Internal TigerSwan documents provide a detailed picture of how the mercenary firm surveilled Dakota Access Pipeline opponents and infiltrated protest camps.
A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures, collaborating closely with police in at least five states, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents provide the first detailed picture of how TigerSwan, which originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor helping to execute the global war on terror, worked at the behest of its client Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, to respond to the indigenous-led movement that sought to stop the project.
Internal TigerSwan communications describe the movement as “an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component” and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters. One report, dated February 27, 2017, states that since the movement “generally followed the jihadist insurgency model while active, we can expect the individuals who fought for and supported it to follow a post-insurgency model after its collapse.” Drawing comparisons with post-Soviet Afghanistan, the report warns, “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.”
More than 100 internal documents leaked to The Intercept by a TigerSwan contractor, as well as a set of over 1,000 documents obtained via public records requests, reveal that TigerSwan spearheaded a multifaceted private security operation characterized by sweeping and invasive surveillance of protesters.
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. 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. Energy Transfer Partners has continued to retain TigerSwan long after most of the anti-pipeline campers left North Dakota, and the most recent TigerSwan reports emphasize the threat of growing activism around other pipeline projects across the country.
The leaked documents include situation reports prepared by TigerSwan operatives in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Texas between September 2016 and May 2017, and delivered to Energy Transfer Partners. They offer a daily snapshot of the security firm’s activities, including detailed summaries of the previous day’s surveillance targeting pipeline opponents, intelligence on upcoming protests, and information harvested from social media. The documents also provide extensive evidence of aerial surveillance and radio eavesdropping, as well as infiltration of camps and activist circles.
TigerSwan did not respond to a request for comment. Energy Transfer Partners declined to comment, telling The Intercept in an email that it does not “discuss details of our security efforts.”
A screen shot taken from one of the “daily intelligence updates” developed by TigerSwan that were shared with members of law enforcement.
Photo: PowerPoint screen grab
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.
Included among the documents obtained via public records requests were “daily intelligence updates” developed by TigerSwan that were shared with law enforcement officers, thus contributing to a broad public-private intelligence dragnet. In the internal situation reports, TigerSwan operatives comment frequently about their routine coordination and intelligence sharing with law enforcement. The intel group went so far as to use a live video feed from a private Dakota Access security helicopter to monitor protesters’ movements. In one report, TigerSwan discusses meeting with investigators from North Dakota’s Attorney General’s Office.
North Dakota’s Attorney General’s Office declined to comment.
TigerSwan’s internal reports and the intelligence briefings shared with law enforcement name dozens of DAPL opponents. Some of those named are well-known activists, while others have minimal public affiliation with the water protector movement. The reports’ authors often comment on camp dynamics, including protester morale and infighting, and speculate about violent or illegal actions specific individuals might take and weapons they might carry. The documents reveal the existence of a “persons of interest” list as well as other databases that included identifying information such as photographs and license plate numbers.
The situation reports also suggest that TigerSwan attempted a counterinformation campaign by creating and distributing content critical of the protests on social media.
The Intercept is publishing a first set of TigerSwan’s situation reports from September 2016, which describe the company’s initial operations. We are also publishing two additional situation reports dated October 16 and November 5, along with PowerPoint presentations shared with law enforcement that correspond to the same dates. The names of private individuals whose actions are not already in the public record, or whose authorization we did not obtain, have been redacted to protect their privacy. The Intercept will publish the remaining situation reports in the coming weeks.
In addition, The Intercept is publishing a selection of communications, obtained by public records requests, detailing coordination between a wide range of local, state, and federal agencies, which confirm that the FBI participated in core Dakota Access-related law enforcement operations starting soon after protests began last summer. Finally, we are publishing two additional documents, also in the public record, that detail TigerSwan’s role spearheading Energy Transfer Partner’s multipronged security operation.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
A Public-Private Partnership
Beginning in April of last year, indigenous activists calling themselves water protectors and their allies spent months attempting to block construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, which runs near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota and traverses three other states. DAPL opponents were met with a heavily militarized police apparatus including local and out of state police and sheriff’s deputies, as well as Bureau of Indian Affairs police and National Guard troops. The police became notorious for their use of so-called less than lethal weapons against demonstrators, including rubber bullets, bean bag pellets, LRAD sound devices, and water cannons.
But it was the brutality of private security officers that first provoked widespread outrage concerning the pipeline project. On Labor Day weekend of 2016, Democracy Now! captured footage of pipeline security guards attacking peaceful protesters with dogs.
In the aftermath of that incident, Energy Transfer Partners turned to TigerSwan — a company with a deep background in counterterrorism operations — to oversee the work of the other security companies contracted to protect the pipeline. Other security firms working along the pipeline included Silverton, Russell Group of Texas, 10 Code LLC, Per Mar, SRC, OnPoint, and Leighton, documents show.
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.
Records from the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board show that TigerSwan has operated without a license in North Dakota for the entirety of the pipeline security operation, claiming in a communication with the board, “We are doing management and IT consulting for our client and doing no security work.” In September, the licensing board learned about the company’s position as a Dakota Access contractor and wrote a letter to its North Carolina headquarters requesting that it submit a license application.
TigerSwan then did so, but the board denied the application on December 19. After James Reese wrote a letter objecting to the decision, the security board’s executive director responded on January 10 that “one reason for the denial concerns your failure to respond to the Board’s request for information as to TigerSwan’s and James Reese’s activities within the State of North Dakota.” Neither TigerSwan nor the board responded to questions regarding the current status of the company’s license.
The leaked situation reports indicate that during the company’s first weeks working on the pipeline, TigerSwan operatives met with law enforcement in Iowa and North Dakota, including Sheriff Dean Danzeisen of Mercer County, North Dakota, who “agreed to sharing of information.” (In the report, TigerSwan misspells the sheriff’s name as “Denzinger.”) By September 13, the documents indicate, TigerSwan had placed a liaison inside the law enforcement “joint operation command” in North Dakota. The fusion of public and private intelligence operations targeting water protectors was underway.
One of TigerSwan’s lines of communication with law enforcement was via intelligence briefings that echo the company’s internal situation reports. The briefings obtained by The Intercept were sent by TigerSwan’s deputy security director Al Ornoski to a variety of recipients, including the Gmail account of Sheriff Danzeisen. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, who was regularly involved in policing the protests, also received at least one of the TigerSwan briefings.
Danzeisen did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Morton County Sheriff’s Department wrote in an email to The Intercept that the department “did maintain communication with TigerSwan security in order to understand when and where DAPL construction activities were taking place. This gave law enforcement situational awareness in order to monitor and respond to illegal protest activity.”
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.
A leaked report dated September 14, 2016, indicates that TigerSwan met with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation “regarding video and still photo evidence collected for prosecution.” The same document describes plans to “continue building Person of Interest (POI) folders and coordination with [law enforcement] intelligence.” TigerSwan’s situation reports also describe conversations between the company’s operatives and FBI agents on at least four occasions.
Activists on the ground were tracked by a Dakota Access helicopter that provided live video coverage to their observers in police agencies, according to an October 12 email thread that included officers from the FBI, DHS, BIA, state, and local police. In one email, National Security Intelligence Specialist Terry Van Horn of the U.S. attorney’s office acknowledged his direct access to the helicopter video feed, which was tracking protesters’ movements during a demonstration. “Watching a live feed from DAPL Helicopter, pending arrival at site(s),” he wrote. Cecily Fong, a spokesperson for law enforcement throughout the protests, acknowledged that an operations center in Bismarck had access to the feed, stating in an email to The Intercept that “the video was provided as a courtesy so we had eyes on the situation.”
Asked about the intel group, Fong replied, “The Intelligence Group was formed from virtually the beginning. It involved personnel from our [State and Local Intelligence Center], the BIA, FBI, and Justice” consisting of “around 7 people who monitored social media in particular, in this case, because that was the medium most if not all of the protestors were using.”
“I’m honored that they felt that we were a big enough threat to go to this level of intervention,” Ed Fallon, an activist mentioned several times in the TigerSwan documents, told The Intercept.
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. Topics covered included the current threat assessment of the pipeline, the layout of current security assets and persons of interest. The FBI seemed were [sic] very receptive to the information presented to them, and follow-up meetings with individuals will be scheduled soon.”
TigerSwan’s relationship with public police agencies was not always harmonious. The situation reports describe TigerSwan’s frustration with the amount of leeway some law enforcement gave protesters in Iowa and the company’s efforts to convince officers to use more punitive tactics.
In a situation report dated October 16, TigerSwan applauds a recent increase in bail in Lee County, Iowa, calling it “significant because this may impede protestors from risking arrest due to the high cost to be released from bail.” The document contrasts that county’s tactics to those used by others. “Calhoun, Boone and Webster county law enforcement are not supportive of DAPL Security’s mission” the report says, noting those agencies’ “reluctance to arrest or cite trespassing individuals.”
“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. “Alternatively, we could request Lee County LE speak to other counties about tactics that are working.”
Contacted for comment, recently elected Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber said he hadn’t discussed TigerSwan with the previous sheriff. “As far as I knew, the protest stuff was over with, and we haven’t had any protests since,” he said. In fact, Weber hadn’t heard of the company until earlier this week, when a TigerSwan program manager named Don Felt stopped by the office. “He dropped his card off and said he wanted to say hello,” Weber said.
Photo: TigerSwan.com
Find, Fix, Eliminate
TigerSwan’s internal files describe its utilization of aerial surveillance, including use of helicopters and drones to photograph and monitor the pipeline opponents. The September 12 situation report notes that an operation by construction workers was “over-watched by a predator on loan to the JEJOC from Oklahoma.” The TigerSwan contractor who provided the Intercept with the situation reports said he did not believe the company ever operated a predator drone, but 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.
The reports also reveal a widespread and sustained campaign of infiltration of protest camps and activist circles. Throughout the leaked documents, TigerSwan makes reference to its intelligence-gathering teams, which infiltrated protest camps and activist groups in various states. TigerSwan agents using false names and identities regularly sought to obtain the trust of protesters, which they used to gather information they reported back to their employer, according to the TigerSwan contractor.
The September documents make numerous references to Silverton personnel, who were overseen by TigerSwan, attending protests in Iowa. Silverton did not respond to a request for comment.
Covert operations are implicit in many of the other situation reports, which are filled with details that only individuals with close and consistent access to the protesters’ communities could have gathered. On a few occasions, however, the reports make that presence more explicit, for instance by referring to “sources in the camp.”
For example, the November 5 situation report describes the “exploitation of documents found at Camp 1.” Apparently, they didn’t contain much revealing material. “Of most concern,” the situation report says, “were the ‘Earth First’ magazines found on the camp. These magazines promote and provide TTP’s [tactics, techniques, and procedures] for violent activity.”
In an October 3 report, TigerSwan discusses how to use its knowledge of internal camp dynamics: “Exploitation of ongoing native versus non-native rifts, and tribal rifts between peaceful and violent elements is critical in our effort to delegitimize the anti-DAPL movement.” On February 19, TigerSwan makes explicit its plans to infiltrate a Chicago protest group. “TigerSwan collections team will make contact with event organizers to embed within the structure of the demonstration to develop a trusted agent status to be cultivated for future collection efforts,” the report notes, later repeating its intent to “covertly make contact with event organizers.”
“At every action I went to, they had their own people walking around with a video camera getting in people’s faces,” Ian Souter, a protester who was described as a “person of interest” in a TigerSwan report, told The Intercept.
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. At times, the military language verges on parody, as when agents write of protesters “stockpiling signs” or when they discuss the “caliber” of paintball pellets. More often, however, the way TigerSwan discusses protesters as “terrorists,” their direct actions as “attacks,” and the camps as a “battlefield,” reveals how the protesters’ dissent was not only criminalized but treated as a national security threat. A March 1 report states that protesters’ “operational weakness allows TS elements to further develop and dictate the battlespace.”
In one internal report dated May 4, a 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.
TigerSwan pays particular attention to protesters of Middle Eastern descent. A September 22 situation report argues that “the presence of additional Palestinians in the camp, and the movement’s involvement with Islamic individuals is a dynamic that requires further examination.” The report acknowledges that “currently there is no information to suggest terrorist type tactics or operations,” but nonetheless warns that “with the current limitation on information flow out of the camp, it cannot be ruled out.”
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.”
Such ethnic and religious profiling of protesters was not unusual. An October 12 email thread shared among members of the intel group provides a striking example of how TigerSwan was able to cast suspicion on specific individuals and communicate it to law enforcement officials. Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy Tonya Jahner emailed several other officers, including two FBI agents, with an overview of information provided by “company intel.” 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.
TigerSwan agents also regularly tracked individuals’ movements across state lines.
On November 4, according to one of TigerSwan’s internal documents, a white SUV pulled up to a pipeline valve site in South Dakota. Approached by a security guard, the driver introduced himself as Gary Tomlin and informed the official that he was a freelance reporter covering the pipeline. In an interview, 63-year-old Tomlin, who covers the local school board for the Galesburg, Illinois, Register-Mail, said he had set out to travel the length of the pipeline and write a story about it as a freelancer. “I had time and the ability to do it, and I thought, well, I’ll go look at that sucker,” he said.
A situation report from that day notes, “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,” the document states. “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. It is estimated that he will arrive in North Dakota on the evening of the 4th or morning of the 5th.”
Tomlin laughed at the notion that he was working with protesters. When he arrived at the camps in North Dakota, few people would talk openly with him. “They were highly aware of infiltrators,” he said. “I fit the profile of those security people — I’m a white old man.”
Cody Hall, a prominent native activist whose movements are tracked closely in the TigerSwan reports, told The Intercept he knew he was being followed whenever he left the camp.
“It was obvious, they were driving in trucks, SUVs, they would be right behind me, right next to me … it was like, damn, man, it’s like you’re getting an escort,” he said. “That was always the scary thing: How did they know that I was coming?”
Robert Rice hosted a series of videos critical of the pipeline protest movement without disclosing that he was working for TigerSwan. The videos, which were posted on two Facebook pages, were taken down after The Intercept reached out to the firm for comment.
Social Engagement Plan
A document dated October 16, obtained via a public records request, lays out the mission of the TigerSwan-led security team working in North Dakota: In addition to protecting the pipeline workers, machinery, and construction material, the company was also expected to “protect the reputation of DAPL.” The public relations mission quickly became a priority for the firm, documents show. As a leaked situation report from early September puts it, success would require “strategic messaging from the client that drives the message that we are the good guys, tell the real story and address the negative messaging with good counter messaging.”
On numerous occasions, TigerSwan agents stressed the need to change the public narrative established by protestors and to swing public support in favor of the pipeline. As accounts of protest repression garnered nationwide support for the NoDAPL movement, the firm’s agents painstakingly collected and analyzed media coverage, warning their client about how certain incidents might be received by the public.
“This article is only in the Huffington post, but the expansion of the tribe’s narrative outside of the Native American community media outlets is of concern,” an October 3 report notes. TigerSwan agents regularly describe protesters’ accounts of events as “propaganda.”
But TigerSwan personnel did not limit themselves to monitoring the narrative — they also tried to change it.
In a report dated September 7, TigerSwan agents discuss the need for a “Social Engagement Plan.” On September 22, they discuss the development of an information operations campaign run by the company’s North Carolina-based intel team and Robert Rice, who without disclosing his TigerSwan affiliation posed as “Allen Rice” in a series of amateurish videos in which he provided commentary critical of the protests. The videos, posted on the Facebook pages “Defend Iowa” and “Netizens for Progress and Justice,” were removed after The Intercept contacted TigerSwan, Rice, and the pages’ administrators for comment. None responded.
With the Dakota Access Pipeline construction nearing completion, TigerSwan might have found itself out of a lucrative contract. But in the months leading up to the first oil delivery through the pipeline, the company made sure to stress the continued need for security.
“Everyone must be concerned of the lone wolf,” a TigerSwan operative wrote in a March 7 report. “Should we slip from that conscience, we may all be amiss. I cannot afford this in my duties, nor will We/I allow or accept this. I cannot thank everyone for enough for their support during this entire process, However, the movement continues, and We/I will not stop. That’s not in my vocabulary. We will always over-watch as the protectors what is in the best interest for ETP, as we are the guardians.”
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.
