How the FBI Monitored Crusty Punks, ‘Anarchist Hangouts,’ and an Organic Farmers’ Market Under the Guise of Combating Terrorism

[ungovernable]

Read whole article here:
http://gawker.com/5892639/how-the-fbi-monitored-crusty-punks-anarchist-hangouts-and-an-organic-farmers-market-under-the-guise-of-combating-terrorism

How the FBI Monitored Crusty Punks, ‘Anarchist Hangouts,’ and an Organic Farmers’ Market Under the Guise of Combating Terrorism

The FBI conducted a three-year investigation, dubbed "Seizing Thunder," into a animal-rights and environmental "terrorists" in the Pacific Northwest that devolved into widespread—and seemingly pointless—surveillance of activists for no apparent reason aside from the fact that they were anarchists, or protested the war in Iraq, or were "militant feminists." Here's the file.

I first came across the name "Seizing Thunder" several years ago while rifling through the FBI's investigative files on the Animal Liberation Front. The ALF records obliquely referenced the evocatively named investigation, which I requested via the Freedom of Information Act just for kicks. Last month—after three years—the FBI returned nearly 500 pages (it held back 784).

It turns out that Seizing Thunder, which was based out of the bureau's Portland field office, was one of several investigations into animal rights and environmental activists nationwide that the FBI eventually merged into Operation Backfire, a wide-ranging probe of ALF and the Earth Liberation Front. Backfire concluded in 2006 with the indictments of 11 activists for arson and other "acts of domestic terrorism," including a notorious 1998 destruction of a $12 million ski lodge in Vail, Colo. The Portland portion seemed to focus primarily on gathering general intelligence on activists who used tree-sitting and other monkey-wrench tactics to fight old-growth logging in the Pacific Northwest.
How the FBI Monitored Crusty Punks, 'Anarchist Hangouts,' and an Organic Farmers' Market Under the Guise of Combating TerrorismClick to expand

What makes Seizing Thunder interesting, however, is how easily the agents slipped beyond investigating actual federal crimes and devoted considerable resources to tracking political activists with no apparent criminal intent.

Seizing Thunder was opened in 2002 to target members of the "Animal Liberation front (ALF), Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and an anarchist group called the Red Cloud Thunder, all whose members are inter-related and they openly claimed several major arsons," according to the files. The investigation involved physical and video surveillance, warrants for phone taps, and cooperation with local police departments in Portland and Eugene, Ore. But the feds quickly dropped the pretense of tracking organized groups and quickly began surveilling people simply for identifying themselves—or for being identified by informants—as anarchists. The memos read like artifacts from the Red Scare:

Rest of article here:
http://gawker.com/5892639/how-the-fbi-monitored-crusty-punks-anarchist-hangouts-and-an-organic-farmers-market-under-the-guise-of-combating-terrorism

[Utopian]

damn you just need to hate USA,also why isnt FBI arresting some nazis instead of people who are fighting the bad guys all the time.

Ok my question is this.

Are anarchist really an greater threat than nazis?

[xhdrx]

damn you just need to hate USA,also why isnt FBI arresting some nazis instead of people who are fighting the bad guys all the time.

Ok my question is this.

Are anarchist really an greater threat than nazis?

for goodness' sake, everyone knows that militant feminist organic farming anarchists are a bigger threat to the security of the US than morally corrupt bankers and politicians!

and another thing, my friend and his girlfriend who lives in Portland (they weren't crust punks though, he was involved in the original OC scene in the 80's) said it's a pretty common thing in Portland. When they're not wasting taxpayer dollars to watch people sell veggies, they're giving people ideas & bomb making materials to entrap them. Portland refused to join the "Joint Terrorism Task Force" which would've given the FBI carte blanche over our law enforcement, so they created the "Christmas Tree Bomber" as a scare tactic to force the issue, and Portland finally joined after intense public pressure (most of which came from out of state, and not the residents of the city). There is a reason both Bush administrations refer to our part of the world as "Little Beirut" - for the most part, the US government is not welcome here beyond a clerical or administrative role.

