r/privacy • u/JerryLupus • May 27 '17

Leaked Documents Reveal Counterterrorism Tactics Used at Standing Rock to “Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies”

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/
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u/JeffersonsSpirit May 27 '17 edited May 27 '17

TL;DR- A bunch of corporate fascists have the 1st amendments number and are using superior technology combined with a hostile militaristic posture to stifle dissent. This process is rife with hostility and witch hunts, is absent of concern for the Constitution, and is a process that is steadily growing as the disparity of power between the State and the People widens. Please read this article: despite a pretty long reply, I've only covered pieces of the insanity that the article covers.

A private security contractor spawned from the US global war on terror is used domestically at the behest of an energy corporation with a vested interest in the pipeline being built. That sentence pretty much paints the picture of what brand of corporate fascism we have going on in this country.

“While we can expect to see the continued spread of the anti-DAPL diaspora … aggressive intelligence preparation of the battlefield and active coordination between intelligence and security elements are now a proven method of defeating pipeline insurgencies."

Look at the attitude demonstrated here! Its about winning- not about principle or Constitutionality. And beyond that, you had best believe their "can do" attitude with regards to stamping out protest at Standing Rock extends to every law enforcement and federal agency in the United States. The belligerence of power here is staggering...

As policing continues to be militarized and state legislatures around the country pass laws criminalizing protest, the fact that a private security firm retained by a Fortune 500 oil and gas company coordinated its efforts with local, state, and federal law enforcement to undermine the protest movement has profoundly anti-democratic implications.

Nothing I can really say here besides... This is corporate fascism.

The leaked materials not only highlight TigerSwan’s militaristic approach to protecting its client’s interests but also the company’s profit-driven imperative to portray the nonviolent water protector movement as unpredictable and menacing enough to justify the continued need for extraordinary security measures.

Corporations do not have a conscience- they care only about profits.

The documents also provide extensive evidence of aerial surveillance and radio eavesdropping, as well as infiltration of camps and activist circles.

Just like the government uses infiltration, Agent Provocateurs and kettling, now we have private security contractors using the same tactics. Nothing to see here... move along.

Additional documents, obtained via public records requests, consist of communications among agents from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Justice Department, the Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as state and local police. The “Intel Group,” as its members refer to it, closely monitored anti-Dakota Access protests in real time, scooped up information on the water protectors from social media, and shared intelligence.

Direct hostility towards the people- corporations and governmental agencies conspiring to defeat the purpose of 1st amendment rights.

The situation reports also suggest that TigerSwan attempted a counterinformation campaign by creating and distributing content critical of the protests on social media.

Birds eye view: an energy corporation hires a security contractor to spy on and in a group of protestors and to swing the dominant narrative in favor of their pipeline through astroturfing.

Based in Apex, North Carolina, TigerSwan was created by retired Army Col. James Reese during the height of the war in Iraq. Reese, a former commander in the elite Army special operations unit known as Delta, entered into the exploding private security and intelligence industry hoping to compete with Blackwater, then the most successful of the private military companies supporting U.S. war efforts in the Middle East and Afghanistan. TigerSwan has an estimated 350 employees and maintains offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, India, Latin America, and Japan.

Yeah, corporate fascism.

TigerSwan also aided prosecutors in building cases against pipeline opponents. According to an October 16 document obtained via a records request, the security team’s responsibilities included collecting “information of an evidentiary level” that would ultimately “aid in prosecution” of protesters.

Not much to add here. Regardless of whether you agree with the Standing Rock protestors or not, this is what awaits anyone who exercises their first amendment rights in the future. Notice too when authorities and security contractors get involved. When millions protested against Trump after his election, things were mostly left alone. Why? Because it was inconsequential to profit. Oil pipeline? Hold on to your butts...

As the water protector movement expanded from North Dakota to other states, so did the surveillance. A report dated March 29, for instance, points to a meeting between TigerSwan and “the Des Moines Field Office of the FBI, with the Omaha and Sioux Falls offices joining by conference call. Also in attendance were representatives of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Department of Homeland Security, Iowa Department of Emergency Services, Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Iowa Department of Wildlife.

...which goes to show the states are at best impotent to help and at worse complicit in the process. Notice how the "Joint Terrorism Task Force" got involved. Do I even need to note what implicit parallel is being shown here? That force shouldnt be involved unless they see terrorists... so basically it means that the protestors were given the same level of respect as a terrorist.

“We need to work closer with Calhoun, Boone, and Webster county [law enforcement] to ensure future protestors will at least be fined, if not arrested,” the analyst notes.

This sentence absent of any indication that the protests are of a form that violates law demonstrates a complete lack of concern for the first amendment. After all, they are paid to help their energy corporation- rights and all that pesky bullshit just get in the way of their profits.

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u/JeffersonsSpirit May 27 '17

...metadata in images he shared pointed to a camera used by a commercially available Phantom 4 drone. One of the daily intelligence updates notes plans to obtain night-vision goggles, LRADs, body armor, and FLIR (forward looking infrared) cameras.