In a March 24 report discussing the likely revival of protests as summer approaches, TigerSwan writes, “Much like Afghanistan and Iraq, the ‘Fighting Season’ will soon be here with the coming warming temperatures.”
Documents published with this story:
- Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-07
- Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-11
- Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-12
- Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-13
- Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-14
- Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-22
- Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-10-16
- Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-11-05
- Security Operations Overview 2016-10-16
- Security Operations Overview 2016-10-19
- Shared Daily Intelligence Update 2016-10-16
- Shared Daily Intelligence Update 2016-11-05
- Intel Group Email Thread 2016-10-12
To search all TigerSwan documents published by The Intercept, go to the TigerSwan project page on DocumentCloud.
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Related
Leaked documents and public records reveal a troubling fusion of private security, public law enforcement, and corporate money in the fight over the Dakota Access Pipeline.
There surely will come a day of revolt on a mass scale. The police and military will ultimately be caught in the middle. The private contractors beholden to their own thirst for greed and power will serve the elite during the revolution to be sure. They outright guard them now and conduct counter-insurgency ops pre-revolution. The water protectors should take a page from the ISIS/Al Qaeda playbooks and start commandeering dams, heading upstream and fortifying in the mountains.
It makes perfect sense to call the water protectors “Jihadists”, for they are, after all struggling against the same oil and gas pipeline owners that are in the Arab world.
Great article
Its all about the friggin almighty dollar.
Online media, including The Intercept, would have to feature prominently the solution to all societal problems, which is the reign of the heart over the ego, if we are to achieve sustained relief on any social problem. This means all negativity is purged, and replaced with pure positive, i.e. zero harm in all activities. The time is now. There is no other way. Anarchism over authoritarianism, cooperation over competition, reign of the heart over the ego, 100% positivity, zero harm, by all, for all.
LRADs, for those who do not know, are high-intensity sound generators, which severely incapacitate those exposed, with capacity to generate permanent hearing loss, along with frequencies causing severe nausea. The first US internal use was documented in 2009 aimed at protestors against economic policies, US aggressive wars, climate policies, and more.
While I cannot speculate on these particular mobile weapons having the ability to dial in lethal levels, such lethal weapons have been developed, able to damage internal organs as well as eardrums, and are lethal Long Range Acoustic Devices.
A lot of military contractors are advertising for “Surveillance Role Player” jobs, which require surveillance activities and coordination with local law enforcement.
Here’s a snippet from a recruitment email:
“Surveillance Role Player candidates MUST have surveillance experience to include vehicle, foot, static, and multi-mode. Counter Surveillance experience is also desired however, actual surveillance experience is a MUST. Individuals with the above experience and who are familiar working within Military and Government Intelligence training platforms are strongly encouraged to apply.”
https://wikileaks.org/hbgary-emails/emailid/13711
I wonder if any of the people performing overt surveillance at Standing Rock happened to be “Surveillance Role Players”.
NODAPL was behaving like an insurgent group. They quite literally attacked law enforcement and destroyed private property and took over public land. This is all well documented. This was all funded and coordinated by sources outside of North Dakota and Standing Rock.
Anarchy is NOT democracy! Sorry, I have zero tolerance for the antics of the protesters, who by the way ignored the democratic process during the democratic approval process. I applaud the actions of North Dakota law enforcement, who were forced into a very tough position by petty criminals posing as idealists.
There is zero evidence for any of your statements. On the other, there is documentary evidence of the police and private security forces attacking unarmed protesters. There is video footage of this that is easy to find on YouTube as well as Democracy Now’s website. Your lies make it clear that you’re one of the paid disinformation trolls of the pipeline companies. Sorry I have zero tolerance for liars like you.
jjg – You could not be more completely wrong, misinformed, ignorant or you are part of the problem. Are you basing your evaluation of the situation there from a youtube video and an agenda driven website?
So you must have believed obama, susan lying rice and crooked hillary and their Benghazi excuse then right? I can see now who the troll is around here. Don’t try any ridiculous retorts trying to degrade me, you have already shown your hand and you are not to be taken seriously at all. You have no understanding of what went on. Just hush and go away.
Will Parrish, a most Twertogian name you have got yourself there.
Twertzogian
All hail the leaker!
“…TigerSwan, which originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor helping to execute the global war on terror…”
These tactics often start out as ways to fight those dirty bastards abroad. But the chickens do have a way of coming home to roost. Now what?
Face it. DAPL ought to hire TigerSwan’s competition. What’s good for the Goose…
It seems they are creating the situation of it being more than security. To be forwarding reports to police and others without laws being broken – other than the ones they break…in insanity and insecurity more than anything else…..
“THE PROBLEMS WITH ROSEMARY COLLYER’S SHITTY UPSTREAM 702 OPINION”
https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/05/30/the-problems-with-rosemary-collyers-shitty-upstream-702-opinion/
“Up until this opinion, I was generally willing to argue for the efficacy of the FISC (even while arguing the job could and should be devolved to district courts for more rigorous testing of the law). But not now. This opinion discredits the entire court.
“Last April when Collyer became presiding FISC judge, I pointed to what I considered Rosemary Collyer’s worst FISC decision, which was actually a District Court opinion that permitted the NSA to keep aspects of its upstream problems secret from EFF, which is suing over those same issues. I predicted then that, “I fear she will be a crummy presiding judge, making the FISC worse than it already is.”
“In my opinion — as a civil libertarian who has been willing to defend the FISC in the past — with this opinion she has done real damage to any credibility or legitimacy the FISC has.”
So far there’s been almost no U.S. media followup on this story, certainly not from lead outlets like the NYTimes and WaPo and LATimes. The one story showing up on Google News since is this one:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2017/05/28/report-military-style-tactics-used-against-dakota-access-pipeline-protesters/351734001/
Nothing on the video news channels, other than a 4-min clip from RT:
…youtube.com/watch?v=qLzxwFsGo6E
Too disturbing for the corporate media in the United States to cover? Similar protests may be organized around the Keystone pipeline that Trump approved – has this outfit been given a new contract, then?
What a thorough article! Thank you for this, because this information would never find a place on state run propaganda networks. The DAPL will go down in history as one of the worst thefts of property by government exploiting eminent domain, while the government actions to suppress and crimininalize dissent will (hopefully) be viewed in hindsight with a head slapping moment of, “How did we let it go this far?”
When the government finds itself constrained by that pesky ol’ Constitution, they simply use a private contractor to get around the impediment.
And now we have a #GOP legislator wanting to use private contractors at Town Halls, to protect our elected officials. They have forgotten who they work for, and it is our fault. We allowed this to happen, and now we have to stand up against it. If we want Democracy we better start thinking differently and start to act like it.
Private contractors are our future. The super wealthy elites will use them for their own protection. Local police are becoming increasingly militarized . Dissent will become criminal. Demonstrations will be blocked by military tactics. It is the encroaching controls being used by this administration and the 1% elites to protect and serve their needs. Corporate America is showing it’s hand.
In other words, “private armies” will be legalized.
It looks like we have a chance to speak up for free speech for the other side regarding an event this Saturday (the URL misnames this article, which is “Portland mayor calls for cancellation of free-speech rally”!):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/muslims-thankful-for-support-after-rant-deadly-attack/2017/05/28/6745475a-440c-11e7-8de1-cec59a9bf4b1_story.html
The mayor is claiming that “hate speech” is not protected by the Constitution, which is an outright lie, and an invitation for the U.S. to promulgate the sort of idiotic bans that have worked sooo well in preventing hate groups from rising in Europe. I imagine that the right wing protesters will have an opportunity to be treated like “insurgents” there, but that is quite nearly as bogus as in the pipeline case.
With all this endless left-right warring, people need to rally around the one little tiny center we have, which is this tiny portfolio of what rights that we have inherited from brave ancestors and somehow managed to keep our hands on so far. Let them march – denounce them as you please. Simple as that.
This stuff has been going on for quite some time; Real Sports w/ BG featured Jamie Jarrin. He was able to make the Dodgers pop w/ the lat community despite that police forcibly evicted many under em. domain for a fucking ball field.
How the fuck is that for public good?
Anyway, this (the story above) is not surprising; the US has armed police to the teeth w/ military gear and turning them into quasi seal units. They have Tackleberry syndrome. So, it’s the ole when you have a hammer everything looks like a nail
water is life??
As an Australian citizen I find this kind of behaviour by the American authorities to be despicable and deplorable and a definite sign of a society in decline. Just like Rome, America as it is, will disappear. What those indigenous people were fighting for e.g. water and life on earth, will reign long after this corrupt America disappears.
Internal TigerSwan communications describe the movement as “an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component” and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters.
THIS IS COLONIAL ACTIVISM ON THE PART OF WALLSTREET CORPORAT THIEVES.
This style of abuse of Mainstreet America is of THE VERY SAME TEMPLATE used to push WMD, used to rob Ameicans of homes, used to produce LIFG which resulted in the Manchester bombing and likely the bombings in France. Wallstreet thieves and their media whores who may have conspired with the DNC in such times and places so as to precipitate the MURDER OF SETH RICH.
As corruption of the USG and politicians grows, criminal minds with money and power will become stronger and more wicked in their ambition to get whores like Hillary to help them “conquer the world” in the name of anything but for the Federal Reserve LLC whose main product is the US dollar minted and no cost to them but great cost to everyone else.
I am not so sure how you get from TigerSwan to Hillary. The Seth Rich murder by Hillary has been debunked. At the time of this article, private militias is the theme. Who knows what goes on behind the scenes. Certainly not myself. I do see mercenaries for hire are creeping into our homeland. Even Prince, head of Blackwater mercenary, is brother to De Vos has entered into this administration. The dots are beginning to line up.
It’s quite intriguing how the mere mentioning of Seth Rich makes good party soldiers nervously declare that “it has been debunked!”
Nothing to see here folks, move on! It has been “debunked” after all! By top people!
If you could indulge me… How exactly has the Seth Rich murder been debunked?
Did they catch the guy that did it? That’s as far as I know the only way you could “debunk” a theory about an unexplained and rather strange murder.
excellent work. funny how this comes out while i’m researching this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Program
as one writer put it, that program was the “silver lining of vietnam” in that it provided a template – almost completely followed by these assholes – for operations in other countries and even the US mainland itself. surveillance, intimidation and exploitation of internal schisms are par for the course.
looking forward to the rest of this.
keep up the good work
connect the dots
see the pattern
jfk, vince foster, seth rich….
…bugs bunny
In reading my old files of saved articles, I saw that the federal government used FBI. and DOJ departments in the movements against AIM. American Indian Movement, back in the 1970s and 1980s. We must free Pelletier now. He is a left over of these efforts.
But this use of Tiger Swan is even worse. Thank you so much for this article. As I was leaving Standing Rock, I spoke to two white men, wearing masks, about a car with California license plates, that drove north, and then south, without looking out the window. I told the two young demonstrators I was concerned, that they were undercover. “Nah, they are ok, ” I grew very worried, asking them, “Why do you say they are ok? They could be undercover.” The one young man, had a dead expression in his eyes, instead of concern, and it reminded me of an undercover policeman at an ant-war demonstration in NYC, years ago, He had a dead expression, of boredom, in his eyes. The young man murmured something like, “I don;t have the time for this, ” and rushed back to join his friend. I got in our car, and we drove north, to the airport. I was shaken.
a typical tactic of anti-american secret police state is the round up American demonstraters and threaten them. During these threats they try to recruit. And evidently they have some success “turning out” Americans.
Right now everyone with half a brain is protesting the lack of progress on the MURDER OF SETH RICH. A very simple case and the silence and suppression of the wallstreet whore media speaks volumes. They say the cover-up is worse. Like – what laptop?
This is great, super informative reporting. The bland headline for the piece could be better, I think.
But I’ll betcha most of these people ( the protestors)….didn’t get out & vote….against Trump…..right?
That is, though peripheral to the issues of treaty, indigenous nation rights, care for the environment, etc., of interest.
One should perhaps act to assist voting, or speak encouraging those who are of voting age to do so. I remember Russ Means pointing out how those who live in the Lakota nation should function also engaged with the governance in place.
One can generally expect, though, that many did.
Commentors may not understand that North Dakota has MANY new and relatively temporary residents involved in the Bakken oilfield extraction, whose personal short-term interests are aligned with that of Trump and republican corporate interests.
Without exploring demography and political demography of the massive influx, one can still presume that it may well be of such proportions that ND would have still gone overwhelmingly for Trump.
But DO remember that these republican states, and a few down the KXL line steered by democrat governance, so coveted the ephemeral “jobs” that the protest, which was over the pipeline’s construction and common spillage. You will have to explore the amazing frequency of spills that occur on pipelines.
The indigenous native population of the USA remains the MOST discriminated against of all definable ethnic groups. While ethnicity is invidious, past history since the 1600s shows that discrimination was once the province of Euroamericans, against all other identifiable excluded group.
Unfortunately now, it is the go-to of every self-identified ethnic group or individual.
It would be a beautiful, intelligent, and inclusive change, if commentors ceased to frame their comments in terms of self/ingroup, and “these people” as other/outgroup.
For a n introduction to the hellish operation that are the Bakken fields, look here:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/10/20/americas-oil-boom-is-visible-from-space/?utm_term=.261723192a2f
It has been shown that artificial light is harmful to ALL organisms evolved with diurnal cycles. That hell you see in the photo includes about 8 new wells drilled per day, for years now. THe dark middle of ND includes around the rez.
in Logan, wolverine fights off a savage military contractor … albeit a contractor directed at mutants, not political dissidents
so the problem is not exactly outside of mainstream american awareness
What I want to know is this. What is being done NOW to fight back on these thugs who are paid to disrupt, lie, and do harm to our citizens when we stand up for what we believe is right? Private firms working for the Oligarchs who intend on crushing citizens, ignoring laws, ignoring rights to free speech, and creating actual laws to hinder constitutional rights need to be addressed. We are at a turning point. Is our government going to stand for and with the people, or is it going to go Dictator on us? The way it looks right now, it appears to have already gone dictator, giving the corporations more power and rule over citizens here, mimicking other third world nations who are in utter corruption and chaos right now. I don’t see a way out of this unless we unite under a very, very progressive Party to turn the tide. It may well be too late even to hold onto the threads of democracy we cling to now.
Bravo and thank you. This is Intercept reporting at it’s very best.
As for the story itself….a high tech parallel to capital’s literal war against labor in the late 19th century: Pinkertons, the collusion between private interests and local/state/ federal government to eradicate labor’s resistance by any and all means. We’ve been here before.
Exactly!
i was in colorado not long ago, drove by the site of the ludlow massacre, so i read up on it. the mentality of the private guards and the national guard was exactly the same.
from wiki:
“Baldwin–Felts had a reputation for aggressive strike breaking. Agents shone searchlights on the tent villages at night and fired bullets into the tents at random, occasionally killing and maiming people. They used an improvised armored car, mounted with a machine gun the union called the “Death Special” to patrol the camp’s perimeters. The steel-covered car was built in the CF&I plant in Pueblo, Colorado from the chassis of a large touring sedan. Frequent sniper attacks on the tent colonies drove the miners to dig pits beneath the tents where they and their families could be better protected.[23]
As strike-related violence mounted, Colorado governor Elias M. Ammons called in the Colorado National Guard on October 28. At first, the Guard’s appearance calmed the situation, but the sympathies of Guard leaders lay with company management. Guard Adjutant-General John Chase, who had served during the violent Cripple Creek strike 10 years earlier, imposed a harsh regime. On March 10, 1914, the body of a replacement worker was found on the railroad tracks near Forbes, Colorado. The National Guard said that the man had been murdered by the strikers. In retaliation, Chase ordered the Forbes tent colony destroyed. The attack was launched while the inhabitants were attending a funeral of infants who had died a few days earlier. The attack was witnessed by photographer Lou Dold, whose images of the destruction appear often in accounts of the strike.[24]
The strikers persevered until the spring of 1914. By then, according to historian Anthony DeStefanis, the National Guard had largely broken the strike by helping the mine operators bring in non-union workers. The state had also run out money to maintain the Guard, and Governor Ammons decided to recall them. The governor and the mining companies, fearing a breakdown in order, left one company of National Guardsmen in southern Colorado and formed a new company called “Troop A,” which consisted largely of CF&I mine camp guards and mine guards hired by Baldwin-Felts in National Guard uniforms.[24]”
Might as well shred the Constitution and the Bill of Rights since both are actually irrelevant today.
