Goodman confirmed arrested, as well as two DN producers.

They are requesting calls go to Mayor's office in St. Paul.

Phone: 651.266.8535 --this is number for Mayor Chris Coleman's PR person.

They are also asking people call for Senator Klobuchar's assistance. Dept. Chief of Staff for Sen. Klobuchar

andrea_mokros@klobuchar.senate.gov

Snake March results in +/- 30 arrests, including Amy Goodman and Democracy Now! Staff

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Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 09/01/2008 - 17:16.

in Local arrests Democracy Now! RNC

I just got a call from Nick of Houston IMC and Dennis of Democracy Now! reporting that a Snake March of around 50 people was cut into at least 2 groups with the police surrounding and arresting around 30 participants at the Corner of 7th St. and Temperance in St. Paul.

Among those arrested were members of the Tejas Bloc and Democray Now! Host Amy Goodman, Producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Nicole Salazar and Paul (whose last name and roll I didn't catch). Nick has video which he will try to edit promptly. We'll try to get more info at as soon as we can.

RoB Houston IMC

http://twincities.indymedia.org/2008/sep/snake-march-results-30-arrests-including-amy-goodman-and-democracy-now-staff

http://twincities.indymedia.org/

GG better keep his head down, and eyes up.

http://www.icefishx.org/

Interesting reading.

The fusion center in MN is called the Joint Analysis Center. Address below if you want to go visit the center as part of your journalistic coverage of the convention. It is presumably coordinating activities related to security, and presumably the activities you are seeing.

Google search produced this instructional powerpoint on how to scan [investigate?] social networking websites, such as Myspace, Facebook, etc., under the following google search result:

PPT] Social Networking SitesFile Format: Microsoft Powerpoint - View as HTML

Property of Minnesota Joint Analysis Center. Minnesota Joint Analysis Center (MNJAC). MNJAC 111 Washington Ave. S. Suite 820 Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401 ...

www.fciaa.org/Guide_to_internet_social_networking_sites.ppt - Similar pages

The question that comes to mind is why would a law enforcement center in minneapolis be training personel regarding scanning/investigating entries at social networking websites?

May 19, 2008

A National Fusion Center Network

The Department and states have made a lot of progress in making the State and Local Fusion Center Program -- a key provision of the 9/11 Commission Implementation Act -- a success in the last three years. Now we are committed to building on that success by supporting the implementation of a National Fusion Center Network.

What do I mean by that? Working with our colleagues in the Department of Justice, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Program Manager-Information Sharing Environment, the National Fusion Center Network strategy will connect more than 50 state and major city fusion centers and the federal government in a partnership to protect America.

I envision a community of state, local and federal intelligence and law enforcement professionals working together – supported by appropriate tools – to achieve a common goal: protection of the nation.

These men and women would leverage federal as well as state and local networks; move relevant information and intelligence quickly; and enable rapid analytic and operational judgments. That is what this National Fusion Center Network is all about.

Our ability to move, analyze and act on information is our greatest strength. We must use the network and the information in that network to push our defensive perimeter outward. That’s what the National Fusion Center Network will do for us.

We in the federal government recognize that state and local authorities have been working at this for years. We, particularly those of us in the Office of Intelligence and Analysis and the rest of the National Intelligence Community, must aggressively support the states in this endeavor and become a committed partner in creating the National Fusion Center Network.

That is exactly what we are doing.

Intelligence officers equipped with exiting capabilities are helping local authorities as needed and appropriate. In addition, information once only available in cities and states can be shared with the federal government and used to protect the nation as a whole.

This is all very new and different for the Intelligence Community. We are working hard to educate ourselves on the information needs of our state, local and tribal partners, as well as increase our ability to provide them information.

And we all must do this while paying the utmost respect to the civil liberties and privacy of our citizens.

Creating this National Fusion Center Network is a challenging but achievable task. We are doing many things for the first time, and will likely make mistakes. But we will learn from those mistakes, do better, and create what the country should have had before 9/11.

Charlie Allen

Under Secretary for Intelligence & Analysis

a nice photo of a fusion center can be seen with the article.

http://www.dhs.gov/journal/leadership/2008/05/national-fusion-center-network.html#links

If GG had not seen FBI, it would be a sign of malfunction in the local fusion center. Their role is to get everyone involved.

DHS to use controversial centers during political conventions

"Fusion centers did not get built and did not get instituted because [federal officials] decided they wanted to," said Thomas McNamara, program manager for the Information Sharing Environment Initiative in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. "States did it because they saw the need to get a mechanism for information sharing up and running so they could communicate within regions. Now federal agencies are working carefully with state and local governments to gradually build up these fusion centers to the point where they represent an almost complete, but not fully instituted, national network for sharing information relating to terrorism and other crimes."

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080822_7249.php