FBI spied on 'occupy' protests as possible 'terrorism' threat.
According to internal documents newly released by the FBI, the agency spearheaded a nationwide law enforcement effort to investigate and monitor the Occupy Wall Street movement. In certain documents, divisions of the FBI refer to the Occupy Wall Street protests as a "criminal activity" or even "domestic terrorism."
The internal papers were obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice fund via a Freedom of Information Act Request. The fund, a legal nonprofit that focuses on civil rights, says it believes the 112 pages of documents, available for public viewing on its website, are only "the tip of the iceberg."
"This production ... is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement," wrote Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the fund's executive director, in a press release Saturday.
According to the documents, the FBI coordinated extensively with private companies, including banks, that feared they could be affected by Occupy protests. Occupy, which took root in New York City's Zuccotti Park in September 2011 and spread to cities across the country, targeted corporations and other forces it believed to perpetuate social inequality. The FBI's investigation included the movement's manifestations in New York; Milwaukee; Indianapolis; Anchorage, Alaska; Jacksonville, Fla.; Richmond, Va.; and Memphis, Tenn., among others.
The documents are heavily redacted, a point that the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund considers to be evidence of the FBI's attempt to withhold relevant information. The fund is filing an appeal to obtain further details of the FBI's investigation, according to the release.
As early as August 19, 2011, the FBI in New York was meeting with the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the Occupy Wall Street protests that wouldn’t start for another month. By September, prior to the start of the OWS, the FBI was notifying businesses that they might be the focus of an OWS protest.
The FBI’s Indianapolis division released a “Potential Criminal Activity Alert” on September 15, 2011, even though they acknowledged that no specific protest date had been scheduled in Indiana. The documents show that the Indianapolis division of the FBI was coordinating with “All Indiana State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies,” as well as the “Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center,” the FBI “Directorate of Intelligence” and other national FBI coordinating mechanisms.
Documents show the spying abuses of the FBI’s “Campus Liaison Program” in which the FBI in Albany and the Syracuse Joint Terrorism Task Force disseminated information to “sixteen (16) different campus police officials,” and then “six (6) additional campus police officials.” Campus officials were in contact with the FBI for information on OWS. A representative of the State University of New York at Oswego contacted the FBI for information on the OWS protests and reported to the FBI on the SUNY-Oswego Occupy encampment made up of students and professors.
Documents released show coordination between the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and corporate America. They include a report by the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC), described by the federal government as “a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector,” discussing the OWS protests at the West Coast ports to “raise awareness concerning this type of criminal activity.” The DSAC report shows the nature of secret collaboration between American intelligence agencies and their corporate clients - the document contains a “handling notice” that the information is “meant for use primarily within the corporate security community. Such messages shall not be released in either written or oral form to the media, the general public or other personnel…” (The DSAC document was also obtained by the Northern California ACLU which has sought local FBI surveillance files.)
Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS) reported to the DSAC on the relationship between OWS and organized labor for the port actions. The NCIS describes itself as “an elite worldwide federal law enforcement organization” whose “mission is to investigate and defeat criminal, terrorist, and foreign intelligence threats to the United States Navy and Marine Corps ashore, afloat and in cyberspace.” The NCIS also assists with the transport of Guantanamo prisoners.
DSAC issued several tips to its corporate clients on “civil unrest” which it defines as ranging from “small, organized rallies to large-scale demonstrations and rioting.” It advised to dress conservatively, avoid political discussions and “avoid all large gatherings related to civil issues. Even seemingly peaceful rallies can spur violent activity or be met with resistance by security forces. Bystanders may be arrested or harmed by security forces using water cannons, tear gas or other measures to control crowds.”
The FBI in Anchorage reported from a Joint Terrorism Task Force meeting of November 3, 2011, about Occupy activities in Anchorage.
A port Facility Security Officer in Anchorage coordinated with the FBI to attend the meeting of protestors and gain intelligence on the planning of the port actions. He was advised to request the presence of an Anchorage Police Department official to also attend the event. The FBI Special Agent told the undercover private operative that he would notify the Joint Terrorism Task Force and that he would provide a point of contact at the Anchorage Police Department.