The power of special and corporate interests in the post-Citizens United era, the call for a convention poses a huge threat to the nation.
we american indians our peace people medicine turtle cherokee
As obomo ramped up his attacks on Americans for the last 8 years leftist cheered him using the IRS against the Tea Party, militarizing the dept of the interior, BLM and distributing military equipment to local law inforcement. So why is the intercept all of a sudden surprised that all that equipment, knowledge and tech wouldn’t be used against them? Obomo normalized a hostile occupation force for just these types of situations. “The chickens have come home to roost”….
it goes on under both parties, in case you hadn’t noticed, and leftists haven’t been cheering obama for some time. it’s ramping up, too.
You are historically illiterate.
1. The Intercept is not “surprised” at the facts reported above.
2. For over a century, the U.S./state governments, in collusion with private militia services (e.g., the Pinkertons), has targeted left-wing dissidents. See the FBI under J. Edgar, and, more recently, how the FBI orchestrated a plan to infiltrate, monitor and destroy Occupy.
You cite militarization of the “BLM.” Here’s a clue: there’s another BLM, a movement under severe attack by agents of the state, much as MLK was targeted for destruction by the FBI.
You are utterly ignorant.
Thanks.
You never refuted the fact that leftists cheered the last 8 years as obomo militarized our local police and attacked the Tea Party which was my whole point.
No…the LIBERALS cheered Obama on, not the leftists.
And the Teathuglicans? They thought that Obama was doing “too little”, or being “weak”.
A great example of embedding the lie within a specious attack. When you respond to the attack, you tacitly accept the lie.
There’s never any reason to accept any premise offered by a provocateur.
HG’s provocation is the bait, not the intent.
Yet the idiots here continually respond to the provocation rather than the lie.
No wonder they end up repeating Republican narratives as if true.
Geesh!!
Good comment. Love the analysis. Good advise as well.
Hear, hear! Well said! Hillerysghost is very confused.
Still, the best way to transport oil is through pipelines !
Under rivers is not the best game plan.
The most recent was in January 2015, when the Poplar oil pipeline spilled 40,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana, contaminating water supplies for local residents and harming valuable fish and wildlife habitat.
In July 2011, Exxon’s Silvertip Pipeline dumped 63,000 gallons of oil into the river near Laurel, Montana.
During the abbreviated cleanup of the Poplar spill, a total of 1,200 gallons of oil was allegedly recovered from the river.
At the peak of the cleanup effort, a spokesman for Bridger Pipeline, the company that operates the Poplar Pipeline said that oil was being recovered at the rate of one teaspoon every ten minutes. At that pace, it would have taken 1,753 years to remove all the oil from the river.
You speak about accidents of badly planned and badly maintained pipelines. Even if you argue that accidents are inevitable then compared to road or rail or tanker transportation even these accidents are relatively small. Furthermore once the pipeline is build relatively clean power will pump the oil to it’s destination.
When all drinking water becomes polluted tell that to the citizens I’m sure they will understand.
Nearly two million people die from a lack of safe drinking water every year.
And by 2030, half the world’s population could be living in areas of high water stress – places where there isn’t enough water to go round.
Our planet does contain over a billion trillion litres of water. But very little of that is safe to drink. Over 97% of water on Earth is salt water. Of the fresh water that remains, over two thirds is locked away in ice caps and glaciers.
Most of the rest is trapped in soil or underground aquifers. That leaves a tiny fraction available for us to use.
And it isn’t just drinking water that we need. Almost everything we do involves water in some way.
And the best thing to do with oil is to LEAVE IT IN THE GROUND!!!
Well spoken. I guess you don’t drive a car, never take an airplane, only use electricity from ecological resources, never buy any products, be it food or consumer goods , that have been transported to your local shop but only homegrown and homemade stuff. No computers or mobile phone or television., that cannot be produced without the oil left in the ground. Welcome back to the stone age.
we all do many of those things, yes, because that it how the system is set up. we need to change the system as quickly as possible in order to avoid the ensuing wars, lost cities, and possible unlivable climate. we need to do those things, and not attack people protesting business as usual and protecting their homes, using vile and illegal private security companies (or vile and illegal actions by official government employees.
I don’t drive or fly (I gave up my car decades ago and take Amtrak when I travel), but that’s not the main point. Personal attacks like this show a complete lack of any legitimate position. That said, first and foremost you are wrong: there was trading and bartering thousands of years before industrial society or oil. Moreover, to respond to your BS, I would gladly give up all of the things that you mentioned in exchange for a compete global ban on oil extraction.
We need leaders who do the right thing, not act as shills for industries, and not who are too cowardly to do the right thing even if it’s not popular (as Jimmy Carter did in his televised Fireside Chat). The right thing to do regarding transportation is to immediately stop all new oil drilling leases, both onshore and off-, and to invest enough money in public transit projects (including public works if needed) to provide adequate public transit everywhere.
And of course we need a very strong population reduction program, because overpopulation is the most fundamental physical problem of all, and if we don’t fix that, nothing works. Educating women (getting them PhDs is best) and empowering them (free and completely unrestricted access to birth control and abortion) are the least coercive ways to accomplish this, but countries with spoiled and self-entitled populations like the U.S. will probably also need a one-child-family policy of carrots and sticks like the immensely successful one in China.
And the right thing to do, as Carter tried to do when he was president, is to strongly discourage needless consumerism, like use of computers and cell phones for personal use (this is my biz computer in case you’re contemplating another illegitimate personal attack). There was life, even human life, way before all of this crap, and the Earth was in much better shape then.
Some of this is very long-term. We didn’t get into this environmental and ecological nightmare overnight, and we’re not getting out of it overnight either. So some of this will take hundreds or even thousands of years. But if we don’t get started, it will never happen and humans will continue destroying the Earth until they make themselves extinct, unfortunately taking a lot of other species and ecosystems with them.
Ooooops…you were being sarcastic. Sorry for my slow comprehension.
no, he wasn’t. we need to get off fossil fuels as quickly as possible.
And in the meantime…pipeline oil transportation is the cleanest and most energy efficient way.
This is a fascinating, important and well-reported story. And here it is, in featured position, with a couple hundred comments.
Meanwhile, there is also this story, published today on The Intercept:
That story has already been relegated to the “Recently” level and has a total of two (2) comments.
What the fuck is the matter with us? With all of us?
With a hat tip to the memory of Joseph Nye Welch, “Until this moment, my fellow Americans, I think I never really gauged our cruelty, our recklessness, our lack of concern for any but “our own.” Let us not massacre and maim these people further, citizens. We have done enough. Have we no sense of decency?”
Those “kids” killed in the raid would have grown up to want to cut your head off in a utube video. What comes around goes around….
There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, only a very tiny fraction of which ever grow up to kill Americans. But of those who do, it’s because they were there the day their brothers and sisters were slaughtered by American soldiers.
It’s been a long couple of months, Doug, nearly each day of which has been chock full of outrages and assaults and threats of every variety, some existential (Trump’s hints he’s willing to use nukes against North Korea).
I think it’s easier at this point to respond to stories that we can intellectualize – and thus distance ourselves somewhat, even in our anger and disgust- than to allow ourselves to focus, repeatedly, on stories that for many of us elicit a sense of helpless despair.
That doesn’t mean we are all fucked up, though I can definitely understand how it can seem that way sometimes.
I can’t imagine that anyone here but the trolls does not strongly oppose the U.S.-backed mass murder and destruction in Yemen. We all have our priorities. For me, they are, in order of importance: 1) protecting and restoring the natural environment; 2) protecting traditional indigenous people and their land; and 3) opposing war.
The Intercept has written many stories on the immoral crap that’s been going on in Yemen, and there have been many comments on that issue. We’re all strongly opposed to this war and the U.S.’s role in it, so don’t read too much into this one instance.
Your goals are noble and righteous, but your ordering of priorities is confused.
Nothing is more destructive of the natural environment than modern, inevitably nuclear, war and the forces that drive it and it is war and aggression that have threatened, massacred, oppressed and dispossessed indigenous peoples — and continues to do so.
If you want to serve your first two goals, you need to start by opposing war.
Sometimes issues overlap, like as in the examples that you cited. But my priorities are not confused. The Earth comes first, for both moral and pragmatic reasons. While a nuclear war would likely destroy the Earth, the chances of that happening are still slim, even though they’re a lot higher than people like us would like (I advocate total elimination of all nuclear weapons immediately, and this could actually be done if those in power wanted to do so). A test conducted somewhat recently found that no U.S. military person who would have to take the physical action that would launch a nuclear weapon would actually do so.
Moreover, the root causes of all environmental problems, including war, are overpopulation and overconsumption. War is a symptom of this, not a cause, as are the problems that you outlined. Wars are mainly fought for resources (directly like oil, or indirectly like Afghanistan), which is overconsumption.
Additionally, the order of these priorities is minor compared to the fact that I prioritize them over all other issues. I am very strongly and unequivocally opposed to war, and have spent countless hours in the streets demonstrating against wars, starting with the Vietnam war when I was in high school. I also gave up my car decades ago, so I don’t contribute to wars by consuming oil. THAT is the best thing any American can do to oppose war.
killing protesters
genociding palestinians to steal land
genociding yemenese for fun and profit
wallstreet bankster thieves
war and prison profiteers
wanna have some fun connecting the dots, AND get a little shock therapy?
http://muckety.com
Based in Apex, North Carolina, – damn – the tactics sure seem familiar with what I have experienced in the state of North Carolina!
Ronald N Day
American Resistance to Tyranny!
If you want to stop a pipeline – buy enough of the companies stock to control it. If you want to stop a power plant, same thing.
What these protesters were trying to do amounts to a giant act of theft. We are sick and tired of pests wanting to satisfy their whims for free. Those days are over – why do you think we have President Trump?
Atlas Shrugged was supposed to be a warning, Not A Newspaper!
They’re stealing? That is comedic genius. The people who’s grandfathers and grandmothers were sent to boarding schools to rid them of “the savage” in their bodies and are going to lose their clean water, are stealing? Ok….
whims. trying to make sure they have potable water. atlas shrugged was a long, turgid fantasy that some idiots take seriously. kept the author in spare change till it was time for her to avail herself of government support.
If you don’t want your land or culture destroyed, and your people killed, don’t let white people on your land. People like YOU are the thieves. All land in the Americas and Australia was stolen.
the rise of the protester killers
My great-grandparents were killed before i was born.. They were bootleggers. Perhaps you never heard of MURDER, INC. The methods of population control and domination have not changed in the US.
In some way, the rise of private armies in the US to kill protesters seems congruant to the murder of Seth Rich.
The reward for Who Murdered Seth Rich keeps going up. I would like to see it go over $1,000,000 as this would keep focus and pressure on the DNC (now being sued for fraud) and who should be investigating. The lack of leads itself points to a likely CIA. Surely the NSA has the details in their archives.
Here is yet another piece for the jigsaw puzzle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdeznZxIA4Q
You also may want to listen to Keiser Report #1076 on the nation killers
If the Democrats have this huge death squad that kills dozens of Clinton associates, Condit’s intern, now Seth Rich (even if the “data” showing him to be the leaker was apparently phoney, etc.) …. I have one simple question:
How come they never kill any Republicans?
I mean, like that woman who told on Monica Lewinsky, or the goons who kept going after Hillary Clinton for wanting to have some private email. You’d think they could have found one Republican to knock off somewhere to mix in with all those people they supposedly killed out of their own party.
I mean, otherwise… why shouldn’t I suspect the other side is doing the killing?
Condit’s intern? hmmm. That kind of figures in. In fact, If condit was a “sacred member” then sure, that mirrors the Seth Rich murder. Same with Vince Foster.
They dont kill repubs because
1. it is too easy to get the repubs to wave the flag for war, they are more likely to do the killing than be the victim.
2. political orientation differences would cause internal power struggles
They Keeping it simple, in the family. CFR indoctrination, conditioning, molding. It’s the pool they pick from. But fair-mindedness of dems makes them vulnerable to be branded as betrayers.
Fox News host Sean Hannity lost an advertiser Wednesday after pushing a baseless conspiracy theory surrounding the killing of a former Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer.
Hannity has been reported to be in hiding since advertisers started leaving his program.
You should do the same:-)
While Hannity is a loon who shouldn’t even have a show, his comments about Seth Rich seem pretty reasonable, from what I’ve heard. (I’ve never watched his show, only seen some news reports now and then, and I read an article about this supposed outrage.)
The truth is, the idea that Seth Rich was murdered because he either was or was suspected of being the leaker of the emails makes a heck of a lot of sense.
We know it wasn’t any kind of ordinary street crime.
Killing a supposed traitor helps keep everyone else in line.
And, if not for this reason, then why?
Also, who cares if Hannity has one rational thought now and then?
In my book, while I don’t know who killed him or exactly why, I strongly suspect it was someone playing for team Hillary specifically because they thought he was the leaker.
Hannity might be fully aware of all the evidence against his Seth Rich theory as well as the pain the family is going through, but nonetheless remain convinced that the Democrats employ assassins to conduct contract hits in retaliation for their employees’ misdeeds?
Perhaps Hannity is simply gullible and stupid. It is certainly difficult to rule that out.
If you read the article you get the understanding about the extent which Tiger swan is willing keep track of it’s opponents.
That being said, one can assume the leaking of Tigerswan”s will concern them and my bet is they have visited the Intercept and may have even checked the comment section to find ” enemies” of their client.
If these people were really good they might have leaked the document themselves. This would then become news on other sites allowing them to troll for the most negative comments and add those writers that they may feel are a “potential threat” to ETP’s creation of positive media projection of their business to an enemies list.
Are you guys (at Tigerswan)that smart or just a bunch of second tier office
jockeys. Oh yeah what’s the deal with the lame-ass name?
These people are easily targeted: http://www.tigerswan.com/meet-team/
and they should be the ones ready to push the PANIC BUTTON!
Are we really so mind controlled that we are going to let Delta Force et al setup shop in The United States of America as for profit mercenary hit squads for the elites against the will of the people?
I need some peace of mind!
Is a GuardianAngel within my reach?
Google search has gotten very stupid lately so lets try; I need some PEACE OF MIND! TigerSwan. Manuer.
Interesting how Google search knows how to spell shit but does not stop feeding us endless portions of it.
Those who find authoritarian politicians less threatening than others should take this opportunity to think about what they’ve helped establish.
Do not be surprised then authoritarians leaders adopt authoritarian policies
These policies include (but are not limited to) body slamming reporters, murdering reporters, referring dissidents as terrorists or traitors, reinventing language, practicing and preaching hatred and violence, distributing propaganda through ad hoc organizations, limiting independent access to only state-sanctioned news organizations, legitimatizing militarism, insisting the world is “us versus them”, creating and exploiting political ambiguity, concentrating power,
Those to whom this refers know who they are.
And, NO, you don’t get to claim ignorance.
Anyone who didn’t see this coming is a fool.
And it could have easily been so very different. President Clinton could be returning home from a triumphant trip to Saudi Arabia, where she signed a $110 billion arms deal. Of course, the special prosecutor’s investigation into her campaign’s Russian ties would have been a bit of a drag, with the Republicans gleefully contemplating her upcoming impeachment.
But perhaps I am guilty of idealizing my vision of the Clinton administration, which of course seems alluring compared to the gritty reality of President Trump.
Fantasy isn’t reality.
Your fantasy that Trump and Clinton are the same is all in your mind.
You can invent any scenario to justify your stupidity — from the aftermath of a smoldering apocalypse to a million man march against feminazis , but your invention will always be just that. An invention.
Meanwhile the lives Trump and the Republicans destroy as they sell the country to the highest bidders will not be fixed by your false equivalences or your lame attempts at sarcastic inversion.
Life isn’t a video game. You don’t get extra lives for a quarter.
You should at least acknowledge your own role in this political shitstorm that drowns decency with dishonesty and dumbshittery. Even your pathetic attempt to squirm away from yourself reveals you.
You wanted this, you got it.
Are you suggesting that Mrs. Clinton would not have auctioned off the country to the highest bidders? If so, it’s a good thing she was not elected. When selling one’s country, one should always try and extract the highest possible price.
Yes.
Would you like to offer any proof of HRC “auctioning off the country to the highest bidder.”
Let’s see an explicit quid pro quo rather than your specious Republican accusations of corruption. She was SoS for four years. Certainly she had ample opportunity.
