Sniper on the Hill -- Standing Rock and COINTELPRO -- Muck Rock's Mega Data Release

Sniper on the hill at Standing Rock photo from Ohio Highway Patrol.

Sniper on the Hill, Standing Rock and COINTELPRO, in Muck Rock's Mega Data

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
Dutch translation by Alice Holemans

A photo of the sniper on the hill at Standing Rock has been published in a new mega data release by journalist Michael Best. The photo is from the Ohio State Highway Patrol while police were part of the militarized police force at Standing Rock. The photo was obtained by way of a FOIA request from Michael Best.

While snipers were positioned around the camps of unarmed water protectors, Native Americans and their allies maintained prayers to protect the Missouri River from the Dakota Access pipeline, a private oil pipeline constructing an underground crude oil pipeline under the Missouri River, the water source of millions.

The Oceti Sakowin Camp at Standing Rock grew to more than 10,000 water protectors, with more water protectors in the camps of Sacred Stone, Rosebud and Cheyenne River. The water protectors -- including women and elderly -- were tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, pepper balls and water cannons in freezing temperatures, beaten by police, and then strip searched and caged in "dog kennels," with numbers written on their arms, as was done by the Nazis.

Laura Cox was one of the water protectors who saw the snipers at Standing Rock. "I saw them, but didn't have a strong enough zoom. It was bizarre, like a duck stand with snipers pointed at praying civilians," Cox told Censored News.

The Ohio police documentation of Standing Rock water protectors, as they resisted Dakota Access pipeline, was just released in an enormous collection of information titled, 'That 1 Archive.'

JPat Brown at Muck Rock writes:

In response to a public records request by Mike Best, the Ohio State Highway Patrol released a huge collection of photos and video taken during their deployment at Standing Rock. While a large amount were culled from protestor’s social media accounts, a separate .zip file contains official police records. These provide a previously unseen perspective on the size and scope of the protest …

Muck Rock's coverage also includes how the people of Wisconsin demanded that troopers pull out of Standing Rock. Further, Muck Rock exposes the arsenal that Indiana police brought with them to Standing Rock.

Indiana police arsenal at Standing Rock:

• 42 “sidearms” (judging from the individual officer’s paperwork, these are various Glock models): $16,464
• 37 (one for each officer!) Bushmaster AR-15’s: $14,504
• 16 outfits of riot gear: $9,408
• 23 shotguns: $9,016
• 21 pairs of Gen III night vision goggles: $8,232
• 37 seemingly department issued cell phones: $6,160
• 21 pairs of binoculars: $1,029
• 10 spotting scopes (possibly used as part of a sniper team): $490
• 2 tear gas launchers of different sizes: $784
• 1 TAC 700 pepper ball launcher: $392
• 1 thermal imaging camera: $784

The files in "That 1 Archive," include COINTELPRO documents from the late 1960s, when the U.S. government spied on, and targeted, the Black Panthers, Martin Luther King, Jr., students protesting the Vietnam War, American Indians and more. The "Cactus" files reveal that COINTELPRO continued long after the U.S. claimed it had been shut down.

The links lead to a mine field of explosive data dispelling historical accounts. Among the links are FBI and CIA lists of rendition airplanes, and the companies who own them, which are used to disappear people by the U.S. government. Again, Michael Best obtained these through a Freedom of Information request.

The vast documents include the names of journalists, including those at the Wall Street Journal, who worked with the FBI and CIA to promote the U.S. government's agenda in the mainstream media.

As for Ohio police, it is no surprise to see their engagement in the militarized police force against Native American water protectors at Standing Rock. On the Longest Walks 2 and 3 across America, American Indians were targeted by Ohio police, first walking through Columbus, Ohio, in 2008, then on Long Walk 3 as Native walkers returned home through Ohio.

Please check back for more on this breaking news story from Censored News.

Below another photo from the Ohio Highway Patrol files on Standing Rock.
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Mega data "That 1 Archive" at:
https://that1archive.neocities.org/

Below: Police loaded weapons and attacked unarmed water protectors on Sept. 28, 2016.
Photo posted at Censored News as it happened.

Below: Sniper at Standing Rock aiming at unarmed water protectors, including youths, women and elderly in prayer, 2016.

Brenda Norrell has been a reporter in Indian country for 35 years, beginning as a reporter at Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a stringer for AP and USA Today before becoming a staff reporter for Indian Country Today. After being censored and terminated by Indian Country Today in 2006, she created Censored News. She has been blacklisted by the mainstream media for a decade. Censored News live coverage includes travels with the Zapatistas, Bolivia's Mother Earth Conference, and live broadcasts with Earthcycles from Indian Nations throughout the West. Now in its 11th year, with more than 16 million views, Censored News has no ads, grants or revenues.