What's plain as day is that some group somewhere was plotting to murder OWS leadership in Texas. It's also clear that the FBI never bothered to inform the targets of the threats against their lives. This stands in apparent contrast to how closely they worked and coordinated with private banks to handle the OWS protests as a whole. And, remember, this is the same FBI who has put tremendous effort over the past few years into breaking up its own terrorist plots. You'd think that when it had a chance to go after actual plots to assassinate leaders of a political movement, they might, you know, actually do something and then trumpet the success in stopping a real plot. Apparently not.Couple of questions:
So the lesson here is simple. If you're a private bank, the FBI will help you demonize non-violent protesters as "terrorists," but if you're a protester, you don't get to know that you might have an infrared dot dancing on the back of your head -- or have the FBI take it as serious as one of its own made up terrorist plots.
1. How much longer will the right-wing propagandists maintain the fiction that Obama aided and abetted the OWS movement?
2. If the FBI knows about an assassination plot but does nothing to stop it, is the Bureau culpable?
3 comments:
The redacted docs obtained via FOIA, reveal the tame nature of the relationship, but no evidence FBI 'initiated'. Now we have this as context. Yes, it is totally valid to provide intel and coordination for the local law enforcement, but this is a step beyond. Failure to inform Occupy of the threat makes sense, only if cooperation was the visible portion of the iceberg, with 'initiative' as the larger portion, below water.
In NY, the allegation that Banks sought and received the security they felt they needed, gains more credibility.
WhereTF are any FBI, or DHS whistleblowers?
Ben
Naomi Klein also has an excellent coverage of the links between the national police and security agencies and leading private enterprise groups, notably the big banks, formalized through the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC). Basically, this liaison is organized, all pervasive and insidious. Corporations are the good guys, all civilians are (potentially) the enemy. The FBI and Homeland Security were providing security briefings to private companies through the DSAC on individuals and groups with the advice that such information was not to be provided to the general public.
The NCIS was also a participant. The United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) is the primary security, counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism, and law enforcement agency of the US Navy. The NCIS has 2,500 civilian and military personnel in over 150 locations world-wide. In 2000, Congress granted NCIS civilian special agents authority to execute warrants and make arrests. Virtually all NCIS investigators, criminal, counterintelligence, and force protection personnel are now sworn civilian personnel with powers of arrest and warrant service. The exceptions are a small number of reserve military elements engaged in counter-intelligence support. The NCIS describes itself as "an elite worldwide federal law enforcement organization." Police arrest powers and active in 150 nations? Providing reports to corporate America?
In one of the released FBI reports, the NCIS is quoted as looking into links between Occupy and "US organized labor actions." That's because the Navy, in defense of the realm, has to know which lowly paid US workers may be seeking a pay rise.
Just more evidence that "law enforcement" is another adjunct to the corporate state. And as Lance's links show, now subdivisons of the US military are openly assigned to protect corporate interests against any perceived "threats" which of course would include strikes or protests by organized labor. Strikers will be labeled "terrists"
and dealt with accordingly.
Just as the FBI creates phony terrorist plots to justify their $150,000 a year jobs, we can now expect the military to create "threats" to justify their own bloated budgets and manpower requirements. Since the US no longer can afford military adventures of the GW Bush variety, I expect that now the primary enemies will be found to be internal. Fascism is a lot cheaper if you keep it local.
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