Go ahead, explain why you would “lock her up!”
Mrs. Clinton lost because she was too noble to sell out? I suppose anything is possible. Revisionist history is not my specialty.
(;
‘speaking of selling off the country, have you read the latest piece of salesmanship by Trump and the republican cabal? Trump’s contract to Blackstone an investment corp. Trump sold our infrastructure for 20billion Saudis Public Investments Fund. Blackstone is headed by Schwarzman a long time friend of Trump who has an estate near the Florida retreat. So, now all our bridges, road, sidewalks , etc. will be used to collect tolls, etc. from us and the profits will go to the Saudis via Blackstone. Bit by bit, our country is being sold off to the highest bidder.
It would be very funny if it weren’t so tragic – the whole circumstance we were put in, including your sparing with BM here.
The real truth of it is that we were given disasterous choice 1 versus disasterous choice 2; it was going to be tragic no matter whether if it was Trump elected or Clinton. And people who don’t realize just how disasterous of a choice Clinton really was are a large part of the problem since Bernie was obviously the only sensible choice in the Democratic Primary. Those who voted for Hillary in the primary are perhaps most responsible for Trump’s victory than anyone else. We Progressives warned you Liberals that Hillary would lose to Trump.
…Yes, Hillary Primary Voters are most responsible for Trump’s election – other than, of course, the people who were cheating during both the Democratic Primary and the general election… There was a lot of cheating that went on.
Of course, no Progressive could ever vote for Trump, but knowing what I know about Hillary, I could NEVER have voted for her; she was a stupid choice for a candidate. … I ended up voting for Jill Stein.
There are, however, three potentially good outcomes (among a great many bad ones) that may result from Trump’s election:
1) The TPP appears to be dead as a proverbial doornail. We’re unlikely to lose (yet more) of our sovereignty to unaccountable corporations via bad treaties! YAY!
2) The likelihood of thermonuclear war with Russia is now greatly reduced. (Hillary wanted a hot, shooting war with Russia over the supposed no-fly zones in Syria, and was even warned by the Joint Chiefs that this would put us in immediate shooting war with Russia.) So, We’re Less Likely To Die In Nuclear War! YAY! And;
3) For the first time since the 1960s / early 1970s, “the left” is finally out in the damned streets, protesting. I’ve been damned lonely out there these many decades, wondering why the hell “the left” was so absent in protesting all the atrocities since at least Reagan. There have been SO MANY such atrocities it’s hard to keep count, but “liberals” have been content with the New Republican Party (otherwise known as modern Democrats) apparently just because they have a damned D after their names. How utterly stupid! … FINALLY, they’re upset enough to get off their fat asses and get into the streets and protest! YAY!
So, go ahead and spar with Benito here, it obviously helps you feel self-righteous.
What makes more sense right now is to build consensus for a rational relationship between We, The People, and the ultra-rich. In my view, the right answer is to tax the ultra-rich out of existence, force media divestiture, end the surveillance / police state, end all our foreign wars immediately, and work damned hard to stop adding carbon to the atmosphere. These goals are a lot more important than bickering over the latest thing Trump did or didn’t do with someone you feel a need to feel superior over.
I must say, I’m rarely so annoyed by someone who hasn’t thought through their own political opinions.
First, I voted for Sanders in caucus. I understand and share some of the concerns about Clinton you express. If I judged her by her husband’s eight years, I would also find her difficult to support. I understand why people find her unappealing.
But to say she and Trump are equally disastrous is just incredible. I don’t know if to attribute such a stupid statement to dullwittedness, bad faith, naivete, or just plain tribalism.
Trump is insane. Literally, clinically insane. Even now, even at this very moment, the august and sagacious poobahs of US punditry discuss whether Steve Bannon, Mike Pence, or Jared Kushner should be more involved in advising and restraining Trump.
Think about that. The standard isn’t “who is most credible” but rather “who is less dangerous than Trump himself” And your choices run the gamut from white nationalist, to evangelical toady, to crooked real estate magnate.
Yet you seriously suggest that Clinton would have been equally disastrous as president????
I am speechless. It’s like trying to explain to a dog why it shouldn’t chase cars on the freeway. If it isn’t blazingly obvious by now that a sane President is better than an insane president, then nothing I can say will make sense to you.
As far as nuclear war with Russia, that is straight from FSB. Mutually Assured Distruction (MAD) still regulates the use of nukes. Nobody wins a nuclear exchange — not the dead, not the survivors, not the leaders, not the bystanders, not the future. And if the possibility of nuclear war over Syria is your complaint about Clinton, here’s an article quoting Trump:
https://thinkprogress.org/9-terrifying-things-donald-trump-has-publicly-said-about-nuclear-weapons-99f6290bc32a
The very, very last thing Russia, the US, or any other nuclear nation wants is unpredictability. Read something about MAD to understand why unpredictability is so dangerous in a nuclear world.
Then tell me, with a straight face, that you’d rather have Donald Trump deciding the fate of the world or Hillary Clinton deciding the fate of the world. Here’s a hint: nuclear war isn’t bankruptcy but if and when it happens, it will be the result of bankrupt policies and swaggering idiots.
And if you seriously think grannies protesting Trump equals any sort of compensation or consolation for a Trump presidency, you’re going to be rudely awakened when Trump raises the costs for dissent in a way Clinton would have never considered.
You hope things will get better? So do I. But I don’t think demolishing the country is the way to accomplish that.
And ruination is exactly the future we confront.
It’s not only silver lining your clouds, it’s mixed with industrial wastes, chemical contaminants and methane from melting permafrost.
This story is a perfect example of why there has been so little protests. A reordering of economic activity is vital to creating a workable world free of the poison of the ultra rich. Adam Smith’s invisible hand in the marketplace that was supposed to correct imbalances is no match for people who control vastly greater market advantages. So much for freedom under capitalism. Ameri$a is a plutocracy married to Ru$$ia and $hina gee everywhere is one except NK. And look what a great job the capitalists have done as stewards of great wealth. Trash everywhere. Polluted air. Filthy water, dying corals. Yup love those god fearing moneygrubbers at the top.
I think it’s interesting just how overt the surveillance was. It wasn’t just that the protestors were aware of informants, but there were also people walking around with cameras “getting in people’s faces.”
And at least one individual was not only aware that he, personally, was being surveilled, but also how he was being surveilled: ““It was obvious, they were driving in trucks, SUVs, they would be right behind me, right next to me … it was like, damn, man, it’s like you’re getting an escort,’ he said. ‘That was always the scary thing: How did they know that I was coming?'”
Why was he being followed in such a way that he was aware that he was being followed and knew which vehicles were following him? And why were protestors in general surveilled in ways that were so obvious and in-your-face? This stuff seems too obvious to be excused as sloppy surveillance. So did Tigerswan want protestors to know that they were being followed and recorded? What would be the point? It seems that many people might be intimidated and probably scared by something like this–being followed and surveilled by a coordinated group of people.
In the Security Operations Overview documents, it says: “Reconnaissance and Surveillance will be conducted overtly by all security personnel of any/all potential or actual protestors.” Was Cody’s experience and the experiences of other protestors part of the overt reconnaissance and surveillance conducted by the security firm? I can’t help but wonder if this was being done in an attempt to intimidate and instill fear in protestors and non-protestors alike. I can’t say for sure that’s the purpose of such surveillance, but it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility considering the documents repeatedly talk about protestors as if they are literally terrorists and that the protest is literally a battleground–even going so far as to compare Standing Rock to Afghanistan and Iraq.
It’s not just about instilling fear, but also inciting anger. All they need is for one protester to throw a punch or a bottle and they’ll have the national media blaring headlines like, “VIOLENCE ERUPTS AT STANDING ROCK”. After that, the rest is easy.
“We feared for our lives. We were outnumbered. We had no choice but to [mow them down / beat them to a pulp].”
This is a big reason why so many veterans mobilized to Standing Rock. They know how these guys operate, they knew what was going on, and they knew that if the corporate thugs tried that on (mostly white) military veterans it would be a whole different narrative than what they might do to “the savages”.
If overt surveillance was done in order “to collect evidentiary photographic and video evidence”, and getting in people’s faces with cameras and following them in identifiable vehicles were tactics used in such surveillance as a way to incite anger… then it seems very possible that people working with/for the security firm(s) may have been trying to set up activists.
I don’t know if that’s what actually happened, but it’s interesting that Tigerswan expressed frustration with law enforcement not wanting to arrest activists: “LE was not supportive of our mission for the most part and did not want to arrest or cite those who were trespassing… The issue here is that protestors are learning there is little LE will do to impede them. We need to work closer with Calhoun, Boone, and Webster county LE to ensure future protestors will at least be fined, if not arrested.” (from the Shared Daily Intelligence Update 2016-10-16)
At the very least, I think Tigerswan’s use of overt surveillance deserves a closer look.
“And why were protestors in general surveilled in ways that were so obvious and in-your-face?”
Intimidation.
Obviously, there is a huge advantage to be gained against public opposition by labeling those involved as active or suspected terrorists. This was not lost on the Canadian government which had been fighting a losing battle against public protest of all manners including pipelines, in large part due to the reluctance of our police and courts to move against protesters.
In 2014/2015, the Conservative government of Canada went one better and legislated the definition of terrorist to be anyone threatening or damaging the economic or national interests of the country. Further, this moved such suspects into the purview of the Canadian security and intelligence agencies which operate in secret and use disruption tactics on those that it targets.
No muss, no fuss. It all has been removed from the public eye and the courts by secrecy. Nothing to see here folks, move along, move along.
….Pretty cute, eh!!
Occupy has many cards to play, many of them gleaned from the old Greens and half-understood CIA dirty tricks
they infest the Unitarian Church, and many college grad schools … and of course they get jobs in the goverment as interns, attempting body-double sex ops to destroy your career
but they lack the ability to deliver a death blow, revealing an approach that is basically middle-class, and in the final analysis … ineffective
ie tigerswan will not succumb to the downtwinkle
the smart people like to worry about the constitution and the courts and all the other smart stuff they can analyze online
however the real issue is the social contract .. and its enforcement by church, pro sports, easy access to junk food etc etc etc
so when tigerswan eventially gets around to murdering people it will barely even register .. the average member of the law-abiding american public is a good german in every sense
If I share an Intecept article, the graphics appear on fb. However, when I visit the real site here I see nothing but pitch black where the graphics should be.
You are not alone; I run two different browsers on two different systems to get both the images AND ability to post comments / replies since I couldn’t figure out with either one of the two systems / browsers how to get both. I haven’t looked yet, but it would be smart to write them an email as they may not notice comments like ours.
yes they have nothing better to do than debug your browser setup and censor people you dont like
Hey Granpa, why don’t you refrain from speaking unless spoken to?
dont be shy, whats your fabulous interpretation of the political scene?
How come the snark?
hans gruber is an annoying troll. I usually ignore him, but I get why some do do snark.
when i worked for the government, occupy moles tried to destroy me .. but i dont hold it against them
however when they attact major economic infrastructure, the results are predictable
When is a “private” company not a private company?
When the government is also a private company.
Tiger Swan has grown through the years, like so many other
predatory agencies, because the State Department has poured
tens of millions of tax dollars into the company.
The Obama State Department has made multiple “contracts”
with Tiger Swan which go into 2020 and, in Afghanistan alone,
these are expected to total approximately $59,000,000.
Apparently, North Dakota, Iowa, Illinois…. are seen by the
democrat/republican corporate fronts of the faking U$A
as being as dangerous as Afghanistan because they contain people
who try to oppose total global corporate domination and those people
are terrorists to the private corporation known as the USA.
They “Netizens for Progress and Justice” may have pulled their website, archive.org still has a copy:
http://web.archive.org/web/20170316020521/http://www.iamnetizen.org/
The Obama administration did this. Now I understand why he did not let Leonard Peltier out of prison, because giving Native American any kind of hope would be dangerous to people fighting to make money off the environment.
Leonard Peltier, who was not legitimately convicted BTW, will never be let out. The reason that Obama, Clinton, or any other president won’t let him out is because the FBI would revolt if any of them did so. Presidents are not willing to have the FBI revolt against them, even if the price of keeping the FBI on their side is failing to do the right thing like freeing Peltier.
Right-views are an insane, lawless ideology.
Britt tells me she has the hots for you. You should give her a call. She wont give me her number, nor email, nor twitter @, nothing. She will be happy to hear from you. She must be a recluse and in need of a companion.
Who owns Energy Transfer Partners? Koch brothers?
I am about ready to push the Panic Button!
How much does a GuardianAngel cost?
People interested in this report might want to go pick up this book:
. . .goodreads.com/book/show/57585.In_the_Spirit_of_Crazy_Horse
It details the actions of mining corporations and the FBI and private security contractors in the Dakotas in the 1970s. Portions of it were dramatized in the film “Thunderheart” (1992).
As an aside, however, note that the private security contractors (Tigerswan, Silverton, etc.) that Kelcy Warren, CEO of ETP, hired in an attempt to disrupt the anti-pipeline protesters were also trying to undermine farmers who opposed the pipeline along its entire route. Their opposition was based on the threat to agicultural land posed by oil spills. Part of their agenda was to keep this group of mostly white rural farmers and ranchers from politically coordinating with Native American reservation residents whose water supplies were threatened by oil spills.
There are some interesting legal questions here, however. First is, this is an example of paramilitary organizations hired by a billionaire to infiltrate and attack peaceful protest groups, operating in cooperation with North Dakota law enforcement groups and the U.S. Department of Justice without legal licenses. This seems to fall into this category of activity:
. . . .motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/paramilitary-militia-laws-training
That article is about mostly right-wing anti-government militias that were notorious for involvement in things like the Oklahoma City bombing in the 1990s. However, if such a paramilitary group got a corporate charter, they could rebrand themselves as a “private military company.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_military_company
Imagine, in contrast, if a group of American citizens pooled their money and hired such a PMC to aggressively infiltrate and disrupt the activities of a corporate entity like Energy Transfer Partners – spying on their communications, infiltrating their worksites, sabotaging their activities, etc. Do you think the U.S. government would look the other way? Amusing notion, isn’t it? Perhaps a crowdfunded kickstarter campaign is called for?
(P.S. the above wikipedia article now needs to be amended to include a section on the activities of private military companies inside U.S. borders)
Be like US or be gone seems to be the order of the day by the US gov – or worse, Join us or die off. You would think that Native Americans would at least get respect in the USSC when their complaint is just – as in the case of the Black Hills.
Now that’s a great, if depressing, point.
And this after 8 years of Obama rule….
Good for them. These foreign backed eco terrorists are dangerous and incredibly misinformed about everything
Any proof for that allegation, Joe?
not very convincing….
Yes, those foreign corporation-backed ecology-terorists – othewise known as Oil Companies” – are indeed very dangerous, though they’re the ones spreading “mis-information.” Pity that our law enforcement agencies tend to side with them and against peaceful people attempting to exercise their constitutional rights.
Well you’ve just outed yourself as an employee of TigerSwan. I hope you enjoy the thirty pieces of silver you got for helping destroy the environment and democracy.
One day the equivalent of capitalism’ effect on society will be looked upon as that of electronic shock treatment on those suffering from depression. Would you not agree, Ernest Hemmingway? Thomas Jefferson questioned the problem with basing an economy on the profits derived from surplus. The Native American culture abhorred the practice of hoarding. There is a better way to foster a healthy human society that justly serves its members, other than one that resembles the functionality of the insect or animal kingdoms.
Capitalistic society promotes and protects materialism, racism, and militarism. A healthy human society could promote and protect fulfilling meaningful needs, community, and harmony.
Capitalistic society promotes an educational and propaganda system that keeps the empowered secure by the masses serving the few. A healthy human society promotes what is needed to enlighten and inspire its people to serve each other in a way that spreads a sharing of fruitfulness.
If it is true that humans were put on this earth to be above all other species is it not their destiny to find their place at the altar of wisdom? Is it not their responsibility to come to terms with the most genius of their members proclaimed?
“The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil; but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” – Albert Einstein.
Posse Comitatus Act needs an update to clearly include, military trained, military equipped, and military commanded enterprises.
This case is the epitome of a canary in a coal mine. And that canary is feet up.
This canary is no more. It has ceased to be. It’s expired and gone to meet its maker. This is a late canary. It’s a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch, it would be pushing up the daisies. It’s rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible. This is an ex-canary.
