The FBI Issued Warning To Law Enforcement Agencies After Being Duped By A Satirical 'Paid Protester' Website

from the our-nation's-best-and-brightest-I-guess dept

The federal government's "Fusion Centers" -- overseen by the DHS -- continue to provide us with the least bang for our federal buck. DHS officials have told Congress that the real purpose of the centers -- supposedly designed to gather intelligence about threats to the country -- is to generate conversations about terrorism. And those conversations are meant to portray the DHS as useful and worthy of continued funding.

Officials behind the false claims told Senate investigators that such reports weren’t meant to be “finished intelligence” and that despite their report’s inaccuracies and sloppy wording they considered it to be a “success.”

“[It did] exactly what it’s supposed to do – generate interest,” DHS officials told Senate investigators.

That's really not something we need. The country has plenty of terrorism awareness already. It doesn't need to have its time and money wasted on half-baked reports written by apparently half-baked DHS officials. Nor does it need the combined forces of federal and local law enforcement generating "leads" from citizens who are more racist than terrified, and pretending these bigoted assertions are useful intelligence. From this so-called "intelligence," DHS components (along with their local partners) head out into the field to violate rights and privacy. All this does is generate antipathy and waste tax dollars.

Apparently, government agencies will believe almost anything anyone tells them. How that's going to fight a war on terror is anyone's guess. A long-dormant satirical site recently became the focus of Fusion Center intel gathering, most likely thanks (at least in part) to some helpful citizens whose heads the joke sailed over.

A satirical website offering “rioters” for $99 each — with a “Car/Dumpster fire upgrade option available” — was cited by the FBI as evidence that “violent agitators” were being paid to cause mayhem in the early days of the George Floyd protests. Anti-terrorism agencies known as Fusion Centers, including the one in Maine, spread the bogus warning to local police departments, likely contributing to increased tension and conflict between officers and demonstrators in the streets.

A Situational Information Report by the FBI’s San Antonio Division, dated June 3, states: “unidentified individuals discussed various websites for payment to agitate and commit violent acts.” Payments to “violent agitators” were made “anonymously via Bitcoin” and “were rumored to be managed by members of Antifa.” The report claims “targets and locations were also discussed on the websites.”

The website, Protestjobs.com, was created in 2017 in response to conspiracy theories about George Soros funded paid protesters disrupting Trump events. After some initial popularity, the site receded into the internet background. But its popularity surged again after the George Floyd protests began, as theorists once again sold themselves on the idea that widespread civil unrest was actually the result of paid protesting.

The site's recent popularity generated articles at BuzzFeed and Reuters, both of which pointed out the site was satirical. Its popularity among conspiracy theorists resulted in a Snopes post debunking the notion that the site was actually offering paid protesters to whoever wanted to buy them.

We would expect debunkings like this to fail to persuade conspiracy theorists. What we wouldn't expect is for the nation's top investigative agency to do zero due diligence before informing other government agencies about this supposedly dangerous site.

Yet that same day, June 3, the FBI office in Texas was taking Protest Jobs deadly serious. Its report states: “The company offers a variety of protest packages that include, but are not limited to, proving spray paint artists, broken storefront windows, and car and dumpster fire upgrade options.”

The official warning sent to local cops in early June by the Maine Information and Analysis Center (MIAC) and other Fusion Centers linked to that report and said it “discusses the use of various websites for payment to individuals who agitate and commit violent acts during protests.”

Look, we understand securing the nation is a round-the-clock job. And it's not an easy one. But when civil liberties and privacy are on the line -- as they always are when there's a Fusion Center in operation -- we would prefer to see our intelligence gathering public servants be a bit more intelligent. The FBI being duped by a clearly satirical website is a horrible look, especially as the agency continues to increase its involvement in the national security arena. Its history of rights violations is already lengthy and disturbing. But now it's operating in an area with less oversight, laxer rules, and more deference from courts. It's only a matter of time before terror warriors end up ruining someone's life because they didn't get the joke.

