""More than 50,000 pages of documents were recently made public after the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline lost a court case to keep them secret."
"Leaked documents and public records reveal a troubling fusion of private security, public law enforcement, and corporate money in the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline."
"A new business model for breaking down environmental movements was being hatched in real time. On Labor Day weekend in 2016, private security dogs in North Dakota attacked #pipeline opponents led by members of the #StandingRockSioux Tribe as they approached earth-moving equipment. The tribal members considered the land sacred, and the heavy equipment was breaking ground to build the Dakota Access pipeline. With a major public relations crisis on its hands, the pipeline’s parent company, Energy Transfer, hired the firm TigerSwan to revamp its security strategy.
"By October, TigerSwan — founded by James Reese, a retired commander of the elite special operations Army unit Delta Force — had established a military-style pipeline security strategy.
"There was one nagging problem that threatened to unravel it all: Reese hadn’t acquired a security license from the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board. Although Reese claimed TigerSwan wasn’t conducting security services at all, the state regulator insisted that its operations were #unlawful without a license."
"New details of Blackwater participation in clandestine CIA raids detail the extent to which private security contractors were involved in covert government antiterror operations.
"According to former employees and current and former American intelligence officials, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because they feared repercussions, Blackwater security guards participated in clandestine raids to capture or kill suspected insurgents in #Iraq and #Afghanistan and in transportation of detainees on CIA flights.
"The raids against suspects were said to occur almost nightly between 2004 and 2006, the height of the Iraqi insurgency. Several of the former Blackwater employees said the lines dividing the government-sanctioned agencies (the CIA and the military) and Blackwater began to blur.
"This information highlights a more extensive relationship between the CIA and Blackwater, now re-named Xe Services, than government investigation had previously acknowledged.
"This was confirmed recently by an article about #ErikPrince, the founder of Blackwater, published in Vanity Fair. In it, Prince spoke about the extent of his involvement with the CIA, which ranged from putting together, funding and executing operations to bring personnel into 'denied areas' to targeting specific people for #assassination who were deemed enemies by the #USGovernment.
"Though Prince alleged that he participated as a private citizen and used his personal funds to carry out operations, the Blackwater employees interviewed by The New York Times confirmed both their full knowledge of and participation in the raids.
"#Xe spokesman Mark Corallo, however, continued to deny this."
We really need to stop buying into the argument that #ClimateActivists are "radical" or "destructive". The opposite is true: the nature of the protests have been peaceful and, on the whole, pretty tame.
The idea that, say, sitting on a road is "radical", "extreme" and "criminal" came from a bunch of #FossilFuel aligned think tanks, parroted by the media.
Reject them.
The framing needs to be: Fossil fuel companies are radical, extreme, criminal.
“TigerSwan Solutions.”
To keep the #FossilFuel industry safe, #TigerSwan used #counterinsurgency tactics including:
drones,
social media monitoring,
HUMINT (spying)
liaising with law enforcement officials and agencies
local community engagement,
counter-protesters,
building a “pipeline narrative,” and partnering with university oil and gas programs.
“Win the populace, and you win the fight,” the presentation stated.
The Intercept and Grist begin release of 50 #TigerSwan documents
by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 14, 2023
"The #Intercept and #Grist began releasing new TigerSwan spy documents in new coverage of the mercenaries hired by the #DakotaAccess Pipeline. They now have 50,000 TigerSwan documents, and another 9,000 are held up in the court battle for now. The documents reveal TigerSwan spying on #WaterProtectors at #StandingRock in #NorthDakota, Bold Iowa, and at other locations.
"We speak with Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill, who has spent years reporting on private security contractors such as the private security firm TigerSwan, which has links to the now-defunct mercenary firm Blackwater and is in charge of coordinating intelligence for the Dakota Access pipeline company. He discusses the company’s track record as more than 100 #NativeAmericans and allies fighting the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline have been injured by police in North Dakota. Many were attacked with rubber bullets, tear gas, mace canisters and water cannons in freezing temperatures. The attack began after the water protectors attempted to clear access to a public bridge, which has been blocked by authorities using military equipment chained to concrete barriers." #NoDAPL#ErikPrince