Ahhh, now I see why they are so upset. In the Land of the Left, not paying federal taxes is a bad thing...
Posted on 02/13/2006 12:43:40 PM PST by neverdem
An FBI sweep launched in Puerto Rico to prevent a "domestic terrorist attack" is eliciting widespread outrage on the island - and as far away as New York City - with critics accusing the agency of trying to use terrorism as a guise to turn public opinion against Puerto Rico's independence movement.
The Friday morning raid on the U.S. commonwealth, which targeted five private homes and one business, was launched to prevent attacks from the Boricua Popular Army, the FBI said. The special agent in charge of the San Juan Division of the FBI, Luis Fraticelli, said the searches were undertaken because investigations disclosed planning was under way for an attack "where explosive devices were to be used." It was to be "directed at privately owned interests in Puerto Rico, as well as the general public," he said Friday. No arrests were made.
The pro-independence group, also known as the Macheteros, or "cane cutters," engaged in violent attacks in the 1970s and 1980s, and took credit for the 1979 bombing of a U.S. Navy bus that killed two American sailors. More recently, it has taken credit for bombings of American military and government sites on the island.
While recent polls have indicated that most of Puerto Rico's residents do not support independence from America, criticism of the raid quickly spread beyond the movement's sympathizers.
From the governor of the island to lawyers to journalists, calls came out to investigate the FBI's operations on the island.
Although residents of Puerto Rico, a former Spanish colony, are American citizens, they cannot vote for president, have no voting representatives in Congress, and pay no federal taxes.
Public displeasure with the FBI was already high. The sweep comes on the heels of the death of one the group's leaders, Filiberto Ojeda Rios, during an...
(Excerpt) Read more at nysun.com ...
Puerto Rico's independence movement has a long association terrorism.
Didn't Clinton pardon some of them?
Let's see...It's okay to blow up buildings and kill people if you're for PR independence, but not if you're an Islamosfascist.
He didn't set the precedent. Two Puerto Rican nationalists tried to assassinate Harry Truman in 1950. The one that survived the gunfight was pardoned by Jimmy Carter in 1979.
See my #6.
Gee, didn't Clinton pardon some PR killers?
Jimmy Carter. Just when you think he can't be dumber and more dangerous, he proves you wrong.
Always the same "outraged" types.
Ahhh, now I see why they are so upset. In the Land of the Left, not paying federal taxes is a bad thing...
60% of PR however does receive welfare checks from you and me.
We only kept them around for our naval bombing range...and with it gone, they can go, too.
Puerto Rico would make a good penal colony.
American Gunfight : The Plot to Kill Harry Truman--and the Shoot-out that Stopped It
by Stephen Hunter, J. S. Bainbridge
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743260686/qid=1139864851/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-8757544-7920640?s=books&v=glance&n=283155
Just finished it last week.
As long as we don't publish any cartoons, I think we'll be okay. Just whatever we do, let's not offend them or God help us all.
You mean people who want to be associated with America should be either be treated badly or kicked out? What sort of logic is that?
No. I'm simply saying that if Puerto Rico wants independence, they can have it.
It just means fewer welfare checks to be mailed.
Republicans kill terrorists.
How is using US territory for a penal colony kicking people out of the US?
I am all for their Independence, we could save a ton of money, It would probably end up like Haiti in two weeks.
You sure the numbers are that low? (sarc, sort of)
Yes, but it was to help Mrs. Clintons election to the senate. Pandering to N.Y. puerto ricans.
Since it was to help Mrs. Clinton that makes it alright.
Hell people have been killed to help Mrs. Clinton and bill.
Much ado about nothing.
The FBI was executing search warrants, not arrest warrants. Out of six locations being searched, one was near the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. There, a leftift professor called on students and union leaders to gather around the condo being search and egged them on to protest the FBI. The union leader opened a gate to the condo complex and let reporters in. In typical fashion, the students walked in right behind the reporters, using them as shields.
The FBI removed everybody from the police perimeter. ONE FBI agent sprayed pepper spray directly into the line of reporters, and sprayed one reporter in particular rather heavily. One of the students lobbed a rock at one of the FBI vehicles as they left the scene, breaking a window. The FBI didn't request crowd control from the local police.
That was it.
There's also the case of the Puerto Ricans who wounded 5 congressmen at the Capitol in 1954, shooting from the gallery.
That is correct. The place has been nothing but a federal money pit since we acquired the island from Spain in 1898. I think we ought to cut PR loose.
And I'd be interested in learning what proportion of crime puerto ricans commit as a percentage of population. Sort of like blacks disproportionately commit crimes compared to its percentage of population.
Yeah I know you can't do that, it ain't politically correct.
An independent nation of Puerto Rico would descend into another Haiti in 20 years.
PR is the #1 welfare state!!
Give them their independence. That's less money out of our coffers. Promise PR that the U.S. will not interfere with their affairs and each family will get a new pair of jumper cables.
"NOTHING but a federal money pit...cut PR loose".
Gee, thanks. Tell that to the families of the 48 that have been KIA in the current conflagration, or to that of the thousands that have fallen before them, and the tens of thousands of living veterans and their families on the island and the countless thousands that currently serve. Just to give you an example.
