Respectfully submitted by Lawrence E. Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
If you are like me, you remember the violent response by the FBI, DHS and local police forces to the many “Occupy” movement protests last Fall. In those protests, the police used incredible force and firepower to break up peaceful protests and make a mockery of the First Amendment. The police responses always seemed to be coordinated from city to city and there were allegations that the FBI and other governmental agencies were aiding the local authorities in stamping down the First Amendment rights of the Occupy protestors. Now, a treasure trove of documents was released pursuant to a Freedom of Information request by a group called The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund. Those documents expose a level of governmental intrusion into the privacy of protestors and governmental and private bank partnerships designed to crack down on legal protestors.
“It was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, in a groundbreaking scoop that should once more shame major US media outlets (why are nonprofits now some of the only entities in America left breaking major civil liberties news?), filed this request. The document – reproduced here in an easily searchable format – shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens.” Guardian
When we have discussed how the banks and the wealthy have purchased politicians in order to obtain friendly tax treatment for their companies and themselves we may have lost sight of just how much these “too big to jail” banks are also in bed with the Government and various police agencies. When the Citizens United decision gave the corporations and wealthy carte blanche authority to pour huge sums of money into the election process, we may have missed other strings that some of those same corporations are pulling.
“The documents, released after long delay in the week between Christmas and New Year, show a nationwide meta-plot unfolding in city after city in an Orwellian world: six American universities are sites where campus police funneled information about students involved with OWS to the FBI, with the administrations’ knowledge (p51); banks sat down with FBI officials to pool information about OWS protesters harvested by private security; plans to crush Occupy events, planned for a month down the road, were made by the FBI – and offered to the representatives of the same organizations that the protests would target; and even threats of the assassination of OWS leaders by sniper fire – by whom? Where? – now remain redacted and undisclosed to those American citizens in danger, contrary to standard FBI practice to inform the person concerned when there is a threat against a political leader (p61).
As Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, put it, the documents show that from the start, the FBI – though it acknowledges Occupy movement as being, in fact, a peaceful organization – nonetheless designated OWS repeatedly as a “terrorist threat”..” Guardian
Does it surprise you that the portions of the documents where alleged threats of assassinations of OWS leaders were discussed were redacted and the leaders who were “targeted” are left in the dark as to who is targeting them? Will this hint of sniper threats actually act as a deterrent to free speech and peaceful assembly? Was that redaction and the alleged deterrent intentional on the part of the government?
When anyone opines about the huge amount of personal information that banks hold and control and the problems associated with that, I wonder if anyone ever imagined that this information could be used to curtail our First Amendment rights? It is no longer a tin foil hat conspiracy theory that the government is in bed with corporations. These documents prove that the government actually coordinated the police response to the peaceful protests with information from the corporations and their private security organizations.
Naomi Wolff, the author of the Guardian article linked above claims that is now clear that all of the militarizing of police forces was meant to stop all of us from finding out just how the Big Banks and corporations are breaking the law. “Why the huge push for counterterrorism “fusion centers”, the DHS militarizing of police departments, and so on? It was never really about “the terrorists”. It was not even about civil unrest. It was always about this moment, when vast crimes might be uncovered by citizens – it was always, that is to say, meant to be about you.”
They are coming to get you and “they” are a government/corporation partnership that is designed to protect their assets and prevent any citizen from blowing the whistle on their evil entanglement. After reading these damning documents, how can anyone be surprised that the wealthy are ready to hold the country’s economic health hostage to protect their tax breaks? The tax rate issue just may just be the tip of the iceberg. They are after much, much more than just a few percentage points in a tax rate. If the Occupy Movement can be considered double secret terrorists, none of us are safe. Do you feel safe?
Obama was bound to win. He can get away with stuff that Romney could only dream about. He’s taken all the hijinks of Bush and escalated them. It’s no surprise to me about the coordination efforts and the parties that were part of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgk3-t0dPUA
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgk3-t0dPUA&w=420&h=315%5D
Thanks Elaine. Very interesting. I have to put my tin foil hat back on! 🙂
Nick, I’m not ‘surly’ or rancorous….but you make Occupy sound like a handful of scruffy lost boys when it has a Global footprint and is a substantial movement. I get it that your immediate experience is limited, but really…
rafflaw,
Great article! Isn’t it interesting that some of the folks who claim to hate the government/government power don’t seem to mind when federal agencies go after protesters like those involved in OWS?
HSBC
Trading w/ The Enemies Act
Nearly 1Trillion dollars
10% off the bottom lie as a fine
No arrests
CLUE #3659.2
Wootsy, As stated in my comment @ 5:55p, “I can only speak on Madison, Wi.” I went on to say, I would like other first hand accounts from other sites. Why the surliness? Wootsy, Fartindog, do you have any experiences, I really want to know. I’m terribly sorry my account and experience doesn’t comport w/ your view, hopes or dreams. So..on what is your view based upon? What really astounded me is that in the numerous times I visited Occupy Madison I only met a handful of students. You need to realize UW is a very liberal campus. The fact that there were few students present[I spoke w/ none my last dozen or so visits] was really surprising to me. Finally, Wootsy I made no assertions other than Madison and the secondary source of The Daily Show report from Occupy NYC. Read the transcript.
Sounds smart to not post here if you can’t stand the heat.
