How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus,

88 Pages·2009·3.22 MB·English

Dissent or Terror
How the Nation’s Counter Terrorism Apparatus,
in Partnership with Corporate America,
Turned on Occupy Wall Street
Beau Hodai

Center for Media and Democracy
DBA Press
May 2013
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements: Lisa Graves, Mary Bottari, Frank Smith, Brendan Fischer, Nick Surgey, Harriet Rowan, Friday
Thorn, Sari Williams, Dianne Post, Patricia Barden, Rebekah Wilce, Nikolina Lazic, Alex Oberley, Katelin Lorenze,
and everyone (both activists and “counter-terrorism”/”homeland security”/law enforcement personnel) who were
willing to provide information.
© Center for Media and Democracy/DBA Press, May 2013
Cover photos: Our thanks to marlowsharpe.com and RayOtter.com
Table of Contents
Acronyms
Individuals
Introduction ...................................................................................... 1
Jamie Dimon Comes to Town: Arizona “Fusion Center” as Corporate
Eyes and Ears ................................................................................... 2
The “Homeland Security” Apparatus: Fusion Centers and Private
Sector Partners ................................................................................ 4
Occupy Phoenix is Born: Undercover Cops, Mobile Field Forces,
Private Sector Alerts and Mass Arrests .......................................... 12
The Sleepy Seven: City of Phoenix Cracks Down On Dissent, Uses
Municipal “Urban Camping” Ordinance to Circumvent Constitutional
Rights ............................................................................................. 14
Brenda the Facebook Queen: Stalking Discontented Citizens Through
the Internet Data Mine, Christmas TLO Alerts and Tiananmen
Square-Tested Facial Recognition Technology ................................ 20
Remember, Remember: ACTIC, FBI Strive to Shield Banks From
Citizen Outrage ............................................................................... 29
“Operation Tripwire:” Mall Cops and “Radical Cheerleaders” ......... 33
“Fusion Center” Obsession With Occupy Wall Street: Extremist
Intervention, Public Safety and Officer Safety ................................ 36
The Great Non-Existent Boston Anarchist Uprising: Labeling Activists,
Students and Union Members as “Anarchists” ............................... 41
ALEC in Scottsdale: Police Employed as Private Security Attack and
Arrest Protestors, Label Activists as Violent “Anarchists”
in the Media .................................................................................... 46
Bringing Home the Bacon: Other Instances of Cops Paid to Work as
Private Security for Koch-Related Enterprises ................................. 53
The ACTIC ALEC “Face Sheet:” ACTIC/PPD Efforts to “Identify and
Intercept” Activists on Behalf of ALEC ............................................ 55
The Red ‘A’ With a Circle Around It: The Reality of Anarchist “Violent
Tactics” at the New Orleans ALEC Protest ...................................... 60
The Creepy Guy Cometh: Undercover Cop at Large, ACTIC and
PPDHDB Work to Gather Intel for ALEC ......................................... 62
Public-Private Partnership at Work: ALEC Gets Its Own Dedicated
“Terrorism Liaison Officer” ............................................................. 67
March of the Giant Puppets: ACTIC Works With Corporate Interests to
Shield ALEC Member Corporations From Discontented,
Puppet-Wielding Citizenry .............................................................. 70
Where’s Jesse?: Phoenix “Counter Terrorism” Personnel Struggle to
Locate Jesse Jackson ..................................................................... 73
The Road We Are On: NDAA and the Potential Realization of Activist
Fears ............................................................................................... 77
Acronyms
DBA/CMD - DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy
OWS - nationwide Occupy Wall Street movement
ACTIC - Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, commonly referred to as the “Arizona Fusion Center”
ACTIC CLP - Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center Community Liaison Program
FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation
JTTF - Joint Terrorism Task Force, administered by FBI
NJTTF - National Joint Terrorism Task Force, administered by FBI
U.S. DHS - United States Department of Homeland Security
U.S. DHS I&A - U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis
U.S. DHS NPPD - U.S. Department of Homeland Security National Programs and Protection Directorate
