After infiltrating #StandingRock, #TigerSwan pitched its ‘#counterinsurgency’ playbook to other oil companies

More than 50,000 pages of newly released documents detail how the security firm targeted #pipeline opponents and tried to profit off its #surveillance tactics.

by Alleen Brown & Naveena Sadasivam
Apr 13, 2023

"The Intercept and Grist contacted TigerSwan, #EnergyTransfer, the National Sheriffs’ Association, as well as Thompson, the group’s executive director. None of them responded to requests for comment.

"To TigerSwan, the emergence of #Indigenous-led social movements to keep oil and gas in the ground represented a business opportunity. Reese anticipated new demand from the #FossilFuel industry for strategies to undermine the network of #activists his company had so carefully gathered information on. In the records, TigerSwan expressed its ambitions to repurpose these detailed records to position themselves as experts in managing pipeline protests. The company created marketing materials pitching work to at least two other energy companies building controversial oil and gas infrastructure, the records show. TigerSwan, which was staffed heavily with former members of military special operations units, branded its tactics as a 'counterinsurgency approach,' drawing directly from its leaders’ experiences fighting the so-called War on Terror abroad.

"TigerSwan did not just work in #NorthDakota. Energy Transfer hired the company to provide security to its #RoverPipeline in #Ohio and #WestVirginia, the documents confirm. By spring 2017, TigerSwan was also assembling intelligence reports on opponents of Energy Transfer and #Sunoco’s #MarinerEast2 Pipeline in #Pennsylvania.

"The documents from the North Dakota security board paint a detailed picture of counterinsurgency-style strategies for defeating opponents of oil and gas development, a War-on-Terror security firm’s aspirations to replicate its deceptive tactics far beyond the Northern Great Plains, and the cozy relationship between businesses linked to the fossil fuel industry and one of the largest law enforcement trade associations in the U.S. The impetus for spying was not simply to keep people safe, but to drum up profits from energy clients and to allow fossil fuels to continue flowing, at the expense of the communities fighting for clean water and a healthy climate.

"'For them, it was an opportunity to help create a narrative against our tribe and our supporters,' said Wasté Win Young, a citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the one of the plaintiffs in a class action civil rights lawsuit against TigerSwan and local law enforcement. Young’s social media posts repeatedly showed up in the documents. 'We weren’t motivated by money or payoffs or anything like that. We just wanted to protect our homelands.'"

Full article:
https://grist.org/accountability/tigerswan-documents-dakota-access-pipeline-standing-rock-surveillance/

#ClimateJustice #BigOilAndGas #WaterIsLife #ACAB #StandingRockSioux #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #Activism #ClimateChange
#EnvironmentalJustice

OpEd: Why #MAGA Loves #Russia and Hates #Ukraine

Feb. 8, 2024
By David French

"In 2021, The American Conservative’s Rod Dreher praised a #Putin speech condemning the West and said that Putin and #Hungary’s #ViktorOrban were 'completely clear and completely correct on the society-destroying nature of #wokeness and postliberal leftism.' (It should be noted that Dreher has nonetheless unequivocally condemned Putin’s invasion.) A 2022 exchange between Steve Bannon and #ErikPrince, the founder of private military contractor #Blackwater, was even more illustrative. Bannon hosted Prince on his podcast shortly after Putin’s invasion and proclaimed Putin 'anti-woke.' Prince replied supportively that the people of Russia 'still know which bathroom to use.' And Bannon kept the thought alive, asking, 'How many genders are there in Russia?'"

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/08/opinion/why-maga-loves-russia-and-hates-ukraine.html

#Transphobia #ChristoFascism #ErikPrinceColonialism #CorporateColonialism #Fascism #TigerSwan #NoDAPL #HumanRights #EnvironmentalJustice #LGBTQ

#March8 seems to be the next big #protest day. Unless I'm snowed in, I'll be at #MonumentSquare in #PortlandMaine. I hope some folks will join me! Otherwise, it will be another #ProtestOfOne. But a protest of one is better than None!
#ProtestFascism #Maine #50501movement #HumanRights #EnvironmentalJustice #ResistFascism #ResistICE #Resistence

In policy reversal, Trump eliminates help for Black and Latino communities hit harder by pollution

https://apnews.com/article/climate-health-trump-environmental-justice-pollution-59baf164c81049d3995d2dfe1eceda8c #AP #journalism #EnvironmentalJustice

My theme song (since 1987):

"If you want a revolution, baby
There is nothing like your own
You don't have to do all those burning books
Revolutionize at home

Someone's been hiding the pieces
Someone been burning down the trees
So we need your revolution, baby
There's a planet to set free