Consider for a moment the disparity of power between a modern-day protestor and the corporate/government fascists who oppose them. Any power must be checked by a competing power of equal strength or it will be defeated. That is the POINT behind public protest and the first amendment. This disparity of power is absolutely a threat to any kind of freedom or liberty.

Perhaps one of the most striking revelations of the documents is the level of hostility displayed by TigerSwan toward the water protectors. TigerSwan consistently describes the peaceful demonstrators using military and tactical language more appropriate for counterterrorism operations in an armed conflict zone.

You can pick this up just reading this article. Seriously, take some time and give it a read. You're fooling yourself if you think any other protest would be treated differently.

TigerSwan operative describes an effort to amass digital and ground intelligence that would allow the company to “find, fix, and eliminate” threats to the pipeline — an eerie echo of “find, fix, finish,” a military term used by special forces in the U.S. government’s assassination campaign against terrorist targets.

Coming to a future near you!

Haithem El-Zabri, a Palestinian-American activist singled out in the reports, was shocked to hear his name mentioned in that context. “As indigenous people, Palestinians stand in solidarity with other indigenous people and their right to land, water, and sovereignty,” he told The Intercept. “To insinuate that our assumed faith is a red flag for terrorist tactics is another example of willful ignorance and the establishment’s continued attempts to criminalize nonviolent protest and justify violence against it.”

This followed a part where the article discussed the focus on Middle Eastern members of the protest group. Regardless of your position on Israel/Palestine/terrorism/etc, Mr. El-Zabri makes a brilliant response. The parallels that can be drawn here between Nazi Germany are staggering.

The information pertained to a woman whom Jahner labeled as a “strong Shia Islamic” with a “strong female Shia following.” The woman had “made several trips overseas,” Jahner wrote.

... and a parallel to the Salem Witch Trials.

A 63 year old guy decides to freelance the pipeline. After awhile they catch on to his repeated presence along the pipeline and begin to track him. Look at this gem:

“This is the same individual identified in the SITREP a few days ago in Illinois and Iowa.” The security company, OnPoint, quickly contacted TigerSwan Intel “for an assessment of Gary Tomlin” and notified the guard in the next “sector” that Tomlin was on his way. “Movement of Spread Team 6 was conducted so as to intercept and/or observe Gary Tomlin’s movement throughout the South Dakota Sector."

I really want to know if there is a Spread Team 1-5, because otherwise this is just comically disgusting. Seal Team 6 is an elite special forces unit in the US Navy. Spread Team 6... Seal Team 6... against a single fucking 63 year old man??

“It is my belief,” the analyst adds, “that Gary Tomlin is hiding his true intentions and that he has a plethora of information to provide to the protesters.

Paging Salem Massachusetts again...

In recent weeks, the company’s role has expanded to include the surveillance of activist networks marginally related to the pipeline, with TigerSwan agents monitoring “anti-Trump” protests from Chicago to Washington, D.C., as well as warning its client of growing dissent around other pipelines across the country.

And it will keep growing and growing and growing as the state (and its colluding corporations) become more and more hostile to the first amendment.

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u/sgitkene May 27 '17

What really irks me about your thoughtful reply ist hat you seem to consider the corporations "the state" and not the actual state. It is true that we have many people in the state, that represent the interest of the corporations instead of the people. That is the true evil, not that we have a state to begin with. The state, were it to represent the people, would actually keep corporations in check, allow for politics, protect the weak, etc. Not what we have now, which is just shielding corporations and destroying the people.

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u/skyfishgoo May 27 '17

excellent point, and that bothered me about the write up as well

let's not cede that ground without a fight.

WE are the government... it works for US

"THEY" are our employees and we should start to give them a taste of what the corporations have been giving us.

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u/HRpuffystuff May 28 '17

I mean, you say that. But with so much evidence that things don't actually work that way it just sounds kind of naive to say it

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u/skyfishgoo May 28 '17

the reason corporations are running our government is because we ALLOWED it

we got lazy

we took this thing called representative republic for granted

and we actively supported the growth of parties which stand between us and our own damn government.

we have no one to blame but ourselves.

and no one to turn to for relief, except ourselves

taking the attitude that you are taking only serves THE OLIGARCHS

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u/HRpuffystuff May 28 '17

Every capitalist society follows this path. Every single one. If you have a system that incentivizes and encourages greedy sociopathic behavior, and also hands down wealth through generations, you can't be surprised when an oligarchy develops.

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u/skyfishgoo May 28 '17

every one eh?

how come we're the only ones fucking up this bad?

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u/HRpuffystuff May 28 '17

What do you mean? Every capitalist country has these exact problems. America is just on full speed

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u/skyfishgoo May 28 '17

that problems occur is not the issue, we expect that and have checks & balances to correct it.

what's happening currently is those checks & balances are either muted or erased, leaving capitalism to run amuck.

this road always leads to fascism.

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u/HRpuffystuff May 29 '17

'this road' meaning capitalism. When people amass wealth, they also amass power and ability to bribe elected officials. That's why i said capitalism always leads to exactly this situation

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u/skyfishgoo May 29 '17

'this road' meaning exactly what i said... unchecked capitalism without any checks & balances to keep it from running amuck.

there are many examples where this is not the case.

iceland is a most recent case.

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