[NYTr] Censored 2007: Operation FALCON Raids

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by rich winkel (activ-l)

Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007

#6 Operation FALCON Raids
Sources: 

SourceWatch, November 18, 2006
Title: Operation Falcon 
Author: Artificial Intelligence
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Operation_FALCON

Uruknet, February 26, 2007
Title: Operation Falcon and the Looming Police State 
Author: Mike Whitney
http://uruknet.info/?p=m30971&s1=h1

Student Researcher: Erica Haikara and Celeste Winders
Faculty Evaluator: Ron Lopez, Ph.D.

Under the code name Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Organized
Nationally) three federally coordinated mass arrests occurred between
April 2005 and October 2006. In an unprecedented move, more than 30,000
fugitives were arrested in the largest dragnets in the nation's
history. The operations directly involved over 960 agencies (state,
local, and federal) and were the brainchild of Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales and US Marshal's Director Ben Reyna. The DoJ supplied
television networks government-shot action videotape of Marshals and
local cops raiding homes and breaking down doors, targeting the worst
of the worst criminals on the run, emphasizing suspected sex offenders.

Yet less than ten percent of the total 30,150 were suspected sex
offenders and less than two percent owned firearms. The press has not
asked, Who were the others? And to date, the US Marshal's office has
issued no public statement as to whether the people arrested in
Operation Falcon have been processed or released. Author Mike Whitney
cautions that Attorney General Gonzales has little interest in the petty
offenders who were netted in this extraordinary crackdown. This action
is instead, he warns, a practice roundup in the move toward martial law.

Altogether, there were three FALCON Operations, each netting
roughly 10,000 criminal suspects. Between April 4 "10, 2005, FALCON I
swept up 10,340 fugitives in the largest nationwide mass arrest (to that
date) in American history. Alberto Gonzalez proudly announced on April
15 through corporate media, Operation FALCON is an excellent example of
President Bush s direction and the Justice Department s dedication to
deal both with the terrorist threat and traditional violent crime. This
joint effort shows the commitment of our federal, state, and local
partners to make our neighborhoods safer, and it has led to the highest
number of arrests ever recorded for a single initiative of its kind. We
will use all of our Nation s law enforcement resources to serve the
people, to pursue justice, and to make our streets and Nation safer. 

Operation FALCON II, carried out the week of April 17 "23, 2006,
arrested another 9,037 individuals from twenty-seven states mostly west
of the Mississippi River. Operation FALCON III, conducted during the
week of October 22 "28, 2006, netted another 10,733 fugitives in
twenty-four states east of the Mississippi River.

The US Marshals Service has not yet disclosed the names of the
people arrested in these massive sweeps nor of what crimes they were
accused. We have no way of knowing whether they were provided with due
process of law, where they are now, or whether they have been abused
while in custody.

SourceWatch contributors further ask for clarification,

Although Attorney General Gonzales stated on April 15, 2005 that
Operation FALCON was an excellent example of President Bush s direction
and the Justice Department s dedication to deal both with the terrorist
threat and traditional violent crime, where is the connection between
the Operation FALCON roundups and catching terrorists? Why did police
wait for federally orchestrated raids to arrest known sex offenders and
suspected murders? Why were state and federal agencies integrated with
local law enforcement to simply carry out routine police work? 

The media played an essential role in concealing the important
details of the Operation. In fact, the non-critical cookie cutter 
articles which appeared in newspapers across the country suggest that
the media may have collaborated directly with the Justice Department.
(see Chapter 9, Fake News) Whitney notes that nearly identical news 
segments and articles put the best possible spin on a story that most
Americans might find deeply disturbing, and perhaps frightening.

While mass militarized police roundups make little sense as a
method of apprehending fugitives, the FALCON program does make sense as
a means of effectively setting up a chain-of-command structure that
radiates from the Justice Department and relocates the levers of control
to Washington where they can be manned by members of the administration.
Whitney warns that the plan behind the FALCON program appears to have
been devised to enhance the powers of the unitary executive by putting
state and local law enforcement under federal supervision, ready for the
institution of martial law (see story #2.)

Update by Mike Whitney

Operation FALCON presents the first time in US history that all of the
domestic police agencies have been put under the direct control of the
federal government. The implications for American democracy are quite
profound.

Operation FALCON serves no purpose except to centralize power and
establish the basic contours of an American police state. It is not an
effective way of apprehending criminals.

For the most part, the media completely ignored FALCON. In fact, these
extraordinary police-state sweeps did not elicit even one editorial or
one column-inch of commentary from any journalist in the country.
Following the government s version of events, the story was simply
brushed aside as trivial. For those who care to explore the media s true
role in undermining the fundamental rights of Americans; FALCON is
probably a good place to begin. It illustrates how the media
deliberately obscures facts that do not serve the overall interests of
the state.

The last FALCON operation was carried out on October 28, 2006. Since
then, the project has been put on hold, presumably until some time in
the future when it will be reactivated by presidential decree. The
precedents have now been established for law enforcement agencies across
the nation to be taken over by the chief executive at a moment s notice.
If there is another terrorist attack within the United States, or the
outbreak of an epidemic, or a natural disaster on the scale of Hurricane
Katrina; we can expect that President Bush will consolidate his power by
asserting direct control over all of the various federal, state, and
local police agencies. Eventually, we will see that FALCON was organized
with that very purpose in mind.

Recent changes to the Insurrection Act of 1807 as well as to the Posse
Comitatus Act of 1878 allow President Bush to declare martial law at his
own discretion and to take control of the National Guard from the state
governors. That means that Bush now has a complete monopoly on all the
means of organized violence in the country.

With the aid of the corporate media and an alliance of far-right
organizations, Bush has successfully removed all the traditional
obstacles to absolute power. The groundwork has been laid for an
American dictatorship. FALCON is just one small part of that much larger
plan.

UPDATE BY ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

A more recent and less publicized sweep was made March 7, 2007, in
Baltimore, with the arrest of about two hundred fugitives. The rationale
for this sweep is more puzzling, perhaps, as it was the only city
involved. This sweep received only local media attention.

Numerous questions, as stated in the Operation FALCON article, remain
unanswered. The mainstream press does not appear to be interested in
exploring beyond the initial sweep events.

Both House and Senate committees on the judiciary and government
oversight are digging into DoJ operations due to the US attorney firings
and politicization of the Department, with all roads leading to the
White House. It is not unreasonable to expect that these sweeps may
eventually come under investigation as well.

The mainstream press, to my knowledge, has not responded at all to my
/SourceWatch/ coverage of this story. The press coverage that Operation
FALCON received appears to be limited to DoJ and USMS news releases with
the addition of an occasional local interest story. Information on the
fate of the 30,000 plus who were arrested is conspicuous by its absence.
Additional information on this story should be available from both the
DoJ and USMS. In reality, it most likely will not be, as neither has
provided any updates. The /SourceWatch/ article will continue to be
updated when or if additional information becomes available.

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