February 11, 2002

By MARGARET THATCHER
 
 

LONDON -- Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant
nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and
shaking her invincible locks." Milton's words perfectly
describe America today. After the horror of Sept. 11 the
world has seen America gather its strength, summon its
allies and proceed to wage war halfway across the globe
against its enemy - and ours.

America will never be the same again. It has proved to
itself and to others that it is in truth (not just in name)
the only global superpower, indeed a power that enjoys a
level of superiority over its actual or potential rivals
unmatched by any other nation in modern times.
Consequently, the world outside America should never be the
same either. There will, of course, arise new threats from
new directions. But as long as America works to maintain
its technological lead, there is no reason why any
challenge to American dominance should succeed. And that in
turn will help ensure stability and peace.

Yet, as President Bush has reminded Americans, there is no
room for complacency. America and its allies, indeed the
Western world and its values, are still under deadly
threat. That threat must be eliminated, and now is the time
to act vigorously.

In many respects the challenge of Islamic terror is unique,
hence the difficulty Western intelligence services
encountered trying to predict and prevent its onslaughts.
The enemy is not, of course, a religion - most Muslims
deplore what has occurred. Nor is it a single state, though
this form of terrorism needs the support of states to give
it succor. Perhaps the best parallel is with early
Communism. Islamic extremism today, like Bolshevism in the
past, is an armed doctrine. It is an aggressive ideology
promoted by fanatical, well-armed devotees. And, like
Communism, it requires an all-embracing long-term strategy
to defeat it.

The first phase of that strategy had to be a military
assault on the enemy in Afghanistan, a phase that is now
approaching its end. I believe that while the new interim
government there deserves support, the United States is
right not to allow itself to become bogged down with
ambitious nation-building in that treacherous territory.
Some would disagree, arguing that the lesson of the present
crisis is that neglect of failed states causes terrorism.
But this is trite. It implies a level of global
interventionism that almost everyone recognizes is quite
impractical.

The more important lesson is that the West failed to act
early and strongly enough against Al Qaeda and the regime
that harbored it. And because there is always a choice in
where you concentrate international efforts, it is best
that the United States, as the only global military
superpower, deploy its energies militarily rather than on
social work. Trying to promote civil society and democratic
institutions in Afghanistan is best left to others - and
since those "others" now include the British, I only hope
that we, too, are going to be realistic about what can (and
cannot) be achieved.

The second phase of the war against terrorism should be to
strike at other centers of Islamic terror that have taken
root in Africa, Southeast Asia and elsewhere. This will
require first- rate intelligence, shrewd diplomacy and a
continued extensive military commitment. Our enemies have
had years to entrench themselves, and they will not be
dislodged without fierce and bloody resistance.

The third phase is to deal with those hostile states that
support terrorism and seek to acquire or trade in weapons
of mass destruction. We have gotten into the habit of
calling them "rogue" states. There is nothing wrong with
that, as long as we don't fall into the trap of imagining
that they will always and on every issue fit into the same
slot.

For example, Iran and Syria were both sharply critical of
Osama bin Laden, the Taliban and the attacks of Sept. 11.
Nevertheless, they are both enemies of Western values and
interests. Both have energetically backed terrorism: the
former has just been caught out dispatching arms to foment
violence against Israel. Iran is also making strides toward
developing long-range missiles that could be armed with
nuclear warheads.

Other critics of Sept. 11 are a menace, too. Libya, for
example, still hates the West and would dearly like revenge
against us. And Sudan undertakes genocide against its own
citizens in the name of Islam. As for North Korea, the
regime of Kim Jong Il is as mad as ever and is the world's
main proliferator of long-range ballistic missiles that can
deliver nuclear, chemical or biological warheads.

The most notorious rogue is, without doubt, Saddam Hussein
- proof if ever we needed it that yesterday's unfinished
business becomes tomorrow's headache. Saddam Hussein will
never comply with the conditions we demand of him. His aim
is, in fact, quite clear: to develop weapons of mass
destruction so as to challenge us with impunity.

How and when, not whether, to remove him are the only
important questions. Again, solving this problem will
demand the best available intelligence. It will require, as
in Aghanistan, the mobilization of internal resistance. It
will probably also involve a massive use of force.
America's allies, above all Britain, should extend strong
support to President Bush in the decisions he makes on
Iraq.

The events of Sept. 11 are a terrible reminder that freedom
demands eternal vigilance. And for too long we have not
been vigilant. We have harbored those who hated us,
tolerated those who threatened us and indulged those who
weakened us. As a result, we remain, for example, all but
defenseless against ballistic missiles that could be
launched against our cities. A missile defense system will
begin to change that. But change must go deeper still. The
West as a whole needs to strengthen its resolve against
rogue regimes and upgrade its defenses. The good news is
that America has a president who can offer the leadership
necessary to do so.
 

Margaret Thatcher, prime minister of Britain from 1979 to
1990, is author of the forthcoming book, ``Statecraft:
Strategies for a Changing World.''

150 Arrests Far From Economic Forum

February 4, 2002

By DAN BARRY
 
 
 

The general calm that had permeated the weekend's protests
against the World Economic Forum ended abruptly yesterday
afternoon, when chanting and sometimes raucous
demonstrators took over stretches of the East Village and
the Upper East Side. The actions earned the swift and stern
police response that they were meant to attract, and by
late evening more than 150 people had been arrested.

In the first confrontation, hundreds of police officers
descended upon the East Village to end a brief
cat-and-mouse game with protesters who had stopped traffic.
As hundreds of demonstrators and spectators watched -
including, briefly, both Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly - the police arrested
87 people and led them to vans and buses.

Then, as if to provide a coda of protest to the day,
hundreds of people left an "earth and animal liberation"
rally to roam the Upper East Side. Red paint was spilled, a
door and windows of a high-rise apartment building were
smashed, and about 70 more people were arrested.

But for all the street drama, the incidents included
virtually none of the violence and property destruction
that have marred similar demonstrations in other cities,
and seemed almost anticlimactic given the reputations that
preceded some of the protesters. Virtually all of the
arrests were for nonviolent activity like disorderly
conduct and unlawful assembly.

The episodes also illustrated, for the second consecutive
day, how thoroughly the Police Department had prepared for
the protests against the World Economic Forum, a five- day
gathering of world leaders and corporate executives at the
Waldorf- Astoria that ends this evening.

"The overwhelming majority of the demonstrators have been
peaceful and orderly and we appreciate their cooperation,"
Mr. Kelly said last night. "However, there has been a small
group of hard-core protesters who have attempted to cause
trouble. And we have, and we will continue to deal with
them firmly and quickly."

On Saturday, daylong rallies in Midtown brought together
thousands of people to demonstrate under the watch of
thousands of police officers, many of whom wore helmets and
carried batons. In the end, though, only 36 people were
arrested, including 27 who Mr. Kelly said yesterday were
about to attack police officers and storm the Plaza Hotel
on Central Park South. The police commissioner praised both
the police and the protesters.

But praise from the police may not have been what some
activists desired. At a meeting on Saturday night, a group
of anarchists called the Anti-Capitalist Convergence
canceled its plans to hold a "scavenger hunt" yesterday,
after The New York Times reported that the game was
intended to encourage traffic disruption, property damage
and other mischief. It was decided instead to stage a more
common protest activity, a "snake march," in which a line
of people weave haphazardly along sidewalks and streets.

"It's sort of a march that reflects democracy, and everyone
decides where it's going to go," said Kate Cooper, an
activist. "It's not the sort of thing that's rigidly
planned out. It's an anti-authoritarian march."

At 1:30 yesterday afternoon, dozens of people milling
outside St. Mark's Church in the Bowery, on 10th Street at
Second Avenue, suddenly broke into a snake march, whooping
and clapping to the beat of drums, and some waving red
flags. The group turned north onto the sidewalks of Second
Avenue, chanting "This is what democracy looks like," and
"Walking's not dangerous."

Dozens of police officers were already in the area, as if
in anticipation. "It looks like the police had been tipped
off," said Eric Laursen, one of the organizers of
Saturday's protests who did not participate in yesterday's
activity. "They probably had people in our meeting."

Commissioner Kelly acknowledged yesterday that the police
had learned that "this type of activity might take place."
So, he said, "we deployed a large number of police officers
in that area who were ready to make arrests."

At first, though, it seemed that the police did not quite
know what to make of the snake march. One senior police
official told a subordinate: "Are they violating the law?
Give them a chance to violate the law."

That chance came when some of the marchers left the
sidewalk and waded onto Second Avenue, their red flags
visible above the stopped cars. Over the next few chaotic
minutes, people were wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and
led away, while reporters and photographers were shoved out
of the way, and other demonstrators jeered.

