FBI Documents Reveal Secret Nationwide Occupy Monitoring (Updated the OP) [View all]

[Fire Walk With Me]

Last edited Wed Dec 26, 2012, 05:09 PM - Edit history (2)

http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html

(Cross-posted from Occupy Underground.)

FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) pursuant to the PCJF’s Freedom of Information Act demands reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence” at occupy protests.

The PCJF has obtained heavily redacted documents showing that FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country.

“This production, which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI’s surveillance, monitoring, and reporting on peaceful protestors organizing with the Occupy movement,” stated Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF). “These documents show that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity. These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America.”

“The documents are heavily redacted, and it is clear from the production that the FBI is withholding far more material. We are filing an appeal challenging this response and demanding full disclosure to the public of the records of this operation,” stated Heather Benno, staff attorney with the PCJF.

(More at the link. Via Under Seal ?@JLLLOW and Anonymous.)

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Jason Leopold ?@JasonLeopold

Here are sum long-awaited FBI docs on #OWS released under #FOIA. Abt 100 pgs. I still hve pending FOIA lawsuit for all http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/549518-fbi-ows-documents.html …
Retweeted by Courtney Harrop

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Dicey ?@DiceyTroop

Hey @nytimes, did you miss page 61 of the FBI's #OWS FOIA d0x? The part where they talk about assassinating leaders?
http://ow.ly/glwD4
Retweeted by Courtney Harrop

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FBI Monitored Occupy Wall Street from Earliest Days

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/26/headlines#12269

Newly revealed documents show the FBI monitored the Occupy Wall Street movement from its inception last year. Internal government records show Occupy was treated as a potential terrorism threat when organizing first began in August of 2011. Counterterrorism agents were used to track Occupy activities despite the internal acknowledgment that the movement opposed violent tactics. The monitoring expanded across the country as Occupy grew into a national movement, with FBI agents sharing information with businesses, local police agencies and universities. One FBI memo warned that Occupy could prove to be an "outlet" through which activists could exploit "general government dissatisfaction." Although the documents provide no clear evidence of government infiltration, they do suggest the FBI used information from local law enforcement agencies gathered by someone observing Occupy activists on the ground. In a statement, the group that obtained the documents, the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, said they show that federal law enforcement agencies are "treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity."