Searching for Snitches: A response to "To take on the Wild Beast"

from Puget Sound Anarchists:

On May 13th, an article called "To take on the Wild Beast" was posted on Portland Indymedia, calling for readers to snitch on a big list of leftists, radicals, and anarchists. Back in January, an article similar to "To take on the Wild Beast" showed up on Portland Indymedia and a bunch of other Indymedia websites around the world. The article insinuated (but did not outright say) that a bunch of different radical (and some not-so-radical) activist-type groups and ideologies were wanted by the police and FBI. The article encouraged readers to call a number of snitch hotlines and report for cash rewards.

At the time, Olympia Rising Tide (one of the groups mentioned) released this statement, originally posted at http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/13524 and http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2011/01/405571.shtml:
"An article titled 'In the Fight to Make a Better World' recently appeared on several Indymedia websites, including Portland Indymedia. The article began,
'You read indymedia, chances are you know some protesters who are wanted by the police and the FBI. The good news is that now you can receive a big cash reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of crimanals [sic]. It's easy just a quick call. and if you know more that one person you can get multiple REWARDS up to $2000 for each . for information leading to the arrest of known criminals and subversive group activity.'

"The article then listed a wide-ranging and diverse collection of activist groups, movements, and political parties, including Democracy Now!, the Animal Liberation Front, Socialist Labor Party, and 'Anarcist [sic] book fair,' among many others. We were very surprised to see our name on this list, right in between Cascadia Rising Ecodefense and Freedom for Animals. The article finishes by providing contact information for various federal agency snitch lines, including the FBI and Homeland Security.

"Although the implicit premise of this article is that Olympia Rising Tide (and everyone else mentioned) are wanted by the police and FBI for criminal activity, it is important to note that Shayne O'Neill, the supposed author of this fishing expedition article, never actually accuses us of any criminal activity, nor of being wanted by the police or FBI. Olympia Rising Tide is a legal, aboveground community group. We have never carried out any illegal actions in the fight for a just and sustainable world. Some people do perform underground actions to dismantle oppressive power structures, but those are tactics that Olympia Rising Tide chooses not to use. The police and FBI have no grounds on which to accuse us of any illegal activity - that is why they are looking for people who read Indymedia to provide that non-existent information.

"Fishing expeditions (searches for information on groups disliked by the State and Capital but about whom the State has no incriminating information) are a scare tactic used to neutralize groups who are effective at creating change. The police wish to silence us by sowing fear, distrust, and misinformation in our community. We believe we are being targeted because we are vocal, uncompromising, and effective (qualities any social or climate justice group should be proud to claim), not because we have broken any laws.

"It is important to remember that nothing good ever comes from talking to the police. If you don't talk, they won't have any information. The majority of convictions of activists would not be possible were it not for informants, undercover agents, and snitches. Even if you think you are going to 'clear up our name,' it is better to say nothing at all. If questioned by police, remember that the only thing you should say is 'I am going to remain silent. I would like to speak with my lawyer.' Without voluntary snitches, the police would be much less effective at neutralizing activist groups. However much reward money you are offered (and do you really think they'll deliver on that promise?), it is never worth it to betray your friends, comrades, and the movement. And statistically, people who snitch receive sentences that are just as long, if not longer, than those who refuse to talk. If you snitch you're not 'just telling them what they already know,' you're giving them the tools to fabricate charges where they couldn't before, and you're setting back the movement. If you incriminate others, you are also incriminating yourself and making yourself a target of investigation.

"This false insinuation that Olympia Rising Tide is comprised of known criminals and is wanted by the police and FBI is part of the larger crackdown on environmental and animal rights activists known as the Green Scare. Activists who carry out non-violent but illegal activities in furtherance of animal or earth liberation are demonized as violent terrorists. This 'terrorism' rhetoric is used to prevent people from speaking out in the first place, and justify the criminalization of previously free speech. The government is not going after us for breaking the law, they're going after us because we're effective. For more information on the Green Scare, check out www.greenisthenewred.com.

"Anyone who has information on Shayne O'Neill or the source of the original article is asked to please contact Olympia Rising Tide at olympia@risingtidenorthamerica.org. If you believe you have been harassed because of your political beliefs, affiliations, or perceived political beliefs and affiliations, please contact the National Lawyers Guild's Green Scare hotline: 1-888-NLG-ECOL.

"Olympia Rising Tide will not be scared into passivity, nor will we allow ourselves to be neutralized by unfounded allegations of criminal activity. We will continue to remain vocal, uncompromising, and effective in confronting the root causes of climate change."

(To be clear, the article you are reading now was not written by Olympia Rising Tide, just some anarchists who appreciated their previous commentary and found it to still be pertinent.)