In the end, according to the police, 34 people were
arrested at Second Avenue and 13th Street, and another
eight were arrested at First Avenue and 14th Street. But
the most intense, drawn-out confrontation between police
officers and protesters took place at the intersection of
Third Avenue and 12th Street.

Drums beat ominously as demonstrators linked arms and
hundreds of police officers assembled with military
precision. The thwock-thwock of police helicopters sounded
overhead, audible above the chants of "Shame! Shame!" A
young woman, appearing no more than 20 years old, began to
cry when handcuffs were clasped around her wrists.

It happened that Mayor Bloomberg was a couple of blocks
away from the confrontation, eating chicken parmigiana and
ziti with the firefighters of Ladder Company 4 on East 13th
Street. Dressed in a blue blazer, gray slacks, and black
shoes with tassels, he calmly walked south on Third Avenue
to the scene, now and then talking quietly with
Commissioner Kelly, who was beside him.

After less than five minutes, he turned around and left. As
shouts arose from the crowd - "Let 'em go, Mike!" and
"Protect the rich!" - he climbed into a black sport utility
vehicle and was driven away. Moments later, Mr. Kelly
walked away as well.

At 3 p.m. - with police officers armed with pepper spray
poised for more action, and other officers peering from
surrounding buildings - a police official shouted through a
bullhorn that it was time for the crowd to leave. "If you
don't leave the area, you will be arrested for disorderly
conduct," he said. Within a half-hour, the crowd had melted
away, and buses packed with the arrested drove away.

But the day's events were not over. At 4 p.m., some four
miles to the north, more demonstrators had gathered at 76th
Street and Fifth Avenue for a rally being held by the
Coalition for Earth and Animal Liberation. A crowd of a
dozen or two quickly grew to more than 100 people, who
began marching east through one of the city's more
exclusive neighborhoods, followed by vans of police
officers.

A cluster of demonstrators paused in front of a high-rise
apartment building at 188 East 76th Street, which some of
the protesters described as the home of a certain corporate
executive. With a cluster of demonstrators gathered around,
the building's windows were smashed, and red paint was
splattered on the building.

Aaron James, 38, an architect from Memphis, who said he had
come to take part in a peaceful rally, split off from the
main core of marchers at this point. "When they broke the
window, I left," he said. "I think it was uncalled for and
it's unfortunate. But they're young and inexperienced and
it's just poorly expended energy."

Once property had been damaged, scores of police officers
swooped in. Three people were arrested, and the protesters
split into separate camps that wended through the East Side
streets, chanting slogans to the beat of drums. But no
matter where they went, there were police officers in front
of them, beside them, behind them - even above them, in
helicopters.

Sometime after 5 p.m., the police made clear their
impatience.

As one group of demonstrators continued down Third Avenue,
near 60th Street, a police official using a bullhorn
announced again: "You are creating a disturbance. You are
blocking pedestrian traffic. If you do not walk one or two
abreast, you will be arrested."

A standoff developed. But within a few minutes, the police
were wading into the group and making arrests, 60 in all.

Meanwhile, on 59th Street, between Second and Third
Avenues, a similar standoff was taking place, in part
because the protesters would not - or could not - explain
their plans. "We asked them, where is it you are trying to
go, but they wouldn't tell us and they wouldn't tell their
own people," said Detective Kevin A. Czartoryski, a Police
Department spokesman who was there.

After a short discussion, the police gave the protesters a
choice: Disperse or be arrested. Some protesters opted for
the first choice; four took the second, and were promptly
handcuffed.

Economic Forum Shifts Its Focus to New Dangers

February 3, 2002

By DAVID E. SANGER
 
 
 

The world's most powerful policy makers and entrepreneurs,
who have in the past used the World Economic Forum to
promote the opportunities promised by technology and
borderless commerce, seem more obsessed this year with
their endless vulnerabilities.

In seminar rooms and in the hallways of the Waldorf-Astoria
in Manhattan this week, the men and women who once trekked
to Davos, Switzerland, to talk about how the Internet could
revolutionize life in Indian villages have spent much of
the last few days discussing more prosaic concerns: Keeping
their corporate headquarters secure, their chemical and
biological materials out of the wrong hands, and how to
best fight terrorism.

While the meals have been opulent - sushi and cocktails at
the Four Seasons, followed by endless courses at Le Cirque
2000 - for the chief executives and prime ministers,
economists and "media leaders" gathered at the World
Economic Forum, the main dish is anxiety.

Gone, too, is any post-Sept. 11 reticence about criticizing
the Bush administration's war against terrorism and its
charting of the economic rules of the road.

