DHS Is Still Lying To Congress About Its Portland Protest Surveillance

[Nevilledog]

https://foreverwars.ghost.io/dhs-lied-to-congress-about-portland-flying-stingray-drones/

TWO WEEKS AGO, SEN. RON WYDEN (D-Ore.) released a less-redacted version of a report to Congress from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about its disturbing activity in Portland during the summer 2020 protests. In an interview, a former DHS official took issue with a DHS assertion that FOREVER WARS found dubious upon arrival.

In response to questions from Congress, DHS' intelligence shop, known as Intelligence & Analysis (I&A), averred that "I&A did not collect, exploit or analyze aerial surveillance related to Portland." I wrote in the Oct. 31 edition that that didn't pass the smell test. Whether it was Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) or I&A that conducted the exploitation, DHS didn't put the surveillance assets into the air above Portland—and over 14 other cities around the country that summer—for nothing.

I ran DHS' assertion by a knowledgeable former DHS official, who I'm unfortunately unable to identify with more specificity. "That's false," the ex-official said. CBP, whose drones were in the Portland skies during the protests, "would routinely share the information" from the overhead surveillance at the command center in Portland that merged state, local and federal law enforcement and homeland security during the protests—including I&A.

"It's not that we were the ones exploiting it, because we weren't the ones collecting it, but we were looking at it, as part of all sources of information that would have been gathered," the ex-official continued. "It was a multi-team approach. We'd get up and brief what we knew, CBP would show their aerial footage. The idea that we weren't the ones doing it—I think it's true, but I think it's disingenuous."

*snip*

[gratuitous]

1. President Trump declared war on Portland in 2020

Complete with armed goons, weapons and vehicles of war, saboteurs, fifth columnists, and spies.

[CentralMass]

2. Portland was a shit show that summer of 2020.

The unchecked (140 nights) anarchistic element that were behind the late night violent rioting invited this. That is not a defense of the surveillance but Portland let this go on for over 4 months.