Obama's Military Is Spying on US Peace Groups.

[IndianaGreen]

Agent Mike should be unemployed, and his bosses should be in prison.

Nothing has changed since November.

Published on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 by TruthDig.com

Obama’s Military Is Spying on US Peace Groups

by Amy Goodman

Anti-war activists in Olympia, Wash., have exposed Army spying and infiltration of their groups, as well as intelligence gathering by the Air Force, the federal Capitol Police and the Coast Guard.

The infiltration appears to be in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act preventing U.S. military deployment for domestic law enforcement and may strengthen congressional demands for a full-scale investigation of U.S. intelligence activities, like the Church Committee hearings of the 1970s.

Brendan Maslauskas Dunn asked the city of Olympia for documents or e-mails about communications between the Olympia police and the military relating to anarchists, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) or the Industrial Workers of the World (Dunn's union). Dunn received hundreds of documents. One e-mail contained reference to a "John J. Towery II," who activists discovered was the same person as their fellow activist "John Jacob."

Dunn told me: "John Jacob was actually a close friend of mine, so this week has been pretty difficult for me. He said he was an anarchist. He was really interested in SDS. He got involved with Port Militarization Resistance (PMR), with Iraq Vets Against the War. He was a kind person. He was a generous person. So it was really just a shock for me."

"Jacob" told the activists he was a civilian employed at Fort Lewis Army Base and would share information about base activities that could help the PMR organize rallies and protests against public ports being used for troop and Stryker military vehicle deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan. Since 2006, PMR activists have occasionally engaged in civil disobedience, blocking access to the port.

Larry Hildes, an attorney representing Washington activists, says the U.S. attorney prosecuting the cases against them, Brian Kipnis, specifically instructed the Army not to hand over any information about its intelligence-gathering activities, despite a court order to do so.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/29-0

[prostomulgus]

1. Isn't Brian Kipnis a Bush appointee?

I don't know for sure but, based on a quick Google search, he doesn't show up as an Assistant US Attorney until 2004.

We need to go through the entire Federal Govt. & root out every Bush appointee -- fire them all. That's the only way to end this kind of subterfuge.

[IndianaGreen]

4. But the spying in Olympia occurred well into the Obama administration (and may continue today).

From the article:

But the spying in Olympia occurred well into the Obama administration (and may continue today).

and the US Attorney Brian Kipnis, which is still serving in Obama's DOJ, told the Army to stonewall:

Larry Hildes, an attorney representing Washington activists, says the U.S. attorney prosecuting the cases against them, Brian Kipnis, specifically instructed the Army not to hand over any information about its intelligence-gathering activities, despite a court order to do so.

Brian C. Kipnis

Firm: U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Washington

Address: 700 Stewart Street
Suite 5220
Seattle, WA 98101-1271

http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1409132_1?channel=CCC

[TheWraith]

7. Yeah, but that doesn't stop people who want to blame Obama.

After all, we all know he personally started all this! :sarcasm:

[IndianaGreen]

15. Obama kept Kipnis as US Attorney--Kipnis works for Obama now

US Attorneys do not tell the Army to stonewall unless someone in DOJ or White House gives them the okay.

http://pview.findlaw.com/view/1409132_1?channel=CCC

[JohnWxy]

16. Senate GOP Blocking Obama Nominees In Attempt To Delay Health Care And Climate Legislation

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/06/15/obama-nominees-delayed/


In April, ThinkProgress noted that Republicans were blocking an increasing number of President Obama’s nominees to pursue ideological witch hunts and to facilitate self-interested horse trades. Two months later, a number of key nominees are still waiting and Senate Republicans are bottling up dozens more of Obama’s nominees in order to delay action on key Obama agenda items like health care and climate change legislation by consuming one of the most precious resources in the Senate: floor time. Roll Call explains:

Reid came to the floor three times Wednesday and several more times throughout the week to plead with his Republican colleagues to stop holding up a growing number of President Barack Obama’s appointees. The Majority Leader’s appeal was his most forceful yet, and aides say he has no plans to abandon the effort anytime soon.

