Information about an anti-BP candlelight vigil, a gay and lesbian festival and other peaceful gatherings became the subject of anti-terrorism bulletins being distributed by Pennsylvania's homeland security office, an apologetic Gov. Ed Rendell admitted.
Rendell, who claimed he'd just learned about the practice, said Tuesday that the information was useless to law enforcement agencies and that distributing it was tantamount to trampling on constitutional rights...
Rendell said he was not firing his homeland security director, James Powers, but he ordered an end to the $125,000 contract with the Philadelphia-based organization, the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response, that supplied the information. News
this goes beyond simple spying, as in collecting information about the activities of political groups, but as Rendell points out, it is about trampling on our rights to dissent and organize for change.
This incident deserves a thorough investigation. How is that this group, ITTR, got a contract by the state of Pennsylvania in the first place?
ITTR describes itself as
The preeminent Israeli/American security firm providing training, intelligence and education to clients across the globe.
What do we really know about it? Beyond the fact that it deems all acts of citizen organizing as potential terror threats...
Although the group claims nonprofit status on its website and is listed as a nonprofit corporation by the Pennsylvania Department of State, a search on websites Guidestar.org and IRS.gov yielded no indication that the organization enjoys tax-exempt status. An email seeking clarification of the group's nonprofit status was not returned.
Co-Director Perelman, when questioned directly about the company's nonprofit status, told CP over the phone only that "We're releasing a statement, and that's all you're going to hear from us."
ITRR's website calls the company "the preeminent Israeli/American security firm providing training, intelligence and education to clients across the globe." It describes its "Targeted Action Monitoring Center" as "no clipping service, but a powerful fusion center of battle-tested operatives, analysts, and researchers who have real-life experience fighting both terrorists and criminal entities [...] distinguished among other agencies by its access to a vast network of on-the-ground key-sources in virtually every region of the world."
Yet records of the exact nature of its work — outside of the recent scandal, that is — are scant. City Paper
Do we really need "battle-tested operatives" reporting on the latest vigil protesting BP corporate crimes or the next Gay rights parade?
There is no solid evidence to suggest that this organization has any direct ties to the Israeli government (but they certainly seem to be lying about their status as a non-profit, and their lack of honesty certainly begs for more hard questions). We do know, however, that the Israeli govt is interested in stifling of dissent (not just monitoring, but disrupting) in the US, especially as it relates to support of Israel.
this is relevant:
An extraordinary series of articles, reports and presentations by Israel's influential Reut Institute has identified the global movement for justice, equality and peace as an "existential threat" to Israel and called on the Israeli government to direct substantial resources to "attack" and possibly engage in criminal "sabotage" of this movement in what Reut believes are its various international "hubs" in London, Madrid, Toronto, the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
The Reut Institute's analyses hold that Israel's traditional strategic doctrine -- which views threats to the state's existence in primarily military terms, to be met with a military response -- is badly out of date. Rather, what Israel faces today is a combined threat from a "Resistance Network" and a "Delegitimization Network....
Reut does not recommend to the Israeli cabinet -- which recently held a special session to hear a presentation of the think tank's findings -- that Israel should actually change its behavior toward Palestinians and Lebanese...
Instead, Reut recommends to the Israeli government an aggressive and possibly criminal counter-offensive. A powerpoint presentation Grinstein made to the recent Herzliya Conference on Israeli national security actually calls on Israel's "intelligence agencies to focus" on the named and unnamed "hubs" of the "delegitimization network" and to engage in "attacking catalysts" of this network.
Electronic Intifada
I would suspect the Israeli cabinet took this advice seriously.
Whatever the origins of this particular organization, ITTR, that spied on citizens in Pennsylvania, we need to have some questions answered.
How did it get this contract in the first place?
What are the origins of this organization?
How can we prevent other such groups from using fears of terrorism to trample on the rights of citizens to dissent?
Finally, we should not be outsourcing US security concerns, period. Especially not to nations that routinely engage in human rights abuses.
Israel does not share the values of progressives. People who respect the right of dissent.
Case in point:
Amnesty International has urged an Israeli military court not to convict a Palestinian non-violent activist who has been detained since last July, after he took part in a protest against the Israeli built fence/wall on Palestinian land.
Adeeb Abu Rahma has been charged with "being present in a declared military zone", "incitement" and "activity against public order". There is a real concern that the Ofer Military Court in the Israeli-occupied West Bank will convict him on Sunday.
Adeeb has already been convicted, and is facing a 2 year sentence for organizing protests of an illegally built wall in Palestinian land. That particular part of the Annexation Wall has been ordered changed by the Israeli Supreme Court so as to not deprive Palestinians of their necessary farmland...years ago, but the military, that has the final say in Israel, has ignored the order.
While Adeeb faces a harsh 2 year sentence, the murderer of Tom Hurndall (he was killed as he moved children out of harm's way), who only faced a trial due to international pressure, left prison after only serving 5 years of an already short 8 year sentence. His superiors, who gave him instructions to kill anything that moved, never faced any accountability.
Israel does Not Share Our Values