In this deceptive world of U.S. and corporate spying, land defenders and human rights activists are targeted, private corporations and U.S. agents are intertwined, young people are duped and go to prison, and federal agents use romance to spy on, and manipulate, peaceful protesters.
By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
TransCanada and Peabody Coal have been spying on activists in a toxic, dark world where private corporations and the U.S. government act in collusion, an attorney reveals in a news article on Earth First newswire.
In this deceptive world, private corporations and federal agents are intertwined, young people are duped and go to prison, and U.S. agents use romance to spy on, and manipulate their targets.
The article, Informants, Green Scare Snitches, and Surveillance: Interview with Lauren Regan, CLDC.
The real danger of these covert operations within the United States is that people are vulnerable. They get duped by these operators and schemes, and in the end they go to prison.
Now, by way of the Freedom of Information Act, the facts are being exposed of how corporations and the U.S. government target peaceful protesters, criminalize them, and send them to prison.
In the article, attorney Lauren Regan explains, "TransCanada was giving powerpoint presentations to FBI offices and local law enforcement agencies along the [Keystone] pipeline route. We actually got their whole powerpoint presentation, which included photos of lead organizers, and all of the federal terrorist crimes that they were encouraging local DA’s to use against activists, and things like that. Some of it we actually got through their own stupidity."
Then there's Peabody Coal: "The way a lot of them work, say Peabody Coal for instance, they know they can’t have in-house spies. Because if that gets back to them, they get in trouble. So they set up and fund a separate private entity that is half-PR firm and half-security firm. In order for that entity to remain operational they have to produce information that Peabody Coal wants to hear, and they have to be validating their own job."
Facebook is referred to as 'facecrack,' and there is a caution. There's no need to create drama on facecrack when you know infiltrators are headed someone's way.
When a known infiltrator was headed to the Buffalo Field Campaign in Montana, here's what they did.
"We were able to call them, and I remember I faxed a black and white photo of the person to them, and said 'hey this person may be heading in your direction, keep your eyes out.' And they did, and they were able to shoo him on.'"
Earth First trial in Prescott exposed FBI entrapment
Meanwhile, in Arizona, it was the Earth First trial in Prescott that revealed how a federal agent romanced his target, entrapped environmentalists and sent them to prison in 1991.
The trial was an expose in federal misconduct in the early 1990s.
Alongside Mike Lacey, founder of Phoenix New Times, I was among the reporters in the courtroom.
The trial was an introduction into FBI and U.S. misconduct in this dark world of spying, manipulation and entrapment, where the federal government is never prosecuted for entrapment.
Besides the romancing undercover FBI agent, the U.S. also sent an old boyfriend into a home as a babysitter to spy on one woman, planting a spy device in her bedroom. She had a new boyfriend at the time.
Without the romancing undercover FBI agent, there would have been no charges or trial. The U.S. attempted to turn every joke on the defendants tapped phone into a crime.
When the so-called "monkey wrenchers," named after Ed Abbey's book, didn't have a ride to do their monkeying around, the undercover FBI agent gave them a ride. He drove them out there. Most of those on trial went to prison. Peg Millet out ran the agents at the scene, but later turned herself in.
At the time, I was a stringer for AP. When the trial was over, I question the prosecutor about planting an old boyfriend in someone's home as an undercover agent. "Wasn't he a sleaze?" I asked.
"All informants are sleazes," she said.
At New Times, Lacey had fun with the prosecutor Asst. US Attorney Roslyn Moore-Silver. In one article, Lacy wrote that she came into the courtroom, grabbed her balls and shot the judge a high five.
Lacey went a step further and sent the prosecutor flowers when she had an accidental fall after the trial. She sent them back.
While it was fun at times in that Prescott courtroom, it no doubt was not fun for those well-meaning activists who went to prison while attempting to make a difference in the world.
Corporate bottom-feeders laughing all the way to the bank
These days, the entrapment is more sophisticated and the spying permeates everyone's lives, from the street corner, to cell phones to Internet e-mails and chats.
With new laws now, those manipulated and entrapped are sent to prison for even longer terms.
Snitches are often those who are arrested and are trying to avoid jail time, or those in prison wanting early release. They are willing to send others to prison.
The private corporations found a way to turn all this into money.
Protecting disastrous mining means money to the corporations, and mega dollars roll into new spy corporations. The private prisons and security firms are making fortunes.
Since the media in the U.S. has collapsed -- with most reporters flopped in their easy chairs and plagiarizing from the web -- this dark world is now a vacuum for bottom-feeders.
The film industry too has been compromised. It is now a vehicle to promote bogus wars, U.S. targeted assassinations, and the fantasy world of U.S. news and policy.
Time has brought the gift of truth
The environmentalists who were once demonized in the backrooms of news rooms, who were once vilified by the sell-outs, are now beginning to be recognized as front runners protecting the land, water and air.
As water is vanishing, lands are poisoned, and the air is dark, the world is beginning to appreciate the struggles of the land defenders.
Indigenous Peoples continue to be assassinated by corporations around the world as they defend their lands from mining and destruction. In North America, Native Americans with few resources bear the burden of defending the land, water, and air.
Today they carry on.
Also see The Guardian: Undercover cop fathered children with activists
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/jan/20/undercover-police-children-activists
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