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NEWS - PENTAGON PREPARES TO EVICT P



Subject: NEWS - PENTAGON PREPARES TO EVICT PROTESTERS FROM TARGET RANGE

In a message dated 10/11/99 5:20:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Thakin writes:

<< Title: PENTAGON PREPARES TO EVICT PROTESTERS FROM TARGET RANGE
 Date: 05-OCT-99
 Author: Stewart M. Powell
 Source: Raulmax@xxxxxxx
 Reference: New York Times News Service
 
 The Pentagon, anticipating that President Clinton will temporarily reopen a
 target range on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques, is developing plans for
 U.S. marshals to evict protesters from the site and for U.S. Coast Guard
 vessels to intercept any other demonstrators arriving by sea.
 
 The preparations set the stage for a potential confrontation between federal
 law enforcement officers and Puerto Rican demonstrators who have occupied
 the target range for the last five months in an effort to prevent the Navy
 and Marine Corps from using it.
 
 A four-member Pentagon review panel appointed at the request of the
 president has recommended resumption of live-fire combat training on Vieques.
 
 A senior Pentagon official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Friday
 that Clinton administration officials who report to Defense Secretary
 William Cohen and Attorney General Janet Reno are developing contingency
 plans to evict demonstrators.
 
 Navy Secretary Richard Danzig has written twice to Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro
 Rossello to urge him to help persuade the trespassers to leave the site on
 their own accord. Danzig appealed to Puerto Rican authorities again, in
 remarks distributed by his office on Friday.
 
 ``If President Clinton orders us to leave, we'll leave,'' Danzig said. But
 noting ``increasing talk of civil disobedience,'' Danzig added: prospective
 New York Senate campaign of First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton because the
 Vieques issue is an emotional one among Puerto Ricans.
 
 Voters born in Puerto Rico make up about 60 percent of the 2.6 million
 Hispanics in New York state.
 Rossello, the Democratic governor of Puerto Rico, has offered to campaign
 for Mrs. Clinton in New York and has been vocal in his opposition to the use
 of Vieques for target practice. He has vowed to seek a federal court
 injunction to block any resumption of firing there.
 
 Other prominent political leaders such as Rep. Carlos Romero-Barcelo,
 D-Puerto Rico, and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson have vowed to serve as
 ``human shields'' to thwart the Navy's use of the target range if the White
 House approves resumption of bombing.
 
 Robert Rubin, a member of the Vieques-based Committee for the Rescue and
 Development of Vieques, said his organization would help to find substitutes
 to take the place of any protesters arrested by law
 enforcement officers at the series of encampments.
 
 ``There are plenty of Vieques volunteers to fill the camps as soon as they
 are taken,'' Rubin said.
 
 Organizers for the Vieques Support Campaign scheduled a rally in New York
 City on Saturday at Hunter College and a vigil outside the gates of the Navy
 maneuver range on Vieques.
 
  >>