Sager's past life as protester raising eyebrows

Jason Sager doesn't have to look at someone else's pictures of the Twin Towers attack in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

He was there.

He saw the billowing smoke from his home and has his own scrapbook showing the devastation.

As shaken as he was that day, Sager said he witnessed something later that would propel him into a life of politics and ultimately lead him to Brooksville to become the tea party candidate for the 5th Congressional District.

Fourteen days after al-Qaida terrorists forced two pilots to crash into the World Trade Center, Sager said he was walking near ground zero when he saw Marxist progressive protesters dragging American flags on the ground and declaring to crowds the United States was to blame for 9/11.

That was Sager's "Patrick Henry moment" and he knew he had to get involved.

Not in the normal way of speechifying and holding the occasional rally, although the then-27-year-old joined the respectable NYC Young Republican Club for conservative activists.

But around January 2003, he also joined a group of about a hundred other young like-minded activists and became a member of the New York chapter of Protest Warrior, often dressing up as communist revolutionary Che Guevara.

Protest Warrior was a satirical, covert group who crashed anti-war and anti-George Bush protest events and blended in with the group. Members would hold up mock signs purporting to espouse the same liberal views.

And it was his one-year involvement with this unorthodox movement that has raised eyebrows from the chairmen of the local Republican and Democratic parties.

"I think Mr. Sager has some explaining to do to the electorate," said Blaise Ingoglia, chairman of the Republican Party of Hernando County.

Ingoglia said he is concerned Sager's past life as a New York City Protest Warrior will give the Democrats more ammunition in the election and this 5th Congressional seat is a seat the Republicans cannot lose.

Ingoglia said he had not heard about Protest Warrior until being told by a Hernando Today reporter Friday. He said he did some quick research and visited some Internet sites and the messages he found are highly disturbing.

"Jason Sager claims this was supposed to be satirical (but) I can't see how dressing up as a communist revolutionary, who murdered hundreds of people, is funny in any way, shape or form," Ingoglia said.

Perhaps because of his black wavy hair and facial features, Sager often dressed up as Argentine Marxist revolutionary Guverra and joined his fellow Warriors, who would don wigs and wardrobes - depending on the rally - to impersonate revolutionaries Fidel Castro or Vladimir Lenin.

Sager said he attended hundreds of these rallies, and he and his and crew would hold up signs that seemed to say the same thing as those held by anti-war protesters. But, at closer look, the fine print would actually poke fun at them.

Protest Warriors infiltrated American Communist or anti-Bush rallies, and events that protested Israel or Vice President Dick Cheney's corporate ties to Halliburton.

Sometimes Sager said he dressed as himself and pretended to be on their side when in fact, he would secretly try and educate some of the rally participants drawn to these events as to the real message being conveyed.

During a pro-John Kerry rally, when the Democrat ran against incumbent Republican George Bush, Sager carried a sign that read "The Red Deal," as a satirical jab at Kerry's "Real Deal" mantra.

Sager admits it was a dangerous way of pushing his pro-American and pro-Republican message and he often received death threats.

"They would surround us, which was a common tactic, and pushed us around," he said. "If you didn't get out in a hurry, we would have gotten beaten to death."

During a pro-Palestinian rally he was recognized. A group of guys pressed in on him and started pummeling him with their fists.

"I went to the ground, crawled out of there and called for the first police officer I could find," Sager said.

Billionaires for Bush

Sager said the liberals and Democrats had their own covert group called the "Billionaires for Bush." The men, he said, would dress up in tuxedos and eye monocles. The women wore fancy gowns and hefted martini glasses.

They showed up outside Republican-sponsored rallies and events and whipped out signs that read, "Tax the poor rich people, we need their money too."

Like the Protest Warriors, the Billionaires for Bush were satirical and creative, Sager said.

Protest Warrior disbanded when Bush won election in 2004, although the national chapter's old website is still archived and available online.

Sager said his warriors always notified the New York City Police Department prior to their appearances at rallies, just in case an incident occurred.

"We were trying to expose the anti-American and sometimes racist policies of the progressive Left by crashing their protests and intermingling with their people," Sager said. "We put their own message in their face to let them know what they were doing.

"When they would catch on, it would become an angry situation. We were trying to get the attention of the media to expose these people."

Death threats forced him to leave New York

Sager, now 36, said he likened his actions to a soldier fighting in a war. Only the battle here was for the hearts and minds of Americans in an urban metropolis he said was fast becoming home to dangerous anti-American sympathizers, he said.

Sager said he was one of the officers of his group and was responsible for gathering intelligence and e-mailing his fellow warriors as to where to meet and infiltrate the next group.

There was no leadership hierarchy, no regular meetings and no formal organization. They didn't even have a website, he said, although the national chapter did eventually have an online presence.

After he married and his son Bob was born, Sager said he and his wife decided to move back to his home state of Florida because things were getting too hot in New York.

Sager said he received death threats and feared for his life. He did not want to expose his family to the constant danger. After one year as a warrior, that was enough, he said.

After getting laid off from his audio-visual job in Clearwater, he moved to Brooksville, where he was born, to lay low for awhile before immersing himself into local politics.

He formed the now-defunct Department of Constitutional Protection (DCP), whose 90 members met every three weeks at Faith Presbyterian Church in Brooksville, where his wife Stephanie was music director.

Sager described that nonprofit organization as a mix of education, politics and religion.
Last October, he surprised many by announcing he was running for the U.S. House seat in Florida's 5th District and became the local tea party candidate.

His opponent in the Aug. 24 Republican primary is Hernando County Sheriff Richard Nugent.

Wingrove: 'I wouldn't do it'

Cy Wingrove, chairman of the Hernando County Democratic Executive Committee, said he never heard of Protest Warrior or Billionaires for Bush.

But he doesn't agree with their tactics.

"I would never do it," Wingrove said. "I would show more respect for people. This is America and you can have your own views, whether you agree with them or not. I don't believe in interrupting people and creating a disturbance."

Ingoglia said his fear is the Democrats will use this knowledge against Sager in a general election match-up.

"The Democrats will not care if this is satire or not," Ingoglia said. "They're going to use everything they possibly can against any Republican challenger to gain control of the seat."

Still, Ingoglia said the party will wait until the Aug. 24 primary is concluded and support the winning Republican, whether it is Sager or Nugent.

Forerunner to tea party movement

Sager admits it may be difficult for someone sitting in Brooksville or Spring Hill to understand these guerilla political tactics, especially if they weren't living in New York City during those tumultuous years after 9-11.

"It's really hard to understand that there is an active communist movement in our country and it is out in the open in our major cities," Sager said. "It is hard to believe. But we witnessed it."

He believes that the Protest Warriors were a forerunner of today's tea party movement.

He said the tactics may have changed, but the intent is the same: To return to the precepts of the nation's Founding Fathers, adhere to the values set forth in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and get government back to its original purpose of serving the people, not the other way around.

He hopes people will understand why he became a Protest Warrior.

"We were (just) trying to educate people on the true policies and rampant racism found on the other side of the ticket," Sager said.