Report: How the Government TARGETED Occupy

[G_j]

Last edited Fri May 24, 2013, 12:34 AM - Edit history (1)

http://inthesetimes.com/article/15028/how_the_government_targeted_occupy/

How the Government Targeted Occupy

A new report reveals the U.S. spent millions spying on Occupiers and other anti-corporate activists.

BY LISA GRAVES

In our new report, “Dissent or Terror: How the Nation's Counter Terrorism Apparatus, in Partnership with Corporate America, Turned on Occupy Wall Street,” written by Center for Media and Democracy contributor and DBA Press publisher Beau Hodai, we detail several ways in which our tax dollars are being squandered on law enforcement—or so-called “homeland security”personnel monitoring Americans who dare to voice dissent against the extraordinary influence that some of the world's most powerful corporations have on on our elected officials.
Through this investigation we have documented:

-How [\b]U.S. Department of Homeland Security-funded “fusion center” personnel have spent endless hours gleefully monitoring their fellow Americans though Facebook and other social media, and how fusion centers nationwide have expended countless hours and tax dollars in the monitoring of Occupy Wall Street, bank activists and civil libertarians concerned about national security powers.

-How some of these “counter terrorism” government employees applied facial recognition technology, drawing from a state database of driver's license photos, to photographs found on Facebook in the effort to profile citizens believed to be associated with activist groups.

-How corporations have become part of the “information sharing environment” with law enforcement/intelligence agencies through various public-private intelligence sharing partnerships—and how, through these partnerships, the homeland security apparatus has been focused on citizens protesting these corporations.

-How private groups and individuals, such as Charles Koch, Chase Koch (Charles' son and a Koch Industries executive), Koch Industries, and the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) have hired off-duty cops—sometimes still armed and in police uniforms—to perform the private security functions of keeping undesirable people (reporters and activists) away from them. As was the case in an incident involving protests of ALEC, off-duty officers working on behalf of ALEC and the resort in which an ALEC conference was being held, led riot-gear-clad officers in the pepper spraying and arrests of several peaceful, law abiding protestors.

-How law enforcement agencies in Phoenix, Arizona dispatched an undercover officer to infiltrate activist groups organizing both ALEC demonstrations and the launch of Occupy Phoenix—and how the work of this undercover infiltrator officer benefited ALEC and the private corporations that were the subjects of these activist demonstrations.

-How “counter terrorism” personnel
monitored the protest activities of citizens opposed to the “indefinite detention” language contained in National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (which CMD has filed an amicus brief against).

-How the FBI applied “Operation Tripwire,” an initiative originally intended to apprehend domestic terrorists through the use of private sector informants, in their monitoring of Occupy Wall Street groups.

**read the full report here: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Government_Surveillance_of_Occupy_Movement

[Octafish]

1. Gee. Corporate America in bed with Homeland Security.

What could go wrong?

[G_j]

3. and of course

here we see ALEC once again..

[woo me with science]

65. +1 Hmm.

Gotta look up "fascism" again.

[newmember]

2. first the tea party , then occupy , we will be next

If you or your group disagrees with something the government does ..... and speaks out..

you will be next

[G_j]

4. I have not seen evidence that any of these tactics

were used against Tea Party groups.

[bahrbearian]

5. They did ask them extra questions, that must have hurt.

[formercia]

7. The FBI couldn't find an Agent stupid enough

that they wouldn't be immediately recognized.

[Octafish]

66. Now THAT'S saying something.

What's the sound of one Koch tool instigating?

[hootinholler]

9. What bullshit!

Show me any, and I mean *ANY* instance of the infiltration and close monitoring of the Tea Party.

Show me the coordination of suppression of Tea Party activities via the fusion centers.

Show me any Tea Party member who was pre-emptively arrested before protests.

[H2O Man]

13. Right.

The Tea Partiers bring weapons to their public events, and nothing happens. Occupy people brought books, and had them taken away.

Perhaps the person's confusion is rooted in the fact that some tea party members are actually police officers; this is distinct from the infiltration et al of Occupy.