"And I'd be interested in learning what proportion of crime puerto ricans"
So, what is a Puerto Rican to you? I ask because when comparing Puerto Ricans to blacks you might be inferring that Puerto Rican is a race, which it is not.
This is typical media spin.
First of all, the "independence movement" in Puerto Rico is a tiny minority. There is no real independence movement at all, if you consider the fact that "independence" activists try to sell an independence that allows them to keep their US citizenship.
Secondly, the "Boricua Popular Army" is a wannabe terrorist group. Raiding them would not discredit the barely existent "independence" movement unless they themselves admire nutballs and thugs. Being mostly leftist academics, they more than likely do admire these people, so you can understand their sensitivity on the subject.
Although residents of Puerto Rico, a former Spanish colony, are American citizens, they cannot vote for president, have no voting representatives in Congress, and pay no federal taxes.
only the freebie bennies, eh?
I am so disappointed with the responses on this thread, but it seems par for the course when it somes to Puerto Rico as a topic. Many here on FR want to ignore that Puerto Ricans are Americans. That they are loyal, that they have paid this country with the blood and lives of the men and women who have sacrificed in wars for America over and over and over.How many on this thread who are PR-bashing have even served in the military or been to PR.
My so-called blood sucking federal money pit welfare PR relatives have served, and served with distinction. They served in Korea, they served in Vietnam, and they are serving now in Iraq. And you know what? Thats REAL PATRIOTISM. They serve even when they can't vote. They serve even though they have to put up with attitudes like the ones on this thread.
And sorry to disappoint you, but not one single criminal in my PR family. No one going to jail, no one been in jail. Too busy going to college, or holding down two jobs, or serving in the military.
Does the US really care if PR goes private?
Do you mean you don't like:
Puerto Rico . . .
You ugly island . . .
Island of tropic diseases.
Always the hurricanes blowing,
Always the population growing . . .
And the money owing,
And the babies crying,
And the bullets flying.
I like the island Manhattan.
Smoke on your pipe and put that in!
Talk about "cutting PR loose" is just talk. Puerto Ricans are US citizens, you can't separate a US citizen from his citizenship, which means that the island is US territory whatever happens.
There is no independence movement among Puerto Ricans worthy of the name. As for the decision not to charge federal income tax to islanders, thats a decision Congress can change anytime it wants to. It just has to do it.
Puerto Rico has a kind of autonomy, but it is no more than the autonomy that any state would have if the 9th and 10th ammendments were honored. That, again, is something that mainlanders need to address. And something islanders need to consider as they negotiate the terms of statehood or continued "territorial" status.
Did they pick up the terrorists Hitlery insisted on gettting pardons from BJ Bubba during his time warming the Presidential chair. I can just see the B***h as President now. Close down Guantanamo. Send all the terrorists back. Invite Hamas for tea and crumpets to the Lincoln bedroom. Asking that tall obl for a date and and turning over our Homeland Security to algore.
Didn't Clinton PARDON these Puerto Ricans so that the Puerto Ricans would vote for Hillary?? Just like that Jewish town that voted 1500-3 FOR Hillary because Clinton Pardoned those swindling rabbis!!!
Jimmy Carter is one sick individual.
I was in the military and served with folks from puerto rico.
I don't understand why the rate of poverty there is what it is?
I don't know what the crime rate is in regards to puerto ricans?
Why are you defensive?
I didn't imply that puerto ricans aren't Americans.
As the line in the movie says: "Let it sink back in the ocean!"
We can't make it a state, because the people there refuse to assimilate. It's all well and good to cite those who served in the military, but the fact remains many don't speak English nor have any interest in learning English, and they show no interest in adopting majority American culture. They wish to remain "them" instead of becoming "us," like we expect immigrants to do (like my father did, for instance, and my maternal grandparents). Making it a state would give us the same problems Quebec gives Canada.
We can't give PR independence, because it will become a launching pad for attacks by Fidelistas, Chavez, and all the other US-hating populist dictators in Latin America.
We're stuck with the place, and there's no good answer to what to do with it. We can't get rid of it, and we can't, in fairness, keep it.
On 8/10/2001, 4 ski mask wearing, Puerto Rican, terrorists set a Navy convoy on fire on the island of Vieques and Bush did nothing.
When it comes to the ingrates in Puerto Rico, all of our pandering politicians are the same regardless of their party affiliation.
Puerto Rico was way ahead of you with this idea.
Puerto Rico had a policy of offering its convicted criminals a plane ticket to the mainland United States, in lieu of jail time, until some cops in Dade County, Florida blew the whistle on them.
Mexico, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, all of Central America, South America and Puerto Rico have been having a contest to see who can empty out their jails onto the streets of the mainland United States for decades now.
I doubt they want their criminal element or their people of color back.
Puerto Rico has driven so many of its nonwhite residents off the island that the island is 80% white now according to the Census 2000.
There are towns in Puerto Rico that don't allow black people to drink out of their water fountains or eat in their cafeterias, because they believe black people are too dirty.
How's that for hypocritical?
Can someone remind me why PR is a commonwealth of the US?
You were born a citizen, and you will die one. You didn't ask anyone's permission to become one, and you don't need anyone's permission.
You live in one of the most beautiful places on this earth. Living well and happily is its own best "revenge".
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