The Jacksonville, Florida FBI prepared a Domestic Terrorism briefing on the “spread of the Occupy Wall Street Movement” in October 2011. The intelligence meeting discussed Occupy venues identifying “Daytona, Gainesville and Ocala Resident Agency territories as portions …where some of the highest unemployment rates in Florida continue to exist.”
The Tampa, Florida FBI “Domestic Terrorism” liaison participated with the Tampa Police Department’s monthly intelligence meeting in which Occupy Lakeland, Occupy Polk County and Occupy St. Petersburg were discussed. They reported on an individual “leading the Occupy Tampa” and plans for travel to Gainesville for a protest planning meeting, as well as on Veterans for Peace plans to protest at MacDill Air Force Base.
The Federal Reserve in Richmond appears to have had personnel surveilling OWS planning. They were in contact with the FBI in Richmond to “pass on information regarding the movement known as occupy Wall Street.” There were repeated communications “to pass on updates of the events and decisions made during the small rallies and the following information received from the Capital Police Intelligence Unit through JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Force).”
The Virginia FBI was collecting intelligence on the OWS movement for dissemination to the Virginia Fusion Center and other Intelligence divisions.
The Milwaukee division of the FBI was coordinating with the Ashwaubenon Public Safety division in Green Bay Wisconsin regarding Occupy.
The Memphis FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force met to discuss “domestic terrorism” threats, including, “Aryan Nations, Occupy Wall Street, and Anonymous.”
The Birmingham, AL division of the FBI sent communications to HAZMAT teams regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The Jackson, Mississippi division of the FBI attended a meeting of the Bank Security Group in Biloxi, MS with multiple private banks and the Biloxi Police Department, in which they discussed an announced protest for “National Bad Bank Sit-In-Day” on December 7, 2011.
The Denver, CO FBI and its Bank Fraud Working Group met and were briefed on Occupy Wall Street in November 2011. Members of the Working Group include private financial institutions and local area law enforcement.
Jackson, MS Joint Terrorism Task Force issued a “Counterterrorism Preparedness” alert. This heavily redacted document includes the description, “To document…the Occupy Wall Street Movement.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/23/fbi-occupy-wall-street_n_2355883.htm
http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html
EPIC sues CIA for details of NYPD spying.
EPIC has filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency for details of the agency’s involvement in a New York Police Department surveillance program that targeted Muslims and persons of Arab descent.
In August 2011, the New York Police Commissioner acknowledged that the CIA participated in the domestic surveillance. Following an investigation by the CIA Inspector General, the CIA announced that there is "no evidence that any part of the agency's support to the NYPD constituted 'domestic spying.'" In early 2012 EPIC sought the public release of the report prepared by the CIA Inspector General. http://epic.org/foia/EPIC-v-CIA-Complaint.pdf
NYPD says number of homicides this year on pace to reach historic low.
With less than a week left in 2012, the murder rate in New York city is still on track to reach its lowest level in over half a century.
NYPD data shows that as of this last weekend, 414 people in New York City had fallen victim to homicide in 2012, an 18.5% drop from 2011, when a total of 515 people were murdered.
By the time the ball drops in Times Square on December 31st, New York City will likely see its lowest murder rate since the early 60s.
(The murder rate this year is so low, it could happen that more people in NYC died of suicide this year, than of murder. For even more perspective: In 1990, 2,245 people were murdered in New York City.)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/26/new-york-city-murder-rate-2012-nypd-homicides-historic-low_n_2366852.html
U.S. military 'spies' face trial for spying on protests.
An anti-war group can advance claims that two civilian U.S. Army employees spied on its members and secretly disrupted protests, the 9th Circuit ruled.
Five years ago, Port Militarization Resistance began protesting the use of sea ports in western Washington state for shipments of military supplies to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The group says that their peaceful protests faced opposition from John Towery and Thomas Rudd, civilian employees of the Force Protection Division of the U.S. Army I Corps in Ft. Lewis.
Towery, under Rudd's supervision, allegedly befriended members of the group, and "influenced and directed the tactics that were employed by the Tacoma police department and other agencies to disrupt protests without cause or justification," according to a third amended complaint filed in the Western District of Washington.
Towery "engaged in lengthy discussions with activists, persuading activists to attend events and engage in tactics that they had not previously intended, and in conjunction with other agencies and individuals targeting activists for harassment and arrest in Olympia, Aberdeen and in between the two places," the group claims.