U.S. DHS IP - U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Infrastructure Protection, a U.S. DHS office under
U.S. DHS NPPD
U.S. DHS NOC - U.S. Department of Homeland Security National Operations Center
DSAC - the Domestic Security Alliance Council, a public-private intelligence partnership administered by U.S. DHS
I&A, the FBI and the DSAC Leadership Board, which consists of 29 of the nation’s top corporate and financial
interests
TSA - Transportation Security Administration, a component of U.S. DHS
CI/KR - Critical Infrastructure/Key Resources
TLO - Terrorism Liaison Officer
PPD - Phoenix Police Department
TRU - Tactical Response Unit, a riot police unit comprised of “mobile field force” officers
PPDHDB - Phoenix Police Department Homeland Defense Bureau
TMU - Threat Mitigation Unit, a unit of ACTIC, staffed by PPDHDB
PPDCRB - Phoenix Police Department Community Relations Bureau
PPDDOU - Phoenix Police Department Downtown Operations Unit
PPDMOB - Phoenix Police Department Major Offenders Bureau
AZDPS - Arizona Department of Public Safety
AZDOHS - Arizona Department of Homeland Security
DPP - Downtown Phoenix Partnership
ISE - Information Sharing Environment
IRTPA - Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004
DNI - Director of National Intelligence
ODNI - Office of the Director of National Intelligence
NCTC - National Counter Terrorism Center, administered by ODNI
MCCA - Major Cities Chiefs Association
HDSI - Hummingbird Defense Systems International
ALEC - American Legislative Exchange Council
NDAA - National Defense Authorization Act
Individuals
Jennifer O’Neil - PPDHDB ACTIC Threat Mitigation Unit Detective and coordinator of ACTIC Community Liaison
Program
Brenda Dowhan - PPDHDB ACTIC “Terrorism Liaison All-Hazards Analyst”
CJ Wren - PPDHDB Detective and ACTIC TLO/intelligence analyst
Michael Rohme - PPDHDB Intelligence Unit Detective/ACTIC TLO
Robert Bolvin - PPDHDB Detective/ACTIC TLO
Tracy Montgomery - PPD Assistant Police Chief, Homeland Security Division
Geary Brase - PPDHDB Commander
Larry Hein - PPDHDB Intelligence and Investigations Unit Lieutenant
Pat Kotecki - PDHDB Sgt.
Mark Schweikert - PPDCRB Sgt.
Jeff Lazell - PPDDOU Lt.
Tom Van Dorn - PPDMOB Career Criminal Squad Sgt.
“Saul DeLara” - false name of PPDMOB undercover officer who had infiltrated the Phoenix activist community
months prior to the launch of Occupy Phoenix, and who supplied PPD/ACTIC personnel with
intelligence relating to Occupy Phoenix and ALEC protests. The true identity of this individual is likely
PPDMOB undercover officer Saul Ayala.
Steve Harrison - DPS Northern Intelligence District Commander; DPS captain who oversees DPS functions
at ACTIC
Christopher Adamczyk - Mesa Police Department Intelligence and Counter Terrorism Unit Detective/ACTIC TLO
Derek Pittam - Tempe Police Department Homeland Defense Unit Detective/ACTIC TLO
Introduction
DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy corporate interests, or other subjects of public protest,
(DBA/CMD) have spent more than the past year would purchase the services of off-duty police offi-
gathering records, through state and federal open cers-- armed, in uniform and acting under the color of
records/freedom of information laws, from various law-- outright. Our records indicate that, in at least one
law enforcement agencies tasked with “counter-ter- instance, police officers employed by corporate inter-
rorism”/”homeland security” operations. The resultant ests who explicitly stated a desire for protestor arrests
stacks of documentation, numbering in the thousands and prosecutions were more than happy to not only
of pages, form a grim mosaic of “counter-terrorism” provide the desired protestor arrests, but to also lie in
agency operations and attitudes toward activists and official records, as well as to the news media, in order
other socially/politically-engaged citizens over the to facilitate prosecutions and cover their own actions.
course of 2011 and 2012. As such, records show that
methods employed by the nation’s “counter-terror- Furthermore, records obtained by DBA/CMD from
ism” apparatus against these citizens has ranged from agencies active in state counter-terrorism “fusion
the use of undercover officers tasked with infiltrating centers-- including the Federal Bureau of Investigation
activist groups, to constant monitoring and the use of (FBI)-- demonstrate the institutionalized blending of
advanced technologies in the tracking and identifica- corporate security with “national security” through a
tion of certain individuals. number of public-private “counter-terrorism” intelli-
gence sharing programs.