We are the revolution, baby
Come to take you home
If you say you want a revolution, baby
There is nothing like your own

We are the revolution, baby
Come to set you free
After you revolution, baby
There is nothing you can't be

Man's been killing the tigers
Turn the green fields into sand
And their saying how much they respect our work
Oh, god and his final hand

But the world spins on regardless
Which is lucky for you and me
'Cause of all the places in a year's ride from here
This is the only place to be

We are the revolution
Come to take you home
If you say you want a revolution, baby
There is nothing like your own

We are the revolution, baby
Come to set you free
After you revolution, baby
There is nothing you can't be

Don't need a red light
Don't need a blue light
Don't need a yellow light

Take off from the green light now
Take off from the green light now
Take off from the green light now

We got a revolution, baby
Come to take you home
If you say you want a revolution
There is nothing like your own

We are the revolution, baby
We've come to set you free
After you revolution, baby
There is nothing you can't be"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaYcJQej5Uw

#WorldParty #PrivateRevolution #KarlWallinger #SaveTheEarth #EnvironmentalJustice #Revolution #TheTimeIsNow #FridayNightMusicVideos

https://www.europesays.com/1735953/ Indigenous metal roars against colonialism and climate change #Climate #ClimateChange #Energy #EnvironmentalJustice #GlobalWarming #toxics

"The Environmental Disaster No One Knows About"

The story of a lawyer, an oil conglomerate, and 30,000 indigenous Ecuadorians

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OtIAZMqrZE

#Ecuador #AmazonRainForest #Amazon #FreeDonziger #BoyBoy #EnvironmentalJustice

Montana’s Supreme Court recently upheld a landmark climate ruling that said the state was violating residents’ constitutional right to a clean environment by allowing oil, gas and coal projects without regard for climate change. The state’s defense argued that reducing greenhouse gases would have no effect on a global scale. The court countered by asking: “If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?”
@AssociatedPress reports:

https://flip.it/uRiSfs

#Science #ClimateChange #Environment #EnvironmentalJustice

#RSN: The Deadly Fight for #EnvironmentalJustice in #Honduras

The assassination of #Honduran #WaterDefender #JuanLópez offers a chilling reminder of the threats local leaders face in the most dangerous region in the world for #EnvironmentalActivists.

by Giada Ferrucci / NACLA
22 October 24

"On September 14, 2023, Juan Antonio López, a prominent environmental defender, anti-corruption activist, and community and faith leader in Tocoa, Honduras, was murdered. He was in his car after attending a religious event at a local Catholic church when an unidentified hitman shot him multiple times. Due to previous death threats and harassment linked to his defense of the Guapinol River, López had received precautionary measures from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the same measures that failed to protect fellow environmental defender Berta Cáceres from being killed in 2016.

"López’s assassination has sent shockwaves through the region, a chilling reminder of the violence and impunity that threaten environmental activists across Latin America and globally. His murder also reflects a disturbing pattern of attacks on those who dare to challenge economic and political powers in Honduras, a country that consistently ranks as one of the most dangerous in the world for environmental activists. These risks are especially pronounced in highly militarized areas like the Aguán Valley, where López lived, a resource-rich epicenter of land grabs and conflicts along the north coast. Dozens of Aguán environmental defenders have been systematically targeted, threatened, and murdered for more than a decade.

In 2023, 18 environmental defenders were killed in Honduras, the highest number per capita of any country in the world, according to Global Witness. Among the victims were three fellow Guapinol defenders: Aly Magdaleno Domínguez Ramos, Jairo Bonilla Ayala, and Oquelí Domínguez Ramos. In López’s case, authorities have arrested the alleged hitman and an accomplice.

"The Honduran state’s failure to protect López despite IACHR protective measures speaks to the broader issue of impunity and lack of political will to safeguard those who defend natural resources and human rights in the face of powerful economic interests. His murder also highlights systemic corruption, recently laid bare by scandals involving drug traffickers and high-profile political figures. In short, López’s assassination is part of a wider global crisis of relentless violence and persecution targeting activists who stand up to mining, logging, and other extractive industries."

Read more / support:
https://www.rsn.org/001/the-deadly-fight-for-environmental-justice-in-honduras.html

#ReaderSupportedNews #IACHR #ExtractiveIndustries #Mining #Logging #LandDefenders #WaterIsLife #GuapinolRiver #BertaCáceres #HumanRights #AlyMagdaleno #DomínguezRamos #JairoBonillaAyala #OquelíDomínguezRamo #Capitalism #Greed #Corruption #CorporateColonialism