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Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell 'Appalled' by State's Tracking of Activists
HARRISBURG - Gov. Rendell said Tuesday that he was "appalled" and "embarrassed" that his administration's Office of Homeland Security has been tracking and circulating information about legitimate protests by activist groups that do not pose a threat to public safety.
Rendell said he did not know that the state Office of Homeland Security had been paying an outside company to track a long list of activists, including groups that oppose drilling in the Marcellus Shale, animal-rights advocates, and peace activists.
The office then passed that information on to large groups of people, including law enforcement and members of the private sector.
In doing so, Rendell said, the Homeland Security Office had distorted and made a mockery of the state's responsibility to protect "critical infrastructure," and collect and share credible plots to harm it.
"Let me make this as clear as I can make it," the governor said at news conference Tuesday night, pounding his fist on the podium. "Protesting against an idea, a principle, a process, is not a real threat against infrastructure. Protesting is a God-given American right, a right that is in our Constitution, a right that is fundamental to all we believe in as Americans."
Rendell said that he will not fire or discipline anyone in the Office of Homeland Security, headed by director James F. Powers Jr., for the lapse. But he said he ordered the office to terminate its contract with Philadelphia-based Institute of Terrorism and Research Response, which he said has been paid $125,000 in the last year to gather data about possible security threats.
Instead, the governor said, the company passed on alerts about legitimate protests - and the state Homeland Security Office then disseminated them in an intelligence bulletin that it publishes three times a week.
The bulletin included information about a PrideFest by gays and lesbians; a rally that supported his administration's education policy; and an anti-BP candlelight vigil.
"Tell me, what critical infrastructure does the gay and lesbian PrideFest threaten?" Rendell asked. "How in the Lord's name can we consider them to be terrorists?"
Reached last night for comment, Mike Perelman, the institute's codirector, said he "respects the confidentiality of our clients," and does not discuss them.
The controversy over the Homeland Security Office's intelligence bulletins came to light after one became public last week. The August bulletin included a list of forthcoming - and mostly public - hearings involving Marcellus Shale natural-gas drilling, and noted that they would be attended by anti-drilling activists. It also listed a planned screening of the controversial movie Gasland in Philadelphia.
The bulletin also mentioned planned demonstrations and activities by several other groups, including antiwar and antinuclear activists; anarchist groups; and a Philadelphia-based animal-rights group that is planning a protest against a rodeo in Montgomery County this month. The bulletin was disseminated to law enforcement as well as a number of drillers and others in the private sector.
That quickly sparked an outcry from anti-drilling and other environmental and activist groups, who raised the question of whether state government was acting as a security agent for private energy interests. They also raised concerns about whether there was any evidence that the groups being tracked posed a real threat.
"I remember when Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were enemies of the state," said Eric Epstein, a Harrisburg activist and founder of RockTheCapital.org. "When did Lassie, Mother Nature, and vegetarians become the Axis of Evil?"
Added longtime Harrisburg activist Gene Stilp: "What you have is the government of Pennsylvania aligning with the drillers - and that's not the way Pennsylvania should be."
Powers told the Patriot-News of Harrisburg earlier this week that there recently have been several acts of vandalism against the natural-gas industry. But state officials would not provide details Tuesday about those acts or evidence they were committed by anti-drilling groups in the state.
The Homeland Security memo cites an extract from an August FBI bulletin that states that "environmental extremists continue to target the energy industry." Although the incidents have mostly involved "vandalism, trespassing and threats by environmental activists . . . this pattern is beginning to morph - transitioning to more criminal, extremist measures."
When the memo was made public, Powers e-mailed a person he believed had posted it on the Internet and wrote that it was meant only for those "with a valid need to know."
"We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders, while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies," Powers wrote.
According to state officials, the state's intelligence memo is sent to a large list of people, including law enforcement. It is also sent to people in private industry - such as the gas industry - if their sectors are included in the memo. Providing that information to those entities helps "increase situational awareness for public safety officials," said Maria Finn, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the Homeland Security Office.
