Sabotage fails, free speech wins

IRVINE, Calif. -- It was not the fact that this reporter was under surveillance at the Spokane International Airport by a man/woman team when heading toward California, nor that one of the scheduled speakers, a Roman Catholic priest, was detained for close to 30 minutes as a “risk to aviation safety” by Michael Chertoff’s Department of Homeland Security that indicated that trouble was brewing for the upcoming “No More wars for Israel” conference in Southern California.

Rather, it was what took place in the days and weeks immediately preceding the event that portended problems for all those involved with what was to be an expression of the rights to freedom of speech, religion and association.

As far back as four weeks before the scheduled meeting, the hotel contacted one of the conference organizers and told him that persons claiming to be from the Irvine Police Department were calling all hotels in the area, asking if an event entitled ‘No More Wars for Israel” was scheduled, warning hotel proprietors away from having any involvement in it.

The organizers of the conference, foreseeing this as a likelihood, had booked the event in the name of “Liberty Forum” rather than anything indicating that it was to be a gathering of individuals opposed to the comings and goings of Israel. For months after the conference was announced, details as to the exact location were kept deliberately vague so that the forces opposed to freedom of speech and association would not be given a leg up in shutting it down preemptively. Online Journal