[@narcho-Skinhooligan]

Read whole article here:
http://gawker.com/5892639/how-the-fbi-monitored-crusty-punks-anarchist-hangouts-and-an-organic-farmers-market-under-the-guise-of-combating-terrorism

How the FBI Monitored Crusty Punks, ‘Anarchist Hangouts,’ and an Organic Farmers’ Market Under the Guise of Combating Terrorism

The FBI conducted a three-year investigation, dubbed "Seizing Thunder," into a animal-rights and environmental "terrorists" in the Pacific Northwest that devolved into widespread—and seemingly pointless—surveillance of activists for no apparent reason aside from the fact that they were anarchists, or protested the war in Iraq, or were "militant feminists." Here's the file.

I first came across the name "Seizing Thunder" several years ago while rifling through the FBI's investigative files on the Animal Liberation Front. The ALF records obliquely referenced the evocatively named investigation, which I requested via the Freedom of Information Act just for kicks. Last month—after three years—the FBI returned nearly 500 pages (it held back 784).

It turns out that Seizing Thunder, which was based out of the bureau's Portland field office, was one of several investigations into animal rights and environmental activists nationwide that the FBI eventually merged into Operation Backfire, a wide-ranging probe of ALF and the Earth Liberation Front. Backfire concluded in 2006 with the indictments of 11 activists for arson and other "acts of domestic terrorism," including a notorious 1998 destruction of a $12 million ski lodge in Vail, Colo. The Portland portion seemed to focus primarily on gathering general intelligence on activists who used tree-sitting and other monkey-wrench tactics to fight old-growth logging in the Pacific Northwest.
How the FBI Monitored Crusty Punks, 'Anarchist Hangouts,' and an Organic Farmers' Market Under the Guise of Combating TerrorismClick to expand

What makes Seizing Thunder interesting, however, is how easily the agents slipped beyond investigating actual federal crimes and devoted considerable resources to tracking political activists with no apparent criminal intent.

Seizing Thunder was opened in 2002 to target members of the "Animal Liberation front (ALF), Earth Liberation Front (ELF) and an anarchist group called the Red Cloud Thunder, all whose members are inter-related and they openly claimed several major arsons," according to the files. The investigation involved physical and video surveillance, warrants for phone taps, and cooperation with local police departments in Portland and Eugene, Ore. But the feds quickly dropped the pretense of tracking organized groups and quickly began surveilling people simply for identifying themselves—or for being identified by informants—as anarchists. The memos read like artifacts from the Red Scare:

Rest of article here:
http://gawker.com/5892639/how-the-fbi-monitored-crusty-punks-anarchist-hangouts-and-an-organic-farmers-market-under-the-guise-of-combating-terrorism

None of this is weird to me at all, just business as usual for the g-men...

[anarchoskin69]

This past weekend while i was in St Louis city at an anarchist collective called Family Visions Center, 3 to 5 anarchists were taken in for questioning by the FBI. The FBI was asking all of them if any of them went to the NATO Summit in Chicago, which my face was plastered all over the news and internet from. Yeah, everyone's a mole was the consensus that paranoid as fuck night. Anyways, the only things you should say is, "Am I being charged with anything", "Can I leave now?" or "I want to talk to my lawyer."

[Utopian]

just another noob question is FBI an global thing?So it can reach into europe as well (if it hadn't already)

[anarchoskin69]

just another noob question is FBI an global thing?So it can reach into europe as well (if it hadn't already)

Well, as you may know, the terrorist state of the USA is everywhere, but usually the FBI handles internal shit, as in shit that's inside the U.S. while the C.I.A. is usually used for foreign operations. Hope that clears everything up, somewhat. That's not set in stone, though, as the government can do as they please. So That means either agency could be operating at home or abroad, but according to public knowledge FBI is more at home and CIA is more concerned with foreign affairs.

[JesusCrust]

Apparently the CIA has been involved in the surveillance and repressing of Occupy, but that's just a rumor.

[anarchoskin69]

Apparently the CIA has been involved in the surveillance and repressing of Occupy, but that's just a rumor.

I wouldn't be much weight behind that rumor, since the informant that set up the Cleveland Five was an FBI Informant, and that was Occupy. Also the NATO 3 was infiltrated by an FBI informant as well. Like I said, typically FBI handles anything inside the U.S. and the CIA handles anything outside, international. If you remember all the earliest operations in Iraq and Afghanistan the CIA was heavily involved. Anyways, I saw an article about a man being detained by FBI in Costa Rica before boarding a flight to return to the U.S., so this isn't always tried and true. However, from my personal experience, media and recollections from other members of the Left, typically the FBI works within the U.S. and the CIA outside of the U.S.

