The FBI Is Hiding Details About An Alleged Occupy Houston Assassination Plot | Vice 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has some explaining to do this week, after a federal judge ordered the agency to provide a more thorough explanation to justify why it withheld information from a graduate student’s Freedom of Information Act request for documents regarding an alleged 2011 assassination plot against leaders of Houston’s Occupy movement.

The requests — which were filed last year by Massachusetts Institute of Technology doctoral candidate Ryan Noah Shapiro, who is researching the plot — sought all records “relating or referring to Occupy Houston, any other Occupy Wall Street-related protests in Houston, Texas, and law enforcement responses.” Shapiro noticed a reference to the plot in FBI documents about the Occupy movement that were unsealed in 2012 after a civil-rights group filed a FOIA request.

An FBI document that Shapiro showed to VICE News describes the plot against Occupy Houston:

“An identified [redacted] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors [sic] in Houston, Texas, if deemed necessary…. [Redacted] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles.”

The FBI said it had identified 17 pages of records relevant to Shapiro’s FOIA request, but it only released five of them, all highly redacted. Shapiro then filed suit against the FBI.

FBI FOIA Chief David Hardy defended suppressing the information in a motion to dismiss Shapiro’s lawsuit. Hardy noted that the request concerned material that the FBI had given to local authorities who were investigating “potential criminal activity” by Occupy Houston protesters. The FBI was working with them to assess potential terrorist threats posed by Occupy Houston and determine whether it had advocated overthrowing the US government. Hardy .

The FBI and the Department of Justice invoked the Bureau’s “general investigative authority” and its “lead role in investigating terrorism and in the collection of terrorism threat information” as a basis for its exemption from FOIA, but this did not convince Judge Rosemary M. Collyer of the US District Court for the District of Columbia. She agreed with Shapiro that the FBI’s justification was “overly-generalized and not particular.”

“At no point does Mr. Hardy supply specific facts as to the basis for the FBI’s belief that the Occupy protestors [sic] might have been engaged in terroristic or other criminal activity,” Collyer wrote in an opinion that denied part of the FBI’s motion to dismiss. “Neither the word ‘terrorism’ nor the phrase ‘advocating the overthrow of the government’ are talismanic, especially where FBI purports to be investigating individuals who ostensibly are engaged in protected First Amendment activity.”

VICE News asked the Department of Justice for its reaction to Judge Collyer’s opinion, but it declined to comment. (Read Full Text) (Photo Credit: Occupy Houston @ Facebook)

personal statement from a comrade

Last November, a small group of us in the los angeles area responded to the call out for international solidarity with the Zapatistas. 

But we didn’t take over a building, block traffic, or shut anything down this time.  we were outreaching, simply handing out fliers and literature to educate ourselves, the passer-by’s, as well as the attendees of the ‘Distinguished Speakers Series.’  we wanted to inform people of the State violence that continually haunts and murders indigenous communities in Chiapas and beyond. we wanted to share truths, and invite people to come out to the community picnic that we had organized for that weekend.  We did not anticipate the violent, aggressive attacks from the Pasadena Police.

The minute the first few of us got there, plainclothed police officers (one of whom was later confirmed to be a US Marshall) approached us with threats of arrest if we didn’t comply with their orders.  They told us that the sidewalk was closed for the day, and that the walkway in front of the Pasadena Civic Auditorium was now “private property.”  Despite our disappointment, we complied and remained across the street on the “public” part of the sidewalks to stick to our plans for outreach.  we passed out a lot of literature, and had conversations with the people who were attending the event.  we were doing nothing wrong, and the Pasadena Police must have known this, because they waited for the guests to clear out to start attacking us.

None of the officers gave us a warning or any orders, but all of a sudden, sergeant Crees rushed in and started swinging his fist and baton around wildly at a crowd of unarmed protesters, which included a child and a pregnant woman.  Other officers reacted immediately and followed in attacking the crowd who were contesting their escalation and violence.  it was terrifying to witness such brutal and undisciplined behaviors from the police officers.  It looked as if they had lost control, and felt like they were going to start shooting their guns at the crowd at any minute. 

i am so sick of my friends, comrades, and members of our communities being targeted, kidnapped, beat, murdered, and silenced by the State.  i am so tired of the perpetual physical pain, emotional torture, and psychological trauma, and the magnitude of this war exhausts and overwhelms me on a day to day basis.  November 14th of last year was a traumatizing night for all of us there, but we are not defeated.  We know all too well that the State wants to suppress and silence political dissent, and we are determined to make that as difficult as possible.  we will fight on in solidarity, with raised fists and silent indignation, because we have no other choice but to resist.  we have nothing to lose but our chains.

Call Sea-Tac (206-870-5700) and demand an end to the use of solitary confinement. Call US Attorney Jenny Durkan (800-797-6722) and demand an end to the grand jury investigation. Email us after you call and let us know how it went.