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24 Comments so far
Show AllPoor Gov. Rendell, soon to be replaced by an tea-partioid big-Gas-Big-Coal extremist, shouldn't be suprised. What sort of poeple would be attracted to employment at the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security, an "Institute of Terrorism and Research Response", the FBI, or any Police department anyway.
Reactionary, power-worshiping thugs and pigs - all of them.
you are 100% correct sabo. This sounds like police state bs.
how dare people stand up to irresponsible asshole companies that will destroy the environment and people's drinking water.
the article that was on cd just a few days ago about this fracting crap polluting the ground water in one community in wyoming should be a warning signal about what will happen.
matt
galveston tx
The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response is an Israeli company. All the information collected while the company spied on Americans goes first to Jerusalem to be sliced and diced and, after careful editing, selected bits are sent to Washington DC. Homeland Security has outsourced US security to a foreign government. Who sees anything wrong with that?
Some days, it seems as though It's not a 'foreign' gov't....(wink,wink).
So, the governor is "appalled," but will not fire anyone. I wonder what you would have to do to a person's civil rights before you would be fired?
Ed Rendell is a liar, with a long public record of lies.
And we all know damned well that the multi-billions of USD being spent on various manifestations of "homeland" security, include plenty of tracking of the activities of everyday people, and plenty of targeting activists on all kinds of everyday issues.
The genuine security risk is a beast called Homeland Security.
Nice lip service to civil liberties but the key phrase is "Rendell said that he will not fire or discipline anyone in the Office of Homeland Security, headed by director James F. Powers Jr., for the lapse."
The perps should not only be fired but charged, tried and convicted of federal first amendment violations...oh sorry, got carried away...for a second, I was daydreaming that we actually lived in the kind of society Gov Rendell is describing above.
My thoughts also. Appalled, but won't hold anyone responsible. Nice lip service.
My family was targeted by an Israeli intelligence private contractor. Then 29 SWAT (including Federal) with full body armor, automatic weapons, landed a big helicopter, attacked our home, battered out window and doors, fired pyrotechnic tear gas throughout the house, started fires, broke plumbing, tore out wires, shot our dogs, and battered me on a hood of a SUV. (I unfortunately offered no resistance.) The papers they carried said I was "an enemy of the good citizens of the State of --".
The urgency was a planned press conference disclosing my new solar patent that proved solar energy cheaper than natural gas.
In the Federal civil rights suit the judge said national security exempts civil rights considerations. Those involved were fired but then reinstated when challenged with a jury that wanted protection from fear at all costs.
We are all vulnerable people, vulnerable to shock and awe, and PTSD.
The values we hold dear are just memories.
Pennsylvania has been tracking it's Quakers for more than 20 years. The only people that have anything to fear from the Quakers are so-called "Christians" who demonstrate absolute ignorance for the lessons from the great teacher, Jesus Christ.
isn't this common practice?
first of all, in a world that was actually based on majority opinion of many-sided issues, discussing the various sides would be logical, as the only way to let each person decide which way they would like to vote...
of course, that isn't what we have...we have a system in which the vote is controlled mechanism, a tool used to generate a predetermined outcome...
in this frame, any opinion countering the desired outcome cannot be tolerated, as that might encourage people to vote for it, and, the more people voting for options not condoned, the more suspicious opposing election results appear...
that the people have no direct method, other than the same corrupt voting cycles, of removing faulty public servants in any of the three branches should raise more than eyebrows...
one of the fundamentals in our current configuration is that vote totals must be 'credible', even if it means getting the supreme court to stop the counting before it is finished...
interesting gaps between results and exit polls over the last few elections...
protest=terrorism...this is the line in the sand, folks...
they have declared physical war upon political opponents...
and the drones are rolling off of the assembly lines...
dubet,
good points, your observation "isn't this common practice" was echoing in my brain-case as i read this article. if it's happening in PA, it's happening in states across america. especially if it was coordinated through HSA.
...peace...
Many of us knew long ago that the creation of a multi-billion-dollar agency called the Department of Homeland Security would end up manufacturing threats. After all, cushy jobs are at stake.
From the article:
"'We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders, while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies,' Powers wrote."