Just like how I found out Block By Block was owned by SMS Holdings, they too having ties to religious organizations with ties to privatized security firms and our government. No wonder I was (and am being) followed. That’s quite a bit of information they’re trying to keep a lid on. Not that it would matter. The American Public seems fine with most of it. Either out of apathy and fear of not knowing what to do about it (a lot like how the German People felt while Hitler did his thing, but never gets mentioned), or because those folks are not boat rockers.
If it doesn’t affect them, it doesn’t matter. They could yank folks out of their homes and shoot them dead in the streets. Just so long as they (State) didn’t do that to them or their loved ones, they’ll just handle it. Yeah. I know a few of those folks. One in particular, in fact.
This matters. All of it. Everything leading up to it as well. That’s the breadcrumbs that got us here. That’s the bloodtrail and you can follow it and see just where it leads.
This report should be all over the national and local news. But it’s not. And it won’t be, either. That’s also because our media has been co-opted. Bought. Through fear, phony patriotism, greed, and viability. It’s the same reason there are privatized security agencies. It’s also the same reason these wars never seem to end. That’s because if they did end, that gravy train of constant cash would also disappear.
Nope. This story won’t make any of those newscasts. That’s also because the advertisers who run that network have ties, most likely, to the banks (like Wells Fargo and Bank of America and JPMorgan/Chase) who support that pipeline project. That have monied interests in that project. That has already spent millions on its production.
That Slippery Slope just turned into an express lane with no foreseeable obstacles.
As the contradictions and failures of late capitalism continue to mount, the state – now so brazenly captures by the campaign donations of the billionaires and corporations – is slowly readying itself for the moment when democracy will be too much a luxury for them to allow. It is a final confirmation that Marx’s analysis of class history was correct all along.
I’m not a Marxist, and don’t accept his prescriptions. But — for an evidence-based person — it’s hard to to argue against much of his analysis of unfettered capitalism.
fettered capitalism is basically fascism
so there is no solution
The Scandinavian model is the solution. Denmark, Iceland are not Stalinist hellholes. Social democrats are not fascists. (Not that I agree with all social policies in Scandinavia; my version of feminism, for example, is sex positive and quite different.)
here is a topic i know a bit about, since i lived in sweden for a year … and visited copenhagen half a dozen times
scandinavia does a good job of taxing people and distributing the hygge in a way that is very popular
however they still have a very tight bond between goverment and industry .. and significant problems with the more or less permanent guestworker class
the closest thing to scandinavia i’ve experienced is minneapolis, which is where i am now. they’re attempting a balanced, non-militarized social welfare state .. and yet the class divisions are still there, boiling below the surface
naturally, as a deep-cover psyop none of this matters to me whatsoever … since i view all human relationships as essentially empty interpersonal power dramas
what if you take away gov. ability to tax and regulate? Get them out of business all together; make political pay very small.
You nailed it. Marx’s analyses, as propounded in Das Kapital, were his main work. They were also his best work. He was right that capitalism sucks, but his solutions, while seemingly moral and correct, were not. When the government owns everything and guarantees everyone a living, people don’t make any effort unless they’re far more evolved than humans currently are. (Communism only works where it’s completely voluntary.) We can see the same problems with civil service workers in this country.
A much better solution than the government owning everything (communism) is worker-owned coops. That way, people are still incentivized, but they’re also treated well.
Well, this is the enemy. America’s Imperial Legion Auxiliaries finally come home to bust skulls in support of TPTB. Not a surprise, but a good wake-up for American’s still living with the fantasy that they have a say in their own government. Here’s the TS website: http://www.tigerswan.com/ It was interesting to see the way they describe their jobs and services. Though I understand the language, it seems so…wrong.
To really understand this situation you should compare the treatment between the Water Protectors and the Patriot Movement.
In one confrontation in Nevada, Patriot Movement protesters forced their way onto federal property to release Clive Bundy’s cattle the feds had seized off of public property and were going to sell to pay for grazing fees and fines owed by the Bundys. A great number of these protesters were heavily armed and they had set up sniper positions directed at the federal agents at a road block in effect threatening the lives of law enforcement officers (if a police officer can use deadly force because they feel threatened by and shoot dead unarmed person then this would seem to be a case where the use of deadly force would be expected). The FBI backed down and withdrew and the protesters went on to public property and released the cattle.
Some of the same group went on to Oregon and took over the wildlife refuge and got the same kid glove treatment. In both cases it’s is informative to listen to the FBI’s press conferences about the extent of their concern for the safety and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.
Compare that to the treatment of the Standing rock protestors and it is obvious that Law Enforcement and the Legal system is a repressive force whose primary mission is protecting the interests of those that own this country and not the citizens of this country.
In the past when law enforcement faced armed protestors it was common that the national guard would be called out. There are instances in the past where the NG open fired with machine guns on protesters and in some cases even brought in artillery to protests. Now we see local police being militarized so local law enforcement does not need the out side approval needed to call out the national guard and they can still face down citizen protests with over whelming force. Of course they only use that force against those they see as a threat.
Good comment, thanks.
Who was it who said (MLK?),
He who makes peaceful protest impossible makes armed revolution inevitable.
I like the observation that FDR “saved capitalism from itself – and they loathed him for it.”
Are you saying that the US government treats White men differently than it does Native Americans?
Actually the US government is an equal opportunity oppressor. It treats everyone equally unequal compared to white male euro-americans ( though there is a hierarchy of oppression). It does reserve a special spot for anyone trying to upset the status quo where the wealthy are far more equal than the rest of us
Yes, thanks for the post and reminder.
If TigerSwan is so anxious to play war, why don’t they go back to Iraq and Afghanistan? We don’t need immoral mercenaries to persecute peaceful protesters in this country. Of course, I would feel sorry for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan to have these pieces of **** in their countries.
Ranchers and locals along with Native Americans don’t want Oil in their Water.
When protesters peacefully object, treating them as terrorists is an injustice and a crime.
The hope is that if you treat them as terrorists, they will eventually start acting like terrorists. The US military has spent the past decade training in counterinsurgency techniques. Everyone is excited by the prospect of a domestic insurgency and the opportunity to try out their new techniques.
Someone should tattle to the Tea Party about this crap. They are one faction within the Republican party who will not stand for this. Time to sound the all dog alert !
The same tea party that put Paul Ryan & Stephen miller where they are have made it perfectly clear they care about an agenda of alt right extremism first & foremost. The tea party doesn’t give a damn about anything but the white supremacy agenda. Why would you ever think they’d care about Native American Water Protectors?!
Transfer partners hired them, but whose paying them? Is any part of the police budget being diverted? Did Tiger Spawn bill local law enforcement agencies or FBI for their assistance, or did they volunteer out of the goodness of their black hearts?
With this report, you have provided an extremely important public service to anyone who cares about democracy and who is concerned about the undue influence of corporations. This kind of government/corporate collusion is the modern version of COINTELPRO.
Thank you for this very thorough and important reporting.
Sadly, US pipeline companies have been going down this road for decades now. They brag among themselves about using ‘psy ops’ — ex-military psychological warfare operators — to pressure landowners to sign easements for new pipelines and to collect quitclaims from homeowners, farmers after pipeline spills.
They make sure not to be the legal employers of these experts, it’s always done as a subcontractor to a subcontractor. This protects the pipeline company in court if things get sticky.
And yes the local, state and federal authorities are no match for these hired bullies. They will play your local police chief like a fiddle, your sheriff and your city council too. The quality of the bunkum they spread is often laughably lacking, but they stick to what works and get results: pipelines in the ground, victims silenced, business as usual.
Thank you for your comment, John Turner. That is very true.
One hell of a report; hoping this report is picked up and widely circulated.
Agreed. This report leaves me believing that all is lost. What alternatives do we have who struggle for human rights and for the health of our habitat? Revolution? The destruction of our society would be the final result. Hopelessness is not a feeling that I am willing to get accept.
I guess I did not see this coming to this extent so I am a fool. Besides that, anyone here will never be able to convince me that Obama, Hillary the ice queen, Bernie Sanders and the lawmakers of both Houses on the Hill did not know about this – and of course, said nothing. Whoa, where was Warren who is supposed to be little miss cool?
Yep, an extreme bummer crash out, infinitely more than that – our hearts sunk last night. Still stunned.
Here’s the question though – will Trump be sending TigerSwan into Mexico ? Maybe they are already here. If So, who exactly will they be securing the drug routes for?
Well, either there will be some kind of upheaval, or revolution or we doomed. A revolution will be messy, probably a slaughter – unsure if it will mean the destruction of the society. Maybe of the society that we know and are a part of with some type of positive re-birth (hopefully positive that is to say), but the other route (not doing anything at all) insures the destruction of not only society but everything.
Take care.
https://youtu.be/qOfkpu6749w
Sanders did say something:
“[W]e’re dealing with sovereignty rights for Native American people, an invasion of their own property, in violation of treaty rights, which is an endemic problem in this country […] [T]he demand must go to the North Dakota authorities that the kind of military presence that exists there is simply not what is acceptable. ”
He also wrote to Obama in October:
http://email.capitolenews.com/q/Nj7LY-F7mL8H7INlCLKkDv10CCBlFLXvVXm8lPdTjOPgn7WGMDSnqQ9Oe
Did he know the *extent* of what was happening? Probably not. You said you didn’t know, either — how could he? He relies on what the media reports just like the rest of us.
I voted for Bernie (absentee) in the California Primary. It was a condition of blind hope and really not trusting him at that point when he didn’t question other previous states primaries which were rigged – and saying to myself “Oh shit” when he said nothing about the California Primary votes actually not being counted (BTW, many thousands of those were absentee.)
Anyway, after he sold out to the Ice Queen I was done with him. Just another politician in my book.
Of course neither my spouse or I knew the extent of this atrocity – but it is difficult for me to imagine that policy/law makers and those on the Hill – (who I assume we mostly agree are puppets of the corporations and wall street and the military even though they deny it) – and are in power positions know much more then the ordinary layperson like you or me. It comes with the territory. Their positions demand that in reality they are not loyal to their constituents. I don’t trust any of them. They all speak with forked tongues.
I’ve watched Bernie cave over and over. Which makes you wonder – what exactly is sacrosanct to him? It certainly makes me not trust him.
The question should be, how could he NOT know?
It’s kind of – no it is exactly as Javier Sicilia says: “They are all rotten.”
*****
We were talking about this today and the thing that really makes me angry is if you remember, the elders of the Tribe kept holding out for help from Obama because they kept saying that “..he is our friend” and flashing portraits they had of Obama coming to their reservation years before shaking their hands. They honestly believed this – well not the younger ones. Boy, did they get fuc$ed.
Oh well, I guess the corporate media didn’t pick this report up over the weekend. I wonder why ?
Ok a Bernie rant: Remember the Bernie-Ice Queen “debates” ? He was frozen when it came to foreign policy, especially history. It was as though the cat had his tongue. How could this be possible ? Oh right, he could not stand Kissinger – but he somehow was stuck on “IndoChina” – and nothing else. And for that matter, he failed in any discussion of Indochina. He just said the word Indochina and that was it. Then he smiled.He never described the Kissinger policy in Latin America, never.
And you mean to tell me he did not know about the Clinton Honduran Coup of 2009 ?? Apparently it either did not matter to him, or he didn’t know.
He knew, and he said nothing. He had the opportunity, the cameras were rolling, we were waiting on the edges of our seats.
Mum’s the word.
chilling out cooling down ~ beware the black snake ~ in your water and in your back yard ~ your farm ~
This is a very detailed writeup, The Intercept. I’m impressed. Oh, btw: fuck off, TigerSwan.
damn.. these guy’s need to get laid pronto. But it’s nice that they finally admit that we are enemy combatants to them, and not fellow citizens anymore.
Once again law enforcement shows that corporations matter more than people.
What America has become reeks of money to fund campaigns of dehumanization and demonization of all who oppose the planet’s destruction, followed by the obliteration the planet’s biological life support systems and all those that defend them.
The wars in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, come home to roost. This is where those wars were directed, in the end.
“What America has become reeks of money to fund campaigns of dehumanization and demonization of all who oppose the planet’s destruction, followed by the obliteration the planet’s biological life support systems and all those that defend them.”
Indeed!
People feel these things, but hesitate to talk about it for fear of being labelled as conspiracy theorist. Unfortunately, what is described in the comment above is in fact what is going on.
Is this what the monsters are planning:
destroying dependence on nature, and replace it with poisonous patented crap?
Does anyone remember the “Law Enforcement” at Trump’s inauguration? Those “Law Enforcement were Blackwater mercenaries. Eric Prince, Blackwater owner, is sister to Dept. of Education Secretary Besty DeVos.
This is where the editorial privilege to censor identities of law enforcement may conflict with the public interest.
If the identities of individuals involved in law enforcement were published; citizens and individuals seeking to exercise their First Amendment right to free associate may have the opportunity to respond and/or protect themselves from law enforcement/private security efforts to stifle their exercise of right. The publication of this information may be one of the only means of effectively responding to such there is.
I trust that The Intercept has considered this, and that the pronouncement of its decision to protect the privacy interests of individuals who may or may not be involved in violating citizens’ rights does not include an editorial discretion holding individuals’ decision to participate in private security firms’/law enforcement’s personal privacy interest while oppressing the population with hostile surveillance over that of individuals’ attempting to exercise their First Amendment right to free association by knowing the identity of potential undercover agents/security personel.
There is a profound public interest in citizens knowing when they are being investigated/surveiled as they attempt to freely associate. That includes being potentially privy to whether an individual within their group has previously gone undercover and stifled the rights of protestors before.
The biggest threat America faces today isn’t ISIS or Al Queda. It’s the intelligence community and private security contractors. The amount of money and power they have obtained since 9/11 is obscene.
America isn’t about a flag. It’s not about perceived good guys vs. bad guys. It’s about the Constitution. The Constitution is the foundation on which the country is built. The spirit of the Constitution is that the people should be protected from an overbearing government. The Constitution is being ripped to shreds by the FBI, DEA, NSA, military, and private contractors. King George was never this powerful.
They’ve run out of legitimate enemies to fight, so they try to create new ones.
“I’m honored that they felt that we were a big enough threat to go to this level of intervention,” Ed Fallon, an activist mentioned several times in the TigerSwan documents, told The Intercept. ……………Sorry to burst your bubble, Ed; but they’re going to bigger extremes with much smaller fish than you. They’ve got more money and people than they do problems.
I’m still waiting for the leaked document verifying the biowarfare toxins that they’re putting in the chemtrails.
I was going to complement your comment, but in the very last line you blew it:
“I’m still waiting for the leaked document verifying the biowarfare toxins that they’re putting in the chemtrails.”
-ugh-
I get it that you don’t trust “the government”, but as a pilot since the 1960s and as a scientist, sometimes working for NASA and NOAA on earth science – in particular on atmospheric science – I can tell you straight up that at least at the present time, this “chem trail” stiff is just an idea with no factual foundation based on a paranoid world-view. It’s just NOT happening in reality.
There ARE those who would like to try using certain aerosols to alter the earth’s albedo, but if they DID, they’d be doing so as an excuse to continue polluting with previously stored carbon and would be spitting out propaganda telling us we don’t need to worry about global warming because they’re fixing it.
Meanwhile, let’s try and keep to some reasonably well established facts, please. Among these; we must stop transitioning carbon from carbon’s long cycle to carbon’s short cycle, which, in a nutshell, is what “anthropogenic global climate change driven by global warming” is all about.
Thank you! It’s rather common for some propounders of thoroughly unwarranted conspiracy theories to chime in in comments to articles about real and severe government & corporate machinations. Sticking to science, reason and rationality is critical.
I would be interested to know the exact basis for your certainty that there are no chemtrails. I was in the unusual position of seeing a friend of mine become obsessed about chemtrails. She even convinced me and number of her other friends that they existed. She was considered an authority about them on the Internet. Unfortunately, we watched her more and more paranoid, including suspicious of friends. To try to help her I undertook a huge (for me) internet research project on chemtrails. During the course of it I discovered a bunch of her buttressing points that had garnered my belief were simply phoney, and my conclusion was that chemtrails did not exist. By now she was virtually delusional, having jumped from one conspiracy theory to another, claiming to be cruelly persecuted by anyone who didn’t believe her conspiracy theories. It didn’t destroy our friendship but we’ve been estranged for two years now.
