tigerswan

<div>=</div><div>outed, enough to kill? apparently not</div><div>
</div><div>much info here on nat'l sherrifs</div><div>817</div><div>see bak 719</div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/08/26/dapl-security-firm-tigerswan-responded-to-pipeline-vandalism-by-launching-multistate-dragnet/">https://theintercept.com/2017/08/26/dapl-security-firm-tigerswan-responded-to-pipeline-vandalism-by-launching-multistate-dragnet/</a></div><div>
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</div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/03/30/tigerswan-lisa-smith-security-license-louisiana-bayou-bridge-pipeline">https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/03/30/tigerswan-lisa-smith-security-license-louisiana-bayou-bridge-pipeline</a></div><div>
</div><div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="min-height: 280px; font-family: " open="open" sans="sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">The private security firm <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/10/28/private-security-firm-dakota-access-iraq-afghanistan-blackwater" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">TigerSwan, known for its controversial military-style tactics against Dakota Access pipeline protesters</a>, is appealing the decision to deny its application for a license to operate in the state of Louisiana, where Energy Transfer Partners is building the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/conflict-cajun-country-bayou-bridge-pipeline-louisiana-standing-rock" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bayou Bridge pipeline</a>. In November, several environmental groups opposed to the Bayou Bridge pipeline <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/11/13/bayou-bridge-pipeline-opponents-file-intervene-hearing-private-security-firm-louisiana" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">attempted to intervene in this case</a>, saying their members were particularly vulnerable to TigerSwan’s security and surveillance practices should it be allowed to operate in support of that oil pipeline, but today the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/no-bayou-bridge-pipeline-petition-intervene" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">denied this request</a>.However, during this process, it came to light that the state board denied another security license application from a TigerSwan employee who failed to disclose her employment with the firm after TigerSwan’s application was rejected.The board's deposition of this employee, obtained via a public records request, was included in the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/intervene-request_lisa-smith-deposition_tigerswan.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">request to intervene in TigerSwan’s case</a> by 350 New Orleans, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Gulf Restoration Network, L’eau Est la Vie (“Water Is Life”) Camp, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West.“Given its track record, TigerSwan should not be allowed to come into Louisiana and use their military-style tactics to hinder the right of ordinary Louisianans to exercise their First Amendment rights,” Pamela Spees, attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is representing the groups, said in a statement. “The board did the right thing in denying them a license.”<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">TigerSwan Employee Tries to Set up New Security Firm in Louisiana</h3>[pix convoy]
Part of the reason the board cited for rejecting TigerSwan’s case on July 17, 2017 was “they were denied licensure twice in [North] Dakota and are pending litigation,” <a href="http://www.katc.com/story/35902508/private-security-firm-that-surveilled-dapl-protests-seeks-louisiana-license" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">according to the board’s executive director Fabian Blache III</a>.<a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/06/28/tigerswan-faces-lawsuit-over-unlicensed-security-operations-in-north-dakota/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">TigerSwan is being sued</a> by the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board for allegedly performing security work in the state without a license during and after the Standing Rock protests against the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/energy-transfer-partners-bakken-oil-pipeline-through-iowa" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Dakota Access pipeline</a>.On September 19, 2017, the Louisiana board deposed TigerSwan employee Lisa Smith, who had applied for a license to operate her brand-new private security firm, LTSA, LLC, in Lafayette, Louisiana. While she originally said she opened the company office in August, later in the deposition Smith corrected this to say it was actually July — the same month that TigerSwan’s application was rejected. <a href="http://coraweb.sos.la.gov/commercialsearch/CommercialSearchDetails.aspx?CharterID=1260911_E0CF76B202" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Louisiana state records indicate</a> that LTSA, LLC was registered on August 3, 2017.In her license application, filed August 4, Smith, a resident of North Carolina, where TigerSwan is also based, submitted a resume which did not disclose her contemporaneous employment with TigerSwan.Instead, she listed her employer as “Metlife MSOC,” which is the security operations center where the firm had contracted her to work. In the September deposition, she confirmed that TigerSwan paid her salary but that she reported for work at Metlife.<img alt="In Lisa Smith's deposition she denies her company was set up in any relation to TigerSwan's denied license to operate in Louisiana" src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/smith-deposition_tigerswan-denial.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: 802px; width: 669px;" />
In Lisa Smith's deposition on September 19, 2017, she denies her company LTSA was set up in relation to TigerSwan's denied license to operate in Louisiana.During the deposition, the board asked Smith whether or not she had ever listed TigerSwan as her employer on her LinkedIn profile. She answered that she did not remember.However, the board supplied an email with a screenshot of a Google search result showing a cache of her LinkedIn profile, which listed her as a “Watch Officer at TigerSwan/Metlife SOC.” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-smith-73756544/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Her current LinkedIn profile</a> does not list her employment with TigerSwan, and while during the deposition Smith said her Metlife contract was already expired in September, her profile continues to list “Metlife-MSOC” as her present employer.When asked by the board about why she decided to open a security firm in Louisiana, Smith replied: “The opportunities were good.” However, she denied LTSA had any connection with TigerSwan and its failure to secure a license in the state, and further said that while she had heard of “Bayou Bridge,” she said she did not know what it was or whether she would consider applying for work related to it in the future.Smith also denied knowing someone named Brandon Nix. According to Blache, the state board's executive director, Nix was the agent who originally applied for TigerSwan’s license in Louisiana.“We later learned that he was the person liaising with Lisa Smith’s registers office site to secure the keys to the property leased by her company LTSA,” Blache told DeSmog via email.<img alt="Lisa Smith's deposition in which she denies her company LTSA has any relationship with TigerSwan" src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/smith-deposition_bayou-bridge.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: 549px; width: 722px;" />
In Lisa Smith's deposition, she denied her new security company, LTSA, had any connection to her employer TigerSwan. The <a href="http://lsbpse.com/disciplinary-actions/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">board turned down Smith’s request</a> for a license on October 4, 2017. “Denial was based on material misrepresentations in the application and during the State Board deposition,” said Blache.TigerSwan had two lawyers representing the firm present during Smith’s deposition. It is not currently employed by Energy Transfer Partners to do security work related to the Bayou Bridge pipeline, a 162-mile-long project which will carry to Gulf Coast refineries oil originally drilled in North Dakota. So far, that security work has been performed by the firm Hub Enterprises.Neither Lisa Smith not TigerSwan responded to multiple requests for comment.<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">TigerSwan Connections in Louisiana</h3>Even before the Louisiana board rejected TigerSwan’s application, the private security firm already appeared to be working its connections to the Bayou Bridge pipeline.In February 2017, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/15/what-outsider-hidden-conflicts-interest-can-learn-local-about-bayou-bridge-pipeline" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">retired Major General James “Spider” Marks testified in support</a> of this pipeline at a Louisiana Department of Natural Resources permit hearing and <a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/story/opinion/2017/02/08/bayou-bridge-pipeline-bringing-safety-and-security-louisiana/97571802/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">published an op-ed endorsing it in a local newspaper</a>. In neither of these instances, however, did Marks disclose that he was chair of TigerSwan’s advisory board, not unlike the way Smith also failed to share her ties to the firm. (Marks is no longer listed on TigerSwan’s website.)[video]
This <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/05/dakota-access-tigerswan-james-spider-marks-los-angeles-riots" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">seems to be a trend for Marks</a>, who has a history of appearing on TV as a military pundit without disclosing his ties to military weapons companies.TigerSwan appears determined to succeed in gaining access to perform security work in Louisiana.As <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/11/13/bayou-bridge-pipeline-opponents-file-intervene-hearing-private-security-firm-louisiana" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Julie Dermansky has previously reported</a> for DeSmog: “A few days after TigerSwan’s permit was denied in Louisiana, the company filed an appeal and hired five lobbyists who work for the lobbying firm <a href="http://sostrategy.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Southern Strategy Group</a>.”The firm is currently awaiting a hearing with the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners appealing its denied application.<h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Louisiana Proposes Harsher Punishments for Pipeline Offenses </h3><div>With implications for future protests against the Bayou Bridge pipeline, this week the Louisiana State Legislature introduced <a href="https://legiscan.com/LA/bill/HB727/2018" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">House Bill 727</a>, which proposes as a criminal offense the “unauthorized entry of and criminal damage to a critical infrastructure.”The bill seeks to include oil and gas pipelines and their construction sites among the definition of “critical infrastructure.” For those convicted of damaging this infrastructure when a threat to human life is “foreseeable” or the action “disrupts” the infrastructure's operations, the bill stipulates a sentence of imprisonment and hard labor for between six and 20 years, up to $25,000 in fines, or both.It also includes separate “conspiracy” charges, with similar criminal penalties, except that the maximum possible fine is $250,000. The bill both amends the <a href="http://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx?d=78576" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Louisiana criminal code</a>, which currently deals only with “unauthorized entry of a critical infrastructure” and creates the new crimes for damaging those facilities and conspiring to either illegally enter or damage them.Several other states, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/02/21/wyoming-alec-model-bill-pipeline-protests" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">including Wyoming, Iowa, and Ohio</a>, have introduced similar laws in recent months which would criminalize the type of activities of past oil and gas pipeline protesters. Oklahoma already passed into law parallel legislation which has served as a template for other state proposals.Some state lawmakers have specifically cited the Dakota Access pipeline protests as inspiration for these “critical infrastructure” bills and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2018/01/31/iowa-bill-alec-criminalize-pipeline-protest" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">likened actions by pipeline protesters to “terrorist activities.”</a></div></div></div></div></div><div>=<div><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/11/13/bayou-bridge-pipeline-opponents-file-intervene-hearing-private-security-firm-louisiana">https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/11/13/bayou-bridge-pipeline-opponents-file-intervene-hearing-private-security-firm-louisiana</a>
<div>A broad base of advocacy groups opposed to Energy Transfer Partners’ (ETP) proposed <a href="mailto:https://www.desmogblog.com/conflict-cajun-country-bayou-bridge-pipeline-louisiana-standing-rock" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bayou Bridge pipeline</a> continue to pressure officials in Louisiana to deny the remaining permissions the company needs to build the pipeline.The groups are also trying to stop TigerSwan LLC, one of the security firms that ETP worked with in North Dakota, from obtaining a permit to operate in Louisiana.ETP, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, intends to build a 162-mile pipeline across southern Louisiana. If built, the Bayou Bridge will be the last leg, carrying oil fracked in North Dakota to Louisiana. Before the pipeline can be built, ETP needs a water quality certificate from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.The company already obtained another <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/04/03/breaking-louisiana-s-bayou-bridge-pipeline-one-permit-closer-reality-groups-opposing-pipeline-plan-resistance" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">required permit to operate from Louisiana Department of Natural Resources</a> under the state’s Coastal Zone program, but that permit is being <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/06/26/pastor-leads-lawsuit-opposing-bayou-bridge-pipeline-protect-louisiana-cancer-alley-community" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">challenged vy a lawsuit spearheaded by the St. James community</a>, where the pipeline will end, roughly 50 miles west of New Orleans.
