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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 01:18 PM
Original message
A Message to the Grass Roots

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2011/11/11/gas-companies-caught-using-military-strategies-to-overcome-drilling-concerns/



FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The battle over gas drilling is now being compared to elements of an actual battlefield. Energy industry officials were caught on tape at a conference in Houston using military terms to describe their opposition. One company says it uses ex-military psychological operations experts in its community plans.
The comments came as companies were meeting to talk about strategies for overcoming concern over practices like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. ….. “Download the US Army/Marine Corp counter insurgency manual. Because we are dealing with an insurgency,” he said. Matt Carmichael went on to recommend attendees read Rumsfeld’s Rules, from former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
In another session, referring to those comments about the military, Range Resources Matt Pitzarella said, “We have several former psy-ops (psychic-operations) folks that work for us at Range, because they’re very comfortable dealing with localized issues and local governments. Really all they do is spend most of their time helping folks develop local ordinances.”

Some energy and business experts who spoke to CBS11 said there is no conspiracy by energy companies in using military psy-ops experts. Experiences in a war zone, they said, can go a long way to dealing with emotional issues here at home. The Army’s website classifies psy-ops and public relations as different specialties. It describes psy-ops as influencing reasoning and, ultimately, the behavior of governments, groups and individuals ….... (more at link)
***** ****** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****

It should come as no surprise to the informed members of the Democratic Underground that the Cheneyites in the “energy” industry view environmentally-conscious citizens as “an insurgency.” I have spoken before about a time when Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons spoke to an audience in Binghamton, NY. He told the people there that it was only a matter of time until they experienced the same treatment that the Native Peoples had for centuries. And so it is.

There was a time when the Founding Fathers – many of whom met with the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy – were consider “an insurgency” by King George & Company. Those founding Fathers who were most influenced by the Six Nations (“Haudenosaunee”) viewed the concept of “government” very different than did the English combination of “royalty” and business interests. Indeed, each of the “founding documents” – Franklin's Albany Pan of Union, the Declaration of Independfence, the Articles of Confederation, and the US Constitution – clearly illustrate this.

The Constitution includes the three-branched federal government, with the President, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. These three branches are equal, though not exact, in powers that balance one another. Yet these branches grow from the actual Tree of Liberty, which is rooted in the concept that all men and women are created equal, and have unalienable rights, which are self-evident. This is the same tree that the Iroquois Constitution recognizes, and that they taught Franklin, Madison, Jefferson, and Washington about.

King George the Cheneyite wanted to chop this tree down. He viewed the Patriots as an insurgency. In the 1800s and 1900s, the US government frequently viewed Native Americans as an insurgency to be destroyed, in the name of “progress.” The corporations that own our federal government used to be content to exploit the natural resources of Indian Territory and other foreign lands. But due to a combination of factors, today these same industries are targeting the gas resources across the nation.

Because these corporations can reap the largest profits by a process known as “hydro-fracking,” which poses an extraordinarily high risk to the environment – including human inhabitants – those individuals, families, and communities who are attempting to protect their properties are the new insurgents. As their opposition to hydro-fracking grows more organized and powerful, the energy corporations are intent upon using para-military tactics to discredit, disrupt, and destroy them.

There is, of course, ample evidence that the “elite” view the growing OWS movement in the same manner. Hence, OWS will be subjected to an increasing amount of these tactics, which will try to discredit, disrupt, and destroy OWS.

During the upcoming days and weeks, I am hoping that forum members here will take interest in an effort to focus attention on this topic, much as we did back in 2004-2005 on the Plame Threads. We have some outstanding resources here – the people who are part of that Tree. Some of us old-timers can offer the lessons from our experiences in the 1960s and '70s, when both the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements were subjected to such anti-insurgency tactics. More, we have the talents and insights of a younger generation, which views today's situation with new eyes.

Thank you for reading this, and for hopefully participating.

Peace,
H2O Man
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Vincardog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 01:21 PM
Response to Original message
1. Net recommendation: +3 votes (Your vote: +1)
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msongs Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 01:21 PM
Response to Original message
2. when we have an army of war profiteers doing jobs service members used to do this is what we get
when those corporate war profiteers return home and treat us like the enemy. trained with our tax dollars btw
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valerief Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 01:26 PM
Response to Original message
3. Treasury: something for the 1% to loot. Environment: something for the 1% plunder.
99%: something for the 1% to control/exploit/eliminate.
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lunatica Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 01:40 PM
Response to Original message
4. Occupy has given me new hope
And it isn't going away. It's time has come.
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jpak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 01:43 PM
Response to Original message
5. Color me "insurgent"
Fuck You Cheney

