Story about "Karen Sullivan" (agent infiltrator to AWC in 2008), and "Anna" (Green Scare):

[joshcryer]

Last edited Sat May 5, 2012, 04:38 AM - Edit history (1)

Secret government informer "Karen Sullivan" infiltrated Minnesota activist groups
The Twin Cities activists who had their homes raided by the FBI last September are starting to learn more about why they're being investigated by a Chicago grand jury in relation to material support of terrorism. Lawyers for the activists have learned from prosecutors that the feds sent an undercover law enforcement agent to infiltrate the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee in April 2008, just as the group was planning its licensed protests at the Republican National Convention.

Going by the name "Karen Sullivan," the agent blended in with the many new faces the Committee was seeing at meetings in the lead-up to the RNC. But she stayed active afterward, attending virtually every meeting.

"She presented herself as a lesbian with a teenage daughter, and said she had a difficult relationship with her former partner, which is one of the reasons she gave us for not being more transparent about her story," says Jess Sundin, a member of the Anti-War Committee and one of the activists who has received a subpoena from the Chicago grand jury. "It was a sympathetic story for a lot of us."

Sullivan told the group she was originally from Boston but that she had had a rough childhood and was estranged from her family. She said she had spent some time in Northern Ireland working with Republican solidarity groups.

You can read a longer story about "Karen Sullivan" here, detailing just how easily she infiltrated the group and how so many people were faked out by her. The thing is, she seemed like "one of the good guys" and there was absolutely no indication that she was anything but a good progressive.

Infiltrators are among all left wing groups, that is almost a certainty. They will watch you, follow you, and try to get you to do something stupid. In the Green Scare case we had "Anna." She infiltrated and basically manipulated them into being stupid, too.

How the FBI Used "Anna" the Informant to Entrap Eric McDavid and other Environmentalists as "Terrorists"
The May issue of Elle has an article on how the FBI paid a young woman, known as “Anna,” to befriend activists and pressure them into illegal activity. Now, some of those she befriended and entrapped, including environmentalist Eric McDavid, are going to prison as terrorists.

“For two years now, a young woman in camo pants, black sweatshirt, military boots and pink hair, known to both her fellow eco-activists and FBI employers as ‘Anna,’ had been crashing the party.”

Unfortunately Andrea Todd’s article misses the big picture—questioning the relentless push to label non-violent activists as “terrorists,” and the sleazy methods used to do that– for the sake of glamming up an interesting spy story.

She falls head-over-heels for the sexiness of the story—shadowy activists in love out to save the world—and swallows a series of absurdities provided by the FBI. Rather than pick apart every paragraph, I wanted to highlight a few good points buried within the sensationalism.

(Note: I link that article because it has the Ellie piece linked within.)

This has a double bonus, for the police involved, because it also breeds paranoia within activist groups. I don't know what advice I can really give, but I think that 1) you shouldn't trust everyone with everything, particularly if you hold opinions that you believe could pose a risk to your freedoms and 2) if you ever do any type of civil disobedience do it under your own volition, do not do so with others unless you know and trust them with your life 3) no matter how glamorous certain acts may sound, if it is a violent act then you should completely disassociate from those who are proposing it, 4) violent protest in any shape or form is non-productive and cannot help the cause in any way whatsoever.

I know that agent infiltrators are there, and I hate that it creates distrust amongst groups. This is one reason I'm voraciously against condemning the black bloc and other such groups within Occupy because I feel it creates a divide and conquer tendency.

The real agents are the Anna's and the Karen's. They're unsuspecting. They're good natured. They're good old progressives. You can't weed them out easily without threatening your organizational growth. That's what's shameful about this tactic.

[Arctic Dave]

1. The word of the day is, "Lone wolf".

Never telegraph your intent.


Just kidding... Or not! Mwahahahaha!

[joshcryer]

2. I think most people aren't violent, or anything like that.

I think both the AWC folks (who were unconstitutionally raided), the Green Scare folks, I think they all just had good intentions and were manipulated. The bad guys are those who unconstitutionally attack good intentioned civilians and manipulate them. Like Andrew Darst, the reason for the RNC 8: http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2009/03/rnc_snitch_foun.php

Consider the recent Riseup.net fiasco:

https://help.riseup.net/en/seizure-2012-april

A server with nothing of import on it, seized for no good reason.

[saras]

3. You can weed them out easily enough, but progressives usually object to such tactics...

...and DU frowns on talking about them, as do the authorities.

That's why the world is full of specialists.

Personally I advocate NEVER telling another person you are planning on breaking ANY law, or ARE breaking any law. Even if it's boneheadedly obvious to everyone involved. This includes things like, if you're standing on someone's back porch smoking a joint, do not EVER say "gimme a hit", "pass the joint", or ANY OTHER words implying in any way that you are smoking pot. It's just a habit to develop. Or going to a civil disobedience training, going over everything that might happen and exactly what you're going to do when there, and never saying out loud ANY illegal portion of your plans.

And, of course, any reasonable progressive will be fighting any law defining mere property damage as "terrorism".

[joshcryer]

4. I think a point I missed is not that people break laws, but that infiltrators manipulate them...

...into doing so. In the case of AWC no laws were broken by the individuals, but the Feds certainly broke constitutional laws by taking the false testimony of an infiltrator and violating the rights of individuals (raiding them and taking their stuff).

I really can't see how you'd weed out someone like Karen.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Civil disobedience is law breaking.

You really cannot plan an act of civil disobedience without discussing activities that are illegal.

I have a different theory about how to deal with the infiltration/agent provocateur problem. It starts out the same as yours: assume they are present at all meetings and events. Plan everything up front and out in the open. Be completely honest. If you intend to break the law, be clear about what laws are being broken, why, what the benefit of breaking those laws is to the cause, and what the potential risks are to those participating.

Assume you will be arrested. Assume you will be attacked and harmed by the police. Assume that the police will know all of your plans. Assume that the state will cause you as much physical and financial pain as they can. Cross that bridge in Selma with your eyes wide open.

We will win when our numbers are so large, and our moral strength so great, that the enforcement mechanism of the state collapses. Until then we will lose every battle.

[joshcryer]

7. Civil disobedience used to be just a misdemenor, but since the PATRIOT Act...

...and other "State PATRIOT Acts" it's become sedition!

[starroute]

6. Money origami

[U4ikLefty]

8. freakin' cool!!!

bookmarked

Thx