 <h3 style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">TigerSwan in Louisiana?</h3>Meanwhile, <a href="http://www.tigerswan.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">TigerSwan</a> is trying to obtain a permit from the <a href="http://lsbpse.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners</a> to operate in the state. <a href="http://www.katc.com/story/35902508/private-security-firm-that-surveilled-dapl-protests-seeks-louisiana-license" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">The Board rejected TigerSwan’s permit application in June</a>. In part, the denial was based on the <a href="https://theintercept.com/document/2017/06/28/tigerswan-complaint/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ongoing litigation</a> filed against the company by the North Dakota Private Investigative and Security Board for allegedly providing services without the required license. <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/06/28/tigerswan-faces-lawsuit-over-unlicensed-security-operations-in-north-dakota/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Despite being turned down for a permit twice in North Dakota, TigerSwan operated on ETP’s</a> behalf anyway.A few days after TigerSwan’s permit was denied in Louisiana, the company filed an appeal and hired five lobbyists who work for the lobbying firm <a href="http://sostrategy.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Southern Strategy Group.</a>At a November 9 press conference at the office of Louisiana’s Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards, groups opposing the Bayou Bridge pipeline, including theLouisiana Bucket Brigade, Bold Louisiana, 350 New Orleans, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Gulf Restoration Network, Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association - West, and L’eau Est La Vie (Water Is Life) Camp, announced that the New York-based <a href="https://ccrjustice.org/sites/default/files/attach/2017/11/Petition%20to%20Intervene%20-%20Louisiana%20-%20Nov%209%202017.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a petition to intervene</a> on their behalf. CCRwants to ensure that the groups can participate in the permit appeals hearing set for December 14.Video: Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade</div><div></div></div></div><div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/environment/energy-transfer-partners-company-behind-dakota-access-pipeline-strong-armed-landowners">https://www.alternet.org/environment/energy-transfer-partners-company-behind-dakota-access-pipeline-strong-armed-landowners</a></div><div>
</div><div>Four Pennsylvania residents filed <a href="https://www.facingsouth.org/sites/default/files/Complaint_Gerhart_Et_Al.pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none;">a federal lawsuit</a> this week against Texas-based pipeline company <a href="https://www.energytransfer.com/default.aspx" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Energy Transfer Partners</a> (ETP), claiming the <a href="https://fortune.com/fortune500/energy-transfer-equity/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Fortune 500 company</a> and its subsidiaries violated their constitutional rights by engaging in illegal surveillance and harassment against landowners and pipeline protesters and caused emotional distress and other harm.</div>The suit, which seeks compensatory damages, also names ETP's private security provider, North Carolina-based <a href="https://www.tigerswan.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">TigerSwan</a>, as well as local law enforcement officers who arrested pipeline opponents on charges that ultimately were not prosecuted. It claims that energy companies like ETP are increasingly relying on de facto public-private partnerships with government to "strong-arm" opponents into silence with false arrests and malicious prosecution."Since May of 2015, every day of my life has been affected by the plans to build this pipeline, and the lengths that Energy Transfer Partners will go to in the pursuit of profit," <a href="https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1866165730378923&id=100009565423522" style="text-decoration-line: none;">said</a> plaintiff Elise Gerhart, who lives on property that will be crossed by the pipeline. "We've been needlessly harassed by agencies and violently threatened by individuals who've been intentionally incited and mobilized."The lawsuit centers on ETP's <a href="https://marinerpipelinefacts.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mariner East 2 pipeline project</a> that would carry fracked gas from the Marcellus and Utica shale regions of West Virginia, Ohio and western Pennsylvania to refineries near Philadelphia, with much of the product to be exported overseas for making plastics. ETP is also behind several other controversial petro pipeline projects including the <a href="https://bayoubridge.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bayou Bridge</a> pipeline in Louisiana, the <a href="https://transpecospipelinefacts.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Trans-Pecos</a> in Texas and the <a href="https://daplpipelinefacts.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Dakota Access</a> in North Dakota, the target of massive demonstrations last year in which Native American protesters and their supporters faced <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/dakota-pipeline-protests/dakota-pipeline-protesters-authorities-clash-temperatures-drop-n686581" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">attack dogs, rubber bullets, mace and water cannons</a>. Pipelines are a growing concern across the South: Of the 56 <a href="https://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/pipelines/pending-projects.asp" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">interstate pipeline projects that have sought permits</a> from federal regulators since 2013, 31 run at least partly through Southern states.Elise Gerhart's mother, Ellen Gerhart, also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, has owned a 27-acre property in central Pennsylvania's <a href="https://www.rural.palegislature.us/rural_urban.html" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">rural Huntingdon County</a> with her husband, Stephen, since 1983 and has cared for it according to the principles of the state's <a href="https://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/centers/private-forests/outreach/pennsylvania-forest-stewards/program-information" style="text-decoration-line: none;">forest stewardship program</a>, which encourages private landowners "to implement sound forest management practices." In 2015, Sunoco, which has since <a href="https://ir.energytransfer.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=106094&p=irol-about" style="text-decoration-line: none;">merged with ETP</a>, filed a declaration of taking in county court in order to gain access to a wooded part of the property to begin clearing trees for the planned pipeline. The court granted the company's request in March 2016, establishing an easement on the property and barring the Gerharts from interfering with access. There's currently a lawsuit working its way through the state courts over whether the taking was legal; it comes at a time of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/06/07/the-growing-battle-over-the-use-of-eminent-domain-to-take-property-for-pipelines/?utm_term=.fd53c2912791" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">growing controversy</a> over how pipeline companies are gaining access to private lands.At the time the court granted Sunoco/ETP access rights to the Gerhart property, the Mariner East 2 project had neither the necessary state permits for construction nor what's known as "possessory interest" in the easement, which wasn't granted by the county court until April 2017. The lawsuit claims that, without possessory interest, the company had no legal right to exclude anyone from the easement — but that's not what happened.Arrest to silence?In late March 2016, shortly after the court granted the easement, the Philadelphia-based environmental advocacy group Clean Air Council posted a public event to Facebook encouraging people to oppose the tree-cutting planned for the Gerhart property. On March 29, 2016, dozens of protesters arrived and set up an encampment,with some sitting in trees to block their removal.Agents of ETP/Sunoco bearing chainsaws also arrived on the land, escorted by state police and officers from the local sheriff's department. They were eager to begin work as U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regulations prohibit cutting trees on the Gerhart property after March 31 to protect migratory birds and an endangered bat.Three of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit were arrested that day:<ul><li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Protester Alex Lotorto of Milford, Pennsylvania, claims he was using a walkie-talkie to let other protesters know where the tree cutters were but law enforcement officers accused him of using it to disrupt work at the site. Arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and criminal contempt, he was held on a $200,000 bond he could not afford to pay and stayed in jail for three days. Once the tree-cutting stopped on April 1, his bond was reduced to $5,000 unsecured and he was released.</li>
<li style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Protester Elizabeth Glunt of Altoona, Pennsylvania, entered the easement only briefly to warn tree cutters that they were getting too close to tree-sitting protesters, according to the lawsuit. She was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal contempt. Held in jail until her family raised the money to pay her $100,000 bond, Glunt was strip-searched and claims she suffered emotional distress as a result.</li>
<li>The lawsuit states that Ellen Gerhart approached but did not enter the easement area to warn tree cutters that they were too close to tree sitters. She was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and indirect criminal contempt and released on a $5,000 unsecured bond.</li></ul>Just over a week later, on April 7, 2016, Ellen Gerhart was arrested again on the same charges when tree cutters returned to her property unannounced and she approached them to warn that they were violating federal wildlife regulations. Elise Gerhart was also arrested for climbing a tree and charged with disorderly conduct.Smears of Russian tiesAll of the charges against the plaintiffs were ultimately dismissed. The lawsuit says that's because the arrests weren't part of a legitimate pursuit of justice but rather an effort to "arbitrarily and maliciously send a message to the Gerhart family and their supporters to discourage their opposition to the pipeline and its construction and thereby chill their First Amendment rights."The lawsuit also takes aim at TigerSwan, ETP's private security provider, based in the town of Apex near Raleigh, North Carolina. The company was founded in 2008 by retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel and Delta Force operator James Reese.According to company documents obtained by The Intercept, an investigative news outlet whose reporting is cited in the lawsuit, TigerSwan's tactics against pipeline protesters in five states — North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Texas — included <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">military-style counterterrorism measures</a> such as aerial surveillance, radio eavesdropping, and infiltration of camps and activist circles.The plaintiffs in the lawsuit say similar tactics are being deployed against Mariner pipeline opponents, who cite helicopters and drones flying low over the Gerhart property outside of the easement, and unmarked vehicles parking nearby and shining high-beam lights onto the land. TigerSwan has been operating in Pennsylvania at least since April 2017.The suit further charges that ETP and TigerSwan have repeatedly sent an agent to the Gerhart property to attempt to infiltrate the protest encampment. While there, the lawsuit says, the agent took photos that were later posted to the Facebook page of a shadowy group called PA Progress to identify Ellen and Elise Gerhart. Other PA Progress posts called Elise Gerhart an "anarchist" and falsely accused her of sabotage. The lawsuit suggests that the page, which has since been taken down, was connected to TigerSwan.The campaign against the protesters also deployed misleading propaganda in other ways. For example, the <a href="https://www.tigerswan.com/meet-team/board-advisors/james-spider-marks/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">chair of TigerSwan's advisory board</a>, retired Army Major General James "Spider" Marks, had <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/opinion/2017/05/heres_why_pa_should_be_wary_of.