yup
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Tippy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 01:52 PM
Response to Original message
6. K&R
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 01:56 PM
Response to Original message
7. Dick Gregory said some relevent things on Thom Hartmann's show last week
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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 03:16 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. Dick Gregory
is almost always right, and always worth listening to.
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Bluenorthwest Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 03:22 PM
Response to Original message
9. Got to broaden your view...
I am currently in a state of constant annoyance at the recurring theme of claiming the 60's and 70's as the last civil rights and political activism we might be able to learn from. Just because all the straight men and many of the women scuttled off to warm retreats the moment the draft ended does not mean history stopped.
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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 03:50 PM
Response to Reply #9
10. Yes, absolutely.
There are many, many more examples ..... both past and current ..... the women's movement, the protests against the Reagan policy in Central America, etc. Various DUers have experiences from a wide range of extremely important and closely related struggles for Human Rights. Hopefully, others will expand upon them, on other threads, or on the few that I am going to be posting.

Thanks!
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bananas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 04:31 PM
Response to Reply #10
13. Anti-apartheid and nuclear weapons abolition movements, too.
Apartheid was abolished, nuclear weapons we have a ways to go...

Disarm Now Plowshares
http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com/

Global Zero
http://www.globalzero.org/

Dennis Kucinich speaks at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x608396

Naomi Watts and Valerie Plame Wilson say 'Cut Nukes'
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x632469

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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 06:58 PM
Response to Reply #13
15. Great examples.
thanks.
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Bluenorthwest Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-11 08:34 AM
Response to Reply #15
22. Have you heard of the GLBT rights movement?
Also the early AIDS crisis was a huge time of action, not just for the gay community, but for other minority communities that were not too stuck on hate to save their own loved ones. This was an international movement, not just national, it was hard to miss.
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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-11 08:42 AM
Response to Reply #22
23. Yes.
Perhaps you missed post #10.

I served several years on the board of directors of STAP, which covered 13 counties in upstate NY. The GLBT rights movement and the AIDS crisis are exactly the types of things that I am hoping people -- in this case, as I suggested in post #10, you -- will either write about on this thread, or if you choose to, on another one.
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Bluenorthwest Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-15-11 10:32 AM
Response to Reply #23
26. I'd like to see you include us. It is more powerful coming from
moderate straight voices occasionally, rather than leaving it for us to mention and self promote. That just creates another 'look at them making noise' scene. It is meaningful when we are included in retrospective looks at activist history by other activists. Just a thought. They hear it from me all the time. Thanks.
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JDPriestly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 03:54 PM
Response to Original message
11. Thank you. I have to laugh when people complain that the Occupiers
and other protestors "look scruffy."

What do they think George Washington's recruits looked like?

They were a bunch of unwashed ruffians. And look what they accomplished.


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jdadd Donating Member (950 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 04:13 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. Well Hell......
Don't you know, You wear Brooks Bros to protest......
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former9thward Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 07:20 PM
Response to Reply #11
18. There was a small difference.
They may have been unwashed but they were armed.
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Beam Me Up Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 05:23 PM
Response to Original message
14. psy-ops are psychological operations, not "psychic operations"
And, yes, the US is now an occupied territory. "We" (the 99%) are an insurgency (in the eyes of the 1%) and perception control is a large part of what FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE is all about.
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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 07:05 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. Perhaps Mr. P
thought "psychic operations" sounded non-threatening. But that's only speculation on my part -- I'm not a mind-reader.
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bertman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 09:07 PM
Response to Reply #16
19. Not 'perhaps', H20 Man. He's correct. It's psychological operations. Ex-Army here.
Excellent post. We are undergoing the first attempted onslaught by the Gas Industry right now in my neck of the woods. People are mobilizing to stop the bastards.

REC.

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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 09:59 PM
Response to Reply #19
20. In my opinion,
the frackers are engaged in psychotic operations -- if they think they can poison the environment without consequence.

(Yes, I know the correct term. The OP accurately quotes the gas fellow.)
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bertman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 11:32 PM
Response to Reply #20
21. Thanks for the clarification. Agreed on the psychotic operations. nt
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spanone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Nov-13-11 07:06 PM
Response to Original message
17. k&r..
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myrna minx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-11 10:05 AM
Response to Original message
24. K&R n.t
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Zorra Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Nov-14-11 10:52 AM
Response to Original message
25. Hydro-fracking is right up there with the A bomb in terms
of damage to our earth. I am very heavily invested in OWS because I see it as possibly our last chance to gain control of our democracy and subsequently end things like hydro-fracking for all time. Hydro-fracking is about the worst insult I can think of that can be imposed upon our mother, although I am sure the 1% are devising new and more intrusive ways to insult her all the time.

The elite have enormous amounts of wealth, media propaganda, nefarious think tank talent, and zombiepower to try to crush our efforts toward controlling their destructive, impoverishing greed.

"Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."
(A prophecy attributed to the Cree folks)
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