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Four students arrested for heckling FBI director Elizabeth Ress Police arrested four Harvard University students last night for heckling FBI Director Robert Mueller prior to his speech on the "Balance of National Security and Civil Liberties," witnesses said. Harvard spokesman Joe Wrinn confirmed that four Harvard students were arrested outside the John F. Kennedy School of Government. He could not verify their identities or the circumstances under which they were apprehended. Harvard senior Austin Guest, who was outside the event when he saw the police take away the students, said officers handcuffed the protesters after escorting them out of the building. "[Officers] told me if I talked to [the students], I would be arrested," he said.
Police and forum staff declined to comment on the incident. The event, which students described as particularly crowded, had more security than usual because of Mueller's high profile. The protesters "probably expected to be escorted out, but not to be arrested," Guest said. Mueller was unfazed by the student chants to "free all political prisoners" and "close Guantanamo, stop the lies," and instead commended the protest, saying they were a testament to freedom of expression. Once the audience had quieted, Mueller, who was appointed director of the FBI one week before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, warned that although the United States has "been successful in preventing another attack on our homeland, we are still not safe." "Al Qaeda is no longer just an organization, but is now a movement," he said, adding that the FBI was "worried now of . . . [terrorist] pockets in our own neighborhoods," citing alleged terrorist activity in New York and Ohio as examples. Mueller said that, to protect citizens from harm, the FBI needed to access certain information such as cell-phone records. "We have a right to privacy, but we also have a right to ride the T . . . and not have bombs exploding," he said. |
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