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">an op-ed</a> published on the news website <a href="https://pennlive.com/" rel="nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none;">PennLive.com</a> in May warning that Mariner pipeline opponents would engage in violence and cause environmental damage. However, he did not identify his connection to TigerSwan and its interest in the pipeline project. The website has since added a note to the op-ed disclosing his position and stating that Marks' work will not appear there again.The lawsuit further claims that the Gerharts were the targets of misinformation spread online, which it also connects to TigerSwan. For example, it points to posts at<a href="https://www.blackbadgerreport.com/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> Black Badger Report</a> — a pseudonymously written website that <a href="https://www.blackbadgerreport.com/about/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">claims</a> to be concerned about the proliferation of "fake news" but whose front page features just six stories since June, all of them critical of pipeline protesters except for <a href="https://www.blackbadgerreport.com/2017/08/25/intercept-news-organizations-connected-communist-groups/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">one condemning The Intercept</a> of Communist ties — falsely accused Elise Gerhart and other protesters of being fronts for Russian government attempts to disrupt U.S. energy markets. The lawsuit ties the online attacks to TigerSwan through a web of internet connections involving TigerSwan Vice President Derek Borror.The inaccurate posts not only caused "reputational harm," the lawsuit says, but "have incited commenters to threaten to injure or kill Elise Gerhart and her supporters," which in turn have caused her "mental anguish and emotional distress."The plaintiffs are asking for a jury trial. Neither ETP nor TigerSwan responded to a request for comment. Sue Sturgis<div></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">huh?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/09/10/vogel-law-firm-dakota-access-racketeering-tigerswan-conflict" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/09/10/vogel-law-firm-dakota-access-racketeering-tigerswan-conflict</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div></div><div></div><div>kyle thompson, BJ</div><div><a href="https://shadowproof.com/2017/01/05/water-protector-confronted-armed-dapl-contractor-bailed-turning-authorities/">
</a></div><div><a href="https://shadowproof.com/2017/01/05/water-protector-confronted-armed-dapl-contractor-bailed-turning-authorities/">https://shadowproof.com/2017/01/05/water-protector-confronted-armed-dapl-contractor-bailed-turning-authorities/</a></div><div>Thompson backed into a nearby body of water, and Nastacio followed while talking to him. According to Nastacio, he <a href="https://shadowproof.com/2017/01/03/water-protector-still-faces-felony-confronting-armed-dapl-contractor/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;" trebuchet="Trebuchet" ms="MS" helvetica="Helvetica" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px">told</a> Thompson nothing would happen to him if he put down his gun or gave him his gun. He wanted to protect everyone and prevent any incident, where law enforcement might shoot him because Thompson was armed with a rifle and dressed like a water protector....</div><div>
</div><div></div><div><a href="http://www.cshagen.com/tag/knightsbridge-risk-management/">http://www.cshagen.com/tag/knightsbridge-risk-management/</a></div><div>
</div><div>losers sub contr dogs</div><div>
</div><div><div>Armed DAPL Mercenary Arrested in Bismarck</div><div>
</div><div>APRIL 18, 2017 / CSHAGEN / 1 COMMENT</div><div>Dakota Access LLC security guard disguised as water protector who tried to ram car into Standing Rock main camp in 2016 faces drug and gun concealment charges </div><div>
</div><div>By C.S. Hagen</div><div>BISMARCK – The disguised DAPL security guard set free by law enforcement last year after reportedly driving crazily toward the main No DAPL camp armed with a semi-automatic AR-15, was arrested Tuesday on unrelated charges, according to police. </div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Kyle Thompson mugshot – Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department</div><div>Kyle James Thompson, 30, was arrested at 8:03 p.m. Tuesday for simple assault domestic violence, carrying a concealed weapon, and for possession of schedule I, II, and III drug paraphernalia, according to the Burleigh County arrest records. By Wednesday afternoon the domestic abuse charge was dropped, leaving two Class A misdemeanor charges: carrying a concealed firearm in his vehicle, and possessing drug paraphernalia, namely syringes and spoons, to consume methamphetamine, according to the Burleigh County Clerk of Court.</div><div>
</div><div>Bismarck Police Officer David Haswell stopped Thompson’s car on East Broadway Avenue in Bismarck for a welfare check, according to Clerk of Court records. “Police were notified by witnesses that a male subject was hitting a female subject in the car,” Haswell reported. “I made contact with the driver, Kyle Thompson, and asked him to exit the vehicle. While he exited the vehicle I noticed a handgun concealed between the driver seat and the center console.”</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Thompson’s DAPL security badge taken from pickup truck – online sources</div><div>In the backseat, Thompson allegedly also had a rifle, Clerk of Court documents reported. Officers also located a small zipper case inside the vehicle with multiple syringes, spoons, a white residue, a grinder with residue, and a glass smoking device, Clerk of Court documents said. </div><div>
</div><div>“The capped needles field tested positive for methamphetamines,” Haswell wrote. “Thompson does not have a concealed carry permit.” </div><div>
</div><div>Nearly six months ago when law enforcement took over the Standing Rock’s Treaty Camp, pitched in the Dakota Access Pipeline’s route, Thompson was arrested by Bureau of Indian Affairs agents after activists slammed a vehicle into his pickup truck. He was disguised as a “water protector” in a t-shirt and bandana covering his face. A short foot pursuit ended in a pond near the camp where according to video reports and interviews with activists, Thompson fired his weapon twice. </div><div>
</div><div>In November 2016, Thompson and the Morton County Sheriff’s Department reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation found no evidence that Thompson fired his weapon. Documents linking Thompson to Thompson-Gray LLC, a security firm, were found inside the pickup truck. </div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Brennon Nastacio and Kyle Thompson on October 27, 2016 – online sources</div><div>After BIA agents handed Thompson over to Morton County officials, he was released, and he was called a victim by Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier. </div><div>
</div><div>“Three days ago on October 27th, I was in a situation in which myself and others were faced with the difficult decision to take another’s life or not,” Thompson said on his Facebook page shortly after the ordeal. “I drew out my rifle after my vehicle was disabled and over 300 protesters were rapidly approaching my location, a few had knives and were dead set on using those knives.” </div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Brennon Nastacio – Facebook page</div><div>The man who stopped him, Brennon “BJ” Nastacio, a Pueblo Native American from Boulder, Colorado, was placed on Morton County Sheriff’s Department’s Most Wanted List. He turned himself in and now faces felony terrorizing charges. Nastacio has had a preliminary hearing where he said the judge already set a court date of October 5. </div><div>
</div><div>“I found that to be fishy,” Nastacio said. “But I pray that he [Thompson] finds help that he needs while being incarcerated. People are so quick to wish bad and talk negative, I am not one of them. I think we endured enough bad and negativity and to add more just isn’t how I was raised. So I am hopeful that this is a wake up call for him to stop walking down that path of destruction.” </div><div>
</div><div>Nastacio remains hopeful that his name will be cleared. “But I am aware that my case is in a county where 92 percent of the people there think that we are guilty. I can only be hopeful and pray for a good outcome.” </div><div>
</div><div>Two others were charged with Class C felony crimes when activists stopped Thompson: Michael Fasig of Minnesota and Israel Hernandez of New York, according to Morton County Sheriff’s Department. The two “committed reckless endangerment offenses when they rammed a truck driven by another individual,” a Morton County Sheriff’s Department press release reported.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Provided by Morton County Sheriff’s Department</div><div>Thompson-Gray LLC is listed under Silverton Consulting International, according to the Ohio Secretary of State. The company was not authorized to work in North Dakota, the state’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation reported. Rumors at the time when trained dogs attacked activists in September 2016 reported G4S, a U.K.-based security company that often goes by nickname the “Chaos Company,” was involved as the Dakota Access Pipeline’s private security firm are unfounded, and denied by G4S staff. </div><div>
</div><div>G4S does have multiple companies established in North Dakota, according to the North Dakota Secretary of State. </div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Charles Graham Clifton with horses in 2015 – photo provided by Joshua Franke-Hyland</div><div>Charles Graham Clifton is listed as the owner of Ohio-based Silverton Consulting International, a new company reported as “shady” in online reviews. Clifton is also the owner of AMGI Global, Ltd. Co., now dissolved for tax reasons in Texas, Knightsbridge Risk Management, now dissolved for noncompliance in Colorado. He has connections to the ISSE Foundation Inc., Red Rock Ordnance LLC, and Red Rock Armory, all dissolved for tax issues in Texas, the Lodestar Services International, dissolved in Colorado in 2011, and Humanitarian Defense, dissolved for tax reasons in Wyoming 2010. </div><div>
</div><div>Joshua P. Franke-Hyland once worked with Clifton at AMGI Global, Ltd. Co., he said. “It was a 100 percent failure,” Franke-Hyland said. Clifton is “a scam artist with a very long history of scamming people of all types.” </div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Barbara Marie Colliton – photo provided by Joshua Franke-Hyland</div><div>Clifton is on the run, Franke-Hyland said, from bench warrants for felony theft and civil lawsuits. Franke-Hyland believes the use of attack dogs was issued by Barbara Colliton, Clifton’s partner and frequent registered agent. Colliton was arrested in December 2016 but released in Taylor County, Texas after restitution was paid, Franke-Hyland said. </div><div>
</div><div>Another company that used attack dogs on September 3 was the Ohio-based Frost Kennels, whose owner, Bob Frost, admitted to using the dogs on September 3, 2016. </div><div>
</div><div>“We went out there to do a job and we did it,” Frost said in September 2016. “So we just said fck it, and got our dogs, and tried to make a bridge between them and the workers.” </div><div>
</div><div>Morton County Sheriff’s Department said the companies involved as security firms for Dakota Access LLC on September 3 were not licensed to work in North Dakota, but did not file any charges against security personnel or companies involved. </div><div>
