December 6. 2001, John Ashcroft informed the senate judiciary committee

"To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty...
your tactics only aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and...
give ammunition to americas enemies"

Some commentators suspected that Ashcroft's statement which was vetted
beforehand by top lawyers at the justice department, signaled that the bush administration
would take far more hostile, views towards critics than did recent presidents.

The secret service has done all it could to vindicate such fears,
when bush came to the pittsburgh area on labor day 2002, Bill Neel, a 65 year old retired steel worker,
was there to greet him with a sign proclaiming
"the bush family must surely love the poor - they made so many of us"

Local police, at the secret service behest, set up a "designated free speech zone" on a a baseball field
surrounded by a chain -link fence a third of a mile from the location of bushes speech.

The police cleared the motorcade path full of all critical signs,
although folks with pro bush signs were permitted to line the presidents way.
Neel refused to go to the designated area and was arrested for disorderly conduct,
the police confiscated also confiscated the sign, Neel compared the area to a concentration camp..
At Neel's trial police detective John Ianchione testified that the Secret Service told
local police confine "people that were there making a statement
pretty much against the presidents and his views" in a "free speech area"

Paul Wolf, one of the top officials in the Allegheny County Police Department commented that the Secret Service
agents "come in and do a site survey and say, here's where a place people can be,
and we'd like to have any protestors be put in a place that can be secured."
Pennsylvania District Judge Shirley Rowe Trkula threw out the disorderly conduct charge against Neel,
declaring that "I believe this is America, whatever happened to
"I don't agree with you, but ill defend to the death your right to say it?

Similar suppressing's happened during bush visits to florida, a St .Petersburg Times editorial noted
"At a bush rally at Legends Field in 2001, three demonstrators, two of which were grandmothers,
were arrested for holding up small handwritten protest signs outside of the designated zone
At the USF Sun Dome, seven protestors were arrested when bush came to a rally.

They refused to be cordoned off into o a protest zone hundreds of yards from the entrance to the dome.
One of the arrested was a 62 year old man holding up a sign "war is good business Invest your sons"
They were charged with trespassing, obstructing justice and disorderly conduct

St Loius, June 22 2003, 150 people carrying signs were, Denise Leibberman of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri, commented
No one could see them from the street, in addition the media was not allowed to talk to them.

Police would not allow any media inside the protest area, and would not allow any protestors out of area to talk to them.

When Bush stopped by a Boeing plant to talk to workers, Christine Mains, accomplice by her 5 yr old Daughter,
disobeyed orders to move to a small protest area, far away from the action.
Police arrested mains and took her crying daughter in sep aerate squad cars.

The American Civil Liberties Union reported....

On Sept 27,2002, President Bush came to the downtown Civic Center for a fundraising dinner for 2 local candidates.
a coalition of groups opposed to a variety of the presidents policies,
consisting of approximately 1500 people, negotiated with the local police for a demonstration permit.

Phoenix Police advised the protestors that the President had requested a federal protection zone.
These protestors were required to stand across the street from the civic center,
people carrying signs supporting the presidents polices and
spectators not visibly expressing any views were allowed to stand much closer.

Eleanor Eisenberg, director of the local American Civil Liberties Union, was present as a legal observer,
when mounted police in riot gear charged into the crowd without warning, Eisenberg,
who was across the street taking photos, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct,
the charges were later dropped.

On October 24, 2002, President Bush flew to Columbia, South Carolina,
for an airport speech for Republican congressional candidates.

Bush told an adoring crowd;

"There's and enemy out there tat hates American because of what we love.
We love freedom.
We love the fact that we can worship freely in America.
We love our free press.
We love every aspect of our freedom. and were not changing"

The secret service made the airport area safe for freedom loving rhetoric
by Vigoursly suppressing dissent before Bush arrived

Bret Bursey, 54 years old, was arrested for holding a "No war for Oil" sign too near the hangar
were bush was speaking, local police , acting under Secret Service orders, purportedly established a
"free speech zone" far from the airport hangar.

Bursey was standing amidst hundreds of people carrying signs praising the president or his policies,
police told him to remove himself to the "free speech zone", after moving twice,
Bursey refused to move again and was arrested. Bursey said he asked the police man if it was the content of his sign?
and the police man said yes.. it was the content of his sign that's the problem"
Bursey said he already moved 200 yards from where bush was speaking, the restricted area kept moving...

Bursey was charged with trespassing, 5 month later the charges were dropped because
South Carolina's law prohibits arresting people for trespassing on public property.
However-The city "in the person of Strom Thurmond Jr"- quickly jumped in..and charged him
with violating a rarely enforced federal law
regarding "entering a restricted area around the president of the united states"

Some observers believed the feds aimed to set a precedent in a
conservative state such as South Carolina, that could be used against protestors nationwide.

During his trial before the Magistrate, Bursey's lawyers sought the South Carolina's documents
that they believed would lay out the official policies on restricting critical speech at presidential visit's;

The Bush Administration sought to block all access to most of the documents.
Bursey sought to subpoena Attorney General's john Ashcroft and political advisor Karl Rove to testify.
Bursey's lawyer Lewis Pitt's declared we intend to find out from Mr Ashcroft's
why and how the decision to prosecute Mr Bursey was reached

The magistrate refused to issue the subpoena's.

Secret Service agents testified that Bursey's sign was attached to a "wooden stick" - and that it could be used
as a weapon, but testimony showed that the area where mr Bursey stood
had plenty of signsbacking gop candidates staked to the ground.

Gerald Rudolph, a protestor who was next to Bursey that day, testified to a policeman that
"actually he didn't tell me to leave, he told me i couldn't be there with a sign..... they said arrest them"
we were both holding Sign's, I gave up my sign at that point and they left me alone, and they arrested Bursey.