The most significant difference between the article that appeared in January and the one that appeared on May 13 is the terrorism rhetoric. In the previous article, the author only insinuated that the people and organizations listed were known criminals and wanted by the police and FBI. In this article, the author goes ones step further and insinuates that the groups and people are domestic terrorists. Whatever government agency wrote this call for snitches can get away with the terrorism rhetoric because they didn't outright say “such-and-such group is a terrorist organization,” although the FBI and police have certainly done so in the past with many of the groups listed here, and could certainly get away with calling every one of these groups terrorists – not because anyone on this list inspires terror, but because the FBI and police can get away with whatever they want, including lying through their teeth.

We (the authors of what you are reading now) are anarchists. We are under no illusions that the State has our best interests at heart. This attempt to gather information on radical and revolutionary groups is not the result of a few “bad apples.” This is how the State functions. We are under no illusions that the State will follow its own rules of conduct. If the State is ever forced to follow its own rules, it simply revises them. So while we are not surprised that it is gathering information on radicals (really, this is nothing new), we are pissed off and sick of this shit.

In their response to the initial snitching article, Olympia Rising Tide wrote of the criminalization of free speech. While we agree that the State is always looking for ways to silence more and more oppositional voices, we would like to shatter the illusion of “free speech.” Under the State and capitalism, speech has never been free for People of Color, poor people, queer and trans people, or any other number of targets of oppression. While it is crucial to support Green Scare prisoners and note how the government has fractured earth and animal liberation movements into “legal” versus “illegal” and “violent” versus “non-violent,” it is just as important to note the ways in which the government has also done so (and continues to do so) in communities of color, poor communities, and queer and trans communities.
To be clear, we are at war. Against the forces that oppress us and keep us miserable in all aspects of our lives, against capitalism and the State. We don't expect the State to play nice, but we expect people to recognize which side they're on and not sell out their comrades. Playing by the State's rules (whether that means avoiding illegality or adhering to Nonviolence) doesn't guarantee you won't be targeted. Debates over violence versus Nonviolence and whether or not property destruction constitutes “violence” are a dead end that serve to further neutralize all forms of resistance and further fracture the movement.
Finally, we would like to note that this snitch search has appeared on Indymedias all over the world. Almost every article is attributed to the name of a different author. We don't believe that the names listed are the actual authors (in all likelihood, whatever agency that wrote this bullshit just gathered a bunch of names from the internet), and we caution against taking action against anyone whose name appears on this article unless it can be verified that they actually had a hand in this.
- Some anarchists

Lead ELF Informant Jake Ferguson Arrested on Drug Charges

From Green is the New Red:  The government’s roundup of environmental activists in “Operation Backfire” was only possible because the lead arsonist, Jacob Ferguson, had agreed to wear a wire, travel the country, and prod his friends into talking about the crimes with the Earth Liberation Front.

The government has repeatedly called Ferguson a “hero.” U.S. Attorney Kirk Engdall has said he was “essential” to the largest investigation of the radical environmental movement in U.S. history.

In exchange for doing the government’s work for them, Ferguson, who was involved in about 18 arsons, was sentenced to no jail time and five years probation. In other words, the most prolific arsonist in the history of so-called “eco-terrorism” got a free pass.

But Ferguson was arrested on April 6, 2011, on drug charges and now faces prison time for violating these conditions. Today will be his first probation violation hearing at the Eugene federal courthouse.

I think this is worth highlighting for a few reasons. Ferguson’s drug history is not new information. In fact, the government used this against him in order to pressure him to become an informant. The FBI was well-aware of his personal history, but chose to ignore this because it was the only lead they had in arresting members of the ELF.

This is yet another example of how far the FBI has been willing to go, and the shady deals that agents are willing to make, in order to secure a victory in the “War on Terrorism.”

Simon Brenner - German Snitch in Antifa Scene

from Athens Indymedia:

German undercover agent also at NoBorder Camp 2010 in Bruxelles

On Sunday the 12th of December 2010 a undercover agent working for the Landeskriminalamt (LKA) Baden-Württemberg was uncovered in Heidelberg, Germany. His aim was to make contact with the Antifa scene via open left structures and to gather information about individuals as well as group structures to be presented directly to the LKA and the local state security division.

After three days of research and reconstruction the following has emerged:

Legend

The LKA informer had a German national identity card under the name of "Simon Brenner" (Nr.: 6920333978D-8604138-1511088), with the date of birth stated as 13.04.1986, born in the town of Leimen (Germany). Allegedly he formerly lived in Bad Säckingen in the Waldshut (Baden-Württemberg) area, which coheres with the license plate of his silver Nissan estate car (WT-??-???).

He used a mobile with the number 0049 (0) 151 20727114 0049 (0) 151 20727114 and the email addresses simonbrenner@ymail.com and californication@riseup.net, the latter has already been blocked. Under the user name 'californiaction' ha also wrote articles on Indymedia.