I have to believe any intellectually honest person would have basically the same experience I did. That’s why I commented, I would like some other primary sources and see if there are any different experiences.~Nick Spinelli
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Are you saying that your experience of 1 encampment in the Madison area is a representative sample of the movement that is not just National but Global in scope? And that your personal experience would be the standard representation of an ‘intellectually honest’ statistical anchor?
….i’d like some scientific background on that source….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=hz-b8cJAEB0&feature=endscreen
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hz-b8cJAEB0&w=560&h=315%5D
Woosty,
Nick relies on the universal proof by anecdote method and shame on your surliness.
Woosty’s, your comment is right in line with Dredd, with regard to cycles. Once the people are “brought down to zero” (John Prine) they have no place to go but up. The 2%, who knows?
BTW, OT observation, today say EU economists that USA is goiing into a depression, ~Id
———————oh puleeze….they are a little late to that party…..I’m just wondering when the frightened 2% are going to realize the prson they have built for themselves……and what they think will happen when they have all the $$$$$? Do they really think it will be worth a dam thing when they have it all out of circulation???? I believe it was Margaret Atwood that so aptly said, ” Debt is real, money is the illusion…”….
[Plus, I really do resent the subsidy that we grant Walmart….]
Nick S says ” I would like some other primary sources and see if there are any different experiences”
We heard you the first time. What, not enough attention?
Fartindog 🙂
Well Well, a group of governmental and non-governmental entities working together in secret to deny basic Constitutional rights to Americans. Targeting individuals and hurting them without affording either due process or common human decency. Strange. Weird. Bizarre. Would one call it conspiracy, if one were not (of course) a “conspiracy theorist”? I dunno. Let me think on that…
It is such a peculiar phenomenon that I don’t know how to evaluate it. I mean, it’s neither fish nor fowl. Is it like a state court judge sitting in equity asking a prosecutor from another jurisdiction to issue a warrant that has no probable cause statement to accomplish an interstate goal of achieving a UFAP warrant that can be used in other states and then having a federal judge cooperate in an effort to make sure nothing untoward happens because after all there is no jurisdiction? Naw, that doesn’t seem right.
What we should do is find these OWS protestors who think they were beaten, grabbed up, hurt, violated, and deprived of their rights, and we should let them know that they weren’t, and that they have gotten it all wrong, and that if they keep thinking all those things happened, they’re in danger of losing touch with reality.
After all, we know better. We know, “THEY CAN’T DO THAT!” We know our rights.
SWM, I can certainly understand why your spouse doesn’t comment here. I remember him commenting a month or two back and being appalled @ the rancor. My first encounter w/ the Occupy Madison group was ~1 month after it started and then pretty regular after that. I wanted to get a primary source on this history, and it was not @ all impressive. I won’t question the motives, only relate the reality. I have to believe any intellectually honest person would have basically the same experience I did. That’s why I commented, I would like some other primary sources and see if there are any different experiences.
And to think Nazi Germany was blasted for this type of behavior.
idealist707 1, December 30, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Dredd,
…
Concentrate on surviving the cycle. What says that this is a cycle?
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It is the empire cycle.
A nation grows into an empire.
Then it dies.
Once came Babylon. There are still Iraqis tending their flocks and vineyards.
Afterwards, came Medo-Persia. There are still Iranians tending their flocks and vineyards.
Afterwards, came Greco-Macedonia. There are still Grecians tending their flocks and vineyards.
Afterwards, came Romans. There are still Italians tending their flocks and vineyards.
Afterwards, came the British. There are still English folk tending their flocks and vineyards.
Afterwards, came the USA. There hopefully will still be Americans tending their flocks and vineyards after it goes.
Dredd,
FDR was a traitor to his class, just as our Olof Palme was.
Olof was murdered by a bum or a police/military right wing action.
FDR died of a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Easy to achieve administer in the form of overdose of blood thinners, known then.
FDR help my mom and millions of others survive with his New Deal.
And we could war and borrow our way out ot the depression when WW2 started.
Concentrate on surviving the cycle. What says that this is a cycle?
And what says there is a better world waiting on the other side?
Let’s all get religion, then heaven waits. So said my dad.
Obama is nothing but a figurehead and a puppet.
New Palmes and FDRs don’t come often, who know the ropes and can pull them for our sake.
Keep on breathing. Yeah, do that. Maybe the Israelis will sling a nuke at WashDC.
Occupy Pigsty.
Hate to keep bringing up the past, but Russ Baker’s book is still keeping me entranced about the Bushes et al.
Remember Watergate. One of the cuban burglars had an uncashed check signed by a CIA advisor in the Nixon White House. Almost the smoking gun. Why it was a CIA advisor is not explained. I guess he was expendable and John Dean was not.
When he was in, his wife got antsy and threatened to reveal what he had told her and what she herself know as a CIA employee previously.
She was killed along with ca 68 others in a plane crash on the approach to Chicago, shortly after. Couldn’t they fix her some other way?
Hubby went on to say on his death bed to his son, that he was involved directly in the JFK murder and knew of others, but did not reveal what he knew.
Thread? They have been manipulating us at least since 1917, And even prior to that. But no facts on the latter.
idealist707 1, December 30, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Anybody believe that we have a chance against this oppression?
====================================================
This is the typical cycle.
In this situation we have to wait until the animal dies. That means surviving its ugly death, which won’t get any prettier.
Resist, but focus on coming out the other side rather than stopping it.