Put simply, the pattern that emerges from these pages
shows that heavily-funded municipal, county, state and What has resulted is the wholesale criminalization of
federal “counter-terrorism” agencies (often acting in tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of
concert through state/regional “fusion centers”) view American citizens who have dared to voice opposition
citizens engaged in movements of political and social to what is increasingly viewed as the undue influence
dissent, such as Occupy Wall Street (and its regional of private corporate/financial interests in the functions
incarnations), as nothing less than nascent, if not bona- of public government.
fide, “terrorist” threats.
What’s more, records obtained by DBA/CMD show
that this view of activists, and attendant activist mon-
itoring/suppression, has been carried out on behalf of,
and in cooperation with, some of the nation’s largest
financial and corporate interests-- the very entities that
the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement and others
oppose as usurpers of American democracy.
Additionally, records obtained from the police de-
partments of several cities show that, when possible,
1
Jamie Dimon comes to town
Arizona “fusion center” as corporate eyes and ears
On, or about, October 17, 2011 Phoenix Police De- [Note: OWS launched on September 17, 2011, largely
partment Homeland Defense Bureau (PPDHDB) and as a result of calls to protest corporate greed/influ-
Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center (AC- ence in government issued by U.S. Day of Rage and
TIC) Threat Mitigation Unit (TMU) Detective Jennifer Adbusters. The Constitution of the United States was
O’Neill was contacted by J.P. Morgan Chase Regional signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention
Security Manager Dan Grady (Appendix, p. 2). on September 17, 1787.
According to an email sent by O’Neill to several of The use of the term “day of rage” is interesting in that
her PPDHDB superiors and colleagues, Grady had protests leading to regime changes in Tunisia, Egypt
informed her that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. Chairman and Libya, as well as other major protests throughout
and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jamie Dimon the Arab world, throughout 2010 and 2011 (a peri-
would be visiting Phoenix on October 18 through 19. od popularly dubbed the “Arab Spring”) were said
Dimon, Grady informed O’Neill, would be addressing to have occurred on “day[s] of rage.” While it is not
approximately 2,000 J.P. Morgan Chase employees clear what the origins of the application of this term
at a “town hall” event at Chase Field-- home of the to major Arab protests are, “Days of Rage” were first
Arizona Diamondbacks, located in downtown Phoe- conducted as a series of protests against the Vietnam
nix. War, organized by the Weathermen faction of Students
for Democratic Society, in October of 1969.]
As such, Grady and O’Neill expressed concern over
recent events involving “Occupy Phoenix,” an off- Aside from this bailout, J.P. Morgan Chase’s true sin
shoot of the nationwide OWS movement which had in the eyes of many involved in OWS was the fact
officially launched only three days prior, though a that the financial service corporation was one of the
series of protests and events that took place October primary contributors to the subprime mortgage/deriv-
14 and 15. The launch of Occupy Phoenix coincided atives crisis that precipitated the economic collapse
with the OWS movement’s “Global Day of Action,” of 2008-2009. During the years leading up to the
October 15, 2011. collapse, J.P. Morgan Chase had funded a number of
leading sub-prime lenders, such as Countrywide Fi-
OWS had been launched on September 17, 2011-- nancial Corporation (financed by J.P. Morgan Chase)
largely as a result of public outrage over the perceived and Ameriquest Mortgage Company (also financed
undue influence of private financial/corporate interests by J.P. Morgan Chase, in that the bank, according to
in public government. J.P. Morgan Chase, for one, was a 2011 federal district court complaint filed against a
something of a poster boy for financial institutions run number of subprime lenders by the Federal Housing
amok in the eyes of the OWS movement; the financial Finance Agency, was the lead underwriter of more
group had received $94.7 billion in a publicly-funded than $700 million in Ameriquest securities offerings in
“bailout” by the U.S. government during the economic 2006). As such, while J.P. Morgan Chase was cashing
collapse of 2008-2009. its nearly $100 billion bailout check from the Federal
Reserve and U.S. Department of the Treasury, millions
2