</div><div>Franke-Hyland sued Clifton in Bexar County, and Clifton also is listed as being sued in Bastrop, Texas. </div><div>
</div><div>“Clifton’s dream is to be G4S-AMGI, and was supposed to be Clifton’s answer to G4S,” Franke-Hyland said. “AMGI, like everything else Clifton touches, was complete sht. He is a risk in every sense in the word. His best day is as an incompetent short con that refuses to pay the bills.” </div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://waterprotectorlegal.org/050317-update-truthout-regarding-ongoing-legal-struggles-water-protectors-face/">https://waterprotectorlegal.org/050317-update-truthout-regarding-ongoing-legal-struggles-water-protectors-face/</a></div><div>
</div><div>truthout</div><div><header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="entry-title" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 8px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1em; overflow-wrap: break-word;">05/03/17 Update by Truthout regarding the ongoing legal struggles Water Protectors face</h1><div class="entry-meta" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Posted on <a href="https://waterprotectorlegal.org/050317-update-truthout-regarding-ongoing-legal-struggles-water-protectors-face/" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;"><time class="entry-date published updated" datetime="2017-05-03T21:03:24+00:00" style="box-sizing: inherit;">May 3, 2017</time></a></div></header><div class="entry-thumbnail" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; margin: 20px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: center; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div class="entry-content" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; margin: 1.5em 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/40431-settler-state-repression-standing-rock-battles-continue-in-the-courts<h2 class="itemTitle" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 400; margin: 0px 0px 0.65em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; line-height: 1em; word-wrap: break-word;">Settler State Repression: Standing Rock Battles Continue in the Courts</h2><span class="itemDateCreated" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Wednesday, May 03, 2017 By <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/author/itemlist/user/44706" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Dahr Jamail</a>, Truthout | ReportAs a means of making bombing, sanctioning or invading other countries palatable to the general population, the US government has consistently used the actions of other governments against their own people as an excuse.<div class="itemFullText" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Those actions have included the use of chemical weapons, torture, setting dogs against people, beatings, surveillance, forcibly removing people from their land, jailing them unjustly, holding staged trials, and issuing verbal and physical threats, among many others.Yet, these same actions have been carried out by the US government, state governments and private security forces working on behalf of a private pipeline company (with the full backing of the US government) against Native people at Standing Rock.This story is not new.“The settler state arrives as an armed white man intent on staying,” said Nick Estes, who is Kul Wicasa from the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and is a doctoral candidate in American Studies at the University of New Mexico, in an interview with Truthout. “Second amendment rights were intended to arm the white man. The police and military have always been the arm of the state to facilitate Indigenous dispossession and normalize it.”Estes, who studies colonialism and decolonization, border town violence, police violence, Indigenous internationalism, Lakota treaties and history, and the history and politics of the Oceti Sakowin, also cofounded <a href="https://therednation.org/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Red Nation</a>, a Native-led coalition dedicated to Native liberation.Nick Estes of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe is a doctoral candidate in American studies at the University of New Mexico; he studies colonialism and decolonization and cofounded The Red Nation. (Photo: Courtesy of Nick Estes)What has happened at Standing Rock highlights the fact that the land through which Energy Transfer Partners, the Dallas-based energy company in which Trump has a financial interest, has constructed the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL) in contested territory.“That land is not under North Dakota’s control [since it is Native land] so they [the state] have to deploy themselves and a host of private security firms and resort to violent means, to secure its aim, which also reveals its fragility,” Estes said.And events at Standing Rock are far from over. Hundreds of court cases against Water Protectors continue. All of them underscore how the state and federal courts in North Dakota are functioning as little more than an adjunct to the repressive machine geared toward punishing those who peacefully stood up and spoke out against an illegal land grab.Law Enforcement’s Repression of Water ProtectorsRachel Lederman, a civil rights lawyer on the board of the Indigenous-led <a href="https://waterprotectorlegal.org/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Water Protector Legal Collective</a>, is leading a civil suit geared towards obtaining an injunction against the use of nonlethal weaponry like rubber bullets and exploding grenades against peaceful Water Protectors. She is thus coordinating the civil response around what she described to Truthout as “the law enforcement repression of the Water Protectors.”In her interview with Truthout, Lederman said that as the presence of Water Protectors at Standing Rock grew, “the repressive tactics by private security and law enforcement escalated steadily.”When Lederman arrived at Standing Rock, September 3, 2016, private security hired by DAPL “used attack dogs, mace, and drove trucks into Water Protectors who were simply on a prayer march and were surprised to find DAPL bulldozing through sacred sites.”She was eyewitness to the incident and described DAPL’s private security as having “brutalized” Water Protectors while law enforcement “stood by and watched.” After this was publicized, law enforcement took over, but Lederman said that she witnessed the pipeline’s private security forces mixed in with them during their activities.As events continued, law enforcement began making more frequent mass arrests, including one on October 22 when Water Protectors were told, at gunpoint, to get on their knees. During that event, roughly 125 Water Protectors, including two attorneys who were present as legal observers, were arrested.At that point, law enforcement’s response became “increasingly militarized,” according to Lederman, and North Dakota’s Morton County Sheriff’s Department called in mutual aid from all over the state and surrounding states, as the governor declared a state of emergency.Lederman, who is also the president of the <a href="http://www.nlgsf.org/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">National Lawyers Guild, S.F. Bay Area Chapter</a>, is representing <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-standing-rock-wounded-20161222-story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Vanessa Dundon</a>, who was struck in the eye by a police-fired flaming tear-gas canister. Shortly after Dundon, who will likely lose her eye, was injured, 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky was struck by an explosive device that nearly blew her arm off.“People have been held in fenced-in areas similar to dog kennels in Morton County Jail, elders have been strip searched and held overnight on cold concrete floors, not fed for long periods of time, shipped around to jails all over the state before being released, often many hours away from Standing Rock,” Lederman said, explaining several of the brutal and repressive tactics used by the state to protect the oil company’s interests. “Phone calls have been denied, and there has been a lot of abuse while in custody.”After October 22, the militarism continued to escalate with the use of sound cannons, chemical agents and impact munitions. The well-known incident of November 20 on Backwater Bridge included the use of high power water hoses on Water Protectors at night when temperatures were in the 20s, and the shooting of impact munitions, explosive grenades and tear gas canisters indiscriminately into the crowd.“They were shooting at the medics in the back of the crowd, and hundreds of people were injured that night,” Lederman said. “There were numerous serious injuries from impact grenades. That was the night Vanessa was shot in the eye. It was like a battle zone scene.”Immediately after this, Lederman became lead attorney in the filing of a class action civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the sheriff of Morton County. It was there that she and other lawyers asked the court to cease the use of what are referred to as “less-lethal weapons.”In that filing, Lederman and her colleagues presented more than 50 witness declarations, including one from Thomas Frazier, the former police chief in Baltimore, saying that at no point were law enforcement ever overrun by Protectors, and there was never a reason to justify such a high level of force. But the judge, who in a series of rulings has supported the pipeline company and its security forces (including the police), had other ideas.“Judge Hovland, the presiding judge of the US District Court in North Dakota, denied our request for a preliminary injunction,” Lederman said. “The case seeks both the injunction and damages, so we’ve filed an appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.”Lederman’s outlook for repression, regarding demonstrations at Standing Rock, is grim.“The reason there are less protests now is a direct result of the law enforcement violence,” she said. “We believe there is an ongoing chilling of free speech to express both political and religious beliefs in opposition to the pipeline due to the district court basically sanctioning the excessive force of law enforcement.”Nevertheless, she expects their appeal to move forward, and added, “I think it is fairly important to continue to challenge what we see is a blatantly unlawful use of indiscriminant force.”She notes that the level of repression has been “frightening,” including the infliction of serious injuries.“Attorneys in allied groups will continue to fight for people’s right to protest — because Trump or no Trump, it is unconstitutional to shoot people without reason, or to arrest people who are not breaking the law,” she concluded. “So we, as Water Protector Legal Collective and other allied legal groups, will continue to challenge these repressive tactics by law enforcement.”In a glimmer of hope, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on April 24th denied law enforcement’s motion to dismiss the Water Protector’s appeal from the denial of the injunction.The Judge Must GoJeffrey Haas has been a criminal defense and civil rights attorney for nearly half a century. A member of the <a href="https://waterprotectorlegal.org/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Water Protector Legal Collective</a>, he has previously <a href="http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39243-missile-launchers-at-standing-rock-weaponized-law-in-action" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">spoken with Truthout at length</a> about the legal issues at Standing Rock.Haas and cocounsel Bruce Nestor of Minneapolis represent Brennon Nastacio in federal court, where Nastacio is charged under a statute passed in 1968 to allow federal prosecution of mass protests. Charged with “impeding law enforcement” during a “civil disorder,” Nastacio faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years if convicted. Nestor says this rarely-used federal statute “sets a dangerous precedent, allowing federal prosecution of any mass protest where law enforcement makes claims that it constituted ‘civil disorder.'” Haas and Nestor have filed a request for Judge Hovland to recuse himself from presiding over Nastacio’s federal criminal case. In support of the Motion for Recusal, they have cited several instances of Judge Hovland making statements clearly depicting Water Protectors and their motives in very negative ways.One of the defendants, Red Fawn Fallis, also <a href="http://truthoutdocs.cloudaccess.net/documents/2017_0423dj/RFFAffidavit_041917.