Filed Under: dhs, fake news, fbi, fusion centers, protesters, warnings

DEA Wants In On The Fun, Asks DOJ To Give It Permission To Surveil George Floyd Protests

from the GTFO-drug-warriors dept

I thought there was still a Drug War being fought in this county. I guess it's not as important as billions of annual budget dollars would indicate it is. When the going has gotten mildly tougher for US law enforcement agencies, the DEA is there to help out by placing people engaged in First Amendment activities under surveillance.

The demonstrations over George Floyd's death at the hands of Minneapolis police officers have provoked all sorts of responses from government entities. The DEA's is one of the worst. As usual, it's FOIA terrorist Jason Leopold who's managed to obtain a document the DEA probably didn't want shared publicly.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has been granted sweeping new authority to “conduct covert surveillance” and collect intelligence on people participating in protests over the police killing of George Floyd, according to a two-page memorandum obtained by BuzzFeed News.

Floyd’s death “has spawned widespread protests across the nation, which, in some instances, have included violence and looting,” the DEA memo says. “Police agencies in certain areas of the country have struggled to maintain and/or restore order.” The memo requests the extraordinary powers on a temporary basis, and on Sunday afternoon a senior Justice Department official signed off.

The DEA has always been able to engage in domestic surveillance. Most of its targets reside in the United States. Domestic surveillance to engage in drug-related investigations isn't really the problem here. (This is not to say the DEA's surveillance efforts aren't problematic.) This is the DOJ saying it's okay for an agency that's supposed to be shutting down drug operations to start snooping on protesters. Even if there has been some criminal activity occurring during demonstrations, in recent days this has been the exception, rather than the rule.

The memo [PDF] notes that the law says the DEA's law enforcement powers are supposed to be limited to drug enforcement activity. But there's always a loophole. And that's what the DOJ is using. The memo admits the "federal crimes being committed in the wake of Mr. Floyd's death are largely not drug-related," but says the Attorney General can re-task the DEA as the DOJ sees fit. That's how the DOJ sees it. No further details are discussed in the memo. And the DOJ has nothing to say about what percentage of observed federal crimes to date might have anything to do with drugs.

It appears no one in the DOJ felt the DEA's assistance was necessary. In other words, the DOJ did not ask the DEA if it would be willing to expend its resources surveilling protests for non-drug-related crime. The DEA asked to do this, suggesting it has some underutilized resources that should be budgeted out of the agency when the next appropriations bill comes up for a vote.

It doesn't appear many DEA agents think they should be involved in surveilling protests. The DEA only needed 25 volunteers to do god knows what with their drug investigation expertise. It couldn't get them -- not without stripping the tasking of its voluntary nature.

Two sources knowledgeable about the deployment said 15 people from the DEA’s elite Special Response Team and 10 special agents were chosen. Not all 25 volunteered, the sources said.

Kruskall’s email did not describe what specific tasks the detachment would be given. It added that if insufficient numbers of agents volunteered, others would be assigned the job. According to the sources, fewer than 25 agents raised their hands [when asked to volunteer].

Leopold's DEA sources aren't happy with the DEA's actions. Three people who spoke with Leopold said they were "troubled" by the DEA's desire to send agents to surveil people engaged in protected speech.

And they're correct. The DEA has no business engaging in "covert surveillance" of protests, especially when there's no evidence pointing to drug-related federal crimes being committed. The agency also shouldn't be sending non-volunteers out to help handle protests by "intervening" on regular law enforcement's behalf or arresting protesters for allegedly engaging in criminal acts.

The DEA saw an opportunity to engage in mission creep, if only for a limited time. A DOJ less in thrall to hypocritical "rule of law" notions would have rejected this naked attempt to put DEA boots on First Amendment ground. But that isn't the DOJ we have at the moment. And now we have at least 25 DEA agents burning through tax dollars for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Defund the DEA.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, 4th amendment, dea, doj, george floyd, protesters, protests, surveillance

