[News] House panel hears about FBI agents' assault on reporters

Wed Mar 29 08:47:32 EST 2006

http://www.rcfp.org/news/2006/0328-new-housep.html
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE   ·   WASHINGTON, 
D.C.   ·   Newsgathering   ·   March 28, 2006

House panel hears about FBI agents' assault on reporters

    * Puerto Rican journalists told an ad hoc 
committee of U.S. House members today that an 
FBI-press altercation last month that sent 
several reporters to the hospital warrants disciplinary action.

March 28, 2006  ·   As video of a chaotic 
February clash between Puerto Rican journalists 
and the FBI silently filled a screen in a U.S. 
House of Representatives hearing room today, one 
of the reporters, Normando Valentin, described 
how FBI agents pushed him in the rib cage and 
pepper sprayed him in the face, sending him to the hospital for several hours.

A camouflaged agent is shown in the video 
spraying Valentin directly in the face as he 
tried to cover one of six raids on the island 
targeting a militant Puerto Rico independence group on Feb. 10.

"I felt that my face was burning. I could not 
breathe. I was disoriented. The only thing I 
could feel was being pushed," he told an ad hoc 
House committee of seven Democrats convened by 
Rep. John Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

Conyers organized the briefing, he said, because 
House Republicans who lead the committee declined 
to call a full congressional hearing into the 
Feb. 10 incident and the FBI's attempted Sept. 23 
arrest of federal fugitive Filiberto Ojeda Rios, which resulted in his death.

The agent who used excessive force against 
Valentin and other agents at the scene who 
targeted other journalists should be 
"administratively disciplined and criminal 
prosecuted," Oscar J. Serrano, president of the 
Puerto Rico Journalists Association, told the 
panel, which included three House members of Puerto Rican origin.

The association identified one of the agents at 
the scene as Jose Figueroa Sancha, special deputy 
agent in charge, and reported that Luis 
Fraticelli, special agent in charge, issued a 
press release justifying the actions because 
reporters were caught on video throwing objects 
and committing other acts that could be prosecuted.

"They are lying and they're covering up their 
agent's criminal acts," Serrano said.

The FBI was invited to testify at today's 
briefing, but declined, Conyers said. But an FBI 
spokesman told the Reporters Committee last month 
that agents were forced to use pepper spray 
because the journalists "refused to comply with a 
lawful order to remove themselves from a crime scene."

In the video, several journalists who were 
attacked are shown having bottles of water poured into their burning eyes.

"What were they thinking?" Serrano said of the 
agents. "In what Justice Department training 
manual is a notebook, a video camera or a voice 
recorder described as a lethal weapon? What kind 
of a riot were they seeing in their minds where 
everyone else saw a group of reporters making questions?"

Both the Sept. 23 shooting death of Ojeda Rios 
and the attack on journalists are the subject of 
civil lawsuits filed in federal court in San Juan 
by the Puerto Rico Department of Justice, which 
is investigating both incidents but has been 
unable to get any cooperation or evidence from 
the FBI, Puerto Rico's Attorney General Roberto Jose Sanchez told the panel.

Other experts testified to the decades-old 
tension between Puerto Ricans seeking 
independence for the island and the FBI, a 
contentious relationship that likely contributed to the FBI-media clash.

Rep. Jose E. Serrano of New York, whose family 
emigrated from Puerto Rico when he was a baby, 
said because the clash happened in his homeland 
and not on the U.S. mainland, it got little attention.

"Can you imagine if something like this happened 
in New York or California?" he said. "It would be 
on TV for the rest of the week. It would be an outrage."

The main goal of the briefing was "to make sure 
we had enough evidence on the table to back up 
the need for a congressional hearing" by the 
House Judiciary Committee, Said Rep. Robert Scott 
of Virginia. "Certainly, the testimony and the videos have made that case."

Rep. Nydia Velazquez of New York said the hearing 
left her "ashamed as a member of the U.S. House 
of Representatives. Law enforcement is out there 
to keep order, not to violate the rights of citizens."

-- KM