Chemtrails DO exist. I mean, I see them. Daily. But that doesn’t also mean there’s something nefarious going on. Could be, but not sure.
The thing is, the day can have no clouds in the sky… at all. Then, the skies become sprayed. Back and forth. Large swaths of cross sectioning going on. As I watched through time, I noticed how those white lines turn fuzzy and wide. They feather out, actually. After watching this happen from time to time, you get used to seeing the patterns and what happens in the aftermath of that seeding.
Again, the “clouds” feather out. Eventually, they begin looking like actual clouds. If you never paid attention to what actual clouds LOOK LIKE, that is. Yeah, it’s amazing, isn’t it. What’s right in front of our noses, we never acknowledge exists until someone of some “authority” says so? Well, if you read the article above, you can see just how much of a JOKE that notion should be.
Anyway, so here is my more direct question: so like that day I noticed all this activity in the skies overhead, there was no other clouds in the area. No REAL clouds, anyway. So my question is, when the weather person the day before says, “Expect SOME clouds in the sky tomorrow, but they ‘won’t be threatening’ rain,” how could they know that? Or were they just wrong about the prediction and got lucky when those fake clouds peppered the day’s sky?
Yeah, I realize that’s a conspiracy theory of a conspiracy theory. I’m a writer. Sue me.
Well…
… I can’t be everywhere at once and sure, it’s possible someone somewhere has dumped some materials high up. However, we can be sure of a few things:
1) such activities would be very expensive – ever checked the flight time costs of an airplane these days? Call a local “FBO” (fixed based operator) at your local airport, and tell them you want to rent an airplane and ask what the “wet time” costs are. Don’t forget to tell them that you need it to fly to 30K feet altitude, give or take 10K and must be capable of dumping out cargo… And, don’t forget the cost of crew. The first thing you’ll find is that there are very, VERY few such aircraft in existence….
2) There’s exactly zero evidence I’ve seen or even heard of that doesn’t have other, more realistic explanations. One simple one is that other forms of air pollution are responsible for the depositions of whatever materials that are settling out. There’s PLENTY of reason to be angry and upset about air pollution and it’s definitely depositing materials on our agriculture – and everything else – but that doesn’t mean that said pollution had anything to do with “chem-trails.” Look up-wind and you’ll likely find your pollution source.
3) All the supposed visible evidence people clam to have seen – such as Bif below – have ordinary, mundane meteorological causes, very well understood by science for a hundred years or so now.
And, VERY importantly;
4) Nobody has as yet identified what the supposed chemicals would be that “chem trails” are theoretically made of, and, vitally, what the purpose(s) of such chemicals would be. … That is, “motive.” “What could they possibly be doing?” – whoever “they” is…
Hope that helps.
But back to the story here: if we put science first and had rational rules that said economic activity has to be reasonably safe, especially when compared along side alternatives, we’d have begun the phase out of oil as a fuel some 30+ years ago or perhaps LONG before that!
your defense of cal’s tome and your participation in a chemtrails debate are suspicious
“It’s just NOT happening in reality.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wT3d9MbKSJs
the official explanation is that visible “chemtrails” are water vapor
these trails may or may not form, depending on the ambient temperature and humidity at the altitude the jet is flying
that said, the trails themselves have an environmental impact:
https://phys.org/news/2011-03-airplane-contrails-worse-co2-emissions.html
What’s next, martial law?
We’ve been living under a soft martial law for decades.
This is just disgusting, but not without precedent, the utter destruction on public/private, only folks from the Intercept have the cajones to bring this to light. We are worse than Stalinist Russia in some regards, because on the one hand the corporate media reported on these protests with no hint of an agenda and are complicit with the narrative supplied by these idiots. No wonder the fetishists on the right are so into the “deep state” bullshit Welcome to Trump world.
This reminds me of Northern Ireland when the British worked with private militias. Those militias ended up killing innocent people. When it was finally laid out in the open David Cameron claimed he was outraged.
I had the gas co remove my meter years ago. I’ve run thousands and thousands of gallons of waste veggie oil through Mercedes 5 cylinders throughout this country. It’s out there. I cant comment on this without mentioning the use of firewood at the camps and that wood burned petro to get hauled there. Almost completely.
This movement and it’s message, as far as Im concerned, ‘drive to this place, bring loads of….’ Drive more get followed? I mean really?
I’m part Sioux and I love you all so much for reporting on what’s happening with these pipelines because it’s the American people’s water and land and sometimes I think people just think is a Native American problem so they don’t care. If you love the land it belongs to you no matter where you’re from. Thank you for helping Mother Earth.
God Bless?
I think I am well informed on the history of our country and present day. I know that almost since the Constitution’s inception the people have fought against power and money. We still are. An informed public can fight back. We just have to do it together. I am so angry after reading this article I can hardly think of anything else. Even knowing how our govt works today and in the past, I still cannot believe the inhumanity, the greed, the incidents of ignoring our Constitution. We have a duty today to stop this attack on our constitution. It is our responsibility. Vote them all out, protest when you can, and fight for our rights, that we are so close to losing.
Your mistake is the intention of the constitution. It arose from citizen protests against the shenanigans of the rich and powerful ( before the constitution, the R&P were unable to contain and control citizen protests (Remember Shay”s Rebellion). The constitution presented to the states did not contain the bill of rights. The BoRs were force negotiated into the constitution by the representatives of the people in the legislatures of the states. This happened despite the lobbying efforts of the R&P to deny the people their BoRs, few members of the state legislatures would vote to ratify a constitution created by the R&P unless and until, such a document, guaranteed to those submitting to be governed by the R&P, their bill of rights (constitutional contract clauses that guarantee individual protection from R&P “shenanigan use” of gov, in ways that might allow the R&P to use government as a weapon of suppression (that’s why BoRs are amendments to the constitution). The R&P were forced [by the “to be governed”] to amend the constitutional document they wrote in Philadelphia. The argument about whether or not the rich and power should rule was not the issue, the issue was how to protect the people against the R&P. The constitution would never have been ratified unless the R&P would first agree to amend it because the “to be governed” refused to ratify a constitution that had no BoRs or one that failed to recognize states rights (the civil war quashed states rights) and the R&P are working overtime to quash the BoRs .
“Vote them all out,” you’re kidding, right?
That’s like herding kittens in a tsunami.
Thanks .
Here’s one of the more comprehensive “follow-the-money” stories on the various entities involved in financing DAPL – Energy Transfer Partners is just the lead operator, there are literally dozens of investment outfits involved, from Berkshire Hathaway to Wells Fargo, as well as other oil services majors like Phillips 66. While their names do not appear directly as being involved with spying on and disrupting anti-DAPL protests, it seems obvious they’d have lots of back channel communications with ETP as well as a lot of influence with politicians who OK’d and supported DAPL, both Democratic and Republican.
http://theprogressivewing.com/follow-the-money-the-sf-bay-area-money-behind-dapl/
This cannot be justified as “securing America’s energy supply”, either – these pipelines are intended to facilitate shipping oil and gas out of the country to whatever buyer will pay the most for it, with profits going into the pockets of multinational corporations and Wall Street billionaires. That was made possible by the Obama-Republican joint effort to lift restrictions on exporting U.S. oil & gas, passed in 2015. Trump is really just picking up where they left off (as his love-in with the Saudis should make clear).
Thank you for this link and info. It’s vital to follow the money and relationships.
Well as Russel Means said, “welcome to the reservation”.
I find it amazing that all of the people commenting here, no one mentions the history of AIM and the 1970’s conflicts on the sioux trbal reservations. Never mind the treatment of native amerucans since the founding of the united states.
The u.s. goverment among other things used mercenaries, the F.B.I, C.I.A., ARMORED PERSONEL CARRIERS AND TANKS, and promoted a conflict and armed two sides resulting in a civil war that killed hundreds of people INSIDE THE UNITED STATES. All using tactics developed in vietnam and other cold war conflicts.
This is not new. It is only new to the rest of america that stuck their heads in the sand while it happened to native americans for over 200 years.
I can feal the dead indian elders rolling their eyes at just how naive you all are about the united states of america and what it realy stands for.
I find it amazing that you didn’t mention similarities with the Pinkertons and other private agents/armies and how they murdered and crushed coal miners. Since you didn’t mention it it must mean you were completely unaware (going by your own rules). I can feel dead coal miners rolling their eyes at just how naive you are.
You also failed to mention (so must not know of) Canada’s long-term and continued abuse of First Nations people. I’m astounded at the level of your ignorance.
Yeah, I pretty much agree. The above article is incredibly important, a stellar example of investigative journalism at its finest. But it’s not — and need not be — a primer on Native Americans’ treatment at the hands of European colonists and ultimately then United States. (That’s a worthy topic, but a history not necessary to the piece at issue, certainly not for reasonably well-educated and enlightened people. Such readers can be assumed to have the context.)
Further, I, too, thought of the Pinkertons; the historical parallels are obvious. But the piece is hardly flawed for not being a comprehensive history of private policing assisting corporate greed and law enforcement in America.
I think the investigative work by these journalists is superb. The story will hopefully encourage further study. The AIM and the FBI infiltration is must reading and will enrich the readers understanding of the current context
Shut up white man.
Really sad what our Country is becoming and in fact is. The People have lost their rights and the Supreme Court has given those rights to the RICH Corporations! Our ENTIRE Political System has gone mad! Instead of two Political Parties working together By, Of and FOR The People they are each working against each other. It is no longer important which is Right or Wrong ONLY that ONE WINS at ANY Cost! The REAL LOSERS? America and the American People!
The chickens have come home to roost.
It’s back to the ages of private malitia armies doing the dirty work of anyone wealthy enough to buy their services.
All happening in the land of the free, the self proclaimed greatest nation on earth…….
Can the Intercept please delve deeper into the terminology and mindset against demonstrations over oil and pipelines, and referred to as “the battlefield”? This touches upon Doug Valentine’s book The CIA as Organized Crime, which asserts that the CIA Phoenix Program model is being used against the US population and this document bears this out, especially using law enforcement and DHS as spies and tools.
Thank you for this revealing article.
This looks like a privatized Counter Intelligence Program, or is it more like the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
Is this legal?
wow.
Now we have wealthy corporat interests hiring other like-corporations in the business of taking down democratic ways and means.
Taking everything into account i am reminded of any species of bird that do some really amazing nest building, a home to live. It must be the BIRD-BRAIN in us humans that has us building corporat nests to take care of ourselves…. we are birds, giant carnivorous birds, and we can fly.
also 1000 thank you’s for this most valuable and worthy report!
a real eye opener.
There is no reason under the sun why people should tolerate mercenaries within our society. NONE! We need to mount a national effort to rid ourselves of these cowards with guns. Everyone must get petitions going, nation-wide NOW! We have ‘police’/sheriffs for local protection and we have the “military’ for national protection–there’s absolutely no reason why mercenaries should exist in a free country where WE decide who will police us. There is no reason why any member of the public should pay any attention to any mercenary attempting to express authority over the populace. He should be shoved out of the way. He has no right whatsoever, to impede public expression of dissent. The mercenary has no authority over the people! Petition the state’s government to declare mercenaries illegal and unconstitutional. Do it now! Support The Intercept as one of the few voices the people still have, and NO ONE knows “mercenaries” better than Jeremy Scahill, one of The Intercept’s founders, who took on and defeated Blackwater, one of the original mercenary forces. Raise hell, people! It’s the only way we’ll ever achieve parity with the moneyed folks who are intent on destroying anything and everything that stands in the way of their polluting money-making at all cost efforts. This country belongs to all of us, not just to those who can afford illegal, private, armies.
agree
time for a NEW LAW.
Thank you, and please raise nine kinds of hell over this. We’re losing way too many of our liberties by keeping quiet while private armies who have absolutely no authority over us, herd us like cattle.
Thank you. Wellsaid.
In the musical “Hair” is the phrase:
Americans are white people who send black people to kill yellow people(Vietnam war) to defend the country they stole from the red people.
I see nothing has changed in the last 40 some years!
Deeply interested in seeing how these mercenaries responded to the veterans deployment. How the hell have we gotten to the point where we need to use drones and undercover agents on unarmed citizens?
This is supposed to be a new idea? Anyone remotely paying attention, except republican conservatives, could see the playbook they were using. All these prople wanted to do was keep big business off their kand and out of their water and once again, white businees men stole from them in a most heinous way. I am still amazed the security company did not massacre men women snd children and blame it one the people killed. ASHAMED TO BE AN AMERICAN. WHAT DID THE VETS WE CELEBRATE THIS WEEKEND DIE FOR, THIS? Certainly not.
The white man is the greediest animal to ever set foot on the American continents. From cutting the trees down, plowing the land up, polluting the air and waters and slaughtering the other animals everything the white man has done with or to the land has been favorable only to themselves and detrimental or destructive to all of the other living things on the land who had as much right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as did the white man.
I wish I could say this started under Trump; but it didn’t . And it didn’t start with Standing Rock. Occupy Wall Street was treated like ‘Enemy Combatants’ by Homeland Security under Obama as have other Protesters. If you Remember lines of seated Protesters being Blasted in the Face point blank with Military Grade ‘Pepper Spray’ – That Wasn’t an ‘Aberration’ but part of a Nationally Organized effort on the part of the Federal Government to ‘Break the Spirit’ of the Occupy Movement. Local Police were given access to NSA ‘Resources’ that Federal Law specifically Forbids being used against American Citizens to ‘wiretap’ their Communications and Track their Movements. And the FBI has a Long History of ‘Infiltrating’ Protest Organizations and even Religious Groups and has also used ‘Entrapment’ to ‘manufacture’ Illegal Activity that could lead to detention of protest leaders. The FBI has also MURDERED individuals in Organizations like the Black Panthers and others and ‘Framed’ other members of their group.
Yes — I was involved in my local Occupy actions, and the word all over was: “The first person to suggest violence is the feeb.”
Revealed: how the FBI coordinated the crackdown on Occupy
Mona, Doug Valentine’s Book on CIA organized crime and the usage of DHS as a conduit, is accurate against Occupy and that was under Obama. Imagine what would happen with Clinton in power? Her and Trump are connected at the hip and her methods are no better….so what kind of resistance is she offering? More disinformation and deception.
We’ve all been through infiltrations to one degree or another, although these seem to be worsening…anyone remember how the Haight was not only infiltrated but soaked with dope. Anyway Mona I noticed you mentioned McClatchy so I thought you might find this interesting. A few days back on the editorial opinions page, there was the following article which I’ll link.
Note the very first video on the right hand side bar: “Trump protesters pack big guns.” Now that is over a year old video from 2016. Why are they still running it ? I don’t think The Sacramento Bee or the subject interviewed is a ‘feeb’ – I might be wrong.
I think a lot of people are really really pissed off, and maybe it’s time to go the range. Hell, all I have is a water pistol.
Haven’t been here, been over the top busy.
Sacramento Bee
“This latest dust-up is why California can’t trust Trump on Immigration”
By, The Editorial Board
05/25/2017
http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article152751289.html
What’s this contractor really saying? Find the protestors and kill them. Not all but many are Native Americans. And we don’t like anybody non-white. So kill them.
Amidst months of horrifying disclosures of right-wing extremist empowerment across the globe, this, to me, is perhaps the most blood-curdling. I never imagined Americans would be treated like this, even native Americans who have long been singled out for special abuse by our governments. This clearly is the future of how any protesters opposing government-industry dictatorship will be treated. Sadly, it is only part of a very dark shadow moving over the Earth.
Third world here we come. If this happened under Obama, what can we expect with the orange slug?
Of course the government used military-style counterterrorism measures at Standing Rock. Anyone who does not go along with corporate, uh, I mean government desires, is at risk; and anyone who would dare publicly protest is a terrorist. Get it?
Scahill and Hedges have both made the claim that Blackwater is the militant wing of the alt-right, but what they miss is how virtually every gun club and militia in the United States are conservative-voting Christians, so they come across as making the bold claim that a militant group has a militant wing. Some water might be wet.
