Civil Liberites/Constitution

On the 18th of February, Obama began his "countering violent extremism" summit, which is mostly an event to coordinate police efforts to spy on and infiltrate Muslim communities. Outside, both Muslims and DC Ferguson activists called out this event for hypocrisy. The US itself was called out for the drone strikes used for extra-judicial executions throughout the Muslim world. This was compared to the routine and never punished street executions of African-Americans by killer cops, often by jump-outs in DC. Lastly everyone was reminded that the profile of almost every terrorist in the US has been an angry, armed white male. This includes last week's murder of three Muslims by a terrorist in North Carolina. No doubt Obama's summit will pay little attention to the ongoing drumbeat of mass murders by angry white men in the US.

Selected video highlights of the protest

On the 10th of December, the Washington Post ran a front-page story about the Congressional CIA torture report. Unfortunately, this sort of journalism is the exception, not the rule there. Also on Dec 10th, protesters outside the Washington Post charged the newspaper with being the State Department's mouthpiece in covering up decades of CIA cooperation with torture by right-wing regimes in Central America, and involvement on both sides of the "war on drugs." Particular attention was given to the alleged 2004 "suicide" of former Iran-Contra reporter Gary Webb, found with TWO gunshot wounds to the head.

On the 5th of November, Anonymous's Million Mask March took to the streets of DC as they did last year. A confrontation with police erupted at the Supreme Court as barricades were torn down. Elsewhere protesters blocked Constitution Ave and another tense confrontation came after cops tasered a protester.

Youtube video of the barricade removal confrontation at the Supreme Court and a standoff at another building

Youtube video of confrontation triggered by Taser incident