Almost every speaker congratulated the United States on how
it has fought the war in Afghanistan. But in the next
breath, many European and other leading diplomats say that
Mr. Bush's use of the phrase "axis of evil" on Tuesday
night, to describe Iraq, Iran and North Korea, made them
fearful that a superpower on a roll was now looking for
trouble.

The phrase instantly entered the Davos lexicon here and led
members of the coalition against terrorism to question
whether they had been seduced by the mirage of a new
partnership with Washington, only to discover that Mr. Bush
planned to run the war his way - if necessary.

The confrontations have been polite, but not exactly
subtle. On Friday morning, no sooner had Secretary of State
Colin L. Powell finished a brief discourse about dealing
decisively with "rogue regimes," than Javier Solana, the
secretary general of the council of the European Union and
the former secretary general of NATO, told him that his
allies do not just want consultation. They want a real
vote, he said.

"For me, the coalition is a collective ambition to share
responsibility, but to share also decision-making," he
said.

The sentiments grew more blunt in small-group discussions
seeking ideas for both fighting terrorism and "draining the
swamp" of poverty that can breed terrorists.

After leading an hour and a half of discussion that
produced more sound bites than new policy approaches -
"freeze-dried foreign policy" muttered one human-rights
official - Joseph Nye, dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of
Government, summed up the message he was hearing. "For the
Europeans," he said, " `axis of evil' was a bridge too far.
There's a strong suspicion here that Bush is back to
unilateralism, that after Afghanistan, America isn't
especially interested in listening to the rest of the
world."

Davos was on the road to pessimism even before this year's
session. At the last meeting in Switzerland, Yasir Arafat,
the Palestinian leader, turned what was supposed to be a
rapprochement with Shimon Peres, then the former Israeli
prime minister, into an ugly confrontation accusing Israel
of "fascist military aggression," that was built on
policies of "murder, persecution, assassination,
destruction and devastation."

Mr. Arafat is surrounded by Israeli tanks this year, and
did not make the meeting. Mr. Peres is scheduled to take
part in three sessions today.

Mr. Arafat is not the only one who is missing. Relatively
few Japanese executives and just a smattering of government
officials showed up. In the past, they came to argue that
that they had their economic problems in hand and that
their country was on the cusp of a rebound.

Now the numbers look bleak - on Friday the Nikkei stock
average dropped below the Dow Jones industrial average for
the first time in 45 years - and the government's
popularity is sinking. So when a panel considered whether
Japan would emerge from its difficulties intact, no one
made a successful argument that Japan could find its way
back for years.

Even without the Japanese, business executives here were in
a deep funk. "If you want to talk to negative people talk
to C.E.O.'s," said Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill, who
used to be one, at Alcoa.

But Mr. O'Neill, who once argued that he had his finger on
the pulse of the American economy because he made real
products sold in real markets, has been in Washington long
enough to believe that he now has a truer picture.

Company executives worry incessantly about what could go
wrong, but he argued "that is not really reflective of what
is going on in the real economy."

For true doom and gloom, though, there was the discussion
on Friday about "asymmetric threats," an exploration of
whether nuclear, chemical or biological weapons could be
used by rogue states or groups.

Some C.E.O.'s wondered openly about whether their factories
or laboratories could become victims of theft, sabotage or
attack, or, to bring the issue truly close to home, whether
they were safe inside the Waldorf.

For all the worry, the protests were nonexistent on
Thursday and Friday. On Saturday, some 7,000 protesters
gathered for nonviolent marches but there were 38 arrests.

Ever since the debacle of the World Trade Organization
meeting in Seattle two years ago, store windows have been
shattered and tear gas has been the official odor of
meetings of world leaders. But near Park Avenue this week,
windows were intact and the strongest smells have emerged
from the coffee cups as idle police officers seek a place
to stay warm.

Thus, New York bore no resemblance to Genoa, Italy, last
summer, which was wrapped with razor wire to protect
leaders of industrialized nations for their annual summit.
Genoa was a ghost town of empty sidewalks and locked steel
grates.

In contrast, traffic buzzed slowly around the East Side,
and participants at the conference scooted across Lexington
Avenue to pick up a latte at Starbucks. "Look!" said one
amazed veteran of recent global conferences, "They've still
got windows!"

But if the ranks of the protesters were thinned, so were
the ranks of the entrepreneurs.

