Public Intelligence

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South Korean police unveiled a special security unit Monday to safeguard world leaders at November’s G20 summit, citing the threat of terrorism, North Korean disruption and massive street protests. Police have been on high alert as the country prepares to host US President Barack Obama and other Group of 20 leaders at the November 11-12 gathering in southern Seoul. National Police Agency chief Jo Hyun-Oh, at a ceremony to launch the unit, said there are reports of possible North Korean attempts to disrupt the event, and of plans for “massive protests” by local and foreign activists.

Final and Draft Versions of G8 Muskoka Declaration from May 26 – June 26, 2010.

This report responds to the request of the G-20 leaders for the IMF to: “…prepare a report for our next meeting [June 2010] with regard to the range of options countries have adopted or are considering as to how the financial sector could make a fair and substantial contribution toward paying for any burden associated with government interventions to repair the banking system.”

Videos from the Toronto G20/G8 Protests.

Police cracked down on anti-G20 demonstrators Sunday, bringing weekend arrests to more than 600 as they tried to prevent a repeat of Saturday’s violence and vandalism near the global leaders’ summit. Advocates for some of those arrested said protesters had been the victims of police brutality. As the summit wrapped up, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, whose government spent more than $1 billion on security, said the violence Saturday was caused by “a few thugs” who are attracted to summits.

See also:

Toronto G20/G8 Protest Police State Photos

Photos taken from Flickr.

You are an important community partner and you can help us with our planning by asking your staff to be alert and vigilant. For instance, ask employees to:

Report to your security officers and the Toronto Police Service any suspicious persons found in the “staff only” areas of downtown locations,

Report to your security officers and the Toronto Police Service any suspicious activity that could be of potential concern such as suspicious photography in or around the work place; suspicious packages; insecure doors;

Photos taken from Flickr.

Key Points:

* The PBO was asked to assess the reasonableness of the security costs for the upcoming G8 and G20 Summits in Huntsville and Toronto.
* The Government of Canada has been relatively transparent, when compared to other countries, on the costs of security related to the summits. The total cost of security for the 2010 G8 and G20 Summits amounts to $930M, which includes $507M for RCMP, $278M for Public Safety, $78M for National Defence and a $55M contingency reserve.
* The PBO found it difficult to find comparable data of past events to assess the security costs related to the 2010 Summits. This is largely due to the lack of disclosure by other jurisdictions, differences in key considerations and cost drivers of summit security and differences between base versus incremental funding.

The G8 summit of leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US, Canada and Russia is being held at the Deerhurst Resort on the outskirts of Huntsville, 215km (133 miles) from Toronto. The resort is closed to public, with restrictions in force on local roads, the nearby Peninsula Lake, as well as airspace closures. A ring of steel has gone up around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre area for the G20 summit which will take place after the G8 summit. The “lockdown” of central Toronto includes a 3m-high (10ft), 3.5km (2.2-mile) concrete and metal fence enclosing the G20 meeting area and a huge security presence. Banks and theatres will be closed, as will one of Canada’s most famous tourist attractions – the CN Tower.

The Government of Canada has chosen Toronto as the location of the Group of Twenty (G20) Summit on Saturday and Sunday, June 26 and 27, 2010 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Security for the Summit is being managed by the Integrated Security Unit (ISU), a joint security team led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in partnership with the Toronto Police Service (TPS), the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the Canadian Forces (CF) and Peel Regional Police (PRP).

As demonstrations have evolved with the help of text messages and online social networks, so too has the response of law enforcement. On Thursday, F.B.I. agents descended on a house in Jackson Heights, Queens, and spent 16 hours searching it. The most likely reason for the raid: a man who lived there had helped coordinate communications among protesters at the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh.

The following videos show the treasonous actions of the Pittsburgh Police Bureau. These actions may include gassing and beating students on their own campus, gassing students on their dormitory balconies, attacking pedestrians with pepper spray, and/or shooting children with rubber bullets.

Videos of the LRAD sound weapons used against protesters at the Pittsburgh G20 Summit.

We would like to know who this person in this video is and what happened to them. The “soldiers” look to be contractors and not regular military, as they not wearing any sort of insignia on their uniform. They have a patch around their arm with a card in it.

Fear of protesters is the talk of grocery and bank lines. At one point, local media was filled with reports of surreptitious foreigners training in a vacant building (they turned out to be a Swedish punk band on tour). For the duration of G-20, most locals are clearing out. School districts 10 miles away from Downtown have canceled classes. Even before the Secret Service announced its summit site security perimeters, businesses blocks away decided to shut down or arrange for workers to telecommute. Several storefronts have already been boarded up.

G20 finance leaders on Saturday took aim at excessive bank pay and risk-taking at the root of the financial crisis and insisted trillions of dollars of emergency economic supports would be needed for some time. Although the global economy looks brighter than when the Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers met in April, their closing statement said they would not remove economic stimulus until the recovery was well entrenched.

Democrats in the U.S. Congress have reached a deal to boost support to the International Monetary Fund, lawmakers’ aides said on Tuesday, a victory for President Barack Obama who pledged to help the lender assist countries in the global economic crisis. The war funding measure will provide a $100 billion credit line to the IMF, increase the U.S. member contribution to the IMF by $8 billion and authorize the United States to back the IMF’s plan to sell 400 tons (12.97 million ounces) of gold, said the aides, who declined further identification.