Got the Hollow Points for the Snitches (FTTP #4)

Snitch culture: historical examples and current proposals

"Homeboy was talking to the po-po, we had to let everybody that was a no-no, he thought he was on the low low, and was surprised when I hit him with the fou(4)-fou(4)" -Uncle Murda, "Bullet, Bullet"

With the growing wave of repression by the state towards direct action oriented struggles, radicals have been bombarded with the shameful concern of snitches and informants. In a struggle which is purely of choice and individual realization, as opposed to a rich cultural or family heritage, a valor dedication to one's community has been shamefully neglected by some. The following article provides a brief look into how radical communities of the past have approached traitors to the community, while at the same time proposing how more unique struggles can learn from it. It is an excerpt from the zine; "Got the Hollow Points for the Snitches".

To order a copy of this pamphlet, you can contact the email below: thegreenscare@gmail.com (Ed note: defunct as shit, thanks anon)

Green Scare Informant Darren Thurston Runs Computer Security Company

Update: Thurston was apparently at the Under the Volcano event in Vancouver last weekend, where a coordinator for his support committee, Megan Adams (of the resist[dot]ca collective), was shut out of an indigenous panel discussion touching on the repression of the American Indian Movement, including the decimation State informants wreaked upon AIM members. Good on the folks in Vanoc for knowing what's up and acting accordingly:

"If people such as members of the resist(dot)ca collective, Under the Volcano organizers and Megan Adam chose to maintain a friendship with Darren Thurston, that’s their own personal problem. Their inability to distinguish between the loyalty to their friend and loyalty to people whose lives have been damaged by their friend, should not stop the rest of us from preventing Thurston and his supporters from participating in activist or resistance activity, or jeopardizing wider resistance movements by allowing him continued access to activist social circles and organization, or to sensitive resources and infrastructure." Yep, couldn't have said it better. No cooperation!

-------

Hackbloc and Voice of the Voiceless offer extensive reports of Green Scare snitch Darren Thurston running his own computer security firm. His twitter feed hasn't updated since August 3rd. He goes by "rad_boy" and "hard_mac". Hackbloc says "Who needs good computer security when one of your friends will sell you down the river anyway?" and Voice of the Voiceless offers further analysis:

A warning to anyone who has received computer security services from someone going by hard_mac, or rad_boy: Your consultant was once working for the FBI, and may still be.
Thurston became an asset for the federal government in the Green Scare case after his arrest on arson charges for the 2001 torching by the Animal Liberation Front of a BLM wild horse holding barn in Susanville, California. In exchange for reduced charges, he implicated several others in serious arsons. Among them was Justin Solondz, who is serving a three year sentence in China on unrelated charges after being arrested there while a fugitive.
There is additional information about Thurston that may be of concern to activists. From Vancouver Anarchist Online Archive:

Concerning Potential Infiltration in Canada: "Khalid Mohammed"

Received anonymously, linked to the Brenda Doughtry case:

"From: The Coalition to see that the G20 infiltrators go fuck themselves

right in their own ears, until the process of self-termination is

completed! (TCTSTG20IGFTRITOE,UTPOS-TIC)

--------

a couple pics of so called Khalid Mohammed are attached. they are at a anti-olmypic torch demonstration on the Haldimand tract in the city of kitchener. one of them was in the toronto star.

so-called Khalid claimed to be 35, hailing originally from Kenya, and had a basically unlived-in apartmentin Guelph. he infiltrated or tried to infiltrate numerous actions and groups over his time in the region. He appeared at the Hanlon Creek Business Park land protection in the summer of 2009 but was not trusted by the entire camp, and he was eventually blocked from the site through the identification of a need offsite for a "dedicated" person. in an earlier attempt to infiltrate a group in guelph, he was asked to stop attending meetings as he was discussing and advancing a policy of property destruction - this was a group which had a mission to educate on the issue.

so-called Khalid always drove a large white van which he claimed to be related to his job as a superintendent for buildings around southern ontario. He offered it up whenever he could, whether for an action or to drive somebody home, or drive their younger siblings home, or someones mom, or grandfather. He always offered up his van to pick up alcohol as well, and had a limit for actions set at not being convicted; for then his "mother may not get status in Canada". He could not drive on weekends as those are days he saw his daughter who lives with her mother in Brampton. He had only a couple stories of his daughter that he would share. A seemingly helpful and engaged person. though this changed as time went on, and the g20 approached and the weekend restrictions on driving was over. he had all sorts of pins on the ceiling of his van - antifa, communist, anti-olympic, be the change, etc.

in Kitchener so-called Khalid never wanted to speak of internal issues or group process issues in the communities he infiltrated, just on action planning. what is more obvious now is that he never offered up any solid suggestions. or any relevant criticisms, just facilitated the continuing of action planning through soft questions, volunteering to help (usually drive or pay for gas, food, beer, etc) and consenting to proposals. he also did not speak of or propose property destruction - an uncommunicated change of tactics from the earlier guelph experience. he kept all his receipts. he gave people gifts from his hometown.

