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<a href="http://www.rcfp.org/news/2006/0328-new-housep.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2006/0328-new-housep.html<br>
</a>NEWS MEDIA UPDATE · WASHINGTON,
D.C. · Newsgathering ·
March 28, 2006 <br>
<br>
House panel hears about FBI agents' assault on reporters<br><br>
<ul>
<li>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.
</ul><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
"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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
"They are lying and they're covering up their agent's criminal
acts," Serrano said.<br><br>
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."<br><br>
In the video, several journalists who were attacked are shown having
bottles of water poured into their burning eyes.<br><br>
"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?"<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
"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."<br><br>
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."<br><br>
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."<br><br>
-- <i>KM</i> <br><br>
Related stories:<br><br>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.rcfp.org/news/2006/0217-new-congre.html">
Congressmen seek investigation into FBI-press altercation</a>
(02/17/2006)</font>
</ul><br>
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