Leaked Documents: Private Security Used Anti-Terrorist Tactics Against Peaceful Water Protectors

Sign at Water Protectors Camp (2016) sending message to those conducting surveillance.

Leaked documents paint a disturbing picture about how a private security firm used anti-terrorism tactics against the water protectors who opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), according to a story in the news site “The Intercept.”

The private firm coordinated with local, state, and federal law enforcement to undermine the protest, the story said. “The documents also provide extensive evidence of aerial surveillance and radio eavesdropping, as well as infiltration of camps and activist circles.”

This news comes as DAPL is now fully operational, Standing Rock Chairman David Archambeau is found not guilty of protest-related crimes, and complaints are being investigated against Energy Transfer Partners for failing to follow the rules during DAPL’s construction.

The Monday report from The Intercept — Leaked Documents Reveal Counterterrorism Tactics Used at Standing Rock to “Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies” — is stunning. Here’s how it starts:

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.

Internal TigerSwan communications describe the [water protectors’] movement as “an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component” and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters.

The article is based on more than 100 internal documents leaked by a TigerSwan contractor, as well as more than  1,000 documents obtained through public records requests, the story said. Documents obtained “also suggest that TigerSwan attempted a counterinformation campaign by creating and distributing content critical of the protests on social media.”

Click here for the full story. For another take, check out this story in Consumer Affairs.

For more DAPL updates, keep reading.

Standing Rock to Challenge DAPL in Court Based on Water Rights; Trump Honors President Jackson, aka Indian Killer

The Standing Rock Nation will challenge the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in court  based in part on its federal water rights, according to Chairman David Archambault II. Archambault made his comments in an interview with MSNBC, posted online by Indian Country Today.

Archambault cited the “Winters Doctrine” as one reason that DAPL should be denied. According to a summary of the Winters Doctrine by the Congressional Resource Services:

Although the federal government has authority to regulate water, it typically defers to the states to allocate water resources within the state. The federal government maintains certain federal water rights, though, which exist separate from state law. In particular, federal reserved water rights often arise in questions of water allocation related to federal lands, including Indian reservations. Indian reserved water rights were first recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in Winters v. United States in 1908. Under the Winters doctrine, when Congress reserves land (i.e., for an Indian reservation), Congress also reserves water sufficient to fulfill the purpose of the reservation.

Nov. 15: Day of Action at St. Paul Army Corps of Engineers; UN Expert Issues First-Hand Report on DAPL

Indigenous leaders are calling on us to take to the streets and disrupt “business-as-usual” and demand that President Obama’s Army Corps of Engineers and the incoming administration stop the Dakota Access Pipeline — and all those after it.

On Tuesday, November 15th, join a massive day of action in solidarity with those at Standing Rock, and demand the Federal government and the Army Corps reject this pipeline.

Details: Tuesday, Nov. 15 at noon at the Army Corps of Engineers Centre, 180 5th Street East, St. Paul. Event page here.

(The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a key decision maker in issuing permits to allow DAPL to drill under the Missouri River.)

As a reminder to allies, several faith communities have taken a position supporting the Standing Rock Nation and others opposing the Dakota Access Pipeline. Here are the statements from the:

• Episcopal Church,
• United Church of Christ,
• Presbyterian Church USA,
• Unitarian Universalist,
• Dakotas and Minnesota Area of the United Methodist Church, and the
• Mennonite Central Committee, Central States.

If you are a member of one of these communities, please consider attending this event. (If you are not a member of one of these communities, please consider attending.)

Those sponsoring this event include: Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN); Honor the Earth; 350.org; Native Organizers Alliance; National Nurses United; Greenpeace USA; Food and Water Watch; Daily Kos; Natural Resources Defense Council; Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth.

Remember, too, that tomorrow (Saturday) several fundraisers for the Water Protectors are being held along Franklin Avenue.

For information on a recently released United Nations report on the situation near Standing Rock, keep reading.