Powers is head of the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security. He is using the powers of the State to "support" "natural gas stakeholders" who claim that they do not have to tell governments what chemicals they use for fracking, calling such information "proprietary," while contaminating water supplies, including those in the multi-state area of the Marcellus shales.
Propublica.org has published dozens of articles on this huge national issue.
Powers should be sued into homelessness and be required to drink benzene. His published statement demonstrates an INTENT to grossly misuse the powers of government. If you contaminate my water well you can be damned sure I'll be "fomenting dissent" against you. I might even kill you if given the chance. Some people will do anything for a buck. They are sociopaths. Powers is obviously a sociopath and his stance has about it the stench of kickbacks.
-30-
Dear Gov. Rendell,
I applaud your efforts to bring Homeland security warrant less Surveillance
intrusions on citizens private activity into the public scrutiny.
But , the tip of the ice burg is all you have denounced.
Maybe that's all you know about, but 125000 is salery two DHS agents down in tampa florida.
I have been followed , stalked, humiliated, slandered in every waking minute for over two years 24-7 By communtiy watch right wing vigilante homeland secutrity stazi fools.
They have come from everywhere , including Pensylvania to follow and stalk me. .
Trust me , your problem and our problem in America with this intrution on fourth amendment rights is in the billions.
well ... at least someone recalls the quote that begins "first they came for..." and is willing to take action.
Thank you Gov Rendell.
Rendell will be targeted next. Welcome to hell, American style. And you're dead right, Sabocat.
'Homeland Security'. Fuck off.
I don't usually believe in firing the people but in this case the public trust has clearly been violated and in secret, to benefit certain corporations
Powers should not be directing that office anymore
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
If we lived in a functional democratic republic with an informed, engaged electorate that included the roughly 80 million mostly poor and minority voters who haven't bothered to vote for nearly 15 years (because they've been long abandoned by both dominant Parties), then such activities would be prosecuted and this Israeli fascist front corporation shut down because Governor Rendell, his stooge and the company's executives are all operating in violation of the Constitution.
Welcome to Homeland Insecurity, Rendell! Time to smell the coffee.
ALSO SEE: "The mysterious institute that spied on Pa. anti-drilling activists" ~ by Isaiah Thompson, citypaper.net, 09/15/10
(excerpt)...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...
ENTIRE POST - http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2010/09/15/the-mysterious-agency-that-spied-on-pa-drilling-activists/
These crazy people we call our Leaders only leave if they want to. Look at the Govenor of South Carolina, he clearly broke the law, and the trust of the people of S.C. but he decided he did not want to go, so he didn't. Hence, he was above the law ! I am sure every person that signs petitions in this Country,in these times ,are on "Lists" and when they decide to go completely Wacko, like Mad Leaders of the past have gone, say like if Sarah Palin becomes President. we will have "Lists" and people will disapear. That clone of hers in Delaware, will help get things rolling by outlawing, and enforcing, Masterbation, one of her pet peves...Yep it is slowley slipping away...How humans can let history keep repeating itself, and not be able to rise above this terror mindset again, still after all these Centuries.
We as a race will not become what we are cable of, until we mature past letting evil, and greed take over our society ,we have done this already over and over, it's like we are in a big test and we keep failing,There is plenty of good in the world, but we keep letting the bad, and greedy people take over, and ruin everything. Then we stop them after millions suffer, and we rebuild, and fix everything, and then once again we let greed, and evil take over.When will we learn ? I hope it is before we destroy everything !
Bring America Back !!!!
***Pennsylvania should know about HS, since former
Gov Tom Ridge was King George, original clown Prince
of his Project Paranoia==terror is showing a red plus
orange light due to "They" hate us for our freedms
and dont you just know that. There wednt habeus corpus.
***But if Gov Rendell wants to extend his principles
to the national levels we shall support his effort
in here. Since Rendell did nothing about his own findings
of wrongdoing he would fit in real well with the present
culture of corruption in DC==not good !!
***We are so desperate for a Progressive to stand up, though,
that even this Tirade by Rendell sounded mighty darn good.
Be very afraid. There's a terrorist under every bed. The terror industry pays very well so terrorists must be manufactured.
" Environmental extremists continue to target the energy industry". F.B.I. bulletin. That memo says it all.