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G20 US PROTEST 9/24 & 9/25 2011

FBI warns letters to governors could stir violence

Apr 2, 8:23 PM (ET)

By EILEEN SULLIVAN and DEVLIN BARRETT

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is warning police across the country that an anti-government group's call to remove governors from office could provoke violence. The group called the Guardians of the free Republics wants to "restore America" by peacefully dismantling parts of the government, according to its Web site. It sent letters to governors demanding they leave office or be removed.

Investigators do not see threats of violence in the group's message, but fear the broad call for removal of top state officials could lead others to act out violently. At least two states beefed up security in response.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he received one of the letters but wasn't overly alarmed.

"We get all kinds of, shall we say, 'interesting' mail, so it's not out of the norm," Pawlenty said Friday. "It got more attention because it went to so many governors."

As of Wednesday, more than 30 governors had received letters saying if they don't leave office within three days they will be removed, according to an internal intelligence note by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The note was obtained by The Associated Press.

The FBI expects all 50 governors will eventually receive such letters.

Governors whose offices reported getting the letters included Jennifer Granholm of Michigan, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Chet Culver of Iowa, Dave Heineman of Nebraska, Jim Gibbons of Nevada, Brad Henry of Oklahoma, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Bob McDonnell of Virginia, and Gary Herbert of Utah, where officials stepped up security in response to the letter.

In Nevada, screening machines for visitors and packages were added to the main entrance to the state Capitol as a precaution.

"We're not really overly concerned, but at the same time we don't want to sit back and do nothing and regret it," Deputy Chief of Staff Lynn Hettrick said.

Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd, said federal authorities had alerted the governor that such a letter might be coming, and it arrived Monday. Boyd, who described the letter as "non-threatening," said it was opened by a staffer and immediately turned over to the Michigan State Police.

Jindal's office confirmed that the governor had received one of the letters and directed questions to the Louisiana State Police.

"They called us as they do for any letter that's out of the norm," said Lt. Doug Cain, a state police spokesman. He declined to provide specifics about the letter, but said, "not knowing the group and the information contained in the letter warranted state police to review it."

The FBI warning comes at a time of heightened attention to far-right extremist groups after the arrest of nine Christian militia members last weekend accused of plotting violence.

In explaining the letters sent to the governors, the intelligence note says officials have no specific knowledge of plans to use violence, but they caution police to be aware in case other individuals interpret the letters "as a justification for violence or other criminal actions."

The FBI associated the letter with "sovereign citizens," most of whom believe they are free from all duties of a U.S. citizen, like paying taxes or needing a government license to drive. A small number of these people are armed and resort to violence, according to the intelligence report.

Last weekend, the FBI conducted raids on suspected members of a Christian militia in the Midwest that was allegedly planning to kill police officers. In the past year, federal agents have seen an increase in "chatter" from an array of domestic extremist groups, which can include radical self-styled militias, white separatists or extreme civil libertarians and sovereign citizens.

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Associated Press writers Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, La., Brian Bakst in St. Paul, Minn., and David Aguilar in Detroit contributed to this report.

G20 LONDON PROTEST 9/24 & 9/25 2011

Violence flares as demonstrations against economic crisis spread around the globe

Rob Hastings and David Usborne

Friday 18 November 2011

Confrontation and violence marked street demonstrations against
the economic crisis across the globe yesterday, as showdowns
between police and protesters flared in Italy, Greece and the US,
while London's demonstrators prepared for battle in the courts.

Italian students armed themselves with firecrackers, rocks, eggs and smoke bombs as widespread disturbances broke out across the country. Police in Milan used pepper spray to counter protests against the "bankers' government" of the new Prime Minister Mario Monti, while anarchists clashed with officers in Turin, authorities charged students in Palermo, and Bari and Rome saw their own demonstrations.

Fire bombs and tear gas left clouds hanging above Athens last night, after between 20,000 and 50,000 protesters marched through the Greek capital only to come up against 7,000 police officers. In a country where street clashes sparked by rage at government austerity measures have become commonplace this year, yesterday's march was even more angry than usual due to the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising, when Greece's military junta sent in troops to put down a student demonstration in 1973.

There were 60 arrests, but no injuries were reported despite the police's use of stun grenades.

In London, by contrast, the 6pm deadline for the demonstrators and their tents to leave the square outside St Paul's passed relatively quietly. Leaders of the occupation said nobody had left, and two lawyers acting for the camp announced a case against the Corporation of London's eviction notice would be heard by the High Court.

In New York , however, Occupy Wall Street protesters clashed with police after they tried but failed to take over the streets around the Stock Exchange in Manhattan. Disturbances on the two-month anniversary of the movement also broke out in other American cities.

Police said that roughly 75 people had been in arrested during the morning in Manhattan. After most of the protesters were repelled from the area around Wall Street, about a thousand of them marched back to Zuccotti Park, the public plaza that became the focal point for the movement before it spread rapidly to cities across the US.

In Los Angeles hundreds of protesters and union members marched through the financial district shouting: "Whose streets? Our streets". And in Dallas more than a dozen people were arrested after police broke up an encampment near City Hall.

Most of the arrests in New York came when marchers tore down metal barriers set up to ensure they entered Zuccotti Park in single file. The protest was expected to grow last night, with plans to occupy subway stations and to hold a rally outside City Hall and a march across Brooklyn Bridge.