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">filed an affidavit requesting</a> that Hovland recuse himself, and the Water Protector Legal Collective <a href="http://truthoutdocs.cloudaccess.net/documents/2017_0423dj/RFF_Recusal_PressRelease_042417.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">recently released a press release</a> on this as well.Jeffrey Haas is a member of the Water Protectors Legal Collective and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Assassination-Fred-Hampton-Chicago-Murdered/dp/1522601287" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther.</a> (Photo: Courtesy of Jeffrey Haas)Haas told Truthout recently that Hovland’s public statements and judicial rulings have put him in a position where he cannot appear to be acting in an unbiased fashion on any of the Standing Rock cases before him. Speaking to Lederman’s comments on Judge Hovland’s denial of her motion for a preliminary injunction, Haas illustrated Hovland’s continuing support for law enforcement.“Not only did Judge Hovland deny the motion for preliminary injunction, he did so without a hearing,” Haas explained. “That means he accepted the sheriff and other law enforcement’s affidavits as truthful, despite the fact they were challenged by contrary affidavits submitted by plaintiff’s witnesses and experts.”In a case like this, with a disputed set of facts, it should be clear that a hearing is necessary, according to Haas.Hovland, before he was on the bench, worked for the law firm that was hired to defend all the law enforcement agencies, cities and counties in North Dakota. One of the families in that same firm owns a large oil company in North Dakota.In another example of Judge Hovland’s rulings favoring law enforcement and the government, in the pending federal criminal case against Red Fawn Fallis, a federal magistrate judge allowed Fallis — who was charged in a NoDAPL-related incident — to be released from detention. The government appealed that ruling. “Before her attorney Bruce Ellison even had an opportunity to respond, the judge overruled the magistrate, accepted the government’s position and continued the detention of Red Fawn until her trial,” Haas said. “So he has a history of not only ruling for the government, but doing so without a hearing — or in this instance, [without] even giving the defendant an opportunity to respond.According to Haas, with regard to the state criminal cases, there have been many instances of overcharging Water Protectors, or mischarging them with things they didn’t do.Dozens of criminal trespass and riot charges have simply been dismissed. For instance, a group of Water Protectors was charged with riot and trespass for an incident on October 10. Defendants came to court from many miles away, ready for trial. Their lawyers filed motions stating the state could not prove the individuals had been given notice of trespass, nor had it shown any of the defendants had been in a riot.“The judge said he would dismiss the cases due to the lack of evidence, so instead, the prosecutor dismissed those cases and then filed new charges of interfering with a public officer in his duties, and put out warrants for the same people — who were then forced to choose between coming back in six months for a new trial with new charges, or entering a plea and getting a deferred sentence, which many of them have done,” Haas said.Many Water Protectors have been forced to take plea deals in cases where charges against codefendants were dismissed, in order to avoid the significant costs and time needed for travel, according to Nestor.Haas explained what that scenario looks like for Water Protectors who have been charged: “You’ve come 1,000 miles. It’s the day before trial and it’s clear the state can’t prove their case. So they dismiss that case and bring a new charge. So you have to post a new bond, plus there is a warrant out for your arrest until you post that bond. Then you have to come back in six months to face a trial on that new charge. So there is a lot of pressure on you just to get it over, without having to do time, or to not have a record, so a number of people have accepted the deal.”Who Is the Terrorist?Haas and Nestor are also representing Brennon Nastacio, a Water Protector from San Felipe Pueblo in New Mexico, in state court on charges related to an incident when he de-escalated a situation involving a DAPL security contractor, Kyle Thompson, who was carrying an assault rifle and pistol as he attempted to enter the resistance camps on October 27. At a point when Thompson was facing Water Protectors with a loaded AR-15 assault rifle, Nastacio resolved the situation by having him hand over the gun and himself to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).The BIA then turned Thompson over to the FBI, who transported him to the Morton County Sheriff, who released him. Shortly thereafter, Nastacio was <a href="http://nativenewsonline.net/currents/hero-issued-warrant-saving-lives-standing-rock/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">charged with a Class C Felony</a> for allegedly terrorizing Kyle Thompson despite the fact that ample video evidence — including <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYxYs03csm4" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">this video</a> of the entire incident — backs up Nastacio’s account of the events.Nastacio told Truthout he was truly shocked to find out over Facebook that he was on the Morton County Sherriff’s most-wanted list.“I kept wanting to wake up and find this all not to be true, but I’ve not woken up yet to that,” he said. “I couldn’t believe it. I came upon a tense and fearful situation that day, and acted in a manner thinking I was saving a lot of people’s lives, including the guy with the rifle. I have family in law enforcement, and they were all amazed. They tell me I did nothing wrong.”Nastacio is now back in Colorado working at his home remodeling business in Denver, awaiting his trial.He is demoralized by what has happened to him.“Being Native American, we’ve dealt with racism, but after being at Standing Rock and witnessing what Natives go through on a daily basis for hundreds of years, it’s disheartening,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of injustice.”Every Sitting President Is a “Town Destroyer”In addition to all of these strategies, Haas outlined numerous repressive tactics used by the State against the Water Protectors. These included mass arrests as an attempt to deter protests, incarceration and the setting of high bonds, police in riot gear, massive shows of force and federal charges against people perceived as leaders of the protests. Additionally there was a major increase in federal involvement by the BIA, FBI and ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.)Despite this widespread repression of people nonviolently attempting to keep their water from being polluted, and intensifying criminalization of dissent of any kind, Estes sees Standing Rock as a touchstone of resistance going forward.“It’s evolved into a more widespread movement and it’s raised the consciousness of people,” he said. “There are more political possibilities now for the movement than there were a year ago.”And with <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-energy-idUSKBN17P0JC" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Trump poised to sign</a> an order that will cause even more pipelines to be built, the stage is set for broader confrontation.Estes cautions against those who think Trump is acting in a truly exceptional way.“The Haudenosaunee [Iroquois], who fought George Washington … call every sitting president ‘town destroyer,'” he said. “I think that is apt.”Estes sees the state violence at Standing Rock as a continuation of state brutality against Indigenous people across the US, which runs alongside tactics like naming cruise missiles “Tomahawks” and helicopters “Blackhawks.”“These all come from 19th century Indian wars,” he said. “Standing Rock is a continuation of these wars. Since the 1878 policy, which spelled out the use of ‘just war’ against Indigenous, the message has been, ‘Acquiesce to us, or face the consequences’ — which means negotiate land cessions and concede to the US government or war will be waged against you. And that is exactly what happened at Standing Rock.”Moreover, Estes believes that during this historical moment, when we are talking about Indigenous decolonization, we need to also be discussing what is happening regarding budget cuts to schools, healthcare and social services.“All these issues are deeply connected, and Standing Rock was a moment of a larger movement,” he concluded. “The settler state uses police violence for their aims, and out of that, you can violently secure the trespass of a pipeline to continue dispossessing Indigenous land and water. But you cannot dispossess us of our experience of Standing Rock, as that will reverberate far into the future.”</div></div></div><div></div><div>thompson</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBuz8RYfdWM">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBuz8RYfdWM</a></div><div>
</div><div><div id="top-row" class="style-scope ytd-video-secondary-info-renderer" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: flex; flex-direction: row;"><ytd-video-owner-renderer class="style-scope ytd-video-secondary-info-renderer" style="--yt-button-payment-background-color:hsl(206.1, 79.3%, 52.7%); display: flex; flex-direction: row; flex: 1 1 1e-09px;"><div id="upload-info" class="style-scope ytd-video-owner-renderer" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; background: transparent; flex: 1 1 1e-09px; display: flex; flex-direction: column; justify-content: center;">Published on Oct 31, 2016</div><div id="sponsor-button" class="style-scope ytd-video-owner-renderer" style="margin: 0px 4px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; background: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; justify-content: center;"><div id="subscribe-button" class="style-scope ytd-video-secondary-info-renderer" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; background: transparent; display: flex; flex-direction: column; justify-content: center;"><ytd-subscribe-button-renderer class="style-scope ytd-video-secondary-info-renderer" style="--yt-button-text-color:hsl(0, 0%, 100%); display: flex; flex-direction: row;"><paper-button noink="" class="style-scope ytd-subscribe-button-renderer" role="button" tabindex="0" animated="" aria-disabled="false" elevation="0" aria-label="Subscribe to this channel." style="display: flex; position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; min-width: 5.14em; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-align: center; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; outline-width: 0px; border-radius: 2px; user-select: none; cursor: pointer; z-index: 0; padding: 10px 16px; background-color: var(--yt-brand-paper-button-color); border: var(--paper-button-border); width: var(--paper-button-width); margin: auto 4px; text-transform: uppercase; transition: box-shadow 0.28s cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1); white-space: nowrap; letter-spacing: 0.007px; flex-direction: row;"><yt-formatted-string class="style-scope ytd-subscribe-button-renderer" style="text-transform: inherit;">
