Bridge bomb plot: Suspects were active in Occupy Cleveland, even as movement slowed to a crawl

[IamK]

Source: The Plain Dealer / Cleveland.com

CLEVELAND, Ohio --
Occupy Cleveland had Tuesday circled on the calendar.
After months of low visibility, leaders of the protest organization formed during last fall's anti-Wall Street movement hoped to recapture the public's attention with a peaceful weekend festival leading up to a May Day demonstration.

By noon, they were back in the spotlight -- but not for the reasons they intended.

Five men involved in Occupy Cleveland stand accused of plotting to blow up a bridge over Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Sagamore Hills. The organization itself has not been implicated, but the arrests prompted organizers to cancel their May Day protest and instead spend the day distancing themselves from what they characterized as a fringe element.

"While the group arrested Monday evening by the FBI [was] associated with Occupy Cleveland, they were in no way representing or acting on behalf of Occupy Cleveland or the event that was planned for later today," the organization said in an email. "Occupy Cleveland has affirmed principles of nonviolence since its inception on Oct. 6, 2011."

Read more: http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2012/05/bridge_bomb_plot_suspects_were.html

[leftyohiolib]

1. why is this in the news? the p.d. is a right wing rag and unless you have a bird there's no point

getting it>

[murielm99]

20. Unless you have a bird....

How about using it to wrap fish? It might be good for that, too.

My dad used to say that. He often referred to right-wing newspapers as fishwrap.

[Zax2me]

2. The pics almost prove they are rw

How many days before they are tied to a right wing group?
I mean, look at them!
Nasty... Dirty. Haven't showered it appears on months.
Ugly too.
SOME rw group is in their past.

[Dokkie]

5. why are you so

ready to convict them? aren't they innocent until proven guilty? Remember that even the Hutaree Militia were found not guilty in the courts. This is the FBI trying to tarnish the reputation of Occupy and people like you are already falling for it.

Just sad

[marble falls]

9. My thought exactly. The was an operation by the Fed to discredit OWS by association ...

on a specific date.

[brooklynite]

11. In other words, this is a conspiracy by the Obama Administration?

You do remember that he's in charge of the Executive Branch, right? Or are you suggesting he's too weak to manage his Administration.

[marble falls]

15. I wish I understood why this stuff is happenning. Maybe he's pandering to conservative Dems?

I don't know, but he is our only hope and not shutting Gitmo, assassinating foreign nationals in their own countries under the protest of those countries, assassinating Americans on foreign soil, not bringing Wall Street, the banks, heath insurance companies, big oil, under some sort of control is bothersome. I hope he at least is working on his re-election just to give himself four years without worrying about re-election to do the things he promised and was elected on.

[TheWraith]

16. Or maybe being an "occupier" doesn't make you a candidate for sainthood?

It's both funny and appalling that so many people are looking for outlandish excuses, such as "they must be right-wingers because they look dirty!", because apparently no human being ever associated with OWS has led anything less than a completely blameless life. And too, there's never been such a thing as left wing fringe groups.

[marble falls]

19. Maybe there's more to it because left or right they were too stupid.....

to come up with anything on their own and the government had to walk them through several scenarios before they turned up at a bridge with a government supplied fake bomb. I think regardless of their politics they had to worked up to commit their "crime". And I have a problem with the government pulling this stunt because all they seem to dig up are people who are incompetent, no real, credible plots anywhere.

[HiPointDem]

21. Yeah, not like this administration has prosecuted anything but air-tight cases.

[Ian David]

3. I bet these are the Ron Paul supporting occupiers. n/t

[marble falls]

4. Only coincidental that they were arrested on that day after being led through ...

a series of potential "actions" by the FBI plant before settling on a bridge with fake explosives provided by the plant. Another case of the government setting up another gang that couldn't do anything without being led by a police agent.

[MichaelMcGuire]

6. False flag? (nt)

[marble falls]

12. Either false flag or stummbling idots being ginned into something more,.....

maybe a pretext to start sending American dissidents to "Gitmo" or the onshore equivalent, after all the President has been given the right to have Americans killed without due process. Look at the treatment afforded Bradley Manning. In some ways W started a level of conduct towards US citizens and other soveriegn citizens that has been barely muted by this President. This one area (as well the inability to bring the banks and Wall Street to heel) is one of the few areas I have concerns about with the President. I still support him because Romney is ever so much even worse.

[MichaelMcGuire]

17. Not out with the realms of possibility, there are plenty of examples. (nt)

[mopinko]

8. +++++++++

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. Something smells here, and it ain't the Cuyahoga River...

Too many "Occupy affiliated" disrupters across the country trying to give Occupy a black eye for 'harboring violent elements'.

Coincidence? I think NOT.

Sadly, too many people will believe that "news" at face value. I've already heard acquaintances say variations of 'I supported Occupy in the beginning, but not now that it's turning violent'

[NYC Liberal]

10. Meanwhile, the tea baggers were openly walking around with guns and making threats toward

President Obama (and other Democrats), and using the most vile, racist language in their attacks. Yet the media all but ignored it.

With Occupy, if one loner even suggests something slightly "mean"…it's a headline at every media outlet in the country.

[drm604]

13. It's weird that all these charges of violence are suddenly being made against Occupy.

Were these people setup?

Are authorities or the press exaggerating tenuous connections to Occupy?

What did they hope to gain by bombing a bridge over a national park? How would that be relevant to Occupy's goals?

This doesn't make a lot of sense.

[Smilo]

14. Paid right wingers out to discredit Occupy

......... this is getting to be an almost daily occurrence - bad publicity for Occupy - great publicity for righties and corporations.

[snooper2]

18. Truthy to Power!

[Ichingcarpenter]

22. Another: 'FBI foils FBI plot, says FBI'

how many times does the FBI do this type of shit?

I've lost count.

[may3rd]

25. I've notice that not much news out of CHicago gets posted

and those people are protesting US/NATO operations around the world.

why ?

[lib2DaBone]

23. Mission accomplished..Occupy discredited....

[may3rd]

24. The new casino opened last week. The square was cleared for that very reason

casinos are not going to help a community generate any jobs other than security jobs. There was rarely anybody in the OWS tent in the winter. And it was a mild winter.
The OWS tents would have been 'occupied
but not with the people protesting whatever their mission statement stood for