In this comprehensive interview Mara Verheyden-Hilliard provides a broad perspective explaining how the FBI and other police agencies collaboration with Wall Street against the Occupy Movement is part of an historic tug-of-war between grassroots movements' for change and the institutions of power and privilege. She also explains how government documents obtained by the PCJF show in detail that when the people of the United States rose up against the economic suffering caused by the biggest banks and corporations the FBI and other law enforcement agencies functioned as partners with the same banks and corporate entities in opposition to the Occupy movement and the labor movement and others fighting for justice.

Shannon McLeish of Florida is a 45-year-old married mother of two young children. She is also, like nearly all who have a relationship with the Occupy movement in the United States, being monitored by the federal government.

There is some dark irony that an FBI program specifically dedicated to the partnership between the FBI, DHS and the private sector monitored the protests, providing information and tips to corporate partners on interacting with and combating Occupy groups.

The crackdown was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police – it was coordinated with the big banks themselves.

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.

Once-secret documents reveal the FBI monitored Occupy Wall Street from its earliest days and treated the nonviolent movement as a potential terrorist threat. Internal government records show Occupy was treated as a potential threat when organizing first began in August of 2011. Counterterrorism agents were used to track Occupy activities, despite the internal acknowledgment that the movement opposed violent tactics.

The FBI extensively monitored the Occupy Wall Street movement around the United States, using counterterrorism agents and other resources, according to recently released FBI internal documents.

It turns out that all you crazy, post-hippy Occupy Wall Streeters were right: the government does not have your best interest at hearts.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation used counterterrorism agents to investigate the Occupy Wall Street movement, including its communications and planning, according to newly disclosed agency records

According to internal documents newly released by the FBI, the agency spearheaded a nationwide law enforcement effort to investigate and monitor the Occupy Wall Street movement.