Leaked 'Standing Rock' Documents Reveal Invasive Counterterrorism Measures (theintercept.com)

An anonymous reader writes: "A shadowy international mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures," reports The Intercept, decrying "the fusion of public and private intelligence operations." Saying the private firm started as a war-on-terror contractor for the U.S. military and State Department, the site details "sweeping and invasive" surveillance of protesters, citing over 100 documents leaked by one of the firm's contractors.

The documents show TigerSwan even havested information about the protesters from social media, and "provide extensive evidence of aerial surveillance and radio eavesdropping, as well as infiltration of camps and activist circles... 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... 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."
The Intercept reports that recently "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." They also report that TigerSwan "has operated without a license in North Dakota for the entirety of the pipeline security operation."

Comments

Priorities

[Pikoro]

And this is legal how? Yet, don't copy that floppy or you'll get 10 years in a FPMITA prison.

Re: Priorities

[quonset]

Many of the protesters, like my roommate, were paid

Of course they were. And Santa Claus helped as well since it's his off season.

This is like listening to RT or the lies coming out of Putin's mouth. Any time anyone disagrees with the government confiscating people's lands they're suddenly "subversive" or an "NGO" whose sole job is to take down the government.

The amount of disinformation is staggering and the worst part is the uneducated deplorables who voted for the con artist believe it.

Re: Priorities

[PopeRatzo]

They trespassed repeatedly, blocked public roads - plenty of illegal things.

It's all their land.

Re: Priorities

[dbIII]

gigantic mountain of trash ... trespassed

Ah - then unconstitutional search and seizure is fully justified in protecting the motherland komrade - carry on.

Re: Priorities

[Anonymous Coward]

No, actually, the ACLU has fought for the KKK to get parade permits.

The ACLU should fight for American Civil Liberties. It is in the name. Their work is even more precious now than ever. Civil liberties does not mean just protecting causes you like.

Where Trump and his ilk can never ever be forgiven is not a freedom of speech or protest issue. He has the freedom of speech. His supporters have the right to protest and all the rest. We dare not take either away.

What can not and must not ever be forgiven is the attack on truth and the press and all rational voices of reason. To Trump nothing matters but winning. How doesn't matter. The subject matter doesn't matter. Do you think he cares about health care, that it is the cause of his life? Please, he doesn't appear to care at all beyond using it as a piggy bank to finance tax cuts that likely benefit himself disproportionately.

He manipulated the media to keep their eyes on him. He treated his much more qualified opponents like children by calling them childish names, and wouldn't you know it, I think almost every attack he made was something he himself was guilty of. Lying Ted. Crooked Hillary. He frequently and repeatedly accused experts of being complete and total morons, while saying only he knew the secret plan, and people bought it and still buy it. Hell a guy just body slammed a reporter and many of Trump's supporters think that is just and right.

Many seek the Road Map to Peace for the Israel Palestine conflict, but make no mistake people, with Trump we have our own Journey and I rather fear it will be more like a Nature Trail to Hell. Trump's bravado has already failed on North Korea, and if anything actually accelerated their efforts. That alone is an almost unsolvable problem. Bravado won't fix it. Our invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan probably precipitated their faster development. A military solution might be required. The key is to somehow make China comfortable with a reunited Korea and then maybe announce a plan to take back the land over a period of 30 years or something and I have no idea how to do that. If you could manage that, then If every move was careful, and you didn't threaten North Korea's current leaders you might survive a game of brinkmanship, maybe, but I sure as hell would not want a President Trump involved in such a mess. I'd rather have any of the other republicans first, well except Cruz. Clinton would also have worked.

Seriously, problems on the scale of North Korea are what our president _Must_ handle, and this guy just isn't qualified or capable. Twitter seems the extent of his talent. You can't just make a deal with North Korea since they are not trustworthly, or at the very least any deal must be heavy on the verify.

Hell, even if the US could make a deal with North Korea or any part of the world, it is nearly impossible now that we have Don the Con as president. Seriously, unless it is backed up with legislation from the Congress, who is going to trust us? One of the main German newspapers is calling for his impeachment and the new leader of the free world Angela Merkel has just said he can't be trusted.