I think it was documentarian Robbie Martin who recently, somewhere suggested that Trump will likely pass some hollow jobs legislation, such as a nationwide infrastructure program, so that Trump’s mouth-breather fans can still feel validated for their truly horrible decisions in life. I could see this happening, only it won’t involve infrastructure. I bet Trump nationalizes the many assorted militias to be paid brown-shirts. The militarization of police forces is bound to implode eventually, but perhaps this would present a way for concerned but heavily armed citizens, their being conservative-voting Christians purely incidental, to be deputized so they can feel like they are contributing. They would proudly protect their communities from terrorism through assisting law enforcement with harassing, beating, raping, robbing and murdering anti-establishment dissidents, immigrants and refugees, journalists, and anybody else who looks at their bruised egos funny.
Seriously, we have the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association pushing for law enforcement officers around the country to refrain from enforcing gun-control laws. We have the FBI pushing Shared Responsibility Committees, which will invariably lead to lynch mobs.
I can so see this happening.
A good companion read from The Intercept in 2015: MANUFACTURING TERROR: An FBI Informant Seduced Eric McDavid Into a Bomb Plot. Then the Government Lied About It.
“generally followed the jihadist insurgency model while active, we can expect the individuals who fought for and supported it to follow a post-insurgency model after its collapse.”
No wonder the US is losing in the middle east.
Holy crap!
This is the complete (for what it’s worth) sentence from Jahner about outside “forces.”
“Strong Shia Islamic from iatola konkani (sic) also made several trips overseas. Strong female Shia following.”
Iatola konkani – is that supposed to be Ayatollah Khamenei? Otherwise, what the hell does that sentence even mean?
This is disturbing on so many levels, especially considering the fact that this was, to my recollection, a totally peaceful protest by the Water Protectors. These assholes were expecting war.
Great and excellent reporting.
This must be disseminated everywhere.
Thank you.
They weren’t “expecting war,” they were bringing it.
Of course you are correct. They went just a leetle (sic) bit overboard, don’t you agree?
Yeah, you’re right about some things, Mona, but absolutely clueless about others. (Yes, you posted the link, but obviously don’t understand/grasp its implications.
You have no idea what’s going on, but you like to think that you do.
42
Argh, its good to see the american dream pop. Burst, balloon & explode…or is the reality of the situation till an illusion to most citizens? Anyway you are fubar as a nation’
-Mona- Poindexter’s Dream
May 27 2017, 5:22 p.m.
An ignoramus spews:
This is happening across this country to everyday Americans too. Where’s the coverage?
This site is notorious for many dozens of fine pieces on law enforcement abuses — stated and federal. Search engines are your friend.
Reply
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/national-security/article152947909.html
You have no idea what the f you’re talking about, Mona. You’re wrong on this one.
WTF are you on about? I literally posted a link to THAT very story — and quoted from it — just below this.
your resourcefulness scares the deep state.
Marcy Wheeler tweeted a reply to Glenn about his link to that article telling him, “Glenn, that’s an inaccurate report based off a shit report.” But she has yet to elaborate, so I don’t know what the deal is.
Marcy has great credibility, but on the other hand, McClatchy isn’t known to report bullshit facts. If Marcy has an argument contra, she needs to set it forth.
I agree that she needs to set it forth, and I’m surprised that she didn’t at least give some clues as to what her objection is about, and then say “more later” or something like that. Maybe she’ll be posting in full about it soon.
And with NSA 4th Amendment violations no doubt involved: Secret court rebukes NSA for 5-year illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens
Thank you for this comment – the excerpts and the link…
There is no doubt, now. The Intercept IS THE magazine, “Of the People, By the People and For the People”.
The Fourth Estate, “In current use, the term is applied to the press” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Estate) ~ is protected in writing in Our Constitution. To the banksters: “The buck stops here, Bucko!”
This is great work and research – thank you very much. A totally disgusting series of actions. These aholes TigerSwan need to have their asses shut down. What a disgusting group of subhumans.
Phenomenal work, and I’ve only read the highlights.
What I find most striking when operations of this kinds are uncovered, whether this or, say, Wikileaks on “weeping angel” exploit CIA, is the massive government welfare program, the make-work, the number of fingers in the pie and snouts in the trough. We are awash with people who serve no useful social or economic function, completely cut off from the real economy and value creation. Truly pathetic.
More fake news as everyone should be aware on this site targeting of individuals using covert methods of war to harass, frame, murder, kidnap or institutional targeted individuals who have been coming forward for years as crazy is s nothing more than a conspiracy made up by crazy people, because we all know this could never happen here…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLKuPPe1IhY&t=11s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh1zvsTb9_U&t=5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvgZWDwWqEo&t=5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0U-Y9wKmHs&t=7s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg1-vao5Ta8&t=9s
Who is *funding* this? Production values on those “Totalitarian TV” YouTube videos seem way higher than The Intercept’s material. I dunno, maybe it’s all just copyvios, but I don’t think so. There’s something fishy here.
I’m funding it with money i don’t even have for over 10 years now giving information to fake sites like this and fake organizations like the ACLU which have been hiding this. In short i know the entire system, multiple car accidents (ALL FILMED) and i know and have the evidence as i tease of who’s doing it. About 3 years ago i worked for The Department of Health in Florida, you can look up the address 1105 E Kennedy Blvd. After years of exposing this and trying to bring to the public, in short, the intelligence agency from Tampa Police Department (one small group involved in cover-up of massive illegal spy grid) came into my job and framed me never taking evidence as i was put into their intelligent room … all filmed telling them they needed to cut out their illegal stalking program before someone dies on the highway. I was already previously in an accident that week, again all filmed for YEARS = HARD EVIDENCE. Anyway to much info for here, but coming… They retaliated for me exposing their own corruption and staged another car accident a few days later ALL given to insurance company as you can even call to verify. Bylaw you have to give a statement on accident. They literally went into the insurance companys system and tried to destroy my verbal claim of the accident and who was involved (multiple agencies). I learned they were doing this many years ago and prepared and knew this would happen. Just more proof tampering with evidence. So that’s why they went to my job in short knowing this was reported for YEARS with again HARD EVIDENCE YEARS BEFORE ANYONE KNEW AND APPARENTLY STILL GETTING STORY WRONG and FRAMED ME STATING I WAS CRAZY. Should sound familiar to you as there are those on here who work with this site doing the EXACT same thing which was done in my fase. I lost my job of 20 years and will clear my name and the others who have come foward for years only to be laughed at, especially on this site by the very same people telling us to come forward. In order to tell a factual insane story which slowly some are waking up to you have to know the issues and present the evidence in a manner in which the deceived public would believe and realize we have been waiting for years and tired of the other idiots, who are telling the truth, but sound like idiots because they have no clue whats going on. Some believe it’s UFO’s while highly religious people think they have been seeing fallen angels…SMH…We’ll I assure it’s your illegal secret totalitarian police state using a control grid for YEARS in secret and your in it. Unfortunately, most people are complete idiots to begin with. If you would like the phone number of my old job to verify what happened in front of many high level supervisors (witnesses) and the short story i just told you that’s no problem as i’ve been handing it to ALL FAKE JOURNALISTS and CIVIL RIGHTS GROUPS for YEARS and they could never make one simple phone call yet alone open their eyes to look at the hard evidence, not of smoke, but years of and inferno fire being covered up. In short that’s why i have to do it myself and the production has to be spot on, it’s only the beginning as i’m censored and harassed at every moment, but i don’t hide from these criminals. Their terrified the public will find out what you have been extorted to fund for years, and it’s not only illegal, but treason. Unfortunately look ate your country, it’ s falling apart from corruption at every level this is why the grid was built to extort and silence the truth. Again the accidents and police report paper shown in some of the videos is real and you as a nobody can verify if this is BS or not. Simple huh?? We’ll it’s been 10 years and the silence is deafening. Sorry so long i wrote this very fast as a response, but go watch the movie called Spotlight or read up on it. It’s real and in short it’s about a massive crime and cover-ups happening right before our very eyes for decades, hidden by all in any power especially journalists as the victims were handing proof for years of the rapes and corruption of the Catholic Church. What other things are right before our very eyes for YEARS only to be covered up and hidden, but all institutions of power who were supposed to protect the innocent were the very ones doing the hidious acts. ALL HIDDEN FOR DECADES until someone got off their lazy ass and did some real journalism. You will also see how they were smeard and called crazy for years… Happening again. That’s my site by the way and if you want the truth and facts which you can verify as a nobody then stay tuned and subscribe. We’re tired of fake journalists pretending to be fighting for justice while were being framed and one simple phone could have changed everything. Pathetic.
You sound sincere, but the way you tell this it is really hard to follow (don’t take that personally, I just gave the guy who wrote that Malta story for the Intercept a hard time also).
Since you have a site, then if you want to explain what happened to you here (as you did above) then you should
a) have the explanation on the site,
b) simply link to it from forums like this with some *brief* explanation highlighting what the *relevant* connection is
c) make sure that the detail on your site is really methodical, explains what you saw when, how you know what you know, and what that means without a whole lot of editorializing mixed in – only what you can do with some short, simple logic from what you’ve just told people.
I think it might be good for you to practice writing on Wikipedia — but NOT about what happened to you! There are some really unsympathetic admins on there who love toay too fast and ban people w they don’t want original stories from people, so don’t tell them yours. But you can read and watch how they do things, and *PRACTICE* writing about some topics you DON’T care about – any news, any science, any history in the world – to get a feel for how to put the facts together, cite the facts as you go along, have only the facts and tell it in a compelling way. There are a lot of political things all over the world which Wikipedia just needs someone to tot down neutrally, tell people what’s been said without making up their mind who is right, at least not off the bat. And yet, doing that is good practice for making a convincing argument. Don’t use your real name, don’t talk about personal/identifying info, stay incognito, in part to reduce the risk of random harassment based on knee-jerk reactions to things you might have said elsewhere online (I don’t claim it’ll stop hardcore spooks, but they better step smart if they’re messing with Wikipedia, because it’s full of people who tend to figure stuff out – I’m sure they get away with a lot more but officials have gotten stung more times than I can count). Also just in case things go wrong that way you can wait six months or so and start over from the beginning if you have to.
Anyway, what I need to make sense out of your comment is not stuff like “ALL FILMED” in caps – I need to know what you filmed, why that one specific thing is improper (without having to hear about everything else, just that!), and then, perhaps how it would fit in to some larger plan. But bear in mind – people are not much different than the professional prosecutors, in that we may *never* understand what actually happened. Like the prosecutors, we just want to focus on finding one thing that was a crime, that was concealing evidence, something, and then we don’t have to have a full accounting of where every penny Al Capone made came from, we just have to know he made money and didn’t pay taxes on it; or we don’t have to know Nixon ordered the break-in, only that he covered it up. The same sort of thing applies with any local “Red Squads”, COINTELPRO, or any other sort of harassment against the people. You can’t ruin somebody’s life without doing something wrong, and we only care about finding/seeing what they did wrong.
Great Reporting. I think it’s worth noting that the pipeline was originally slated to run north of Billings, but was moved in response to concerns expressed by the people of Billings. Perhaps the ‘religious component’ is a belief that we should not treat reservations worse than we treat our cities.
Did you mean, “Bismarck, ND”? And you are correct, The white establishment, NIMBYs (Not in my backyard), wouldn’t have it. From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bismarck,_North_Dakota), the racial profile:
“The racial makeup of the city was 92.4% White, 0.7% African American, 4.5% Native American, 0.6% Asian, 0.3% from other races, and 1.5% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.3% of the population.”
When you read “counterterrorism” you should be aware that they have copied narcissistic abuse tactics 100%.
When they call you a terrorist it is used as a pretext to justify terrorizing you. It’s a tactic called flip the scrip.
Here is a list of narcissistic abuse tactics for you to compare with the counterterrorism manuals on wikileaks. They do match!
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2cGtV9EugqmcjhFdVlpcEhtS2s
These are the tactics perfected by pedophiles! This is the “life rape” game that the psychopaths, malignant narcissists and pedophiles are playing on our society as a whole!
This is terrorism!
When they call you a “terrorist,” it’s because they can virtually lock you up, without notifying anybody, and without due process, forever.
This is interesting, the various government agency leaders who were coordinating with this outfit are now trying to give DAPL protesters long federal sentences:
https://shadowproof.com/2017/05/18/federal-government-trying-imprison-six-water-protectors/
See the “Intel Group Email Thread” document above.
Notably, the claimed justification for the presence of the “Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee in North Dakota?” From the Justice Department’s public web page, here are the crimes they are supposed to coordinate investigations of:
Funny, I don’t see anything there about monitoring and disrupting constitutionally protected assembly and protest for the redress of legitimate greivances.
I’m sure that’s just an observation, and not an attempt to delegitimize valid grievances. I bet swisscheese can help them cherry-pick some statements they’ve made which show they really are religious nuts with an agenda.
“…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. ”
First, if you are speaking of the USA, we are NOT a democracy. We are a Constitutional Republic.
JFK, Yale University, June 11, 1962: “For the greatest enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.”
Why is that important? Because as a Constitutional Republic no one who SERVES WITHIN our governments – state and federal – actually have any power. Instead they are ALLOWED to use the authority that was delegated to the branch or to a named Office within a branch for as long as they do the duties as described in the contract, take and KEEP the Oath to support and defend the US Constitution before the orders of superiors of any level, and before the duties of the position they occupy.
Those duties are found in writing within the US Constitution and in each state’s Constitution, hence why those who serve within our government have been making a huge deal over calling our nation a “democracy”. That way they give themselves the authority to do things, instead of following – as required in writing – the duties assigned. That way the PERSON serving is no longer serving, and has power. Under the US Constitution they are ALLOWED to use power of the position they occupy for as long as they follow the contract.
That is also why the push for a Con Con (Article 5 Convention). This is why the “dumbing down” of the people. If they do not even know what type of government they have, they are easily controlled and power usurped.
Okay, from what I understand, that was actually war committed against the American people as the people were doing a constitutionally PROTECTED action.
“What is a constitution? It is the form of government, delineated by the mighty hand of the people, in which certain first principles of fundamental laws are established.” Van Horne v. Dorrance, 2 Dall. 304.
“A constitution is designated as a supreme enactment, a fundamental act of legislation by the people of the state. A constitution is legislation direct from the people acting in their sovereign capacity, while a statute is legislation from their representatives, subject to limitations prescribed by the superior authority.” Ellingham v. Dye, 231 U. S. 250.
“The basic purpose of a written constitution has a two-fold aspect, first securing [not granting] to the people of certain unchangeable rights and remedies, and second, the curtailment of unrestricted governmental activity within certain defined spheres.” Du Pont v. Du Pont, 85 A 724.
“The constitution of a state is stable and permanent, not to be worked upon the temper of the times, not to rise and fall with the tide of events. Notwithstanding the competition of opposing interests, and the violence of contending parties, it remains firm and immoveable, as a mountain amidst the strife and storms, or a rock in the ocean amidst the raging of the waves.” Vanhorne v. Dorrance, supra.
Brookfield Construction Company V. Stewart 284 F Sup. 94: “An officer who acts in violation of the constitution ceases to represent the government.”
Before you say that the US Constitution means nothing, understand that the enemies of freedom have been working since the inception of our nation to destroy it. This is the closest they have come and they did it through owning/controlling all the corporate media, food, drugs, mis-education, propaganda, etc.
Bertrand Russell,1953: “… Diet, injections, and injunctions will combine, from a very early age, to produce the sort of character and the sort of beliefs that the authorities consider desirable, and any serious criticism of the powers that be will become psychologically impossible…” (“The Impact of Science on Society”, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1953)
Joseph Stalin, 1933: ”The United States should get rid of its militias”.
Why would he say that? Because it is us, “We the people of the united States” that are the Militia. Why is that important? Because when the US Constitution assigns a “power”, making it then a forbidden to be used by any other entity, person, group, agency, etc.
Each state’s Militia is made up of “We the People” protecting our own interests, homes, states, nation, and enforcing our governments, this stopping the creation of governmental professional law enforcement or using contractors for the Milita’s duties. The Militia has as its constitutionally assigned duties to:
— Enforce the US Constitution (supreme Law of this land) and each state’s Constitution (highest Law of the state),
— Enforce and keep the “Laws of the Union” (which are constitutional laws ONLY),
— Protect the country against all enemies both domestic and foreign, and
— “to suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions”.