[hootinholler]

20. I suspect the person is not confused at all.

An aside, it appears that fracking will be taken up by the Md legislature this session.

[dreamnightwind]

56. Maybe books are more dangerous - eom

[Marr]

11. First Occupy, you mean.

The Tea Party was funded by the same billionaires who are mixed up in the persecution of Occupy. The Tea Party seems to have, possibly, maybe, perhaps, been on the receiving end of a little bit of extra scrutiny when applying for a tax status they didn't even have to apply for to use.

They are not in the same ballpark. They're not even in the same sport.

[blm]

35. Tea Party has been funded by fascists and given special treatment by congress.

Other groups have been given added scrutiny for decades by IRS, but, no one whined about it because they expected it. Tea Party feels ENTITLED to skip the process endured by others for decades.

No intellectually honest person familiar with these issues would see them as the same.

[RandiFan1290]

50. CSB

[sabrina 1]

62. The Tea Party was NOT targeted by the Government. How many TP members were beaten

nearly to death? How many were sent to prison, charged under 'terror' laws? I do not recall any harassment of TP members.

But if you have evidence of the same kind of crackdown on the TP as the world witnessed against OWS, please post it.

[woo me with science]

6. Corporate fascism.

It's here.

[sinkingfeeling]

8. Follow the Tea Party's lead and file a lawsuit or two.

[G_j]

10. There have been many,

(there is a lot more at the link)

Occupiers Prevail Over Infiltrators, Unconstitutional Ordinances, Vindictive DAs

http://www.nlg.org/news/blog/occupiers-prevail-over-infiltrators-unconstitutional-ordinances-vindictive-das

March 19, 2013

On the second Friday in February, Boston prosecutors announced that they were dropping all charges against 26 people who had been swept up in two late night raids of Occupy Boston almost a year and a half earlier. The move came as a surprise to the arrestees and their NLG defense team who were deep in preparation for a trial the following Monday. While it would be welcome news to any criminal defendant, the evaporation of the charges was a strange end to a long and grueling saga, especially because of what came with the announcement:

“There’s now parity with prior cases arising from the protests,” Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Jake Wark told the Boston Globe. “They’ve served essentially the same sentences.”

Occupy Boston activists, though glad to see their charges dropped, were outraged that the D.A.’s office could confirm their harshest critiques—which held that the criminal justice process is itself a punishment enacted by the state to deter continued activism—and keep a straight face.

Despite the mixed emotions they evoked, the dismissals are undoubtedly a victory for Occupy Boston and for the Massachusetts NLG chapter, which provided legal support to the protest camp from the beginning. The win is only the latest in a string of NLG victories as the saga of the Occupy movement continues to play out in courthouses across the country.

Texas

Greg Gladden, a Texas Guild lawyer and newly elected Mass Defense Committee co-chair scored a major win in helping to secure the dismissal of felony charges facing seven Occupy Austin protesters charged with felonies after participating in a port facility lockdown. The charges, felony possession of a criminal instrument, stemmed from the activists’ use of a lockbox which Gladden showed through an aggressive discovery strategy to have been hand-built and delivered by three Austin police officers posing as protesters.

The revelation of police involvement led to the dismissals which were actually the second time a judge tossed out the charges—after the first, a prosecutor had them reinstated through a federal grand jury. Gladden represented Ronnie Garza, one of seven Occupy Austin protesters charged for blocking an entrance to the Port of Houston with a sleeping dragon as part of the December 2011 Occupy port shutdown. In addition to the three infiltrators named for their direct involvement in the criminal case, the discovery points to the presence of at least three more undercover agents working within the Occupy camp in coordination with a local fusion center.

Also in Austin, Guild member Jim Harrington in his capacity as Director of the Texas Civil Rights Project prevailed in a federal lawsuit challenging the City’s practice of banning people from City Hall Plaza, which had been used to deter 37 Occupy Austin protesters from returning to the encampment site. Federal Judge Lee Yeakel ruled that the city’s use of criminal trespass notices violated the First Amendment and due process and banned the practice.