Police Infiltrate Anarchists and Activists (Guelph, Kitchener, Toronto)

UPDATE: We obtained photos of Brenda.

via Anarchist News dot Org:

"From April 2009 until July 2010, two undercover police officers infiltrated activist groups in Guelph, Kitchener and Toronto, Ontario. They are members of the “Joint Intelligence Group (JIG)” that focuses on extremism and terrorism. Its specific mandate has been for the Vancouver Olympics and Torch Relay, and the G8/G20 summits. It is an RCMP (National Police) led group that includes police forces collaborating from across Southern Ontario including Guelph, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Barrie, Kitchener/Waterloo and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).
The names the two undercover intelligence police officers used were “Brenda Dougherty” and “Khalid Mohammad”*.

Brenda Dougherty = Filthy Rat Goof Pig

“Brenda” is in her early 40’s, white, 5’3” tall, with short white and blonde hair, glasses, and an English accent and a Canadian flag tattoo (on her back?). Her story was that she had a job with flexible hours as a home caretaker. She said she was born in Victoria, Canada and lived in England for most of her childhood and adult life. She said that she moved back because she was in an abusive relationship/marriage. She said she moved to Guelph because she had a friend who could get her a job here. She also said that she got accepted to the university of Guelph and began doing part time courses. She said she didn’t talk to her family. Her apartment appeared pre-furnished, and didn’t really look lived-in. She occasionally appeared at events with her “boyfriend”, “John”, a 5’7 or 5’8 beefy native dude with brown hair who wore sunglasses and a hat. He had a US Marine Corps tattoo on one of his biceps that read USMC and had numbers under it.

Notes on the Toronto G20 Black Bloc

 Update: Watch this fucking video from the Stimulator. Anarchists started a riot in Toronto, not cops.

The Black Bloc against the G20 summit in Toronto was one of the fiercest, ruthlessly efficient and effective Blocs seen in North America in a considerable amount of time. This, of course, was brought by the momentum and experience gained by the anarchist movement in North America (under insurmountable odds in most circumstances) within the last fifteen years. Several police cars were set on fire, corporate property destruction and looting were rampant, and the pigs were fought in the street. This is what happened in Toronto.

There are a number of people denouncing the tactic and groups and individuals employing it, as per usual after these sorts of things. Some, like Judy Rebick, have gone far enough to claim that the Black Bloc is pretty much full of police officers committing the majority of the damage. This is just ignorant and clearly Judy is not well versed in the tactic or history of its deployment. There are always a small percentage of undercovers in the bloc, mostly planted for observation and to single out folks for the snatch squads. I'll quote the great essay on the matter by Oshipeya:

"To bolster her Toronto conspiracy theory, Rebick bring up the Montebello incident where masked cop infiltrators were exposed and the cops admitted the infiltration. She neglects to mention that it was the real black blocers who exposed the cops, not the union leader who couldn't understand the word “police” in French. She also, of course, doesn't bring up this year's March 15th anti-police demonstration in Montreal, where masked police attempting to infiltrate the demo were physically attacked and driven out.

Rebick uses the term “agent provocateur”, as others have. But do the cops really need to “provoke” the black bloc or others into burning cop cars or smashing corporate windows? You can't provoke a group to do what it is already doing and wants to be doing. You can only provoke people into doing what they wouldn't otherwise do. This is what the cops are concerned with most of all about the black bloc. That the bloc will inspire others who would like to riot but who feel isolated and unable to. That the black bloc will “provoke” others into doing what they already want to, joining in the fun."

In closing, SnitchWire would like to denounce the police state as well as breathe a short sigh of relief that there were no Brandon Darby/Anna/Andrew Darst scenarios unfolded before the summit went down. Hopefully, it stays that way. Solidarity with those arrested and to those that waged war on capitalism, the police, and the ruling class. If anyone has video/photos of undercover police officers from the demos, please email us to contribute our upcoming hot video jam of the summer: "Badly Disguised Swine Attempting to Infiltrate Resistance Demo."

Jordanian Double Agent Obliterates 7 CIA

A suicide bomber in Afghanistan has left imperialist intelligence communities stunned after he killed 7 CIA members and a Jordanian intelligence officer last week. When the story first broke, the first question raised was how did this man get so deep behind the wire and so close to high ranking officials? The answer is simple now: the bomber was working as a double agent, recruited by the CIA to penetrate the most inner workings of al-Qaida.

