, an understandable response to weeks
   of police intimidation.

   The FTAA Summit in Miami represents the official homecoming of the
   "war on terror". The latest techniques honed in Iraq - from a
   Hollywoodised military to a militarised media - have now been used on
   a grand scale in a major US city. "This should be a model for homeland
   defence," the Miami mayor, Manny Diaz, said of the security operation
   that brought together over 40 law-enforcement agencies, from the FBI
   to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

   For the Miami model to work, the police had to establish a connection
   between legitimate activists and dangerous terrorists. Enter the Miami
   police chief, John Timoney, an avowed enemy of activist "punks", who
   classified FTAA opponents as "outsiders coming in to terrorise and
   vandalise 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, $8.5m spent on security during the FTAA meeting came out of the
   $87bn Bush extracted from Congress for Iraq last month.

   But more was borrowed from the Iraq war 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 zeal, suiting up in combat helmets and 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 Timoney was working so hard hunting down
   troublemakers that by 3:30pm on Thursday "he had eaten only a banana
   and a cookie since 6am".

   Local TV 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 pleading with police to
   stop shooting and clearly following orders to disperse - we heard only
   from 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 Nogueira was "not with us" (ie neither an embedded
   reporter nor undercover cop) she was hauled away and charged.

   The Miami model of dealing with domestic dissent reaches far beyond a
   single meeting. On Sunday, the New York Times reported on a leaked FBI
   bulletin revealing "a coordinated, nationwide effort to collect
   intelligence" on the anti-war movement. The memorandum singles out
   lawful protest activities. Anthony Romero, executive director of the
   American Civil Liberties Union, said the document revealed that "the
   FBI is targeting Americans who are engaged in lawful protest. The line
   between terrorism and legitimate civil disobedience is blurred."

   We can expect 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 Bush faces the
   ultimate threat: losing control over the White House.

   Already, Jim Wilkinson, director of strategic communications at US
   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.

           Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003