Chicago

Lawyers and legal workers from the NLG’s Chicago chapter coordinated the defense of nearly all of the several hundred activists arrested during Occupy Chicago demonstrations. In September, the 92 arrestees whose curfew violation cases were still open saw their charges dismissed by a Cook County Court judge. In his written ruling, Judge Thomas Donnelly upheld Guild lawyers’ motion to dismiss, finding that the park curfew ordinance was unconstitutional on its face and as applied.

The ruling states:

While the City arrested everyone remaining in Grant Park during the Occupy Chicago rally, the City arrested no one at the Obama 2008 presidential election victory rally, even though the Obama rally was equally in violation of the Curfew. That violates Defendants’ right to equal protection because it treats similarly situated citizens differently.


...MUCH MORE...

[formercia]

16. One reason the charges were dropped:

The authorities didn't want the trials to occur. This would have required that testimony be given which might have opened up avenues for lawsuits against the Government and police officers involved. By causing financial hardship to the defendants the Government caused other protesters to be intimidated. This was a known tactic of the Feds during the AIM and Black Panther persecutions. More than likely, the defendants would have won in Court and the trials would have been in the Public Record, where they could have been used as Case Law in other related Occupy arrests.

Defendants, if possible, should demand a Trial, in order to place testimony in the Public Record. Put the Government on Trial.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. And the few cases that went on

The defendants won

[H2O Man]

12. Recommended.

This is very important. Thank you for posting it.

[ctsnowman]

14. K & R

[Dorn]

15. Why aren't the Democrats supporting OWS like the Republicans are supporting TP

I find it disturbing that the Republicans representatives are supporting the so called grass root tea party groups while the Democrats have largely ignored the actual grass root Occupy movement. Unfortunately that tells me a lot about both the Rs and the Ds.

[Fire Walk With Me]

18. The two-party system is designed to provide the illusion of choice. This is a corporatocracy,

a plutonomy. I and others have posted numerous articles here regarding the revolving door in the white house for corporate and banking interests, as well as how the police are being purposely militarized both for profit and as a warning to activists (although violence and threat of violence against a politically-oriented group is DOMESTIC TERRORISM by the FBI's own definition), as well as attacks upon whistle-blowers and journalists...the powers that be do not want change, unless it is in their own interests, and they are working fervently to insure such.

The next populist uprising must obsolete them, not simply fight them, because fighting is what they understand and want.

Also, and most upsetting/revealing, Democratic mayors are the worst offenders regarding violence against Occupy members and encampments (Bloomberg is "independent&quot . Quan, Villaraigosa, Denver, Seattle, Portland, IIRC Phoenix, etc. Off the top of my head.

[formercia]

19. It has been the same for Thousands of Years:

[geek tragedy]

21. Because Occupy doesn't primary Democrats.

Occupy turns its nose up at electoral politics in general.

[Bobbie Jo]

26. This.

Too invested in the "both parties are the same" claptrap and throwing support to unviable third party efforts.

Rank and file Democrats aren't buying it. If Occupy wants to have real influence in changing the "system," it's going to have to come from within. Teabaggers organized and got their people elected working within the party structure, not outside of it. They focused on demonizing Democrats while gaining influence from within the party.

You can't expect to score runs without players on the field.

[reusrename]

53. this is the explanation given in the M$M

I'm not buying it though.

The primaries are all rigged. Huckabee or Paul were the two choices of Republican electorate. Nobody voted for Romney. The votes were rigged, and they have been ever since they killed Voter News Service.


Our elections are crooked as hell. The teabaggers are huge fraud being sustained by a few loud useful idiots, nothing more.

[RandiFan1290]

58. Just like the democons in Fl backing Crist after the people chose Meek

DU even got in the game by allowing the 3rd party to trash our Democratic candidate.

[magellan]

57. You can't compare Occupy to the teabaggers

The TP's ability to influence their party and primary their own candidates comes directly from the Koch Bros. Without access to that vast lucre along with the connection to ALEC and its legislative influence, morans standing around with teabags hanging from their heads wouldn't even be a distant memory.