[@narcho-Skinhooligan]

Apparently the CIA has been involved in the surveillance and repressing of Occupy, but that's just a rumor.

I wouldn't be much weight behind that rumor, since the informant that set up the Cleveland Five was an FBI Informant, and that was Occupy. Also the NATO 3 was infiltrated by an FBI informant as well. Like I said, typically FBI handles anything inside the U.S. and the CIA handles anything outside, international. If you remember all the earliest operations in Iraq and Afghanistan the CIA was heavily involved. Anyways, I saw an article about a man being detained by FBI in Costa Rica before boarding a flight to return to the U.S., so this isn't always tried and true. However, from my personal experience, media and recollections from other members of the Left, typically the FBI works within the U.S. and the CIA outside of the U.S.

But also remember that the CIA(as well as other shady ass cloak & dagger outfits) can & probably DO pose as G-men.
I mean why the hell not??!!
Seems like the perfect cover, don't ya think?
But in my opinion the Feds are just as shady when one considers their history, warts & all.

[JesusCrust]

Newly Released FBI “Domestic Terrorism” Training on Anarchists, Environmentalists, Show COINTELPRO Tactics

http://truth-out.org/news/item/9618-new ... m-training
http://truth-out.org/news/item/9618-new ... m-training
http://truth-out.org/news/item/9618-new ... m-training