Two recent developments indicate an intensification of the government’s campaign against the anarchist movement in the Pacific Northwest.

In late December, the three grand jury resisters being held at the Sea-Tac Detention Center for their refusal to testify were moved into solitary confinement. No explanation has been given for why they were moved.

In a letter describing the situation, Kteeo wrote:

“Prison is incredibly fucked up even at the best of times, but that doesn’t mean people can’t create community within these circumstances. We do. When I was in my unit I was part of a community. I gave support and received support. I learned from people and I taught. My unit doesn’t have educational opportunities so we created our own. I taught math, reading, and lead a workout group. I was part of something, part of laughter and part of tears; part of a shared experience (not that any of us want to be part of a this). I was a part of growth, part of a community that comes together again and again as our units make up changes. But I am no longer in that unit, no longer in that community.”

Read full letter here.

The Committee Against Political Repression is calling for the discontinuation of the use of solitary confinement for any purpose, and for the immediate release of Matt Duran, Kteeo Olejnik, and Maddy Pfeifer.

In an unrelated case, in Portland, a young man accused of firebombing an empty police car was released on bail, under the condition that he have no contact with any anarchist organizations. He was specifically ordered not to have contact with Resist the NW Grand Jury or the prisoner support group Anarchist Black Cross, clearly indicating that prosecutors want to prevent him from receiving legal, political, or personal support that would aid in his defense.

These developments come after a year which has seen, in addition to the grand jury hearings, SWAT raids against activists in Portland and Seattle, a grotesque inflation of charges in a Portland case involving small-scale vandalism, and indictments against five people accused of participating in a Seattle May Day demonstration where government and corporate property was attacked. Similar events have played out simultaneously in the Bay Area, and elsewhere in the country, forming what critics have called a Federal anti-anarchist witch hunt.

CAPR believes that the governments most recent actions confirm what we have said all along: The state is using the legal system to target the anarchist movement, in the process criminalizing a set of political beliefs and associations. We decry the use of inquisitorial tactics such as secret hearings, coerced testimony, guilt-by-association, and torture in the form of solitary confinement.

CAPR is asking its supporters to call Sea-Tac (206-870-5700) and demand an end to the use of solitary confinement, and to call US Attorney Jenny Durkan (800-797-6722) demanding an end to the grand jury investigation.

breathingrevolution: dallalicious: Page 61 of the FOIA details plans to engage in sniper attacks on Occupy Protesters. this is the fuckin shit because no matter what people want to say about the idea and tactic called ‘occupy’ .. the establishment considers it a political threat so we better get our anti authoritarian supposedly ‘leftist’ shit together. and other completely oversimplified comments. Those references to intelligence about unidentified people/orgs seeking to kill ‘occupy leaders’ with sniper rifles are chilling. The real questions are: (1) whether or not those identified in the redacted areas as developing plans to kill ‘occupy leaders’ with sniper rifles were other law enforcement and/or intelligence officials, and that the redaction is protecting the illegal targeting of non-violent protestors by LE, (2) why no one was ever prosecuted except the non-occupy wingnut who shot at the white house (who was he working for), implying that either they were law enforcement/intelligence or they were paramilitary types (mercenaries hired by the banksters, a la Stratfor, maybe) given protection and shielded from prosecution by the FBI, and (3) whether or not they stood down due to interaction with FBI agents/intelligence officers, or were observed from afar and left to decide on their own not to pursue assassination attempts against ‘occupy leaders’. No matter how you slice it, though, this sounds very much like the FBI’s documented and intentional (non)actions and complicity during the Civil Rights Movement vis-a-vis the Ku Klux Klan and its terrorist campaign against those seeking equal rights for black people in the South. It is hard not to imagine that the repression of Occupy would have been much more violent if the local police departments had not stepped up to the plate to eviscerate the Constitution in their own way. Make no mistake. The ‘war on terrorism’ is a war in particular against the American people, to keep them complacent in our imperial policies around the world and to keep things ‘good for (big) business’. The real terrorists, as usual, wear badges and hold office, or they have a shitload of stocks and investments and pull the puppet strings, and all the above hold anything beginning to resemble ‘democracy’ or ‘people power’ in such contempt that they are willing to kill (or protect killers) to preserve their power/authority. And as intelligence is an increasingly privatized venture there is a likelihood of the unidentified being a private or fascist threat against occupy protesters. Either away, it is unclear how the government will proceed but I can imagine it will be by any means necessary, in due time, depending. from a comrade on the internetz

Taken with Instagram

Stratfor emails reveal secret, widespread TrapWire surveillance system

Every few seconds, data picked up at surveillance points in major cities and landmarks across the United States are recorded digitally on the spot, then encrypted and instantaneously delivered to a fortified central database center at an undisclosed location to be aggregated with other intelligence.

http://rt.com/usa/news/stratfor-trapwire-abraxas-wikileaks-313/