The bomber seized the opportunity of a face to face meeting with CIA officials to blow himself up after apparently making a deal with elements of the Pakistani Taliban.

Police Infiltrate Olympic Resistance Network Bus

Police in Vancouver, likely still in their finest dress and polished shoes after fielding questions to the press over the detention of Democracy Now! journalist Amy Goodman at the US/Canada border last week admitted to infiltrating a bus full of anti-Olympic protesters during an October 30th action against the Nazi torch relay. The ORN has issued a statement condemning the repression and infiltration:

"This latest revelation of police infiltration and surveillance reinforces the notion of an Olympic police state that anti-Olympic activists have long been warning about. Infiltration tactics, in conjunction with ongoing harassment of activists and a $1 billion police, security and military budget including high-tech equipment like the LRAD sonic gun and close circuit TV cameras, have created a chilly climate for the right to protest and the protection of basic civil liberties.

"Our organization and our activities are public. With allies in Victoria we organized a successful and disruptive protest with over 400 people. While the police will increase their surveillance activities and their attempts to divide us, we are seeing increasing resistance across the country with additional protests planned against the Torch relay in Quebec and Ontario. We encourage more residents who are enraged and affected by the impact of the Games to get involved and to express their right to dissent against this five ring circus of oppression."

 ---------------------
It seems that every day, resistance to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver grows stronger and with that, State repression follows and grows worse. Our solidarity to everyone resisting in Vancouver, stand strong, fight the pigs and see you in the streets against the games!

Feds Intimidating Folks in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz IMC is reporting that numerous people have had unannounced run-ins with the FBI at their workplaces and homes. The FBI have been asking about the AETA 4, a group of animal rights activists currently facing enormous repression and trumped up charges for masking up at a home demonstration.

The FBI has been making their rounds of intimidation in Santa Cruz recently.

We've just received reports that the FBI is showing up unannounced at people's workplaces and homes, asking questions about some or all of the AETA4, as well as other groups and movements of interest.

Know, that if you are visited by the FBI, that it is your absolute right to not speak to them. If they threaten you in any way, with charges, a subpoena or anything else, contact an attorney ASAP. When you are visited, it is vital to publicize it and let your community know ASAP.

To dispel any rumors circulating that these visits are connected to grand jury resistors Carrie Feldman and Scott Demuth cooperating with authorities, we would like to proclaim solidarity with Scott and Carrie and support their non-cooperation with the State. They are incredibly brave and anyone jumping to conclusions or engaging in bad jacketing is only doing the State's job for them and should quickly and quietly go fuck themselves.

Denver Anarchist Black Cross Releases FOA Documents from 04 Investigation

The newly-formed Denver Anarchist Black Cross has released documents pertaining to the 2004 investigation of the now-dissolved chapter of Denver's previous ABC. Correctly citing that they may be helpful to the public in revealing how FBI investigations are facilitated, they released 106 pages viewable here (90 megabyte + .PDF). Included is information and reports regarding what and who the FBI/JTTF were looking at in Denver in 04, including Food Not Bombs groups, anti-war groups, and the Denver ABC. Reading through it provides a glimpse into the infrastructure and thinking that goes into the State's profiling and investigation methods, and SnitchWire would encourage readers to take a look through the documents.

ALERT: INFILTRATORS IN SANTA CRUZ

A communique from comrades in Santa Cruz. Spread widely to comrades in the area!

Three people recently entered some radical spaces in Santa Cruz and behaved in ways that led many people who encountered them to conclude that they were police agents. What follows is a description of these individuals and a summary of the sequence of events that led people to draw these conclusions. Although it may seem at first glance that they might just be some stupid naive kids eager to impress, read the whole story first because it does look really bad. In fact, the best thing that could be said of them is that they're dangerously stupid and would therefore also be very unsafe people for that reason. Unfortunately no pictures were obtained.

THE CHARACTERS
Identifying themselves as "anarchist travelers", all of these people look like they're around 18-20, white, average height and size, wear alternative/"punk"-looking but strangely very clean clothes, and are very clean overall.
- "Kao" is male, cleanshaven, shoulder-length brown hair (often in a camo
headband), "conventionally attractive" features, anarchy-sign "tattoo" (?) on the side of his neck. Claims to be from Louisiana.
- "Carrie", "Casey" or possibly "Cammie": female, with braces, blond "fauxhawk" with sides shaves and some kind of rat tail or dread in the back, juggles a little, carries a ukulele around with her. From Laguna Beach, supposedly.
- Another male who didn't really say anything to anyone, no one seems to have caught his name, bearded, wearing a plaid shirt and carhartts.