“I would hope that people would search their conscience and try to get these done,” Reid said, explaining that procedural motions that he could employ to clear the nominees would eat up too much floor time. “It would take until the summer, until we finish the July recess and beyond, for us to get this done, filing cloture on every one of these. I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

{REID THINKS REPUBLICANS HAVE CONSCIENCES!!!!???? OH JESUS-FUCK!!!, DOESN'T HE KNOW HE'S DEALING WITH SOCIOPATHS?!? JESUS RIED, WAKE-UP. COMPARED TO THESE GUY CHARLES MANSON IS A PUSSIE!!__JW}

Absent unanimous consent from all senators, no issue may be considered by the full Senate unless it is given time on the Senate floor for debate. Although such a debate can be cut off by a cloture motion — a vote receiving the support of 60 senators — such a motion itself consumes floor time. Thus, by indiscriminately objecting to President Obama’s nominees, a single senator can effectively force Reid to choose between confirming essential government personnel or advancing health care reform, cap and trade, the federal budget or anything else on the Senate’s agenda. Floor time is limited and Senate conservatives are running out the clock to ensure that nothing gets done.

[JohnWxy]

17. U.S. Attorneys are appointed by the President of the U.S. - subject to confirmation by the Senate

There are 93 U.S. attorneys stationed throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Attorney

[chicago legal pro]

20. Jeffery Sullivan is the U.S. Attorney for Western Washington

He was not appointed by Bush. He was appointed by the federal judges in Western Washington. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003906584_sullivan27m.html. Brian Kipnis is a career employee who works for Sullivan and the DOJ.

[chicago legal pro]

19. Assistant U.S. Attorney's are not appointed by the President

They are career civil service employees.

[Daveparts still]

2. Keep up the Good work Green

Keep swimming up stream, you don't have to be popular when you're right!

[JohnWxy]

18. You don't have to be right to be popular ... in some circles,

[bemildred]

3. Peace groups are a big threat to the military. nt

[quiller4]

8. Not peace groups-anarchists big difference. Major peace groups in

Northwest will have nothing to do with this violent Olypia contingent.

[bemildred]

11. I don't mean that sort of "threat".

I long ago learned not to listen to what the FBI plant suggests "we" do.

[IndianaGreen]

14. Where did you get the antiwar folks in Olympia were violent? FBI? Homeland Security? Pentagon?

Our country engages in violence everyday all across the world; millions have died, been wounded, or been displaced as the US pursues its insane hegemony policies, and you dare to throw the smear libel at the peace loving activists in Olympia? You better spend some time in self-criticism!

[HamdenRice]

5. So Obama as president went back in time to 2007 to order spying?

This was done under Bush's presidency. There is no evidence that it is continuing other than Goodman's blatant speculation that it "may well be" continuing, with zero evidence. And it it isn't then it means the policy was discontinued by the Obama administration, for which of course, it gets no credit from the Limbaugh Left.

Bogus.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Obama's US Attorney Brian Kipnis told the Army to stonewall despite a court order

Speaking of Obama's agents, we also got that neocon Hugo Llorens that Obama kept as ambassador to Honduras.

[southernyankeebelle]

6. Friend they have been watching and infiltrating peace groups for

many, many years. Long before Obama and even the Bush administrations. Remember the 60's they were mixed in the peace groups. This is nothing new. We just didn't find out about it.

[IndianaGreen]

10. And it is as reprehensible today as it was then

Let's not forget that it was a Democratic President that began an assassination program in Vietnam, and a surveillance program back home.

[FiveGoodMen]

12. "This is nothing new"

Weren't we promised something new?

Maybe change doesn't mean the same thing in politics that it does in the dictionary.

[IndianaGreen]

13. UPDATE: Declassified Docs Reveal Military Operative Spied on WA Peace Groups

Democracy Now! Broadcast Exclusive: Declassified Docs Reveal Military Operative Spied on WA Peace Groups, Activist Friends Stunned

Newly declassified documents reveal that an active member of Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance in Washington state was actually an informant for the US military. The man everyone knew as “John Jacob” was in fact John Towery, a member of the Force Protection Service at Fort Lewis. The military’s role in the spying raises questions about possibly illegal activity. The Posse Comitatus law bars the use of the armed forces for law enforcement inside the United States. The Fort Lewis military base denied our request for an interview. But in a statement to Democracy Now!, the base’s Public Affairs office publicly acknowledged for the first time that Towery is a military operative. “This could be one of the key revelations of this era,” said Eileen Clancy, who has closely tracked government spying on activist organizations. (includes rush transcript)

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/28/broadcast_exclusive_declassified_docs_reveal_military