NYC "Intelligence" Makin' Stuff Up Before RNC Protests?

Sure sounds like it according to this story:

Challenges to Security Measures Pull Ghosts From the Shadows
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/09/nyregion/09about.html?pagewanted=print

The story is about the undercover work that went on prior to the protests. Supposedly this intelligence unit was also to be protecting the RNC from terrorists. Sounds more like they were interested in Quaker types to me.

Now that the protesters are taking the city to court, however, the city is against a wall and is claiming that revealing such information will ruin their intelligence program.

I recall this protest and what the NYC police did to the protesters was brutal. They were hauling people in in masses and putting them in filthy conditions. I recall one report that said they had to sit on a floor where there had been some type of toxic substance spread over it. Some people who were not even protesters--just people going about their own business--were picked up and imprisoned.

Those who are standing their ground and suing are the true American heroes.

Meanwhile, the police appear to be "making sh*^ up:


<snip>Hundreds of people have filed lawsuits against the city, saying they were wrongly arrested during the 2004 convention and held far too long in detention. The city says police officials learned that many people planned to disguise their identities, and so they could not simply issue them summonses for minor offenses. Everyone had to be fingerprinted, prolonging their time behind bars.
</snip>

<snip>people like Andy Mager, 46, who came to New York in August 2004 for the convention. Mr. Mager, a staff member of the Syracuse Peace Council, said his group held a retreat in April of that year to “gather people experienced in nonviolent actions, to plan and engage in actions that were nonviolent but that would be a powerful statement of our opposition to war.”

About 20 people came, including one man from New York City who was not familiar to others. A few days after, a report produced by Mr. Cohen’s intelligence operation said “sources” had revealed plans by the Peace Council to block traffic. “That was bogus,” Mr. Mager said. “It was four months before the event, far too early to be talking about something like that.”

When the city released some intelligence reports last month, Mr. Mager posted pages about the Peace Council on the Internet, annotating what he said were factual errors. Among them: that the Peace Council had taken part in protests at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. “We weren’t there,” Mr. Mager said.
</snip>



Cher