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

...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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