Background
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests following evictions of Occupy encampments across the nation with the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Park Service (NPS), and municipal agencies requesting that the agencies release information that they possessed related to the involvement of federal agencies and local law enforcement in the planning of a coordinated crackdown on encampments.
The PCJF obtained thousands of pages of documents pursuant to its FOIA demands and made them available for public viewing. The documents show coordination and intelligence monitoring by the DHS, the FBI, the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies of “Occupy-type” protests.
FBI documents revealed that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat, even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence” at Occupy protests.
FBI offices and agents around the country were in high gear conducting surveillance against the movement even as early as August 2011, a month prior to the establishment of the OWS encampment in Zuccotti Park and other Occupy actions around the country.
Separate government documents obtained by the PCJF showed that DHS, an agency created after the September 11 attacks under the rubric of combating terrorism, conducted daily monitoring of peaceful, lawful protests as a matter of policy.
Functioning as a secret political police force against people participating in lawful, peaceful free speech activity, the heavily redacted documents show that the DHS “Threat Management Division” directed Regional Intelligence Analysts to provide a “Daily Intelligence Briefing” that includes a category of reporting on “Peaceful Activist Demonstrations” along with “Domestic Terrorist Activity.”
The documents show the routine use of Fusion Centers for intelligence gathering on peaceful demonstrations as well as the use of DHS’ “Mega Centers” for collection of surveillance information on demonstrations.
Legal Information
New Documents Reveal: DHS spying on Peaceful Demonstrations and Activists
Government documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through its FOIA records requests reveal that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), an agency created after the September 11 attacks under the rubric of combating terrorism, conducts daily monitoring of peaceful, lawful protests as a matter of policy
FBI Documents Reveal Secret Nationwide Occupy Monitoring
FBI documents just obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) reveal that from its inception, the FBI treated the Occupy movement as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even while acknowledging that organizers called for peaceful protest and did “not condone the use of violence.”
PCJF News
Exposed: ATF Spying on Occupy and ‘Known Anarchists and Protestors’ List
Fusion Centers Approached 2011 Black Friday Consumer Boycott Like a Terrorist Threat
National police chiefs collaborated with counter-terrorism Fusion Center targeting peaceful protest
Exposed: The Hidden Role of Fusion Centers in the Nationwide Spying Operation Against Occupy
The Eviction of Occupy Portland, Ore.: A Supremely Political Affair
Just Because You Are Paranoid Doesn’t Mean the FBI Wasn’t Monitoring You
PCJF Obtains More Heavily Redacted Documents on OWS from Homeland Security
Press Coverage
NY Times – Officials Cast Wide Net in Monitoring Occupy Protests
The documents show that people connected to the centers shared information about individual activists or supporters, and kept track of those who speculated in social media postings that the centers had been involved when police departments used force to clear Occupy camps.
NBC News – Unaware of Tsarnaev warnings, Boston counterterror unit tracked protesters
In the fall of 2011, a key Boston police counterterror intelligence unit — funded with millions of dollars in U.S. homeland security grants — was closely monitoring anti-Wall Street demonstrations, including tracking the Facebook pages and websites of the protesters and writing reports on the potential impact on “commercial and financial sector assets” in downtown areas, according to internal police documents.
Wall Street on Parade – As It Spied on Occupy Wall Street, Department of Homeland Security Fixated on Media Coverage
The documents show that DHS, the sprawling Federal agency ostensibly created to combat terrorism after the September 11 attacks, routinely spies on peaceful First Amendment activities and required daily briefing on the extent of media attention being given to Occupy Wall Street activities.
KFPA- KPFA covers “Activism is Not Terrorism” campaign
Stop the abuse of counter-terrorism authority to spy on peaceful protest. Take action at BigBrotherAmerica.org
WPFW – New revelations of federal spying on protestors
Interview: new campaign launched to tell Congress “Activism is Not Terrorism! Stop the Spying”
Democracy Now – Mara Verheyden-Hilliard on FBI’s Secret Surveillance of Occupy
PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard joins Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez to discuss the FBI documents just obtained by the PCJF via FOIA demands revealing that the FBI treated the Occupy movement from its inception as a potential criminal and terrorist threat even though the agency acknowledges in documents that organizers explicitly called for peaceful protest and did not condone the use of violence at occupy protests.