A few years ago in Davos the world seemed more prosperous
and the stars of the show were Bill Gates, the Microsoft
chairman, and Silicon Valley C.E.O.'s who ran seminars like
"Wiring the World," and mixed it up with bureaucrats on the
question of whether the Internet would foster so-called
virtual democracies - like-minded people of many lands
bringing about change.

This year, the seminars have more down-to-earth subjects,
like survival. There was "The Future of Terrorism: What Are
the Next Threats?" and "Crisis Management: Look Out Ahead."
 

Three years ago, Ted Turner entertained the elites with a
discussion of how far media conglomerates could reach,
boasting that CNN was making national borders irrelevant.
Government officials sheepishly agreed.

But now borders are back and being secured. So is the power
of government over private enterprise.

On Friday, the subject of one media panel was whether the
American military would be within its rights to bomb
broadcast facilities of Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite
network, if it appeared to be giving aid to the enemy.

Former Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia warned that unlike
nuclear material - which is almost all controlled by
governments - chemical and biological agents are
overwhelmingly in the hands of private industry, and that
the responsibility should fall on corporations to devise
ways to keep such material out of the hands of those who
would misuse them.

"We're going to have to have a private sector effort here,"
he said, noting that if he were in business, "I'd want to
get out in front" before the biological version of a Three
Mile Island nuclear accident led to the imposition of
"regulations that will stifle commerce."

Then the dispirited executives went to lunch, so that they
could brace themselves for the afternoon session, "New
Sources of Vulnerability: Thinking the Unthinkable."

36 Are Arrested, but Demonstrations Remain Peaceful

February 3, 2002

By DAN BARRY
 
 
 

It turned out to be a beautiful day for protest yesterday,
with a little something for everybody. Peaceful
demonstrations, catchy slogans, colorful placards, plenty
of police officers - and even a few arrests.

Yesterday was the ballyhooed day when thousands of
anarchists, socialists and just plain-old regular folks
came to New York to rally against the World Economic Forum,
which has brought 2,700 government leaders and corporate
executives to the Waldorf-Astoria for the express purpose
of "improving the state of the world." Adding to the mix
were thousands of police officers assigned to keep the
peace, along with untold numbers of federal law enforcement
officials and armed bodyguards.

By early evening, an estimated 7,000 protesters had engaged
in a loud but peaceful rally within earshot of the Waldorf
on Park Avenue, and then disbanded. By that point, police
officials said, at least 38 people had been arrested, on
charges of disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly and
reckless endangerment, and three officers had been injured.
 

"So far, so good," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly
said last night, although he added that other challenges
remained. Some 2,000 guests of the economic forum were to
be bused under heavy guard last night for a dinner at the
New York Stock Exchange in Lower Manhattan. In addition,
two more protests are planned for today and another on
Monday.

People intent on protesting had been trickling into the
city for days, with a few joining some early demonstrations
against the five-day forum, which convened on Thursday. But
organizers have always maintained that yesterday would be
the marquee day for peaceful protest, although they have
not denied that outbreaks of unlawful behavior were
possible, from civil disobedience to the kind of property
destruction that has marred other protests against economic
conferences.

Yesterday morning, as guests of the forum - at least those
who did not linger at any of the exclusive parties on
Friday night - arose to choose from a breakfast buffet of
panel discussions, their critics began to assemble outside.
So did hundreds of police officers; for every protester's
placard, there seemed to be an officer's helmet.

Then, at 9:50, two young men were hauled away on charges
that they had tried to block traffic by sitting on Park
Avenue, across from the Waldorf. Although charges were
dropped against one of the suspects, the incident seemed to
serve as the starter's pistol for the day's events: Super
Saturday had officially begun.

As the sun rose above the tall buildings along the East
Side, a few hundred protesters limbered up in the
barricadelike pens outside the Waldorf. Tambourines chimed,
cowbells rang, chants started.

"Money for jobs!" shouted a man on the back of a black Ford
pickup truck, his hoarse voice amplified by speakers. "Not
for war!" responded the protesters - at least those who had
not taped their mouths shut as a silent gesture of dissent.
Meanwhile, hundreds of police officers stood on street
corners or sat in vans, sipping coffee, waiting. There was
nothing leisurely about that wait, as evidenced by the
phalanx of 17 officers on horseback, directly across Park
Avenue from the Waldorf.