[Fire Walk With Me]

17. Hrm...the Koch brothers directly responsible for the pepper-spraying of Occupiers. n/t

[G_j]

49. And funded the TP, who are now whining about

Last edited Fri May 24, 2013, 12:24 AM - Edit history (1)

being questioned over receiving tax exempt status.

[JEB]

22. "Our" government is complicit

in the corporate suppression of democracy. If that ain't fascism, what is?

[ananda]

23. Now this is a REAL scandal!

..

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. Let's just come right out and say it: How the Obama government targeted Occupy.

Although he's not fully responsible, being a corporate shill and a puppet front. like the rest of them. It's the banksters behind the curtain who are the real power, the real problem.

Whoops, there I went and said it. Then again, with ALEC, the Kochs, and other KKKorporations in charge in the white house, using power systems such as the FBI, DHS, police etc. to target peaceful citizens, the mask is off and their interests and extent, revealed.

[geek tragedy]

30. You can sound like a Teabagger if you want to claim that bullshit.

The FACT remains there is zero substantiation of any national federal efforts or interest in thwarting Occupy.

To accuse Obama of being behind it is psychotic and something worthy of Alex Jones.

[emulatorloo]

32. Just as credible as something a Freeper Conspiracy Theorist would say.

Only they would say Obama is a Muslim Socialist acting on the orders of Communist Saul Alinsky.

Lots of jargon, projection, hyperbolic sloganeering and emotion, and Glenn Beck style conspiracy. Short on facts and logic.

[Fire Walk With Me]

36. Here:

Corporate Profits Have Grown By 171 Percent Under Obama -- Highest Rate Since 1900
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/corporate-profits-have-grown-171-percent-under-obama-highest-rate-1900

"Average annual corporate profit growth under Obama is the highest since 1900, whereas profit growth declined during both Bush presidencies. As a share of the economy, corporate profits have never been higher.
Unfortunately, this profit deluge has not been shared by workers, whose wages as a percentage of the economy have fallen to all-time lows. Workers also got dinged by the recent increase in the payroll tax, which was large enough to wipe out a minimum wage increase in some states."


8 Huge Corporate Handouts in the Fiscal Cliff Bill
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/8-huge-corporate-handouts-fiscal-cliff-bill

"Throughout the months of November and December, a steady stream of corporate CEOs flowed in and out of the White House to discuss the impending fiscal cliff. Many of them, such as Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, would then publicly come out and talk about how modest increases of tax rates on the wealthy were reasonable in order to deal with the deficit problem. What wasn’t mentioned is what these leaders wanted, which is what’s known as “tax extenders”, or roughly $205B of tax breaks for corporations. With such a banal name, and boring and difficult to read line items in the bill, few political operatives have bothered to pay attention to this part of the bill. But it is critical to understanding what is going on.

5) Subsidies for Goldman Sachs Headquarters – Sec. 328 extends 'tax exempt financing for York Liberty Zone,' which was a program to provide post-9/11 recovery funds. Rather than going to small businesses affected, however, this was, according to Bloomberg, 'little more than a subsidy for fancy Manhattan apartments and office towers for Goldman Sachs and Bank of America Corp.' Michael Bloomberg himself actually thought the program was excessive, so that’s saying something. According to David Cay Johnston’s The Fine Print, Goldman got $1.6 billion in tax free financing for its new massive headquarters through Liberty Bonds."


The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/23/untouchables-wall-street-prosecutions-obama

Yes, Virginia, the Rich Continue to Get Richer: the Top 1% Got 121% of Income Gains Since 2009
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/02/yes-virginia-the-rich-continue-to-get-richer-the-1-got-121-of-income-gains-since-2009.html

U.S. banks in 2012 post highest profits since '06
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/26/us-usa-fdic-earnings-idUSBRE91P0N820130226?utm_source=Daily+Digest&utm_campaign=de8376aab3-DD_2_27_132_27_2013&utm_medium=email#.US5jjkXSlU8.twitter