THE STORY
The trio arrived late in the evening to the occupied Grad Student Commons at UCSC (see http://occupycalifornia.wordpress.com). They were mistakenly let in even though the informal policy was to only let in people who were known and trusted by someone inside. They were really vague about how they wound up there, where they were coming from or how they had heard about the occupation, but were interested very specifically in checking out the space and inquiring about future plans. Kao, who has a very macho "militant" demeanor, seemed to be in charge and doing most of the talking. They immediately wanted to inspect the barricades, "to see if they could be put together better"; Kao said he had military training and wanted to know about future plans such as other buildings to occupy. Kao was talking about organizing the takeover of another building himself and asked questions like "Do you have blueprints?" After making everyone extremely uncomfortable within about 5 minutes, and after a conversation in which Kao gave a lot of really vague and weird answers about what they were doing there, they were asked politely to leave on the grounds that they weren't known or trusted by anyone inside and people were going to sleep soon. During this conversation Kao also said that if anyone thought he was an informant, they should check out the anarchy sign tattoo on his neck.

Carrie came back the next day. Without asking anyone if it was ok, without anyone telling them they'd be allowed in the space again, she had left her phone plugged in in the main room, on and open. She asked for it back; it was returned to her (some people feel this was also a mistake (ED NOTE: It was.)). She was not allowed inside and a friend of ours had a long conversation with her. She expressed eagerness to do anything possible to support the occupation and reiterated that she and Kao were ready and willing to assume major roles in any future occupation or escalation of tactics, mentioning some buildings downtown and on campus that she thought could be taken over and/or destroyed. This is where it gets really fucked: She said that last night, after they were asked to leave, they got a ride downtown with a cop - as if in case we had followed them and watched them get into a cop car (no one actually saw where they went). She said the cop was really chill and they talked about the occupation. She said the cop told him they weren't "scared" of the occupiers and they should do something more intense and dramatic (like occupying a store downtown or blowing up a science building on campus). It is apparent to us that anyone who gets into a police car and chats about illegal activities is as good as a snitch whether that is actually their job or not.

Kao and Carrie also showed up at Sub Rosa infoshop and Chavez co-op and were asked to leave both places because people were uncomfortable with their behavior in those spaces, and because of what people had heard about them. They told people they were headed to Portland next.

STAY SAFE, FUCK THE POLICE
in solidarity,
your friends in santa cruz

Ex-Bloomington Cop Details RNC Undercover Work in Online Memoir

Twin Cities Indymedia is reporting ex-Bloomington police officer Richard Greelis' new memoir, "Cop Book" reveals more of the other side's tactics during the Republican National Convention in 2008. Most of the details are laughable misunderstandings, libelous advancements of State propaganda, and more or less useless, but there are some nuggets revealing how backwards "pig thinking" really is.

Rather than sending in cops--who typically look, dress, smell, act, and talk like cops--we sent in sources who were younger, better looking, and willing to work, either for dismissal of drug charges or simply for money.

One might think that all the good guys--the cops--would work together to achieve this goal, but such was the not the case. Politics and egos tended to get in the way. We saw this happen. Most guilty in this endeavor was a certain law enforcement administrator who wanted to be the overall, end-all boss of the cop element of the RNC. He wanted the credit for saving St. Paul from the sky that was, according to him, falling fast. As Chicken Little of the law enforcement community, he took great pleasure in his (rumored) off-the-record leaks to the media about the grave state of affairs in the upcoming RNC. (As much as it pains me to admit, some of his worries about the sky falling were substantiated.) In addition to airing his concerns, he tended not to play well with other cop-types who did not work for him--like our intel unit.

Little had a longtime, reliable undercover in the Welcoming Committee who was getting him good intel. When he learned that our intel unit had inserted a source into the group as well, he became adamant that we remove him; adamant enough that he followed our intel unit back to Bloomington from a surveillance in Minneapolis, and performed a traffic stop on the truck I as driving. Though he was also in an undercover car, I recognized him and pulled my truck into a commercial parking lot just off the freeway. When cops talk to one another in vehicles, they position their cars, driver's door to driver's door, and speak out the windows. This positioning is the results of both years of tradition and years of performing this manuever as patrol officers. But when I pulled around to talk to Little, he continued in a circle, guiding his car around behind me determined to execute a routine traffic stop on my vehicle. Denying him the pleasure of chasing us around in circles until we were all dizzy, I stopped and allowed him to position his car behind mine. After all, we were all cops here, and we were in my city. We weren't even in his county. He had no jurisdiction in Bloomington. As he approached the passenger side of my truck, Leigh reluctantly lowered her window. Expecting obsequiousness, or at least acquiescence, he was disappointed to find that Leigh and I staunchly defended our position and strategy. Though I had a good working relationship with Little's intel commander, there had been some miscommunication between agencies, and Little overreacted like a spoiled child.

...

