VOICES - The 25th NATO (North Atlanta Treaty Organization) Summit is heading to Chicago and preparations are becoming as controversial as NATO itself.
The City of Chicago’s police department is preparing for the NATO Summit that will take place on May 20th and 21st. Thousands of anti-war protestors are expected to face off with armed riot police.
So two months ago the police department ordered at least 8,500 police face masks, face shields, and the rumored long range acoustic devices that the city of Pittsburgh used against peaceful American protesters of the G20 Summit in 2009 and the sort that Israel used against peaceful Palestinian protesters last year.
The long range acoustic device is a battlefield weapon used against armed opponents. This may be employed against peaceful protesters in Chicago. The LRAD has been linked to causing permanent hearing loss. The Chicago Police Department claims it is necessary for public safety.
Last month several Black Hawk helicopter gun ships flew over Chicago in apparent drills for the summit. Protestors suggest that the only threat of violence will come not from the peaceful protestors but from war zealots like NATO or by security forces.
News reports of this type are meant to intimidate people from protesting. But it rarely has the desired effect. The more oppressive the measures are towards demonstrators, the more aggressive demonstrators become trying to reestablish their constitutional rights.
The Secret Service is in charge of security measures and has demanded three miles of concrete barriers, 25,000 ft of 8 ft anti-scale steel fencing, vehicle crash barriers, light towers, sand bags, and portable toilets. They are suspending rail service and closing streets in select areas. They hired a Baltimore firm for security.
It is very common during international events that attempts will be made to disrupt the functionality of the target group, using “hacktivism” by such groups as ANONYMOUS.
Several veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan plan to return their service medals to the NATO generals, during a ceremony at the protest of the NATO summit on Sunday, on May 20.
Aaron Hughes said he’s proud of serving his country, but not of the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hughes said it’s about healing because on average, 18 veterans commit suicide every day. “I don’t want to be a part of a mistake anymore, and I know a lot of other service members that don’t want to be a part of a mistake anymore.” he said. It’s not about nation-building, Hughes said, but a charade.
The Guardian reports that the US Federal Protective Service plans to send armed agents into downtown Chicago to patrol the city. But Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel, told reporters that he was not made aware of that decision.
In January, an article by Crain’s Chicago Business, reported that the most elite marksmen will be in attendance at the summit and that Federal and state SWAT teams have been canvassing buildings along Michigan Avenue, the Loop, McCormick Place and O'Hare International Airport looking for the right spots to view streets, sidewalks and nearby buildings.
Rick Rozoff, manager of Stop NATO in Chicago, stated that “This is a summit of the worlds largest, the world’s only, military bloc. It’s an organization that exists solely for the reason of preparing for and conducting war” and “last year waged war in three continents – in Europe, in Asia – Afghanistan – and in Libya in North Africa.”
His organization believes that, “Ever since its inception there have been those who have warned that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, far from offering a simple “collective security” pact to ensure the integrity of its member nations’ borders, would in fact be used as an offensive tool of imperial adventurism and conquest.
Since the NATO-led Kosovo bombing campaign of 1999 at the very least, those fears have appeared more and more justified. Since that time, NATO has continued to take a lead role in more and more overtly offensive campaigns of aggression in theatre after theatre.
By now it is commonly believed by many to be an extension of the Pentagon itself, a convenient international military instrument for Washington to wield whenever the pretense of an international consensus cannot be achieved at the UN Security Council.’
Rozoff, a Chicagoan, has edited the Stop NATO blog for 13 years. It may be the most comprehensive source for news and critical analysis of NATO in the world.
NATO’s presence in the Atlantic is nothing new, but it appears to be focusing on Asia waters where America has a strong presence. This is clearly out of NATO’s territory.
A dispute between China and the Philippines, over the sovereignty of oil and gas rich Huangjang Island in the South China Sea, has Washington responding by building a US military base in the Philippines in order to control the sea routes in the area.
NATO also plans to upgrade 180 tactical nuclear weapons in Europe, which will heighten tensions with Russia. According to a report from the European Leadership Network, the alliance is preparing to replace 180 B61 “dumb” free-fall nuclear bombs and aging delivery aircraft with precision-guided weapons that would be carried by US F35 strike aircraft. The modernization would be expensive and will escalate, by default, a hostile reaction from Moscow.
In a time of world wide austerity, citizens of the world are asking, why are we spending money for NATO intervention when it appears to be nothing more than the long arm of the US?
Americans have tired of the perpetual war dance of our political leaders and ask for diplomacy and peace. There’s no better place to start than at the NATO Summit peace marches in Chicago next week.
(Lisa Cerda is an occasional contributor to CityWatch, a community activist, Chair of Tarzana Residents Against Poorly Planned Development, and former Tarzana Neighborhood Council board member.) –cw
Tags: NATO, Chicago, NATO Summit, war, military, Pentagon, Chicago Police Department
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 40
Pub: May 18, 2012