The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund received a second batch of documents they had requested under FOIA concerning the apparent national coordination among federal security apparatus agencies.  They are partnering with the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee and recently, Michael Moore.  Perhaps he helps with expenses.

DHS Vehicle at Occupy Houston, December 12, 21011. Similar vehicles were spotted at Occupy events in many cities. Photo by Kit O'Connell.

Executive Director of the PCJF Mara Verheyden-Hilliard says that the heavily redacted documents still show that there has been intense monitoring and information sharing among the federal intelligence/domestic surveillance networks, and bolstered by local and state law enforcement being used against its own people, or: American citizens engaged in a free speech social justice movement.

She reminds us that the funding for the vast security post-9/11 expansion is ‘saturated’ by anti-terrorism funding, leaving us to conclude that those of us they choose to target as ‘dangerous’ or ‘enemies of the state’…may bump into their wide-angled definition of ‘domestic terrorism’.  I resent the hell out of that, personally.

These released documents concern the Department of Homeland Security’s National Operations Center, about which the DHS website says in part:

The Office of Operations Coordination and Planning is responsible for monitoring the security of the United States on a daily basis and coordinating activities within the Department and with governors, Homeland Security Advisors, law enforcement partners, and critical infrastructure operators in all 50 States and more than 50 major urban areas nationwide.

The Office is responsible for: conducting joint operations across all organizational elements; coordinating activities related to incident management; employing all Department resources to translate intelligence and policy into action, and overseeing the National Operations Center (NOC) which collects and fuses information from more than 35 Federal, State, territorial, tribal, local, and private sector agencies.

Noah Shachtman got word that the NOC monitors Wired’s Danger Room and other obvious websites for atmospherics on ‘the big picture’.  No doubt they monitor any sites that advance Occupy, resistance to the machine, civil disobedience of any kind.   They’re that afraid of free speech and truth-telling.

I’ll list a few of the revelations in the documents:

* On November 9, 2011 — two days after a dramatic street protest by 1,500 seniors and Occupy Chicago against social service cuts — the NOC Fusion desk sent out a request from the Chicago police department seeking information from “state Fusion Centers” and requesting coordination and information-sharing about Occupy encampments and arrest charges in New York, Oakland, Atlanta, Washington, D.C. Denver, Boston, Portland OR, and Seattle. This request was subsequently recalled by officials in DHS, who directed that it should instead proceed through “law enforcement channels.” Boston Police Intelligence/Homeland Security reported that they were following up in direct communication with Chicago. In an apparent effort to facilitate the coordination but to take it off the books of the DHS, the Duty Director of the NOC wrote that he would reach out to “LEO LNOs (liason officer) on the floor” to assist. As we described in a previous report, LEO is FBI’s nationally integrated law enforcement, intelligence and military network.

* The NOC went into high gear requesting urgent communications for Obama’s DHS Secretary in advance of the planned December 12th port protests nationwide by OWS. The communications from a senior officer of the NOC ask field offices from Houston, Portland, Oakland, Seattle, San Diego, and Los Angeles to provide information about “what actions they will be taking to prepare” for the protests by the “Occupy Movement.”

* DHS went so far as to keep the Pentagon’s Northcom (Northern Command) in the intelligence loop in advance of the November 2nd port protests organized by Occupy Oakland and supported by ILWU workers. In a “Significant Incident Report” DHS officials were “advised that this [port] closure is a combination of Longshoremen dissatisfaction of working conditions…and to show support for the Occupy Oakland Protest.”

(You may remember that Obama had alerted the Coast Guard (‘Crisis Averted?’)to intervene if ILWU port workers attempted to stop any ships coming into port.  Yes; our President, who supports Occupy and loves unions and working people.)

* The DHS was in direct communication with the White House for approval of public statements denying DHS’s involvement in Occupy actions.

 

* DHS’s Office for State and Local Law Enforcement, which collaborates with “non-federal law enforcement and private associations” issued its “Weekly Informant” for December 5th including an update from the Police Executive Research Forum about Occupy. The PERF is the group that organized a series of multi-city law enforcement calls to coordinate the response to Occupy.

The initial batch is here, and concerns Occupy Wallstreet, and a bit about DC.  You can sign up to receive email notification as documents are released.

In related news, Wired’s Threat Level is reporting that:

A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the National Security Agency’s decision to withhold from the public documents confirming or denying any relationship it has with Google concerning encryption and cybersecurity. [snip]

Judge Janice Rogers Brown, in a 3-0 opinion, sided with the government’s contention that acknowledging any records “might reveal whether the NSA investigated the threat,” or “deemed the threat a concern to the security of the U.S. government.”

If we removed all the legalese, the appellate court upheld the government’s often-said contention that, “if we told you, we’d have to kill you.

America, land of opportunity, equality and freedom, unless…you are the 99%.   Resist.  We are legion, they are few.  We need to show them their time is coming to an end as we continue to demonstrate that: the Emperor has no clothes.