It's unclear what happened, but preliminary reports out of Genoa say that police armed with guns and search warrants raided "the headquarters of the umbrella group behind anti-capitalist riots against the Group of Eight summit" on Saturday evening. That apparently included the Independent Media Center, which was either was a target of the raid or swept up in it (the focus seems to have been on the "Genoa Social Forum," and they may have shared the same building). Often IMC reporters are activists who take part in street actions, though IMC organizers try to discourage this by advising reporters to hide their press pass when that happens. One sketchy AFP report, which alludes to a "brutal" raid: http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=asia/headlines/010722/world/afp/Police_in_brutal_raid_on_G8_protesters__press_centre.html And what appears to be a reproduced Reuters article: http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54267&group=webcast IMC reports saying police entered the newsroom: http://italia.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=5415&group=webcast http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54208&group=webcast http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54266&group=webcast http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54245&group=webcast http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=54221&group=webcast CNN.com article from four days ago saying car bomb and letter bomb early this week put cops on high alert: http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/07/17/genoa.amnesty/index.html Politech archive on Seattle IMC tussle with FBI over web logs: http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=imc -Declan ********** Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 18:39:56 -0400 (EDT) From: imc-news <evanat_private> To: Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> Subject: RIGHT NOW Police Raiding IMC in Genova Hey this is a story you might like to cover. Cops in Genova are currently in the process of raiding and conviscating computers, disks, tapes, and harrassing people at the Indymedia Center in Genova right now. The web radio station, www.radiogap.net is still live with reports of the cops in teh center and some people are still online explaining what is happening over irc. Here's some of logs from the irc: <arthur> update 23:17 GMT July 21: Police have apparently entered the Radio Gap studios, reports have come in that police are searching people inside of the IMC-center. A cell phone report indicates that people have been split into two groups inside the IMC and are being agressive. We have conflicting reports as to what is actually transpiring. Those inside the center are requesting that people contact media and governments to dennounce the activities <arthur> ly what is taking place right now because tense situation. ---------- There are also 5 European MP's on site who are denouncing the action as illegal. in solidarity, evan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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