"Green Drinks" and other environmental groups being monitored as terrorists

[bananas]

Saw this in GD:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9284932

Hannah Bell Sat Oct-09-10
Original message
Spying and lying about the left: surveillance now being done by private spies

THE U.S. peace group "Peace of the Action" (Cindy Sheehan's group) has discovered documents showing that it and many other organizations have been under surveillance for many months by a private agency called the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR)...

According to the ITRR's Web site:

"The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR) is an American and Israeli nonprofit corporation created to help organizations succeed and prosper in a world threatened by terrorism. ITRR's Israeli and American experts provide counter-terrorism training, seminars and security specialization in dealing with threats such as weapons of mass destruction (WMD), suicide bombers and other forms of international terror striking both the public and private sector."

The revelations about the Philadelphia-based ITRR emerged as part of a scandal involving the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, an office of the Department of Homeland Security, which gave a no-bid $103,000 contract to ITRR to gather information on various community groups. Why? Because the organizations supposedly posed a threat to Pennsylvania infrastructure.

As Bill Quigley and Rachel Meeropol, attorneys with the Center for Constitutional Rights, wrote:

"Our friends at MoveOn.org, the Ruckus Society, Immokalee Workers, the new SDS, Jobs with Justice, the Brandywine Peace Community, ANSWER, PETA, Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty, MOVE, The Yes Men, Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign, Climate Ground Zero, the Rainforest Action Network, pro-Palestinian Groups, Puerto Rican nationalists, prisoners' rights organizations, citizen conservation groups and immigration activists opposing Arizona's crazy attempts to criminalize all non-citizens should know--Pennsylvania has been monitoring you."

http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/08/spying-and-lying-about-left

(btw, rachel meerpool = granddaughter of julius & ethel rosenberg)


The best-known Meeropol may be Abel, a lyricist who (under a pseudonym) wrote "Strange Fruit" and "The House I Live In." But the child he adopted, a young boy named Robert, holds a special place in Cold War history. When he was 6, the boy's birth parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, were executed at Sing Sing on June 19, 1953, for conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/nyregion/05rachel.html

I followed some of the links in those articles - interesting stuff:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/10/06-5

Published on Wednesday, October 6, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
Attention Left, Liberal and Radical Groups – Pennsylvania Has Been Monitoring You
by Bill Quigley and Rachel Meeropol

<snip>

Pennsylvania Homeland Security, in turn, distributed this information to 800 federal, local and state law enforcement agencies, along with “relevant stakeholders” like local businesses. Information provided included the political views and movement building strategies of hundreds of law-abiding groups and individuals.

<snip>

In the scandal that followed PA Governor Rendell disavowed ITRR’s focus on First Amendment protected activity, and promised to end the contract. Pennsylvania State Homeland Security Director Ed Powers resigned. And in response to significant public pressure, OHS published the hundred-odd intelligence bulletins produced by ITTR over the last year on its website. These bulletins are posted on the home page of the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency. http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/homeland_security/14251/pa_intelligence_bulletins/771845

<snip>

The extent of the “monitoring” here is far from clear. Much of ITRR’s information clearly comes from organizations’ own websites and press materials, but the bulletins are laced with more sinister references to “intercepted internal communications.”

<snip>

This is not an isolated incident. While ITRR claims to have no other governmental contracts, it seems clear that they generally perform just this type of surveillance and monitoring of protest groups for corporations who fear the impact of speech and organizing on their bottom lines. This explains the constant rants regarding the potential dangerousness of animal rights and environmental activists: when successful, such groups force corporations to internalize the harm they cause to the environment and to the communities who stand in their way.

<snip>

http://www.abc27.com/Global/story.asp?S=13231793

Pa. officials grilled over security bulletins
Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Pennsylvania lawmakers appeared at times both angry and upset as a Senate committee held a public hearing Monday to investigate the state's controversial contract with a company hired to provide information to the Office of Homeland Security.

<snip>

Democratic Sen. Jim Ferlo said the bulletins appeared to target groups against government tax policies and natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region. The bulletins were shared with representatives of the natural gas industry because of concern over acts of vandalism.

<snip>

"Something's not right here," Ferlo said. "And it's alright for you to show up and kind of keep your heads low in a bunker-style mentality, but something stinks to high Heaven. I don't understand the source of the contract and even it's legitimacy."

Ferlo said an event he chairs, the Green Drinks social forum, was listed in one of the memos as having a low to moderate risk. He questioned why that didn't raise a red flag with state officials since the bulletins made no mention of any groups known to be involved in criminal activities.

<snip>

[amyrose2712]

1. ...

[wuvuj]

2. We have members of this group...right here in River City.

...