Since we lost our undercover within the group, we decided to answer the Welcoming Committee's website solicitation to "Adopt a Sector" in St. Paul to protest from. ... Our intel unit made up an affinity group, gave it an appropriately provocative name, and got to work. We followed the Welcoming Committee's directions for claiming a sector and wrote our anti-capitalist manifesto which was then published on the RNCWC's website and other local and national radical websites. These anarchists are sharp, though! Days after adopting our sector, the Welcoming Committee's website started lighting up, smelling a cop-rat. The pronouns "we" and "they" had been used in such a way within the manifesto that, at times, the "we" became temporarily estranged from the "they," which constitutes a major faux-pas within a solidarity movement ...

Though shrewdly smelling our rat, they were never able to fully flesh us out. And although our adopted sector ended up being the site of several confrontations, I like to believe that our adoption of it caused an ulcer, or at least a gassy stomach, to the anarchist strategists.

This "made up affinity group" was Indy TACT, a fictional ad-hoc anti-capitalist group that attempted to make a claim for sector 2 during the RNC mobilization. Richard Greelis sounds like a stark, raving lunatic and if he had any hand in writing that lame ass "anti-capitalist manifesto" I would imagine the rest of his book is more ham-handed bullshit put to paper. Fucking cops. You give them a badge, a gun, and a car and they think they're actually making a difference. "Good guys." What a maroon.

Teen Held at Gun Point, Pistol Whipped After Being Accused of Snitching

-In Shelby, North Carolina a 16 year old boy was held at gun point and pistol whipped after being accused of snitching by a 19 year old assailant.

-The American corporate media is running through the "snitch label is hurting communities omg the violence" gauntlet once again following violence in Chicago. None of these articles discussed community solutions to crime, nor addressed the sometimes disproportionate State responses either; instead simply concentrating on how the authorities need to step up their presence. Likely a push for iWatch and more fusion centers spying on citizens with impunity.

-The Canadian newspaper the National Post ran a story about the ineffectiveness and notorious unreliability of jailhouse snitches. It is an incredibly interesting read, especially when transcribing the situation into outside-prison experiences. Most informants are paid in some way, and the motivation for prison snitches and paid rats on the outside is exactly the same.

Analyzing iWatch, the State's New Snitch Program

It's only natural that Big Police is banding together around iWatch, the latest barrage of publicly accessible counter-measures to "combat terrorism." Citing conveniently the biggest and latest terror scare in which an Islamic man bought a lot of haircare supplies in Denver allegedly to make bombs and was subsequently taken down by a tip from a cashier; the police are more than anxious to implement a nation-wide snitch program. All coordinated by "fusion centers", places that were not known about by the general public but known quite well by activist groups and anti-surveillance advocates, this program is supposed to encourage the public to "say something if they see something."

Uh oh.

Propaganda for the program includes guidelines as to what to watch for. Things like smelling chemicals or fumes (we already see the radical print shop raids), wearing clothes that are too big or too heavy to be "in season" (whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!), asking about building security, and purchasing supplies or equipment that could be used to make bombs ("One could make all sorts of explosives using common household items" -Tyler Durden). Former FBI agent and ACLU policy counsel Mike German, who worked on terrorism cases, is correct in his assumption that these are all relatively common behaviors and that most people will fall back on personal bias and stereotyping.

Most disturbing is how ubiquitous officials plan the program to be, likening their ambitions to that of the Smokey the Bear forest fires campaign. This will only hurt trust and relationships within communities, foster paranoia, possibly enforce further racial segregation and turn American towns into East Germany.

A Warning About "GUN" The New Social Networking Website for Radicals

According to posts on Indymedia sites:

'The Guerrilla Underground Network (GUN) is an autonomous & rhizomal co-mutiny of resistance, & is open to all who seek social change from below.

You can customize your page, share photos, post your own videos and music, post blogs, start your own groups, CHAT, and much more! Feel free to invite your friends.

Obviously social networking (mapping) sites are sketch as fuck and should be approached with caution and the utmost security culture (see our Online Security discussion for tips on internet anonymity), but hey, it's better than facebook or myspace.

Hope to see you there.

guerrillaunderground.ning.com"

SnitchWire STRONGLY cautions people to NOT USE this site. Here are our reasons for doing so.

1. It is hosted on a third party host (ning.com) (like Geocities or Blogger for social networking sites). This means that ALL information gathered by this site is viewable by a third party.

2. The domain registration information for Ning.com does not list any real names, only their postal address (735 Emerson St. Pal Alto, CA).

3. The property listed in the domain registration is owned by "Strategic Decisions Group" which sounds like an intel collection firm if we've ever heard of one. According to their website "Strategic Decisions Group is a strategy consulting firm renowned for its expertise in strategic decision-making, risk management, and shareholder value creation." On their website, they list their allies and customers. Among the list is Nuclear Power, known gentrifying forces, and pretty much anybody evil you can think of. They were targeted by Santa Cruz activists for their association with military recruiting centers.

