http://www.seattletimes.com/news/local/html98/wtoo_19991009.html
Paramount drops curtain on WTO protesters, cites 'security reasons'
by Christine Clarridge Seattle Times staff reporter
Citing security reasons, the Paramount Theatre has denied a months-old reservation request from groups critical of the World Trade Organization because the trade organization has reservations at the theater the following two days.
Global Trade Watch, the Humane Society and the Animal Welfare Institute said that in June they requested the theater for Nov. 28 to hold an educational and cultural event opposing WTO policies.
The groups claim the WTO promotes activities inhumane to animals and undermines environmental laws, according to Michael Dolan, deputy director of Global Trade Watch, a branch of Ralph Nader's Public Citizen, a consumer-rights group based in Washington, D.C.
Yesterday, the groups were informed by Paramount management that the WTO had reservations for Nov. 29-30 and that the downtown Seattle theater would be unable to accommodate both reservation requests.
"It was done strictly for security reasons," said Patrick Harrison, a spokesman for the theater's owners. Paramount officials did not specify the nature of those security concerns.
Harrison said the protest groups had requested the theater but did not have a confirmed reservation. But Benjamin White, a spokesman for the Animal Welfare Institute, said Paramount officials confirmed the reservation verbally.
"They told us very specifically just a few days ago that we had the reservation and there was no problem," White said.
Dolan said that in denying the groups' reservation request, Paramount officials claimed they could not host WTO protesters on one night and the WTO the next.
The theater is one of many WTO venues in Seattle in the days before and during the convention.
"They told us the FBI came in and told us to pull our reservation," Dolan said. Opposition groups speculated that the FBI feared the theater could be booby-trapped.
An FBI spokesman said he could not comment on any security measures related to the four-day WTO ministerial convention Nov. 30 through Dec. 3.
The WTO is a regulatory organization that makes rules governing trade among its 134 member countries.
Environmentalists, labor groups and groups with social concerns are among the organizations that oppose many WTO policies.
Thousands of activists from numerous protest groups plan to converge on Seattle during the WTO summit.
"It just seems so unfair," White said. "There should be equal access (to the Paramount) for everyone, not just for the one that's bigger."