</yt-formatted-string><span id="watch7-subscription-container" class="style-scope ytd-subscribe-button-renderer" style="text-transform: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; background: transparent; position: absolute; left: -10000px;"><button class="yt-uix-button yt-uix-button-size-default yt-uix-button-subscribe-branded yt-uix-button-has-icon no-icon-markup yt-uix-subscription-button yt-can-buffer style-scope ytd-subscribe-button-renderer" type="button" aria-busy="false" aria-live="polite" data-channel-external-id="UCLXo7UDZvByw2ixzpQCufnA" data-clicktracking="itct=CDYQmysiEwiPl66M2ITVAhXpI34KHW84BlEo-B0yBXdhdGNo" data-style-type="branded" data-subscribed-timestamp="0" data-show-unsub-confirm-time-frame="always" data-show-unsub-confirm-dialog="true" tabindex="-1" style="text-transform: inherit;">SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBED UNSUBSCRIBE</button></paper-button></ytd-subscribe-button-renderer></div></div><ytd-expander class="description style-scope ytd-video-secondary-info-renderer" collapsed-height="60" style="display: block; word-wrap: break-word; min-width: 0px; margin-left: 64px; max-width: 615px; line-height: 2.1rem; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); --ytd-expander-collapsed-height:60px;"><div id="content" class="style-scope ytd-expander" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; background: transparent;"><yt-formatted-string id="description" class="content style-scope ytd-video-secondary-info-renderer" split-lines="" style="white-space: pre-wrap; --yt-endpoint-color:hsl(206.1, 79.3%, 52.7%);"><a class="yt-simple-endpoint style-scope yt-formatted-string" href="http://democracynow.org/" style="display: inline-block; cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">http://democracynow.org</a> - On Friday, Amnesty International dispatched human rights observers to North Dakota to monitor the ongoing repression of the thousands of Native Americans resisting the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. Amnesty’s move came one day after hundreds of police with military equipment arrested over 140 people, after attacking them with pepper spray, Tasers, sound cannons, bean bag rounds and rubber bullets. More details are emerging from Thursday, including video footage of a Dakota Access security contractor holding an assault rifle, with his face covered by a bandana, apparently attempting to infiltrate a group of water protectors. A Standing Rock Sioux tribal member says he saw the man driving down Highway 1806 toward the main resistance camp with an AR-15 rifle on the passenger side of his truck. Protectors chased down his truck and then pursued him on foot in efforts to disarm him. In the video, the contractor can be seen pointing the assault rifle at the protectors as he attempts to flee into the water. He was ultimately arrested by Bureau of Indian Affairs police. Protectors say inside the man’s truck they found a DAPL security ID card and insurance papers listing his vehicle as insured by DAPL. For more, we speak with Dallas Goldtooth, organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network.</yt-formatted-string></div></ytd-expander></ytd-video-owner-renderer></div><div>
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</div><div><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 14px 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-weight: normal; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TigerSwan Globally</h2>TigerSwan has offices on five continents and can monitor its safety technology globally with response capabilities in 79 countries.<h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 14px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-weight: normal; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TigerSwan Human Resources</h5>3467 Apex Peakway Apex, NC 27502 (919) 439-8341 <a href="mailto:HR@TigerSwan.com" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; border: none; outline: 0px;">HR@TigerSwan.com</a><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 14px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-weight: normal; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TigerSwan Headquarters</h5>3467 Apex Peakway Apex, NC 27502 (919) 439-7110 <a href="mailto:Info@TigerSwan.com" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; border: none; outline: 0px;">Info@TigerSwan.com</a><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 14px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-weight: normal; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TigerSwan Iraq (TSIQ)</h5>TigerSwan Iraq is a PSC licensed Iraq company that provides TigerSwan services to all areas throughout Iraq, with headquarters in Baghdad and an office in Basrah. <a href="mailto:TSIQ@TigerSwan.com" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; border: none; outline: 0px;">TSIQ@TigerSwan.com</a><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 14px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-weight: normal; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TigerSwan Afghanistan (TSAF)</h5>TigerSwan Afghanistan is a licensed Afghan company with its risk management license (RMC). <a href="mailto:TSAF@TigerSwan.com" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; border: none; outline: 0px;">TSAF@TigerSwan.com</a><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 14px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-weight: normal; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TigerSwan Jordan (TSJO)</h5>TigerSwan Jordan is the company's gateway to the Middle East and North Africa. Our team of business enablers in Jordan has unprecedented access and knowledge throughout MENA.  <a href="mailto:TSJO@TigerSwan.com" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; border: none; outline: 0px;">TSJO@TigerSwan.com</a><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 14px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TigerSwan India</h5>TigerSwan India is headquartered in Mumbai and positioned to provide vulnerability management services throughout India. <a href="mailto:TSIndia@TigerSwan.com" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; border: none; outline: 0px;">TSIndia@TigerSwan.com</a><h5 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 14px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; font-weight: normal; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TigerSwan Latin America (TSLATAM)</h5>TigerSwan Latin America includes major offices in Miami, Panama City, Mexico City, Bogota and São Paulo, with satellite offices in every capital of Latin America.</div><div><div></div><div>OMG</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/20/emails-bush-iraq-war-pr-delve-off-the-record-strategies-dakota-access-pipeline">https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/20/emails-bush-iraq-war-pr-delve-off-the-record-strategies-dakota-access-pipeline</a></div><div>
</div><div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden" style="min-height: 280px;"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">By Steve Horn and <a href="https://www.muckrock.com/accounts/profile/chwaltman/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Curtis Waltman</a>, MuckRockBehind the scenes, as law enforcement officials tried to stem protests against the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/energy-transfer-partners-bakken-oil-pipeline-through-iowa" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Dakota Access pipeline</a>, alumni from the George W. Bush White House were leading a crisis communications effort to discredit pipeline protesters.Emails show that the firms Delve and Off the Record Strategies, apparently working on contract with the National Sheriffs’ Association, worked in secret on talking points, media outreach, and communications training for law enforcement dealing with Dakota Access opponents mobilized at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. This revelation comes from documents obtained via an open records request from the Laramie County Sheriff's Department in Wyoming.As previously reported by DeSmog, the GOP-connected firm <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/dci-group" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">DCI Group</a> led the forward-facing public relations efforts for Dakota Access via a front group called <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/09/15/dakota-access-pipeline-fake-twitter-accounts-dci-group" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Midwest Alliance for Infrastructure Now (MAIN)</a>. Today MAIN has morphed into a national effort known as <a href="http://gainnow.org/about-us/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Grow America’s Infrastructure Now (GAIN)</a>.<a href="https://delvedc.com/about/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Delve</a> is an opposition research firm run by Jeff Berkowitz, former Republican National Committee research director and official in the George W. Bush White House. His company led research efforts on behalf of the National Sheriffs' Association.<a href="https://www.otrstrategies.com/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Off the Record Strategies</a>, meanwhile, guided the sheriffs’ behind-the-scenes communications strategy. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Mark%20Pfeifle%20%20LinkedIn.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mark Pfeifle</a> runs the secretive firm, Off the Record Strategies, and served as communications advisor in the George W. Bush administration, leading PR efforts for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.The National Sheriffs’ Association, a trade group for sheriffs, has been <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/04/27/dakota-access-sheriffs-lobbying-military-gear" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">lobbying the federal government</a> for additional surplus military gear from the Department of Defense under the auspices of its 1033 program. The association was also the central organizing vehicle which brought hundreds of out-of-state cops to Standing Rock via the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/10/27/emergency-assistance-law-dakota-access-pipeline-out-state-cops" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC)</a>.Law enforcement present at Standing Rock under EMAC came under fire for a heavy-handed and overtly military-like response to pipeline protesters. <h3 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">'Guns, Knives, Etc.'</h3>According to an <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Fwd%20ND%20Talking%20Points.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">October 4, 2016 email</a> sent by Chelsea Rider, content strategist for the sheriffs’ association, Pfeifle drafted the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Draft%20talking%20points.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">talking points</a> used by law enforcement in an attempt to discredit the anti-Dakota Access movement. Representatives of that movement referred to themselves as “water protectors” because they opposed the pipeline crossing Lake Oahe and the Missouri River, a source of drinking water for the Standing Rock Sioux and others downriver.The document attached to that email, according to its metadata, indicates it was indeed written by Pfeifle, and then given to the acting public information officer, <a href="https://www.ndaco.org/about-ndaco/staff/27892/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Donnell Hushka</a> of the North Dakota Association of Counties, who handled information related to the protests at Standing Rock.The talking points purported that the movement was led by “out-of-state agitators” with gang and drug-dealing ties, had connections to “anarchists” and “Palestinian activists,” used violence, and possessed “guns, knives, etc.” In addition, the messaging included calls to “follow the money” in pursuit of potential funding support from liberal elites such as George Soros and Tom Steyer.[doc] outside agitators
Credit: Laramie County Sheriffs' Department]
On October 5, Pfeifle sent a <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Mark%20Pfeifle%20Email.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">follow-up email</a> to Hushka and other sheriffs’ association staff, including its executive director Jonathan Thompson, in response to an <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Press%20Conference%20Script%20Email.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">email sent by Thompson</a>. Thompson’s email recommended changes for a press conference script drafted by Hushka.“Importantly, we need to make sure we are pushing the primary message before the actual press conference begins, we want questions asked about who is [sic] protesters,” wrote Thompson in his email. “Must focus on the why this happening. This not for altruistic reasons, but nothing less than a desire to ‘occupy, threaten and intimidate,’ not peaceful protest. There those that want nothing more than using thug-like tactics, rumors and outright lights to distort what is really happening.”Pfeifle agreed in his email, and suggested following the press conference with outreach to friendly media outlets to amplify the message.<img alt="" src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202017-07-19%20at%202.25.07%20AM.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: 225px; width: 833px;" />