At the same time, on 59th Street along the southern rim of
Central Park, hundreds of other demonstrators had gathered
in two spots: on the West Side, near Columbus Circle, and
at the corner of Fifth Avenue, across from the Plaza Hotel.
Police officers on bicycles darted in and out of the crowd,
while dozens of others stood in clusters, watching the
back- and-forth flow of young people carrying sharply
worded signs.

"We're joking that their tactic must be to push us off the
sidewalk," said Jeff Bale, 30, of a group called
Mobilization for Global Justice.

Why had the protesters come? Mary Libby, 25, who said she
worked with the homeless in Michigan, explained that she
was "trying to reclaim the streets and our lives."
Everything is upside down, she said, when corporate
executives hire Elton John to perform at a private party at
the Four Seasons, an event that took place Friday night.

She objected to paying Elton John a substantial fee to
perform for an hour or two "when that money could be used
to feed the homeless right outside the building they're
in."

For a while, the scene felt more like a giddy political
bazaar than the staging area for imminent ideological
conflict. It was a minifestival of dissent, with colorful
puppets and placards bobbing in the air, drums beating out
a catchy beat and people handing out leaflets that decried
capitalism in general and the forum in particular. Even
some in the blue arc of police officers around the scene
allowed a few smiles.

The intense preparation by the Police Department may have
allowed for a relaxed smile or two from its ranks. As late
as yesterday morning, police officials were meeting with
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to go over last-minute details,
and Commissioner Kelly was planning to monitor the scene in
a helicopter.

>From above, he might have seen general cooperation between
those in blue and those who were not. At noon, Police Chief
Allan H. Hoehl and other officials huddled with several
lawyers for the rally; they looked like two sets of coaches
wishing each other well before a game.

Ronald L. Kuby, one of the lawyers, later said that the two
sides were ironing out minor details, like whether speakers
could stand on the pedestal of a statue of Gen. William
Tecumseh Sherman. They were allowed to stand on the first
step. "We compromised," he said.

By 1:15 p.m., most of the protesters who had assembled at
Columbus Circle had joined the others in front of the
Plaza, and together they began a somewhat circuitous march
toward the Waldorf, where hundreds of other demonstrators
were continuing to chant and poke the sky with their
placards.

Near the front of the parade were several women dressed as
the Statue of Liberty, draped in silver and carrying
papier-mâché torches. At one point, people hoisted two of
the women above the crowd, in classic cheerleader
formation, bringing a chorus of approval. The women in
silver also delighted the crowd by forming a chorus line
and singing "New York, New York."

Along the parade route, protesters stopped to photograph
officers standing guard outside a Starbucks cafe, and
occasionally shouted out to the people on the sidewalk,
"This is more fun than shopping."

And at East 51st Street and Lexington Avenue, the parade
passed a small counterdemonstration, in which people waved
signs that said, "The Police Are Great, It's Terrorists We
Hate," and "Seek Therapy."

But the day had its share of tension, of clashes between
protester and police officer. Three people were arrested
and charged with disorderly conduct at Columbus Circle;
four at 47th and Lexington; two others at 52nd and
Broadway.

The most dramatic moment, however, came at 1:30 p.m., when
police officers waded into the tail end of the parade, at
59th Street and Fifth Avenue, and arrested 27 people on
charges of unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct. Mr.
Kelly said that the police had received information that
this group - which included people who he said were
carrying plastic shields and masks - "were about to attack
the police."

Debra Sweet, a spokeswoman for an activist organization
called Refuse and Resist, said last night that the
circumstances of the arrests were unclear. But, she said,
"from reports we have, the police seemed to be extracting
particular people, especially people wearing masks."

After the arrests, a few lawyers and legal assistants stood
alongside a large Department of Correction bus containing
some of the arrested, and tried to get their names. One
young woman mouthed her first name: "L-A-U-R-A."

Another young man in custody shouted, "I think it's
imperative to report that we did not do anything illegal."
Then the bus pulled away.

At Grand Central Terminal, a group of about 200 protesters
entered the station just after 7 p.m. and were surrounded
by dozens of uniformed police officers, many of them from
the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. A number wore
white visored helmets and heavy vests, carried riot sticks,
and had gas masks and plastic handcuffs strapped to their
belts. Two police dogs appeared.

The protesters clapped, sang and beat on drums, and were
then surrounded by the police. After a period of tension,
the protesters sat down on the floor of the terminal, but
neither side made a hostile move and the air of
confrontation gradually dissipated. Eventually, the
demonstrators wound up gathered in small groups in the
terminal, chatting or eating, as the police stood and
watched, chatting among themselves.