The _only_ chance he has to salvage his presidency is to somehow have some epiphany, then turn over his taxes and all the rest and start cooperating with the investigations fully. If he did that and just stopped lying, the American people would probably forgive him and reelect him. We are stupid like that.

Re: Priorities

[ooloorie]

Ah - then unconstitutional search and seizure is fully justified in protecting the motherland komrade - carry on.

TFA is about a private company. Private companies cannot engage in "unconstitutional search and seizure" because they can't engage in "search and seizure" at all; that's a right reserved to the government.

Private companies do have a constitutional right to "harvest information about the protesters from social media", engage in "aerial surveillance and radio eavesdropping", and "infiltrate camps and activist circles" (as long as they don't violate private property rights or break into computer systems illegally).

Those are rights that we have because we live in a free society. People like you have not yet succeeded turning the US into a totalitarian state, much as you may want to, "komrade".

Re: Priorities

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh gosh, to mean the left is so terrible as to require open and public documentation of who is seeking to influence the government?

And then they expect to have the right to comment, criticize, and reject other people whose actions they find objectionable? My word, the horror.

Why, it is just like the boycott of South Africa over apartheid. Truly, the left is an abomination.

Of course, the fact that the hypocritical right calls for the firing or arrest of people who disagree with their views, tends to spoil your moral indignation. I've even heard a lot of Trump supporters say that people who oppose him should be deported.

Yammer all you want, you are just a phony.

Re: Priorities

[Anonymous Coward]

>> Did the protestors engage in anything illegal?
>
> Yes.

So did Rosa Parks.

Fuckwit.

Re:Priorities

[Anonymous Coward]

It's legal because TigerSwan was not operating on behalf of the government. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights restrict the actions of the government and of private companies and individuals acting on behalf of the government.

Absolutely false: nothing in the Bill of Rights prevents the application of fundamental rights against private entities. Claims to the contrary are pure myth. Certain specific items, such as the 1st Amendment, are limited to specific government entities - though even in these cases the 14th Amendment muddies the waters.

The open-ended items such as the 9th Amendment (unspecified rights retained by the people) and the the 10th Amendment (the part about unspecified rights reserved to the people) are not at all limited to government. One of the most important rights arising here is the right to ethical practice of law, which certainly limits private entities - and nothing prevents the assertion of other rights, such as the right to ethics in business, or the right to privacy with respect to business activities as well as government.

The Founding Fathers were well aware of the danger posed by private entities to liberty: it was a very important part of the Roman history they studied, and also part of their own lives in the form of companies such as the East India Company.

Activists as jihadists

[manu0601]

Considering activists as jihadists is the first step. Then you consider jihadists have been considered illegal fighters (a term invented to spare international laws on war), and you can send an activist straight to Guantanamo. Brilliant.

Words fail

[Anonymous Coward]

They are comparing murderers who kill in the name of God to peaceful people who want to save their history, and more importantly, their watershed. What a bunch of follow-the-money bullshit.

Re:Link for standing rock pollution

[h33t l4x0r]

They left their tents and gear behind (and yes some trash) because they were arrested. That doesn't make them bad hippies.

Re:Not Counterterrorism, Counter-Espionage...

[Darinbob]

The pipeline people were paid by the corporations anyway. None of the oil goes to America anyway, it's being refined and sent to China. Whining about paid protesters while ignoring the paid mercenaries hired by corporations seems like a stretch.

If you want an end to this

[rsilvergun]

Take care of the poor. Outside of the occasional loon organized terror only works because we've got millions (billions?) that lack food security. Said it before, will probably say it again: you abandon your poor at your peril.

Who do you think he is - the EPA?

[SuperKendall]

Not to mention the sixty million gallons of contaminated water you dumped into the river.

Sorry but these days the only people contaminating the water that badly are with the EPA.

But you'll be happy to know none of them will ever be punished because hey, government employees so no consequences for even the most horrific failures!