january 18, 2002
Antiglobalization webs criminalized in Spain
The spanish police starts an operation of spionage and criminalization against the anti-globalization movement on the internet as a start of their period in the Presidence of the European Union.
What was a voiced secret has now been acknowledged the last two days by the spanish National Police and spread by various press agencies - EFE and COLPISA- as well as several newsmedia -El Norte de Castilla, Ideal, Las Provincias, La Verdad-. The information services of the National Police and the Civil Guard have revealed that since December '01 they spy and track the alternative information networks on the Internet with the aim of facing the ati-globalization movement.
"Information and pervention are our two main weapons," has been the excuse of the experts of the National Police according to news agency COLPISA. The sources counted eight alternative web servers which they have criminalized as "main resources of anti-system elements to spread all over Europe schedules of the main protests as well as urban guerilla warfare tactics."
The criminalized webs are, according to informations offered by police services, Barcelona Indymedia, Observatorio Global, International Protest Action, Nodo50, Acción Internacional de Estudiantes, Rebelion, La Haine and Sin Dominio.
Without any judicial cause or legal action against these alternative collectives, the police services have started a campagin of criminalization. The sources of the police defend their spionage saying that these media organize sabotages against planned activities and "promote street-fighting." The security experts of the Ministry of the Interior, without giving any detailed informations or proof, say that they have detected urban guerilla warfare tactics and sabotage methods to provoke and face the security forces deployed under the demonstrations. <snip>