Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, seems to have hired a goon squad to spy on protestors. From The Intercept
A SHADOWY INTERNATIONAL mercenary and security firm known as TigerSwan targeted the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline with military-style counterterrorism measures, collaborating closely with police in at least five states, according to internal documents obtained by The Intercept. The documents provide the first detailed picture of how TigerSwan, which originated as a U.S. military and State Department contractor helping to execute the global war on terror, worked at the behest of its client Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota Access Pipeline, to respond to the indigenous-led movement that sought to stop the project.
As you might recall, protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation drew public attention to yet another massive oil pipeline snaking its way across country. The tribe objected to the proximity of the pipeline to the lake that provides their drinking water, the Missouri River watershed, and sacred burial grounds. Activists from other indigenous tribes and environmental groups joined the protests on the Reservation last summer and fall. Energy Transfer Partners was not amused.
More than 100 internal documents leaked to The Intercept by a TigerSwan contractor, as well as a set of over 1,000 documents obtained via public records requests, reveal that TigerSwan spearheaded a multifaceted private security operation characterized by sweeping and invasive surveillance of protesters.
As policing continues to be militarized and state legislatures around the country pass laws criminalizing protest, the fact that a private security firm retained by a Fortune 500 oil and gas company coordinated its efforts with local, state, and federal law enforcement to undermine the protest movement has profoundly anti-democratic implications. The leaked materials not only highlight TigerSwan’s militaristic approach to protecting its client’s interests but also the company’s profit-driven imperative to portray the nonviolent water protector movement as unpredictable and menacing enough to justify the continued need for extraordinary security measures. Energy Transfer Partners has continued to retain TigerSwan long after most of the anti-pipeline campers left North Dakota, and the most recent TigerSwan reports emphasize the threat of growing activism around other pipeline projects across the country.
“Sweeping and invasive surveillance of protestors” does indeed have an anti-democratic feel to it. Yes, a large company reacts to nonviolent protests and lawsuits that threaten to delay a controversial project by hiring a military contractor to spy on and intimidate public dissent. This private security firm swoops up electronic communications, hacks into devices, and conducts high tech surveillance on American citizens without any warrant, without even a whiff of judicial supervision. The private spooks then feed local and federal law enforcement “intel” about a bunch of “jihadist-like” insurgents that are threatening progress on a critical infrastructure project. Nonviolent protestors are then hit with tear gas, pepper spray, water cannons, and acoustic weapons by law enforcement agencies. In the eyes of TigerSwan, America as just another battlefield.
“While we can expect to see the continued spread of the anti-DAPL diaspora … aggressive intelligence, preparation of the battlefield and active coordination between intelligence and security elements are now a proven method of defeating pipeline insurgencies.”
In case you have forgotten some of the details of the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, here is a brief documentary that shows you the protest movement and the heavy-handed response by militarized law enforcement. The indigenous organizers of the Standing Rock protests are predominantly young women who are proud of their heritage and feel a strong moral obligation to protect the land for future generations. These pipeline insurgents dared to chant and pray near where construction crews were laying pipe on land gobbled up through liberal use of eminent domain.
Hiring a private security firm to spy on and intimidate opposition has a long, storied history in the United States. The actions of TigerSwan against the Standing Rock protestors have endless parallels with the Pinkertons of yesteryear. From Wiki:
During the labor strikes of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, businessmen hired the Pinkerton Agency to infiltrate unions, supply guards, keep strikers and suspected unionists out of factories, and recruit goon squads to intimidate workers. One such confrontation was the Homestead Strike of 1892, in which Pinkerton agents were called in to reinforce the strikebreaking measures of industrialist Henry Clay Frick, acting on behalf of Andrew Carnegie.[4] The ensuing battle between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led to the deaths of seven Pinkerton agents and nine steelworkers.[5] The Pinkertons were also used as guards in coal, iron, and lumber disputes inIllinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia as well as the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 and theBattle of Blair Mountain in 1921. The organization was pejoratively called the "Pinks" by its opponents.
In what seemed like a major victory for the Standing Rock resistance, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers denied the permit for the pipeline to cross the Missouri and ordered an environmental impact study in December. The victory was short-lived. Within days of his inauguration, the great orange asshat scribbled an executive order to move ahead with the pipeline as critical infrastructure. The pipeline had its first spill before it was even fully operational.
Although state officials said the 6 April leak was contained and quickly cleaned, critics of the project said the spill, which occurred as the pipeline is in the final stages of preparing to transport oil, raises fresh concerns about the potential hazards to waterways and Native American sites.
“They keep telling everybody that it is state of the art, that leaks won’t happen, that nothing can go wrong,” said Jan Hasselman, a lawyer for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, which has been fighting the project for years. “It’s always been false. They haven’t even turned the thing on and it’s shown to be false.”
Today, the disaster to come Dakota Access Pipeline started pumping oil. Meanwhile, the sloppy practices of Energy Transfer Partners on another pipeline made a big mess in Ohio.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has curtailed work on a natural-gas pipeline in Ohio after the owner, Energy Transfer Partners, reported 18 leaks and spilled more than 2 million gallons of drilling materials.
America is becoming great again — a great fucking mess, lead by fossil energy companies and the corrupt politicians that serve them.
“We can’t back down now. We have to continue to stand to protect the water for future generations. I’m not scared for myself, but I admit I am frightened for the future.”
— Linda Black Elk, a member of the Catawba Nation who works with the Standing Rock Medic & Healer Council
I, too, am frightened for the future. #NoDAPL