Credit: Laramie County Sheriffs' DepartmentOne of those outlets was the Say Anything Blog, run by Rob Port, who the next day, October 6, ran a blog post featuring many of the themes found in the talking points: “<a href="https://www.sayanythingblog.com/entry/85-percent-arrested-nodapl-protesters-outside-north-dakota/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Over 85 Percent of Arrested #NoDAPL Protesters Are From Outside of North Dakota</a>.”In his email, Pfeifle had suggested reaching out to Port, who also <a href="http://www.inforum.com/news/4112097-rob-port-begin-daily-one-hour-show-wday-radio" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">hosts a radio show</a> on WDAY AM-970 and regularly wrote blog posts in support of Dakota Access during the Standing Rock stand-off. When Port's piece went online, Pfeifle wrote an email that same day to the Delve team, sheriffs' association staff, Hushka, and others asking an association staffer to share the piece on social media.<img alt="" src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202017-07-19%20at%209.27.05%20PM.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: 521px; width: 550px;" />
Credit: Laramie County Sheriffs' DepartmentThough since removed from his blog, the Web Archive shows that Port formerly <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Say%20Anything%20Site%20Announcement%20Joining%20The%20North%20Dakota%20Policy%20Council.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">served as a policy fellow</a> for the North Dakota Policy Council, a defunct think-tank that was part of the conservative and corporate-funded <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/state-policy-network" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">State Policy Network (SPN)</a>. SPN, as <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2013/12/09/stink-tanks-historical-records-reveal-state-policy-network-created-alec" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported in 2013 by DeSmog</a>, was actually created as a message-force-multiplier by and for the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/american-legislative-exchange-council" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)</a>, another conservative and corporate-backed group which produces model legislation that is disseminated to predominantly Republican state legislators nationwide.Scott Hennen, another conservative radio show host Pfeifle suggested the sheriffs' association target for outreach, actually copied and pasted the association's memo into a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/scotthennen/posts/10154409005297254" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Facebook post</a>, which was then <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Nationalsheriffsassociation/posts/10154664513509623" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">shared by the association</a>. In prefacing the talking points, Hennen also posted a photo of a Palestinian flag which was on the protest site depicted.“For those who still believe the #NoDAPL protests are all peaceful and prayerful…read this,” read Hennen's Facebook post. “It will help you awaken to smell the coffee. And note the Palestine flag in the photo.”On October 7, Hennen also invited Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier on his show to disseminate a similar set of talking points as those conveyed in Hennen's Facebook post.[img]<h3 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Iraq War 'Damage Control'</h3>Pfeifle, who heads Off the Record Strategies, specializes in “damage control,” according to a 2005 Baltimore Sun story profiling the Bush White House communications strategy to fend off domestic critics of the Iraq War.“Pfeifle's specialty is damage control. And at the moment, there is more than enough damage surrounding Bush,” The Sun wrote of the campaign Pfeifle co-ran with the host of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc-live/nicolle-wallace-biography" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Nicolle Wallace</a>, who then was a top communications advisor to President Bush. “With public alarm about the war mounting and public trust of Bush plummeting, the White House has gone on the defensive [sic OFFENSE] with a public relations push designed to discredit his opponents. The operation has all the trappings of a political campaign — including rapid-response statements targeted at opponents, using carefully compiled research.”Pfeifle isn’t the only person with ties to the Iraq War who did public relations for Dakota Access. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/07/05/dakota-access-tigerswan-james-spider-marks-los-angeles-riots" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">James “Spider” Marks</a> led intelligence-gathering for the 2003 “shock and awe” campaign for Operation Iraqi Liberation. Today, he serves as a consultant to Energy Transfer Partners and sits on the advisory board of <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/10/28/private-security-firm-dakota-access-iraq-afghanistan-blackwater" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">TigerSwan</a>, the company’s private security firm and a <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/04/27/dakota-access-sheriffs-lobbying-military-gear" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">funder of the National Sheriffs’ Association</a>.With a tagline of “Private Council/Public Results,” Off the Record Strategies does all of its business behind the scenes and rarely issues public comments.“If we told you exactly what we do, we’d have to go on the record,” reads its website. “We’re strategic counselors with decades of high-level experience and a no-holds-barred approach to meeting — and exceeding — our client’s needs through personal and confidential service.”<h3 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Off the Record Strategies 'Here to Help'</h3>In a May 7 webinar convened by the sheriffs’ association, Sheriff Laney and Pfeifle pointed to the October 2016 press conference as an instance of going on the offensive and turning the tables on the “North Dakota nice” attitude. Their webinar was titled “<a href="https://nsa.adobeconnect.com/p3zo4qjvdyjr/?proto=true" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Protest on the Prairie: Law Enforcement Response and Lessons Learned</a>.”Laney appears to be a prominent figure within the National Sheriffs’ Association. He sits on its Board of Directors, <a href="http://www.wdaz.com/content/cass-county-sheriff-selected-head-national-group-0" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">formerly served</a> on its Special Operations Committee, and won association awards <a href="http://kfgo.com/news/articles/2017/jun/28/sheriff-laney-receives-2017-nsa-presidents-award/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">in 2017</a> and<a href="http://www.policemag.com/channel/patrol/news/2012/01/25/n-d-sheriff-named-sheriff-of-the-year-for-2012.aspx" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;"> 2012</a>. Within his more than hour-long webinar speech last May, Laney also gave a 17-point “<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/DAPL%20Lessons%20Learned.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">DAPL Lessons Learned</a>” presentation.On top of his other affiliations, Sheriff Laney is a <a href="https://www.ndaco.org/about-ndaco/board-of-directors/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">member of the Board of Directors</a> for the North Dakota Association of Counties, which received the talking points from Off the Record Strategies and the sheriffs’ association in the October 4 email.[vid]In October 10 last year, Morton County, North Dakota — center of the pipeline protests — sent out a request under EMAC for 40 additional law enforcement officers to come to Standing Rock. Laney, and not Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, is <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3515782/Morton-County-Civil-Unrest-Situation-EMAC-Request.pdf" target="blank" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none">listed as the point of contact</a> on that request. An October 13 article in the Billings Gazette, taking note of how <a href="http://billingsgazette.com/business/north-dakota-sheriff-out-of-town-almost-constantly-as-pipeline/article_3e0fb15d-dfda-5045-a08b-287b99745334.html" target="blank" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none">little time Laney had been spending at home</a> in Cass County, refers to Laney as the Dakota Access “operations chief” in Morton County.The National Sheriffs’ Association and Off the Record Strategies also show notable ties among personnel.Patrick Royal, a media strategist who was director of media affairs for the Republican National Committee in the 2008 election, is actually listed as an employee by both the <a href="https://www.sheriffs.org/about-nsa/nsa-staff" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">sheriffs’ association</a> and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/OTR%20Strategies%20%20TEAM.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Off the Record Strategies</a>. Further, <a href="https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/bios/Thompson_John_Bio.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Jonathan Thompson</a>, executive director of the National Sheriffs’ Association, formerly worked in the Bush White House with Pfeifle. They both <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/04/prweb2345374.htm" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">went on to work together</a> at a public relations firm named S4 Inc. <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/P.%20Edward%20Leffler%20LinkedIn.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">P. Edward Leffler</a> — listed on his LinkedIn page as the director of presidential transition project for the sheriffs’ association — also lists himself as a communication and media relations specialist for Off the Record Strategies.Royal, Thompson, and Pfeifle <a href="http://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/2016/04/28/sheriff-got-pr-help-after-avery-documentary/83537512/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">also worked together</a> on a crisis communications reaction to the popular Netflix documentary series, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Making_a_Murderer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Making a Murderer</a>. According to an email obtained by USA Today, Manitowoc County Sheriff Rob Hermann consulted with the three of them on best practice response ideas to the hit 10-part series. Neither Royal, Thompson, nor Pfeifle responded to multiple requests for comment.In an interview with Royal in May about the sheriffs’ association’s coordination of the Standing Rock law enforcement response, Royal responded, “I wouldn’t quite characterize it that way [and] I would say that what we tried to do was work with the local sheriffs to coordinate for them, to get people who would make themselves available.”According to the sheriffs' association website, Royal was invited to speak alongside Pfeifle at the association's recent annual meeting held in Reno, Nevada, where they were slated to give two three-hour seminars titled, “<a href="http://www.sheriffs.org/sites/default/files/2017%20Annual%20Agenda%20-%204-10-17.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Communicating in a Crisis</a>.” Eventually, the agenda changed and it appears the two did not end up speaking at the meeting, replaced instead by Sheriff Kirchmeier, Sheriff Laney, and a representative from TigerSwan in a <a href="http://www.sheriffs.org/sites/default/files/2017%20Annual%20Agenda%2020170615.