'Il Duce' Miller press suppression kerfuffle gets weirder. 2 hired thugs were active-duty military

according to this Anchorage Daily News story, and Miller is caught in a big fat lie about whether or not "private security" was required by the school where the 'arrest' of the journalist took place:



http://www.adn.com/2010/10/18/1507982/questions-surround-use-of-security.html#ixzz12pP0iUbe


'SECURITY' REQUIRED

Miller gave interviews to Fox and CNN on Monday. He told Fox, "I might also note that the middle school itself required us by a contract for a campaign, required us to have a security team." He told CNN, "There was a -- a private security team that was required. We had to hire them because the school required that as a term in their lease."

But district spokeswoman Heidi Embley said that wasn't true.

"We do not require users to hire security," she said. Renters must only have a security plan to protect users and the school itself, she said, and can resolve the issues with "monitors."

The contract the district has renters sign requires groups to make an "expectation speech" at the beginning of an event reminding people to be respectful, to park properly, and to remain only in permitted areas. That did not happen Sunday.

In a statement issued Monday, the campaign appeared to back off from Miller's assertions that a security team was required by the district.

"Per the 'Facility Rental Security Plan Requirement,' the Miller campaign hired security to monitor the event," the statement said. "One of the purposes of the security personnel was to enforce the Anchorage School District requirement of 'no disruptive behavior' at events within the facility. The security personnel made the determination that the man in question was being disruptive by his actions towards Joe and by pushing someone attending the event into a locker and enforced the rule."


Read more: http://www.adn.com/2010/10/18/1507982/questions-surround-use-of-security.html#ixzz12q9yXHbT

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/19/miller/index.html

Glenn Greenwald
Tuesday, Oct 19, 2010 15:20 ET
Joe Miller's private "guards" were active-duty military
By Glenn Greenwald

...

If it's not completely intolerable to have active-duty soldiers handcuffing American journalists on U.S. soil while acting as private "guards" for Senate candidates, what would be? This is the sort of thing that the U.S. State Department would readily condemn if it happened in Egypt or Iran or Venezuela or Cuba: active-duty soldiers detaining journalists while they're paid by politician candidates? The fact that Joe Miller has been defending the conduct of his private guards in handcuffing a journalist and threatening others with handcuffs should be disqualifying by itself. That reveals a deeply disturbed authoritarian mind. But the fact that these guards are active-duty U.S. soldiers makes this entire incident far more disturbing. Shouldn't American journalists of every stripe be vehemently protesting this incident?



UPDATE: DoD Directive 1344.10 -- governing "Political Activities by Members of the Armed Forces on Active Duty" -- provides: "A member on AD <active duty> shall not: . . .<p>articipate in partisan political management, campaigns, or conventions." The legality is the least of the concerns here. That Directive exists because it's dangerous and un-democratic to have active-duty soldiers taking an active role in partisan campaigns; having them handcuff journalists on behalf of candidates is so far over that line that it's hard to believe it happened. The real issue, though, is Joe Miller: the fact that he did this and then emphatically defended it reveals the deep authoritarianism of many of these "small-government, pro-Constitution" right-wing candidates. Any American of minimal decency should be repelled by this incident.

Is anyone in the military looking into these guys?

How do we find out? Call the campaign?

Aren't candidates' financial reports privvy to public inspection?

:hi:

Bonus points if it can be escalated to a fracas, a ruckus, a rumble, or a melee.

Now that was a rumpus!

:o