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Bush event held in Olympia met by anti-war protesters

Olympia resident Zach Smith leads a group of protesters during an anti-Bush and anti-Patriot Act chant Thursday outside a Republican-sponsored Patriot Act conference in Olympia. The protesters were expressing their general opposition to the act and stressing their right to have their civil liberties protected.Olympia resident Zach Smith leads a group of protesters during an anti-Bush and anti-Patriot Act chant Thursday outside a Republican-sponsored Patriot Act conference in Olympia. The protesters were expressing their general opposition to the act and stressing their right to have their civil liberties protected. (Associated PressAssociated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Richard Roesler Staff writer
Olympia resident Zach Smith leads a group of protesters during an anti-Bush and anti-Patriot Act chant Thursday outside a Republican-sponsored Patriot Act conference in Olympia. The protesters were expressing their general opposition to the act and stressing their right to have their civil liberties protected.Olympia resident Zach Smith leads a group of protesters during an anti-Bush and anti-Patriot Act chant Thursday outside a Republican-sponsored Patriot Act conference in Olympia. The protesters were expressing their general opposition to the act and stressing their right to have their civil liberties protected. (Associated PressAssociated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

OLYMPIA – A Bush-Cheney campaign event touting the benefits of the controversial Patriot Act was met Thursday by dozens of demonstrators railing against “King George” and the war on terrorism.

“This is the land of the free!” one woman shouted outside the Olympia hotel where the event was held.

Inside, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik told a crowd of about 60 people that the Patriot Act, passed less than two months after Sept.11, 2001, is critical to protect America. He spoke before a wall-size banner reading “Steady leadership: President Bush.”

“We have to go after the terrorists before they strike. That’s what this is all about,” said Kerik, whom President Bush appointed as Iraq’s interim minister of the Interior.

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said many of the Patriot Act’s critics have never read it. Instead, he said, it’s become a political symbol for Bush’s critics.

“I don’t believe in using something so important to national security as a symbol in a political campaign,” Maleng said.

The act is up for renewal next year. Many liberals and some conservatives, including Newt Gingrich, say the act should be reined in to prevent erosion of civil liberties. In Congress, Idaho Sens. Larry Craig and Mike Crapo, as well as Washington congressman George Nethercutt, have proposed limits on some of the powers under the Patriot Act.

But Kerik said the act has made it much easier for federal and local law enforcement agencies to share information. It has speeded up wiretaps that once took weeks to get judicial approval for, he said. It’s also made it easier to wiretap all of a person’s telephones rather than getting approval for one line at a time, he said.

He cited the case of Jose Padilla, an American citizen who has been held for the past two years as an “enemy combatant.” The Justice Department said this week that Padilla and an accomplice planned to rent apartments in New York City high rises, seal the windows and doors, and turn on the apartments’ natural gas. The gas-filled apartments would then be simultaneously detonated with timers.

“Could it be done? Absolutely,” said Kerik. “Jose Padilla is not the last guy in the country who’s going to think about a plot like that.”

Despite critics’ claims, the 56,000-word act is “carefully balanced and sensitive to civil liberties,” Maleng said.

That’s a hard case to make, however, in one of the most liberal cities in America. Olympia, a college town, recently blipped across the national news when some members of the City Council drafted a resolution opposing a visit by the Navy nuclear submarine USS Olympia to its namesake city. The resolution was tabled, but the Navy canceled the visit.

On Thursday, Republicans were clearly annoyed that their campaign event was hijacked by critics, many of whom made it into the room. As Bush-Cheney campaign staffers hustled out Kerik and Maleng, the chairman of the state Democratic Party held an impromptu news conference in one corner. On the other side, an American Civil Liberties Union staffer was doing a standup in front of a TV news crew.

Earlier, Evergreen State College professor Thad Curtz was forced by police to leave the room because he wouldn’t sit down or put aside his sign opposing the Patriot Act.

“The fact that he was sitting there with a sign and they considered that a threat, that shows the powers they think they have,” said Simona Sharoni, who teaches at the college.

Outside the hotel, protesters said they’re afraid of the government’s reach in the war on terrorism.

“Every time I go on a computer now, if I want to go to Al Jazeera or something, you don’t know if someone’s looking over your shoulder,” said Linda Sheldon of Potlatch, Wash.

“I feel for the lost lives (on Sept. 11),” said protester Elizabeth Anne Sunrise of Olympia. “But it wasn’t our homeland that was attacked. It was two buildings that represent worldwide oppressors.”

Kerik was standing outside those two buildings when the second plane hit the World Trade Center. There are plenty of other terrorists still out there, he said.

“If we don’t continue to do what we’re doing, they’ll be back,” he said. “I have two young kids, and I don’t want to see that happen.”