Note the references to media blackout in this (pasted in below) excellent passage from a recent Tom Burghardt essay in  Dissident Voice:

As far-right Republican party hordes gather in Minneapolis/St. Paul for the coronation of their presidential candidates, reactionary Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Alaska’s Christian fundamentalist governor, Sarah Palin, the Bush regime’s strategy of preemptive war is viciously playing out on the home front. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald reports,

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff’s department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than “fire code violations,” and early this morning, the Sheriff’s department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying. (”Massive Police Raids on Suspected Protesters in Minneapolis,” Salon, August 30, 2008)

The raids were orchestrated by local law enforcement agencies with major assistance from various federal spy outfits such as the FBI, NSA and the Pentagon’s own Northern Command (NORTHCOM). The raids are purely an intimidation tactic designed to squelch peaceful dissent by citizens outraged by Bushist policies throughout these long years of darkness.

Indeed, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported that police and federal agencies utilized the “services” of informants and provocateurs in their targeting of the anarchist RNC Welcoming Committee.

Aided by informants planted in protest groups, authorities raided at least six buildings across St. Paul and Minneapolis to stop an “anarchist” plan to disrupt this week’s Republican National Convention.

From Friday night through Saturday afternoon, officers surrounded houses, broke down doors, handcuffed scores of people and confiscated suspected tools of civil disobedience.

The show of force was led by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office in collaboration with the FBI, Minneapolis and St. Paul police, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies. (Heron Marquez Estrada, Bill McAuliffe and Abby Simons, “Police Raids Enrage Activists, Alarm Others,” Minneapolis Star Tribune, August 31, 2008)

The “preemptive” raids targeted activists, alternative media and lawyers on-scene. All were handcuffed and forced to lie face-down, while SWAT teams and federal agents ransacked numerous homes in a quixotic hunt for “weapons.”

Greenwald avers, “Targeting people with automatic-weapons-carrying SWAT teams and mass raids in their homes, who are suspected of nothing more than planning dissident political protests at a political convention and who have engaged in no illegal activity whatsoever, is about as redolent of the worst tactics of a police state as can be imagined.”

After nearly eight years of massive surveillance and infiltration operations by the federal government across a multitude of federal agencies, often acting in cahoots with reenergized local “red squads” rebranded as Fusion Centers and Joint Terrorism Task Forces coordinated through the Office of National Intelligence, the mutant stepchildren of the FBI’s COINTELPRO, the CIA’s Operation CHAOS and the NSA’s Project SHAMROCK have brought the “war on terror” home in a big way.

The Minneapolis City Pages reported back in May, that police and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force were “soliciting” informants to keep tabs on local protest groups. According to journalist Matt Snyders’s account, FBI Special Agent Maureen A. Mazzola, flanked by a cop, attempted to recruit a University of Minnesota sophomore as a paid “confidential informant.” While the student declined the feds’ “generous offer,” the wider issue of recruiting Stasi-like moles to report “suspicious activities” by citizens exercising their constitutionally-guaranteed right to say “NO!” cuts to the heart of the role of dissent in a democracy.

Outraged by the “preemptive policing” on display in Minneapolis, Glenn Greenwald comments on the virtual blackout by the corporate media, all-too-willing to criticize the actions of repressive government’s thousands of miles away while silently acquiescing to the police state in full-bloom here at home.

So here we have a massive assault led by Federal Government law enforcement agencies on left-wing dissidents and protesters who have committed no acts of violence or illegality whatsoever, preceded by months-long espionage efforts to track what they do. And as extraordinary as that conduct is, more extraordinary is the fact that they have received virtually no attention from the national media and little outcry from anyone. And it’s not difficult to see why. As the recent “overhaul” of the 30-year-old FISA law illustrated–preceded by the endless expansion of surveillance state powers, justified first by the War on Drugs and then the War on Terror–we’ve essentially decided that we want our Government to spy on us without limits. There is literally no police power that the state can exercise that will cause much protest from the political and media class and, therefore, from the citizenry. (”Federal Government Involved in Raid on Protesters,” Salon, August 31, 2008

Free Speech TV has been running trailers since early morning urging people to call St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman at:  651-266-8535; also, the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350, ext. 0.  (Ramsey County Sheriff is Bob Fletcher.)

During the first broadcast of " Democracy Now!" this morning it was mentioned that more than 1,000 calls had come in to the jail during the night, and that this had (supposedly) had some effect on the release of the two "Democracy Now!" producers.  (Amy Goodman was released late last night as well;  she did the full two-hour live broadcast this morning.)

Lots more phone calls couldn\'t hurt; there are still many protesters and some journalists in detention.  And, as all this is the result of just the first day of the RNC, there will probably be much more of the same to come.  Massive public outcry, in the form of a sustained tsunami of phone calls, might help throughout the week.    

This is from the Minnesota Independent: :

It’s been a long day for activists and citizen journalists as a series of police raids on the homes of anti-RNC activists has raised anxieties just 48 hours from the Republican National Convention. The following are late breaking bits and pieces:

MinnPost has a copy of the search warrant for 2301 23rd Ave as well as the reactions of council member Gary Schiff, in whose ward two houses were raided.

“I’m disappointed, to say the least,” Schiff said. “Targeting political organizers in a pre-emptive strike is a tactic from the ’60s. This country is better than that.”

Thus far, six activists have been arrested and several hundred others detained at one point over the last 24 hours. The six that have been arrested were sent to Ramsey County Jail. Coldsnap Legal Collective is organizing vigils for those in jail.

Five raids have occurred over the last 24 hours, two in St. Paul and three in south Minneapolis. One of the raids reportedly involved police handcuffing a five-year-old child. In a raid on Inglehart Ave. in St. Paul, a number of journalists were detained, including Democracy Now’s contributing host to Amy Goodman (video).

Mary Turck of the Twin Cities Daily Planet has a first-hand account of the 12 squad cars from five police departments it took to pull over a “green” bus for a routine traffic violation. Overreaction? The Uptake has video.

Meanwhile, Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher, whose office has been behind Saturday’s raids, was in the news two days ago as aides to the sheriff were convicted of theft and conspiracy.

Two members of the RNC Welcoming Committee have sought sanctuary with the Twin Cities Friends Meeting, local Quakers, an historical Christian peace movement. “We’re seeking sanctuary to call attention to the illegal tactics — police violence, harassment and mass arrests — of the Ramsey County Sheriff, who has ordered the politically motivated arrests of dedicated community activists on false pretenses to make it more difficult for ordinary people to express their dissent,” said Andy Fahlstrom.

Sanctuary was granted. “There’s a very long tradition of Quakers giving protection to persecuted people. So I’m completely in favor of my Meeting giving sanctuary to those who are currently being persecuted by the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office,” said Meeting member Charley Underwood.