4. The advertising on ning.com will hand over your IP address to advertisers such as Google and anybody who chooses to buy an ad (as they must be displayed to you, causing you to connect to them). If you have javascript enabled, these banners can grab your browser history. If you have javascript and flash enabled (if YouTube works for you), even using the "clear private data" function on your computer/browser won't protect you from things such as flash cookies.

5. Ning.com has a horrible privacy policy, allowing them source information about you from external sources and release your personally identifiable information if "we have a good-faith belief that doing so is required by a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order or otherwise required by law". In other words, they don't require a warrant or other legal process, only the threat that it will be enforced. "Additionally, Ning may disclose Personal Information where we, in good faith, deem it appropriate or necessary to prevent violation of the Ning Terms of Service, or our other agreements; take precautions against liability; protect the rights, property, or safety of Ning, any individual, or the general public; maintain and protect the security and integrity of our services or infrastructure; protect ourselves and our services from fraudulent, abusive, or unlawful uses; investigate and defend ourselves against third-party claims or allegations; or assist government enforcement agencies." SO, they'll be giving your information to anybody in a suit who asks for it if they aren't the suits themselves. They will also give your information to any entity who buys Ning. It's worth nothing that many such services and organizations have been set up by spooks in the past for the purpose of gathering information.

6. Social networking in general is a bad idea. There's no reason to use it given the privacy you're giving up.

7. Tech collectives that have a long track record in the activist world such as Riseup.net already have social networking platforms such as crabgrass (we.riseup.net) if you really must use social networking.

8. Unlike Riseup and other activist-run services who encrypt the data on their servers and have vowed to protect their user information (and only gather it when absolutely necessary), Ning does not encrypt their information or at least I couldn't find any proof of it.

9. In their posts advertising their site, they encourage people to check out the "security advice" on their website, which suggests that people use a one-hop proxy to "protect their anonymity" but these proxies are completely worthless. They also provide non-https links to https://www.torproject.org and other legitimate anonymity/encryption systems, allowing an intermediary (such as the NSA) to see what you're doing on those sites with ease. It also allows an intermediary to inject a fake program in place of the real program without your knowledge.

Anybody with additional interesting information is encouraged to contact SnitchWire (at) gmail [ dot] com. If you get down with encryption, use our PGP key.

FBI Says Terror Probes Aren't "Informant Driven... This is the Real Thing"

In the raids against possible Islamic terrorists in Queens and Denver this week, a former senior counter-terrorism official told the NY Daily News that "This is not some ... FBI informant-driven case. This is the real thing." Is he implying that cases supported by evidence gathered by informants are not as credible? That's how we read it, at least. Juxtaposing that quote into the context of say, the Green Scare or the RNC8 case makes things very interesting. How come Marie Mason has to do 20 years if she wasn't "the real thing?"

EnCana Put Out $1 Million Reward for Pipeline Bomber

EnCana has doubled it's original offer of $500,000 to $1 million in an effort to capture the likely environmentally motivated "Pipeline Bomber." The bomber has struck six targets in nine months and has only invoked a loss of profits; none of lives or limbs. If you watched this week's episode of "It's the End of the World as We Know It and I Feel Fine" from the stimulator, you'd already know all about this shit, and why the Pipeline Bomber should be a world-renowned hero instead of a hunted "terrorist."



Did you watch it? Well, now you know about how evil the "motherfucking tar sands" are, you may have been introduced to your new favorite program, AND you learned about SnitchWire's new favorite anonymous, autonomous superhero! But anyway, SnitchWire encourages all readers to try and get that cool million by framing a Nazi instead!

BAD INFORMANT WEEK

• A disgusting portrait of right-wing blogger, white supremacist and FBI informant Hal Turner is being featured in Wired Magazine's Threat Level this week; detailing how federal agencies trained him to straddle the line of the law while still inciting hateful violence. Turner was paid tens of thousands of dollars to "disseminate right-wing rhetoric" as an "agent provocateur."An interesting component to this case is that Turner was outed as working with the FBI by the Scientology-hating, /b/-dwelling Anonymous, who as very well many of you may know are Internet Superheroes.
• Albert Gonzalez helped the Secret Service hunt down hackers as an informant, now he is being charged with the largest data breach in United States history. Prosecutors also believe he held the record before that as well, making this 28 year old rat one hell of a computer hacker. Albert came away with loot amounting to 130 million credit and debit card accounts.
• Officials in St. Louis want to hold informants more accountable for the information they may or may not be giving to the police. The police, in return, could be fabricating evidence and violating civil rights. Naturally, the Pigs are trying to block legislation.