Mao Tse-tung said in 1938, where he inadvertently endorsing the Second Amendment by these words: “Every Communist must grasp the truth, ‘Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
Richard Henry Lee, 1788: “Whereas, to preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them; nor does it follow from this, that all promiscuously must go into actual service on every occasion. The mind that aims at a select militia, must be influenced by a truly anti-republican principle; and when we see many men disposed to practice upon it, whenever they can prevail, no wonder true republicans are for carefully guarding against it.” (Initiator of the Declaration of Independence, and member of the first Senate, which passed the Bill of Rights)
George Washington: “It may be laid down, as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every citizen who enjoys the protection of a free government…, but even of his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency.” (“Sentiments on a Peace Establishment”, letter to Alexander Hamilton; “The Writings of George Washington”)
Sheriffs are elected so are under the people (supposed to be) not an armed force used by the government.
A lot of what is done today against the American people is NOT Law, but is “Color of Law”, pretend law.
Color of law. The appearance or semblance, without the substance, of legal right. Misuse of power, possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because wrongdoer is clothed with authority of state, is action taken under “color of law.” Black’s Law Dictionary, Fifth Edition, page 241.
Michael LeMieux: “The Constitution has very little to do with the American citizen. It was written to establish a Federal Government and to place the boundaries by which that government would operate. The constitution was never designed to provide or enumerate the rights of the citizens but to restrain the federal government from meddling in state and ultimately citizen affairs.”
AS long as it was/is a LAWFUL protest, it is a protected natural right that precedes the development of “government”.
18 U.S. Code § 242 – Deprivation of rights under color of law: Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.
(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 696; Pub. L. 90–284, title I, §?103(b), Apr. 11, 1968, 82 Stat. 75; Pub. L. 100–690, title VII, §?7019, Nov. 18, 1988, 102 Stat. 4396; Pub. L. 103–322, title VI, §?60006(b), title XXXII, §§?320103(b), 320201(b), title XXXIII, §?330016(1)(H), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 1970, 2109, 2113, 2147; Pub. L. 104–294, title VI, §§?604(b)(14)(B), 607(a), Oct. 11, 1996, 110 Stat. 3507, 3511.) https://www.justice.gov/crt/deprivation-rights-under-color-law
Summary: Section 242 of Title 18 makes it a crime for a person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.
For the purpose of Section 242, acts under “color of law” include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within the their lawful authority, but also acts done beyond the bounds of that official’s lawful authority, if the acts are done while the official is purporting to or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties. Persons acting under color of law within the meaning of this statute include police officers, prisons guards and other law enforcement officials, as well as judges, care providers in public health facilities, and others who are acting as public officials. It is not necessary that the crime be motivated by animus toward the race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin of the victim.
The offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term, or the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime, and the resulting injury, if any.
Dr. Edwin Vieira: “This has nothing to do with personalities or subjective ideas. It’s a matter of what the Constitution provides… The government of the United States has never violated anyone’s constitutional rights…
The government of the United States will never violate anyone constitutional rights, because it cannot violate anyone’s constitutional rights. The reason for that is: The government of the United States is that set of actions by public officials that are consistent with the Constitution. Outside of its constitutional powers, the government of the United States has no legitimacy. It has no authority; and, it really even has no existence. It is what lawyers call a legal fiction.
… the famous case Norton v. Shelby County… The Court said: “An unconstitutional act is not a law; it confers no rights; it imposes no duties. It is, in legal contemplation, as inoperative as though it had never been passed.” And that applies to any (and all) governmental action outside of the Constitution…”
What are the defining characteristics of a limited government? They are its disabilities; what it does not have legal authority to do. Look at the First Amendment… What does it do? It guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion. But how does it do that? I quote: “Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press” etcetera. “Congress shall make no law;” that’s a statement of an absence of power. That’s a statement of a disability. ” (End Dr. Vieira quote)
nice crapflood
Dear The Intercept,
Please remove hans gruber’s comment to which I am replying for violation of terms of service – your “Comments Policy” – and please consider banning the author thereof. Cal’s comment may have been long, but it was exactly on topic and, if its contents are accurate, are a very thoughtful and valuable response indeed. In contrast, gruber’s post was pure opinion and a personal attack, not addressing the ideas being discussed by either the article or Cal.
Thanks,
RTIII
“cal” and his analysis of a democracy vs a representational republic was pure crapflood
tl;dr
This kind of reporting is why I read the Intercept. Great work, guys.
The security/police state at work. To serve and protect the 1% from the 99% while allowing the 1% to attack the 99%. Fascism at its best.
Excellent disclosure. Thank you both the whistleblower and the Intercept. Looking forward to more in the future of Mercenaries in America and how the the definition of “domestic terrorist” evolves.
The big pay day for counterinsurgency firms like TigerSpawn will be when their infiltrators have fully trained the protestors in terrorist techniques and provided them with weapons of mass destruction. Then the demand for counterinsurgency services will go through the roof. Investors should be patient, however. The CIA did not create ISIS overnight – it merely appeared that way to people who hadn’t been paying attention. Similarly, it may appear that TigerSpawn’s services in North Dakota were over-the-top and not proportional to the magnitude of the actual protest. But they are methodically laying the groundwork for a future when counterinsurgency will be a major industry.
Nice job guys. One question:
This is happening across this country to everyday Americans too. Where’s the coverage? Or does it have to be political activism to a darling left-wing cause to get coverage?
That actually does seem to be the case. If so, what good is the Intercept?
gives us regular americans some reality check of the real development of the US police state dude.
I see your reality check daily when I look out my window, dude. Need a reality check, go tell a cop to his face what you think of the police state.
the cops will kill your enemies … but you will still have a big fat belly and a small penis
An ignoramus spews:
This site is notorious for many dozens of fine pieces on law enforcement abuses — stated and federal. Search engines are your friend.
People need a story. This coalesces all of the points really well.
You want to point to a story that needs covering, write to any of the TI staff; I am sure they will welcome your great suggestions.
What exactly is your beef? Media coverage? How does this translate into a critique of The Intercept? For your Information, not that a right-wing wacko needs information, The Intercept goes where no one else dares to go! And it doesn’t matter if the news is “left” or “right” in its orientation. It also operates on public donations and is servant to no “special interest”. Direct your sarcasm elsewhere,,you might even direct it to the right wing pukes who employ private armies to restrain the public’s right of dissent, or do you consider protecting the Constitution strictly a “left-wing cause”?
Jim Reese is the founder and chairman of TigerSwan. His name is getting dragged out by conservative and rightwing mouth pieces as a possible FBI Director. His name should be equated to the DAPL disaster and the foul things that happened there.
I got that part.
Thank you for linking his name to the position. It’s hard to keep up with everything the Republicans are doing/trying to do.
For the party in power, equating Mr Reese to No DAPL isn’t a negative.
(To wit, Greg Gianforte.)
“His name is getting dragged out by conservative and rightwing mouth pieces as a possible FBI Director.”
Thank you for answering the question that arose as I read the article as to why this leak at this time.
America the beautiful? I pledge allegiance? Land of the Free?
It was a beautiful lie and we became gullible.
You can’t blame Tiger Swan — at least, not by near universally accepted capitalist standards of “fiduciary duty”. Counterinsurgency is their job, and so if they don’t have an insurgency, it is their job to make one. Together with so many others in the spy-industrial complex, they need to lobby legislatures for draconian unconstitutional legislation, and intimidate away the best and brightest of the protesters, the people with peaceful ethics who care more about the environment than coming out on top. They need to start a process of selection much like what happened in Iraq, where ordinary troops give way to villains and villains give way to monsters. That is their duty to the money god, and the money god does not tolerate shirk or laxity.
But why? Why do the companies, people who honestly have no higher priority than to drill good wells and build good pipelines, go along with this fool idea? Why do they not send PR people, lawyers, talking heads instead? Phrases like “water protectors”, invented for tactical legal reasons, could be viciously taken apart in viral videos. Environmentalists, not always inaccurately, can sometimes be presented as careerists or racketeers. And of course the whole thing is a chance for them to try to hype up some kind of competitive technology and ostensibly progressive ethics. They could do SO much better for themselves that way than by letting their underlings go out farming insurgencies.
Why is this NOT an insurgency yet? Because there are no bombs going off, no mines in the access roads, no calls for protection money, no kidnappings, not so much as an occasional bullet flying past! Do they have any idea how lucky a thing it is for the U.S. to still have the kind of civil society that lets people have these disagreements going on for years and yet none of those things happen? That is what the companies risk when start escalating the force and risk involved with these issues. Democracy becomes disrespectable, and there is always somebody on hand waiting to peddle something else. Oh, they can defeat the environmentalists, that they can — but what good is that if what replaces those environmentalists are indeed true insurgents who don’t care if the pipeline explodes and pollutes the whole river if that’s what it takes to extort money out of the owners?
” not so much as an occasional bullet flying past! ”
… But there were!
OK, so they were rubber and not lead and they were fired by the so-called “authorities” and not the protesters. Still, there WERE bullets flying past and they could have killed; we should not forget this.
This is just excellent reporting by the intercept. i guess if we’re not willing to be soylent green, what good are we, right? terrorism is such a flexible word.
Capitalism is antithetical to democracy.
“Checks and balances” on power is a guiding principal in moderating abuse and unchecked power; and is central to a functioning democracy, our Constitution, and our system of government.
Capitalism and corporations operate in direct opposition to this concept, and seek to coopt or remove any check or constraint on their power.
Proponents of libertarianism pose as champions of ‘liberty’ and ‘freedom’ but are fail utterly to resolve this essential conflict between democracy and corporate power.
It’s an optical illusion, which you perpetrate on yourself.
Capitalism and corporations operate in direct opposition to this concept, and seek to coopt or remove any check or constraint on their power.”
The real issue isn’t that false color. Time to re-paint.
Capitalism – true capitalism – has no involvement with government when it acts as a non-partisan – with government simply providing security from invasion and regulating interstate commerce.
THE PROBLEM – is government involvement in the marketplace. Picking the winners and the losers – within the good old boy system – are perpetual winners of contracts in the multibillion military industrial system – like Lockheed and Northrup Gruman – producing billionaires whose very pockets grease the skids of the supportive parties and politicians.
Hardly a market free of government coercion.
Is it the fault of the self-serving businessman in the capitalist system or the corrupt government with the the swamp-dirty, revolving door of lobbyists retired from government?
If the government acted as a non-partisan, and if we got rid of corrupt lobbying in DC – we’d likely solve the problem. THAT by itself, acts as a constraint on the power of corporations. Separating these two – is the only way to solve the issue.
Your enemy, my friend, isn’t corporations of selfish actors, your enemy, my friend is a VERY corrupt Federal government system as it now exists.
you might want to temper your imaginary constructs of pure capitalism with some reading, some history.
Start with Adam Smith.
Hear, hear! I’ve seldom agreed with RMD, but she’s spot on in this sub-thread. After Adam Smith, they could also try some parts of F.A. Hayek conservatives and libertarians prefer to ignore.
No True Scotsman fallacy. “But….but…these things would never happen under TRUE or PURE capitalism.”
If only Democrat financiers such as Warren Buffett had invested their hedge funds in the pipeline, instead of The Burlington and Northern railroad that burns fossil fuels in order to transport fossil fuels, then this whole debacle would never have happened.
Your gratuitous remark about Democratic donor (financiers) Warren Buffett is a bit of a red herring here.
If more people accepted that trains were safer, which they are not, people should be more willing to accept pipelines, which they are not. Oil is becoming as unsafe as nuclear waste. Can[t move it without spilling it, destroying land, water, and air. It’s toxic. It destroys the environment. Past time to leave it in the ground.
Hope you’re under no illusion that your comment made any sense.
Hope you’re under no illusion that your stated name makes any sense. Go back to troll school.
…“an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component”.
That is an apt description of the modern US military.
Anyone notice the white Toyotas? Who else do we know of that uses white Toyotas? ?
Ooh! My neighbor across the street! I always knew that shady bastard was up to – oh wait, you meant ISIS. Still…my neighbor!
Thank you Alleen Brown, Will Parrish, and Alice Speri, for your coverage of this important story.
Freedom of speech, assembly, and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances… are not approved or sanctioned activities by the corporations or their publicly funded security apparatus.
Return to your homes!
Obey!
Untermensch are to await corporate-approved instructions.
WHERE’S THE BEEF? I am so sick of Intercept with big titles like you have smoking gun but what? What did they do wrong?
Using counterinsurgency tactics against the citizens of the US, is illegal, in the US. It is a military tactic to be deployed against enemy military forces, not civilians.
You have no idea when your own rights are being eroded, as long as it’s being done by the bad guy you like.
They don’t call it the global war on terror for nothing.
Well, in theory anyway. Whether it’s a conspiracy theory … is still a matter of debate.
Also, the is obviously a ‘for-profit’ counterinsurgency operation, at least at the Fed/State level. We already have ostensibly legal ‘for-profit’ prisons, justice systems and even healthcare plus, Trump is a business man . .. so use your best judgement.
private companies must use all the tools in the toolbox to insure world-class security for our energy infrastrcture
freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose, ht janis joplin
Independently of whether it’s legal or not, this looks very much like a step toward corporate tyranny.
The Patriot Act and the NDAA were implemented to take care of the illegality. We’ve been had.
For example:
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/did_dakota_access_pipeline_guard_carry_ar-15_peaceful_protests_20161031
As far as WHY this kind of behavior is wrong, see the U.S. Constitution:
Corporate fascist scum of the worst kind, that’s the working mentality of these contractors.
and those that support, belong to and allow infiltration to various policing agencies supposedly to protect people!
In addition to the comment below, they were unlicensed to “practice” security in the state.
I won’t be as harsh except to tell you that they might come for you next.
Very Interesting..Made me wonder where groups like ANTIFA , Oath Keepers and III%er’s were, why weren’t they involved..maybe their members wear different costumes depending on their perceived reward$$$… and if the other side has better and bigger guns..psssh..
Protestors need to raise capital to hire their own private security. Imagine Blackwater vs. TigerSwan, and, all the chaos they can cause within governmental agencies conferring with them. By the way, Lindak is only a pseudonym, I’m really Glen Greenwald.
What better reason do we need for protecting ourselves. There are secure software packages out there that will provide ample intrusion protection, these packages involve encryption. Tor, protonmail, VPN, Tails, just to mention a few more options, plus a twenty-two character password generator.
With net neutrality falling by the wayside, people have to find new internet platform levels for private communications, similar to Onion (dark web).
Nice a domestic counter terrorism security firm guaranteed to cultivate the problem they clam to avoid and create and exaggerate friction and conflict. The idiots on both sides will rule the day. In my community if idiot spies were put here to observe us for our opinions one of our idiots might do something rude and you might not get a local jury of twelve to convict our own idiot. This for both sides is a dangerous game for any but the coolest heads with good knowledge of the mites and bounds of the law. This is the exception not the rule, when fertile ground for idiots is created there will be plenty to go round.
Thank you for this great piece of journalism! It’s great to see the Intercept get back to this instead of just telling everyone not to be Islamophobic after every terrorist attack.
Let’s not forget that the climate is changing. We are in the midst of a massive disruption of ecology and a mass extinction of species.
These toy soldiers may think they are having their day, but in fact they and their families will soon feel the force of ecology all around them. And that is caused by burning oil.
Reality has a certain way of speaking last.
Treating people with honest and legitimate grievances as insurgents will only create actual insurgent organizations and structures; that will be the only rational response other than giving up. Also, there is probably more danger in ‘giving up’ in the long run since, 1) an authoritarian system wins in the short term and 2) the level of anger created by the grievance builds until it becomes explosive.
The tip of the spear… or perhaps the dagger poised over America’s democratic heart.
Dagger…more like a full-on Sword of Damocles hung on a thread of spider silk. If that.
Funny how protesters need permits or (well, often “and”) get swept and tossed into the police gulag, but TyrantSwat (as I’ll call these little tyrants who think they’re the world’s SWAT team) can just swoop in, do their “counter-protesterrorist” work, and get a stern talking-to at worst for not having a license.
Yes. Just to broaden that a bit, consider the issue of what to do with countless mercenaries, suddenly out of a job, if/when we might actually want to draw down the war-on-terror.
The Dakota Pipeline situation is perhaps an early look at a new revenue stream for these well connected entities that will continue regardless of the war-on-terror.
Of course, ultimately, the purpose of mercenaries “at home” is to enforce an ever more feudal society of many “serfs” and few “nobles”.