Newly released FBI presentations show the flawed and misleading information the government is using to train agents to identify and investigate “domestic terrorist” groups such as “black separatists,” anarchists, animal rights activists, and environmentalists.
Among the more troubling portions of the training materials are warnings of activists using the Freedom of Information Act, engaging in non-violent civil disobedience, and gathering in coffee shops.
The domestic terrorism training materials were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by the ACLU. They offer additional insight into a disturbing pattern of FBI activity misrepresenting political activists as “terrorists” and manufacturing “domestic terrorism threats” where none exist, akin to the notorious COINTELPRO program of J. Edgar Hoover.
Anarchists Are “Criminals Seeking an Ideology”
In presentations on “Anarchist Extremism,” the FBI warns:
– Anarchists are “Criminals seeking an ideology to justify their activities”
– Anarchists are “Not dedicated to a particular cause”
– Green anarchists believe “individuals should ‘get back to nature’”
Their meeting locations include “college campuses, underground clubs, coffee houses/ internet cafes.” Their criminal activity includes “Sleeping Dragons” (a form of civil disobedience in which people lock arms in PVC pipes).
Anarchists are also “paranoid / security conscious,” according to the presentation. This is an interesting observation coming from the FBI, considering there have been two recent cases where the FBI played a key role in infiltrating anarchist groups in order to orchestrate alleged terrorist attacks. In the Cleveland May Day arrests, and in the Chicago NATO arrests, the FBI trumpeted the arrest of “terrorists” that agents themselves tried desperately to create.
However, not all anarchists are engaged in these types of plots, the FBI acknowledges. They use a “variety of tactics” including “civil disobedience” (such as resisting home foreclosures, creating community gardens, and many other activities not mentioned by the bureau).
The FBI also warns that anarchists may have “crossover ideologies” including animal rights extremism and environmental extremism.
Animal rights / environmental extremism
In the training presentation on these so-called “eco-terrorists,” the FBI lists lawful, First Amendment activity and low-level criminal activity (such as civil disobedience) as examples of domestic terrorism.
The FBI is particularly focused in these presentations on information gathering and what it calls a “public relations war” by activist groups. “Media is sometimes slanted in favor of activists,” the FBI says. “Activists spin the truth.”
Examples of information gathering listed by the FBI include requests for public documents under the Freedom of Information Act. In one presentation, FOIA requests are listed as examples of “University targeting.”
Elsewhere the FBI warns of “cold calls” and using “USDA Report [sic].”
The FBI also warns of activist attempts to use “false employment.” This is undoubtedly related to activists who seek employment at factory farms and vivisection labs in order to expose animal welfare abuses. As I have reported here previously, the FBI has considered terrorism charges for non-violent undercover investigators. And multiple states have been seeking to criminalize undercover investigations as well.
As I document in Green Is the New Red, there has been a slow and relentless expansion of “terrorism” rhetoric and investigations over the last 30 years. This type of language and FBI investigation was initially confined to property crimes by the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front (groups that have caused millions of dollars in economic loss, but have never harmed a human being).
Now this already-broad terrorism classification has been expanded even further. The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act was drafted to target anyone who causes the “loss of profits” of an animal enterprise. The FBI acknowledges this shift in “terrorism” investigations in a slide that says the new law “alleviates the use of force or violence criteria.”
Relentless Expansion of “Domestic Terrorism”
The ACLU’s Mike German has an excellent dissection of the FBI’s “black separatist” documents. German writes:
Who are “Black Separatists” and is there any evidence they pose a terrorist threat?
Internet searches of “Black Separatist terrorism,” “Black Separatist bombing,” and “Black Separatist shooting” fail to bring up any recent incidents that could be fairly described as terrorist violence. No “Black Separatist” terrorist incidents are included in the FBI’s list of “Major Terrorism Cases: Past and Present,” nor on the more comprehensive list of terrorist attacks going back to 1980, which are detailed in an FBI report entitled “Terrorism 2002-2005.” While Black nationalist groups like the Black Panthers and the Black Liberation Army were certainly involved in political violence back in the 1970s, they no longer exist, and the last acts of violence attributed to either group were more than two decades ago.
So why are Atlanta FBI agents now searching for black separatist threats? Because the FBI appears to be training them to believe there is one using factually flawed materials.
The FBI is targeting “black separatists,” anarchists, animal rights activists, and environmentalists in nearly identical methodologies. And these new documents show just how little these tactics change over time and between movements.
The FBI is manufacturing these “terrorism threats” through what I would call a process of conflation. Disparate groups are being conflated, across ideological and tactical divides, and presented as a united “threat.” For instance, the FBI notes that “black separatists” are a movement that “consists of multiple groups” lacking a unified ideology, but they are lumped together because they “all share racial grievances against the U.S., most seek restitution, or governance base [sic] on religious identity or social principals [sic].”
Just as the FBI invented a new class of domestic terrorists in 2009 called “American Islamic Extremists,” the FBI long ago embraced a new class of domestic terrorists called “eco-terrorists.” A wide range of groups, from the Humane Society to the Animal Liberation Front, have been conflated into this catch-all term. This use of language is essential to the demonization of entire social movements because it aides in reshaping them as an “other.” They are not individuals with specific political grievances, they become a mass of unreasonable extremist threats.
At the same time, the FBI is conflating a wide range of tactics. People who support anarchists or “black separatists” in their words are conflated with the very small group of people who have engaged in illegal activity. That’s how the FBI is including FOIA requests and civil disobedience as example tactics in a domestic terrorism presentation. Juxtapose this with the tactics of militia extremists and white supremacists, who have murdered, lynched, bombed, assaulted government officials and created weapons of mass destruction.
To most reasonable people, such a stark disparity between these groups would raise questions about how the FBI is allocating its domestic terrorism resources. How did such misguided policies come about?
These presentations point to one possible answer to that question: The FBI creates terrorism threats by directly training agents to believe they exist.

[THEBLACKNOVA]

I wonder if when they go undercover and go crusty they were government issued patches?

And like over time they gotta keep up to date and change them, like now would they go undercover as a crusty and wear a CHUMBAWAMBA patch on the back of their jacket?

What kind of band names being dropped by a under cover crusty, what band names would raise your ears? And make you wonder if its an undercover crusty?

[slother]

What if they wore patches of the band Government Issue?

[punkmar77]

Come on all they have to do is visit sites like this and get a general feel for what peoples favorite bands are...too easy.

[THEBLACKNOVA]

LOL that's funny slother

[sali(e)]

.....giving drugs, forcing drugs, get you high as a kite then pry it all outta ya! don't get me started!

[crustybeckham]

MDC or Cracked Cop Skulls shirts?

[anarchoskin69]

Looks like the fed questioned one of my RASH skin brothers in Florida, questioned about me and the RNC, they gave me a heads up and said I should behave while down there visiting them.

[crustybeckham]

I remember there used to be cops in disguise at Parisian punk squats a couple years ago. They would go to a gig dressed rather casually (but then in Paris, there aren't many people "looking punk as fuck" at anarchopunk gigs) and they would start asking questions, general questions at first and then if there were any political activities going on. Creepy. And at grindcore shows, no less!