"This included covertly breaking the security of and joining a confidential privileged attorney-client listserve for the defense team of a related criminal cases date from June 2006," the complaint states.
U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton dismissed nearly all of the group's claims, but allowed First and Fourth Amendment allegations against Towery and Rudd to go ahead, despite their motion for qualified immunity.
Towery and Rudd appealed this issue, but a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit sided with the activists Monday.
"It is clearly established that intentionally enabling arrests without probable cause in order to suppress speech violates the First Amendment," the unsigned and unpublished opinion from Seattle states.
Port Militarization Resistance's complaint "gives examples of specific times and places that Towery spied on plaintiffs' meetings," the panel added.
The complaint also "alleges that defendants met with specifically identified law-enforcement officers and agencies, and identifies specific time frames when these meetings occurred."
"These factual allegations are sufficient to 'give fair notice and to enable the opposing party to defend itself effectively,'" the judges wrote.
"Plaintiffs have pled a plausible violation of their clearly established First Amendment rights," the ruling states. "Plaintiffs have alleged that defendants 'deterred or chilled the plaintiff's political speech' and that such deterrence motivated defendants' conduct."
http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/12/21/ansbrief.pdf
Occupy activists sue Los Angeles officials over police abuse. Occupy activists in the US state of California have sued Los Angeles officials over police brutality during anti-corporate protests last year.
The activists filed a class-action lawsuit on Thursday against the officials, including the city’s Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Los Angeles Police Department Chief, Charlie Beck, on the grounds of the police’s harsh treatment of the protesters who had camped out near the City Hall last November.
"The city began execution of their campaign of shock and awe. . . attacking from all sides with one group of officers bursting out of the doors of City Hall and knocking down anyone in their path," reads the lawsuit.
Over 1,000 officers violently forced away 300 activists from the City Hall grounds after the group staged an eight-week camp-out in support of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement against economic inequality.
In the raid, 292 activists were detained. Five of those detained are representing the activists in the complaint.
In the lawsuit, the activists said that they were also denied food and water or access to restroom facilities for hours while detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center.
The OWS movement emerged after a group of demonstrators gathered in New York's financial district on September 17, 2011 to protest, among other things, against the excessive influence of big corporations on US policies, as well as the unjust distribution of wealth and the high-level corruption in the country.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/12/24/279833/occupy-activists-sue-la-officials/
DOJ to use prosecutorial powers in state-sponsored cyberespionage.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) plans to throw its prosecutorial weight behind efforts to stem the growing number of foreign government-sponsored cyberattacks against U.S. companies and government agencies.
National Security Division of Department of Justice is creating a new position called the National Security Cybersecurity Specialist.
The DOJ's effort marks a shift in combating the national security threat. In the past, the Department of Homeland Security, the Defense Department and the National Security Agency led investigations of state-sponsored cyberespionage.
Now, the DOJ will step up the part it plays by prosecuting government officials and hackers with the Federal Bureau of Investigation providing the police work.
"There is, I guess, a tactical shift when we're dealing with cyber-threats and national security to examine whether criminal investigations and prosecutions are a viable option in some of these cases," DOJ spokesman Dean Boyd said on Wednesday. "And I think we're pursuing that very vigorously with the FBI."
While acknowledging that arresting perpetrators in some countries would be difficult, the DOJ has been successful in extraditing suspects in other cases, such as terrorism, cyber-hacking that wasn't state sponsored, and the illegal exportation of weapons and technology from the U.S., Boyd said. For example, a suspect in a country without an extradition treaty with the U.S. is sometimes arrested when visiting another country.
"We do believe that does hold some deterrent value," Boyd said of the prosecutorial plans. "I don't believe we're saying this is the silver bullet, but our whole philosophy is about bringing all tools to the table and we believe this is one potential tool in the government's toolbox to deal with cyberthreats and national security."
As part of the latest effort, the DOJ's National Security Division is creating within U.S. Attorney offices across the nation a new position called the National Security Cybersecurity Specialist. The prosecutor will be specially trained to work with companies that are believed to be victims of state-sponsored cyberattacks.
https://www.networkworld.com/news/2012/122012-doj-to-use-prosecutorial-powers-265270.html