This Year’s Subsidy to Wall Street = the Amount of This Year’s Sequester Cuts
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/02/this-years-subsidy-to-wall-street-the-amount-of-this-years-sequester-cuts.html#.US_yiFwwnHY.facebook

Don’t Blink, or You’ll Miss Another Bailout
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100466032

America faces more than a dozen deadlines, all caused by billionaires and wealth transfer
http://americablog.com/2013/02/america-faces-more-than-a-dozen-deadlines-all-caused-by-billionaires-and-wealth-transfer.html

Bank Bailout 2: Obama Lets Mortgage Abusers Off the Hook
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/02/09-5


This is a corporatocracy and Obama a willing shill. Don't like it? Don't fight me for telling the truth. Fight the actual problem: banksters. And I haven't posted anything regarding Obama's shilling for the neocon surveillance state, but that is all over GD and Occupy Underground, if you look.

Occupy were attacked over a period longer than a year by militarized riot police alongside the DHS with FBI assistance, in cahoots with corporations and banksters. Did you read the article in the OP?

[emulatorloo]

38. I am not "fighting" you. I just want people here not appear Crazy as Freepers

It is about communicating without the hyperbole. There are people who are not DU'ers who would find your earlier statements out of whack.

Thanks for the links I will go thru them.

[Fire Walk With Me]

40. Ah, thanks. It simply becomes tedious, having to pony out the same links over and over

for any who refuse to believe them or that anything could be not as it seems with the government. It's nice to be able to just say it without having to hold out volumes of easily-accessed data.

[emulatorloo]

60. LOL that's why God invented copy and paste.

[JEB]

45. Some inconvenient fact there

for the weak kneed, triangulating, head in the sand bunch.

[OnyxCollie]

39. NOOOOO!!!

OBAMA LOVES US ALL!

THE REPUBLICANS FORCED HIM TO DO IT!

HE'S NOT A DIC...

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Warpy]

25. The worker bees are ORGANIZING?

OH MY GOD!!! SEND IN THE FULL FORCE OF THE MILITARY! THEY MUST BE CRUSHED!

And so that's what happened, the militarized police forces doing the job Nixon always wanted them to do.

[Fire Walk With Me]

29. This is exactly why the "doj" attack upon journalists is so important. It's the exact same thing

with the exact same message/threat.

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Exactly how should I pretend to be surprised?

[FairWinds]

31. There's Much More . .

California law enforcement tortures Occupy resisters with way-too-tight zip tie cuffs (Oakland area)
Bloomberg's thugs go out of their way to utterly destroy the Occupy library at Z. Park
Cops send the mentally ill to Occupy sites, then use agents provocateurs to lure them into criminal acts (Cleveland)
It was much more than just surveillance
And where was Obama when all this was happening ?
Nowhere to be found.

[Fire Walk With Me]

37. Silence is consent. Although he feels entirely differently about Egyptian protesters than American:

Obama: "I want to be very clear in calling upon the Egyptian authorities to refrain from any violence against peaceful protesters."

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2045085,00.html

Perhaps because Egypt are becoming yet another debt slave to the international banks as they seek freedom (nice irony; I'm sure the banksters laugh and laugh and laugh about it.)

[G_j]

48. was thrilled to hear Obama thought targeting Occupy was "outrageous"

no wait....he didn't say that..
.. never mind...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

33. Attacks on the freedom of speech, the press, and peacable assembly, are to "protect" our freedoms.

But, it's all good if the Democrats are running the spying and disrupting.

[Puzzledtraveller]

59. Blind support has become blind and deaf support

Party over principal for many, outright denial for some.

[sabrina 1]

63. But that is changing. 'Party over principles'. And that is what is making the

them nervous. They can no longer use the same old tactics to control the population. People on all sides are realizing how partisanship has blinded the population and allowed the criminals on Wall St to do their work without much opposition from the people, until now.

There is nothing they fear more than a united populist movement against the wars, the economic crimes and that has begun to happen which is why we are seeing so much resistance to OWS.

[JEB]

34. Send in the goon squad.

How dare the truth be spoken.

