From FTAA Lite to War Lite: Naomi Klein on Miami Model

reposted from NOLOGO.ORG

From FTAA Lite to War Lite
by Naomi Klein > November 25 2003

In December, 1990, U.S. President George Bush Sr.
traveled through South America to sell the continent on
a bold new dream: "a free trade system that links all of
the Americas." Addressing the Argentine Congress, he
said that the plan, later to be named the "Free Trade
Area of the Americas" would be "our hemisphere's new
declaration of interdependence ..... the brilliant new
dawn of a splendid new world.

Last week, Bush’s two sons joined forces to try to usher
in that new world by holding the FTAA negotiations in
friendly Florida. This is the state that Governor Jeb
Bush vowed to “deliver” to his brother during the 2000
presidential elections, even if that meant keeping many
African-Americans from exercising their right to vote.
Now Jeb was vowing to hand his brother the coveted
trade deal, even if that meant keeping thousands from
exercising their right to protest.

And yet despite the Bush brothers’ best efforts, the
dream of a hemisphere united into a single free-market
economy died last week. It was killed not by
demonstrators in Miami but by the populations of Brazil,
Argentina, and Bolivia, who have let their politicians
know that if they sign away any more power to foreign
multinationals, they may as well not come home.

The Brazilians brokered a compromise that makes the
agreement a pick and choose affair, allowing
governments to sign on to the parts they like and refuse
the ones they don’t. Washington will, of course, continue
to try to bully individual countries and groups of nations
into sweeping trade contracts on the model of the North
American Free Trade Agreement, but there will be no
single, unified deal.

Inside the Inter-Continental Hotel, it was being called
“FTAA Lite.” Outside, we experienced something
distinctly heavier: “War Lite.” In fact, the more control
the U.S. trade representatives lost at the negotiating
table, the more raw power the police exerted on the
streets.

“Our goal was to drown you out,” one Miami-Dade police
officer explained to me, and that’s exactly what they did.
Small peaceful demonstrations were attacked with
extreme force; organizations were infiltrated by
undercover officers who then used stun guns on
activists; busses filled with union members were
prevented from joining permitted marches; dozens of
young faces were smashed into concrete and beaten
bloody with batons; human rights activists had guns
pointed at their heads at military style checkpoints.

Police violence outside of trade summits is not new, but
what was striking about Miami was how divorced the
security response was from anything resembling an
actual threat. From an activist perspective, the protests
were disappointingly small and almost embarrassingly
obedient, an understandable response to weeks of
police intimidation.

Listening to the incessant roar of helicopters and the
march of police boots, I couldn’t shake the feeling that
something new was going on. It felt less like we were
the targets of this operation than the target practice,
unwitting extras in an elaborate military drill.

The FTAA Summit in Miami represents the official
homecoming of the "war on terror." The latest tactical
and propaganda techniques honed in Iraq from a
Hollywoodized military to a militarized media have now
been used on a grand scale in a major U.S. city. "This
should be a model for homeland defense," Miami Mayor
Manny Diaz proudly said of the security operation that
brought together over forty law-enforcement agencies,
from the FBI to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

But in order for the Miami Model to work, the police first
had to establish a connection between legitimate
activists and dangerous terrorists. Enter Miami Police
Chief John Timoney, an avowed enemy of activist
"punks," who repeatedly classified FTAA opponents as
"outsiders coming in to terrorize and vandalize our
city."

With the activists re-cast at dangerous aliens, Miami
became eligible for the open tap of public money
irrigating the "war on terror." In fact, $8.5-million spent
on security during the FTAA meeting came directly out
of the $87-billion Bush extracted from Congress for
Iraq last month, a fact barely reported outside of the
Miami press.

But more was borrowed from the Iraq invasion than just
money. Miami police also invited reporters to "embed"
with them in armoured vehicles and helicopters. As in
Iraq, most reporters embraced their role as pseudo
soldiers with unsettling zeal, suiting up in ridiculous
combat helmets and brand-new camouflage flak jackets.

The resulting media coverage was the familiar wartime
combination of dramatic images and non-information.
We know, thanks to an "embed" from the Miami Herald,
that Police Chief Timoney was working so hard hunting
down troublemakers that that by 3:30 on Thursday, "he
had eaten only a banana and an oatmeal cookie since 6
a.m."

Local television stations didn’t cover the protests so
much as hover over them. Their helicopters showed
images of confrontations but instead of hearing the
voices on the streets — voices of demonstrators
pleading with police to stop shooting and clearly
following orders to disperse — we heard only from senior
police officials and perky news anchors commiserating
with the boys on the front line.

Meanwhile, independent journalists who dared to do
their jobs and film the police violence up close were
actively targeted. "She’s not with us" one officer told
another as they grabbed Ana Nogueira, a correspondent
with Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now! who was
covering a peaceful protest outside the Miami-Dade
county jail. When the police established that Nogueira
was "not with us" (ie. neither an embedded reporter nor
an undercover cop) she was hauled away and charged.

The Miami Model of dealing with domestic dissent
reaches far beyond a single meeting. On Sunday, the
New York Times reported on a leaked FBI bulletin
revealing "a coordinated, nationwide effort to collect
intelligence" on the U.S. anti-war movement. The
memorandum singles out perfectly lawful protest
activities including non-violence training, video-taping
of police actions and Internet organizing. Anthony
Romero, executive director of the American Civil
Liberties Union, said that the document revealed that,
"The FBI is dangerously targeting Americans who are
engaged in nothing more than lawful protest and
dissent. The line between terrorism and legitimate civil
disobedience is blurred."

We can expect much more of these tactics on the
homeland front. Just as civil liberties violations
escalated when Washington lost control over the FTAA
process, so will repression increase as the Bush crew
faces the ultimate threat: losing control over the White
House.

Already, Jim Wilkinson, director of strategic
communications at U.S. Central Command in Doha,
Qatar (the operation that gave the world the Jessica
Lynch rescue), has moved to New York to head up
media operations for the Republican National
Convention. "We’re looking at embedding reporters," he
told the New York Observer of his plans to use some of
the Iraq tricks during the convention. "We’re looking at
new and interesting camera angles."

The war is coming home.