Often, when folks complain about surveillance and lessened civil liberties courtesy of our new DHS overlords and their associates in congress and the white house, they get labeled as kooks who should have "nothing to hide" and that concerns about "abuses of power" are unwarranted. Ignoring the plainly obvious abuses in the "enemy combatant" lingo and Obama's continued assertion that he, like Bush, has the right to kill American civilians without trial or wiretap with impunity, some recent stories highlight how this new power structure has operated in a COINTELPRO like fashion in the state of Pennsylvania, and no doubt locally all over the US. Link 1: Documents show Homeland Security tracks anti-drill groups in Pa.. Powers appears to be lying like crazy. More to the point, the idea that peaceful assemblies of concerned citizens are being monitored is disturbing. The fact that the data is being shared with the gas companies is downright creepy. The direction this is headed is historically gross: per the Wiki article above COINTELPRO actively sought to In case you think this is a single incident, Appalled' Pa. gov. shuts down reports on protests They hate us for our freedoms, right?
Shooting a natural gas tank is segueing from vandalism to terrorism if someone gets injured. I know most of my tax dollars are wasted, but I’m glad to hear that some of them are being spent to monitor these groups.
I figured someone would bring that up as an excuse. What's interesting is that I could not find anymore information about that incident. Specifically, I could find NOTHING linking it to any of the monitored groups.
Some interesting information on Mr. Powers. Corporations have usurped authority so thoroughly that it's hard to even fathom.
Ahhhh, the internet. You can read the actual intelligence bulletin here: http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/pennsylvania-intelligence-bulletin-no.-131-aug.-30-2010
It was probably just Dick Cheney mistaking the storage unit for a covey of quail, right? I'm sure the local authorities are hard at work running ballistics tests on shotgun pellets to try and link this act of vandalism to the monitored groups. Once they come up with that particular ballistics technology, I'm sure they'll run a story, and then you'll have your link. Best thing to do until then is just ignore this random act. (acually......."acts".....I too did a two second search and came up with this amongst others. Regardless, my opinion stands.
Fair enough. I'd rather they spend the "wasted" tax dollars investigating the effects of hydraulic fracturing on human health (particularly groundwater). But hey, that might cost a corporation money...god forbid. There is so much wrong here it's hard to encapsulate it. Instead of trying to understand why the folks are so angry/concerned...you argue we should just monitor them and "move along". It might behoove you to reread your link - there is a lot more to it than a report on vandalism.
I have read it. Your opinion in this matter seems to be shared with the city councilman. The governer, through his press secretary, seems to be more on my side. Different strokes for different folks. My opinion still stands.
And like yourself, I have no issue spending tax dollars to see what issues fracking might be causing, and if it is truly responsible for contaminating ground water, then I think the whole thing should be shut down until a safe, alternative method can be found. On the flipside, if people are firing shotguns at highly explosive natural gas storage units, I think more action than just "monitoring" and "moving on" is warranted.
And last but not least, I don't believe for a second that this was leaked out by design for intimidation purposes. This was just a stupid screwup by DHS. Any time you have a gathering of like minded people in an activist setting, you're going to get a broad spectrum of personalities.......from the people who will talk a subject to death without ever coming up with an action plan to the people who want to take action immediately without much regard for the consequencese along with all of more effective people in between. These meetings would be the perfect place to witness the more extreme activists say things they wouldn't normally say in a public venue, and of course the DHS and the FBI know this. Now the extremists they are after will be much more careful with voicing their intentions in public. Now matter how honorable your intentions are, if people are going to extreme measures--measures that could harm someone else--in the name of your cause, you really shouldn't be too surprised to find the government monitoring events in which you attend.
Even if one assumes this is acceptable... A BP candlelight vigil? Gay and Lesbian festivals? Jewish holidays? What on earth do these have to do with anti-gas mining groups? And why should this information be shared with the mining companies?
I don't necessarily agree with their "blanket" approach of notifying all "potentially-affected-stakeholders" with one mass buletin, but I can also see that from an inteligence standpoint, it pays to educate all potential stakeholders in case of any crossover. Say for instance, a BP employee also happened to be a gay, Jewish, peacenik. Just saying. Nevertheless, the buletin does state.........at the very beginning..........that it was being provided to all "potentially-affected-stakeholders," and the Marcelus Shale isn't the only thing that attracts extremism. BTW--I notice you didn't mention that the buletin also provides that the good DHS was keeping tabs on those crazed left wing wackos who were plannign a Koran burning wildfire.
Looks like I was wrong on this count .......either that, or the governer is bowing to pressure. I however, am not. I just don't like the idea of people firing guns at things that can explode........no matter how good their intentions.
This was the second article I quoted. I have nothing against investigating and prosecuting to the full extent whoever shot at the facility. Heck, any vandalism should be investigated and, preferably, the culprits punished. The argument is that this is not grounds for monitoring assemblies and then notifying police and corporate parties of any associated activities. That's a bad, bad precedent.
And that is where our beliefs differ. As I described above, I think these assemblies (most of them were hearings, actually) are exactly the place where the authorities might be able to flesh out some extremists. Who else would they notify other than local law enforcement? And as for notifying "corporate parties," I can bend a bit towards thinking that is getting awfully lovey-dovey with one side of the argument, but on the other hand, Marcelus Shale operators--who are responsible for recovering, storage, and transporting a volatile explosive really need to be situationally aware of any risks outside of the norm. BUT..........I never had any delusions of swaying your view, and you shouldn't have any towards mine. Hopefully, the world can find some viable alternative to fossil fuels, and that will make this one cause for extremism--along with seemingly many others--simply go away.
The fact that it is passing the information to the private corporations makes the whole affair seedy. I could see concerning themselves with tracking people of interest based on real intel and actual events, with the authority to do so of course, but this looks like the corporatins are in effect hiring and affecting the DHS. THAT is a problem.
So, we're no longer allowed to dissent against capitalist companies without a federal organization spying on us and then feeding this information to those companies? **** you "Homeland Security," **** you Security Director James Powers (you piece of trash), and **** you Pam Witmer and all other lobbyist-whores. Goddamnit. We get **** on by corporations every day, the government every other day, and when those two take our tax dollars and combine their efforts, it's like they're just squirting their rancid diarrhea all over every single person in this country.
You're more than welcome to peaceful dissent. But once one bad apple shows up, uncle Sam has to inspect all of the apples. Sorry.