[sorefeet]

41. Do the cops know

they work for the enemy. Do they know they promote fascism and protect the rich. Do they know they obstruct and deny our freedom. Do they know OWS was for the future of their children also. Or will they "just do their job" and allow themselves to be puppets no matter how sick policy gets. It's already pretty sick and it doesn't seem to bother them at all. These are 20 to 30+ year old people hyped on propaganda and testosterone. They are what used to be some ones precious ,little innocent child. What the fuck happened, they are turning on America, bought, just like the politicians.

[Cleita]

44. Blaming the cops is like blaming the Post Office for reading your mail

Their job is to do what they are told. They are employees and workers just like us and the problem in that they should be answering to we the people. We are their bosses, but our government has become so corrupted that they have to answer to those who have usurped it just like the army has to fight wars for the interests Exxon et. al..

Until, we the people, take back our government and start enforcing our Constitution, we are a fascist government run by an elite minority of corporations and uber riche individuals through those corporations who collect our taxes and use them for their own purposes.

[Cleita]

42. This is not surprising and actually Occupy should have expected it.

Look back in history at activists movements, all the way back to the turn of the century and the labor union movement, the Suffragette movement on up to the Sixties and the anti-war and Civil Liberties movements. It was rough going all the way even with lives lost. Organizers should sit back and do research on all these movements and how they succeeded.

The reason they eventually prevailed is that they got up and marched again. Every time they were beaten down, they did it again and again and again, until there was no way they could be ignored by the fat cat fucks who were
trying to squash and humiliate them.

I personally am against getting hurt and any violence from either party, however, there are so many things that can be done to force the opposition fat cats to have face disruptions in their cushy lives and to do it over and over again until the changes they want happen. It will take some imagination and covert operations much like anonymous does on the internet, but the point of protest is to disrupt the business and daily lives of those who are stealing everything from us. The biggest thing is to not give up.

[G_j]

51. This gives me hope

https://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/05/21-2#.UZ0BOD9yZ_U.facebook

A 'Nonviolent Army of Love' Rises in North Carolina to Face Down Rightwing's Assault on Progress

Movement gathers around 'Moral Monday' protests aimed at fighting off GOP takeover

- Lauren McCauley, staff writer
"We’re going to continue our acts of civil disobedience because the General Assembly has made a cruel attack on the most vulnerable people in this state,” declared Rev. William J. Barber II, president of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP.

A crowd of hundreds assembled outside the state's General Assembly building in Raleigh on Monday evening in a massive act of civil disobedience—the fourth consecutive week of demonstrations dubbed 'Moral Mondays,' spearheaded by the civil rights group.
..more..

[Cleita]

52. Good. This is the way to do it and also they need to keep

the pressure up. It seems like this is what they are planning to do. I hope they keep it up.

[Egalitarian Thug]

43. "There is only one party in the United States, the Property Party...

and it has two right wings: Republican and Democrat. Republicans are a bit stupider, more rigid, more doctrinaire in their laissez-faire capitalism than the Democrats, who are cuter, prettier, a bit more corrupt — until recently… and more willing than the Republicans to make small adjustments when the poor, the black, the anti-imperialists get out of hand. But, essentially, there is no difference between the two parties." ― Gore Vidal

& R

[indepat]

47. Sadly the Democratic right wing of the Properly Party has sped to the right in recent years with

astounding alacrity.

[indepat]

46. To a corporatist government, OWS and other anti-corporate activists are seen as a grave clear

and present danger to be unconstitutionally stamped out. In a government of, by, and for the people, government would be keeping an eye on/going after those domestic extremist groups, mostly right-wing, that actually present a real clear and present danger.

[woo me with science]

54. kick

[rhett o rick]

55. Yeah, we know they are after us, but what can we do about it? nm

[G_j]

61. kick for OWS discussion..nt

[gulliver]

64. Paranoia and narcissism are highly related.

What I hate to see is OWS' "biggest fans" screwing up its legacy by getting paranoid. Attacking government is for Republicans.