Trump's Very First Tweet As President Elect Basically Shits On The First Amendment

from the off-to-the-races dept

Since being declared the winner of the Presidential election, Donald Trump has actually played the part of an actual President-elect quite well. His victory speech was quite gracious and welcoming. His meeting with President Obama appeared to go well. Of course, anyone who's watched him during the campaign knew it couldn't last, but perhaps, maybe, he'd actually be presidential for a few weeks or (could we dare?) a few months? But, nope. All it took was about 48 hours and the man who four years ago demanded that people "march on Washington" because President Obama was re-elected, used his very first tweet as the President elect to shit all over the First Amendment. Compare that to his tweet from four years ago: It's true that there are lots of protests going on, some of which have turned violent. It's also true that there's been a wave of attacks on minorities across the US by Trump supporters. An actual leader would seek to tell his supporters that's not how Americans should act. But that's not what we got.

We noted that one of the big fears with a Trump presidency is what it would mean for the First Amendment, and kicking it off by attacking both the freedom of the press and the right of assembly in one go (also, with the bizarre claim of "professional protestors" -- which, you know, if it were true, wouldn't need "inciting" by the press) should be deeply concerning to anyone who supports the First Amendment. There were going to be protests no matter how this election turned out. That was a given. A President who was truly focused on bringing the country together would recognize the concerns and grievances, not attack them and deny their rights.

As (of all people?!?) Ryan Adams correctly noted to Trump in a response tweet: "you work for them now. You're hired. You work for all Americans now [and] your JOB is to DEFEND their RIGHT to protest." He's absolutely right. In particular, the oath that Donald Trump will take in a few months is that he will "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." He talked a lot about the 2nd Amendment on the campaign trail. He should familiarize himself with the 1st.

Filed Under: donald trump, first amendment, free speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, leadership, protesters

New Evidence: Homeland Security Spied On Peaceful Protestors; Worried About Protests Getting News Coverage

from the homeland-security? dept

We just recently had a post on the head of one of Homeland Security's "Fusion Centers" (the same Fusion Centers found by a Congressional investigation to be a near total waste of time and money, finding no terrorists, but violating the public's civil liberties) who claimed that the DHS centers did not spy on Americans, and then immediately admitted that they spied on "anti-government" Americans.

The definition of "anti-government" was mostly left as an exercise to the reader. However, in a bout of good timing, the Partnership for Civil Justice has released some new DHS documents it received via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, showing that DHS regularly spied on peaceful demonstrators and activists. Because exercising your First Amendment rights must make you one of them there "anti-government" Americans, which means the DHS is free to spy on you.

Functioning as a secret political police force against people participating in lawful, peaceful free speech activity, the heavily redacted documents show that the DHS “Threat Management Division” directed Regional Intelligence Analysts to provide a “Daily Intelligence Briefing” that includes a category of reporting on “Peaceful Activist Demonstrations” along with “Domestic Terrorist Activity.” (p. 68)

The PCJF has obtained thousands of pages of documents pursuant to its Freedom of Information Act demands and made them available for public viewing. The newly obtained documents show coordination and intelligence monitoring by the DHS, the FBI, the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies of “Occupy-type” protests.

The documents show the routine use of Fusion Centers for intelligence gathering on peaceful demonstrations as well as the use of DHS’ “Mega Centers” for collection of surveillance information on demonstrations.

And it's not just the big cities. The new documents show that DHS is involved in spying on peaceful protesters and activists around the country. It also shows that DHS helped local law enforcement "crack down" on the various Occupy gatherings. But the key thing is that DHS seems to have no qualms at all about spying on anyone who disagrees with the prevailing positions of today's federal government. And it's clearly not because they're trying to protect others from any threat of actual harm. They seem to be focused on spying to further the goal of preventing the administration from looking bad:

The documents show a Department of Homeland Security that appears obsessed with the question of whether any and all protests that are being surveilled receive media attention and coverage. Reporting within the DHS on media coverage of First Amendment protected activities, even in the smallest places, appears to be a routine part of DHS intelligence reports. None of the documents explain why media coverage of peaceful demonstrations is of interest to law enforcement or concerns “homeland security” in any way.

That's because it doesn't concern "homeland security" at all. It concerns the job security of those employed by Homeland Security.

Filed Under: americans, dhs, fusion centers, homeland security, protesters, reputation, surveillance