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">seminar bearing the same title</a> as the May one given by Laney and Pfeifle.In his May 7 webinar presentation, Pfeifle told those listening to consider his firm a “resource” to be tapped if necessary during prospective future pipeline battles.[img]“Consider us a resource of the National Sheriff’s Association. This is not the end of our activities to help and support law enforcement in areas where the pipelines could be under protest attack in the next days, months and years. But it’s a continuing activity that we will be available to support you in ways necessary and learn what we learned in North Dakota for areas that might be seeing protesters coming in doing much the same thing across the country,” said Pfeifle. “So, use us as a resource. We’re here to help.”Pfeifle, in fact, has remained a resource for other pipeline fights, including the long-contested <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5857" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102); text-decoration-line: none;">Keystone XL</a>. According to Laney’s May 7 webinar presentation, he, Pfeifle, and Thompson all traveled to Lincoln, Nebraska, on April 14 to meet with the state’s Attorney General, Doug Peterson. Keystone XL, if constructed, would pass through the Cornhusker State.<h3 dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.28205em; margin-top: 1.28205em; margin-bottom: 1.28205em;">Research “Delve”</h3>In the October 4 talking points email, several Delve employees were also included in the email chain, though it is unclear how or if they responded. The email only arose through the records request because it was forwarded to <a href="http://www.laramiecounty.com/officials/Sheriff/Bio.aspx" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Laramie County Sheriff Danny Glick</a>, who did not respond to a request for comment for this story.  Delve principals in the email included <a href="https://delvedc.com/bio-matt/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Matt Moon</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Jeff%20Berkowitz%20%20LinkedIn.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Jeff Berkowitz</a>, <a href="https://delvedc.com/bio-foster/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Foster Morss</a>, <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Lloyd%20Miller%20%20LinkedIn.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Lloyd Miller</a>, and <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Daniel%20Mintz%20%20LinkedIn.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Dan Mintz</a>. Moon is the former deputy research director for the Republican National Committee (RNC), where he worked with Berkowitz. Morss led the research and policy team for 2016 Republican Party presidential candidate, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and formerly served as deputy research director for the RNC under Berkowitz. Berkowitz and Morss also worked together on Rudy Giuliani’s run for president during the 2008 election cycle.<img alt="" src="https://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Screen%20Shot%202017-07-19%20at%209.19.13%20PM.png" style="border: 0px; max-width: 100%; height: 532px; width: 550px;" />

Miller worked as a research consultant for the GOP Super-PAC American Crossroads, founded by former President George W. Bush's chief of staff Karl Rove,while Mintz has since transitioned into a new job and works as the speechwriter for U.S.Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ). The Daily Beast reported that Berkowitz also ghostwrote some of the campaign policy positions for <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/donald-trump%5C" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Donald Trump</a>’s 2016 run for the White House, doing so through another firm he runs named <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trumps-super-secret-policy-ghostwriter" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">JBC Research LLC</a>.“Delve provides breakthrough insights for winning causes through competitive intelligence, opposition research, media and subject monitoring, policy analysis, and issue management,” <a href="https://delvedc.com/about/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Delve says on its website</a>. “Our clients include fortune-listed corporations, major industry associations, Republican political campaigns, independent expenditure groups, and advocacy and educational groups.”For Delve’s work on Dakota Access — which is owned by <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/19688" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Energy Transfer Partners</a> founder and CEO Kelcy Warren, a <a href="https://www.facingsouth.org/2016/09/meet-texas-billionaire-and-gop-donor-behind-north-dakota-pipeline-controversy" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">major Republican Party donor</a> — the firm maintained a special email address, “<a href="mailto:pipeline@delvedc.com" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">pipeline@delvedc.com</a>.” Representatives from Delve did not respond to a request for comment for this story.Delve’s “delve” into helping the National Sheriffs’ Association at Standing Rock appears to have paid off, though, at least according to Sheriff Laney’s May webinar presentation.“It wasn’t until we had Mark and his people, Matt and Dan [of Delve] and Chelsea [of the National Sheriffs’ Association], [who] all came [and] spent probably way more time than they thought they ever would in their lives in North Dakota, but they spent months with us,” said Laney.“And they were a godsend for us because we were finally about to fight them. You know, their professional media service we know was coming out of Seattle and it was highly funded. And to combat that with our own experts and I don’t have the time to go into all of that, but I can tell you without them, we would’ve been in serious trouble.”Dakota Access, pending an <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/APFN_US_OIL_PIPELINE_NDOL-?SITE=IASPN&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">ongoing federal court review</a> of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ environmental review process for the pipeline’s Missouri River crossing and potential spill impacts on the Standing Rock Tribe, is now <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/06/oil-is-flowing-through-the-dakota-access-pipeline/529707/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">open for business</a>. Obtained from <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”)</a> from the <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7174" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Bakken Shale</a> basin, the oil contained within Dakota Access is now <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/apdefault/b2f0ca3a594644ee9e50a8ec4ce2d6de/Article_2017-07-18-APFN-US--Oil%20Pipeline/id-ba7d06b85e20436c8bc9b14b3291c150" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">moving at a rate of half</a> of North Dakota's entire production supply chain to market.
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</div><div>=</div></div></div></div><div></div><div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/16/standing_rock_sioux_chair_on_militarized">https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/16/standing_rock_sioux_chairon_militarized</a></div><div>
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</div><div></div><div><a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mercenary-Firm-at-DAPL-Protests-Did-Covert-Ops-for-Blackwater--20161031-0004.html">http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Mercenary-Firm-at-DAPL-Protests-Did-Covert-Ops-for-Blackwater--20161031-0004.html</a></div><div>videos</div><div>
</div><div><h3 class="op-kicker" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="subtitle" itemprop="description alternativeHeadline" style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px; background: transparent; width: 518.344px;">TigerSwan Security's founder is a Delta Force veteran who also served as lead advisor to the CIA in the invasion of Afghanistan.</div></h3><div class="txt_newworld" itemprop="articleBody" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 22px; clear: both; width: 518.344px;"><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px;">One of the private security firms under scrutiny for their personnel's use of dogs to attack water protectors at the Dakota Access pipeline protests and for operating without an appropriate license has ties to U.S. military interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan and has reportedly done covert operations for the notorious mercenary firm formerly known as Blackwater.<blockquote style="background: transparent; margin: 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px; quotes: none; float: left; width: 191.781px; clear: both;">OPINION:  <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Behind-Standing-Rock-Native-N.-America-vs.-Capitalist-Ecocide-20160915-0002.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s;">Behind Standing Rock: Native N. America vs. Capitalist Ecocide</a></blockquote><p style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; outline: 0px; border: 0px;">Dakota Access, a subsidiary of the Texas-based company Energy Transfer Partners, employs several private security firms, including TigerSwan Security, which, according to the Morton County Sheriff’s Department investigation, is “in charge of the DAPL Intelligence and overall supervisor of the other security companies.”The investigation came after a viral DemocracyNow! Report revealed that security agents guarding unauthorized construction of the hotly-disputed pipeline <a href="http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Security-Forces-Attack-Dakota-Pipeline-Protesters-with-Dogs-20160903-0024.html" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.5s; font-weight: bold;">used pepper spray and unleashed dogs on Indigenous demonstrators</a> — who call themselves protectors, not protesters — on Sept. 3, including a dog that had blood in its nose and mouth. A Morton County investigation found that the guards did not have the proper permits for security work in North Dakota....</div></div><div>
</div><div></div><div><a href="http://www.unicornriot.ninja/?p=15689">http://www.unicornriot.ninja/?p=15689</a></div><div>
</div><div>no link doc pix</div><div>
</div><div><div>DAPL Security Leak Shows Coordinated Surveillance and Repression of Water Protectors</div><div>
</div><div>MAY 29, 2017</div><div>
</div><div>Bismarck, ND – Leaked documents created by military intelligence contractor TigerSwan, recently obtained and published by The Intercept, provide a previously unseen look inside the operations taken by Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) security contractors against the #NoDAPL movement. TigerSwan was contracted to coordinate DAPL security operations in September 2016. The extensive coordinating role of a private nonprofit, the National Sheriffs Association, also turns up in the documents.</div><div>
</div><div>TigerSwan, founded by Delta Force veteran Jim Reese, first worked for the State Department doing counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan. Reese has formerly advised Blackwater, the disgraced paramilitary firm whose employees gunned down seventeen Iraqi civilians in the 2007 Nisour Square Massacre.</div><div>
</div><div>The leaked DAPL security documents show a vast, interstate private surveillance network aimed at identifying, tracking, profiling, and repressing anyone affiliated with the #NoDAPL movement. Emails also show that TigerSwan has never been licensed to operate as a private security company in North Dakota, despite doing so for nearly the entire span of the #NoDAPL movement.</div><div>
</div><div>The emails, briefings, and situation reports show a high level of coordination between TigerSwan and local and state law enforcement in North Dakota, with DAPL security employees often providing intelligence or directing law enforcement’s response to pipeline opponents. TigerSwan records also show pipeline security working directly with the ‘Intel Group’ – a collection of federal, state, and local law enforcement working to collect information to identify and prosecute people allegedly involved in #NoDAPL direct actions.</div><div>
</div><div>As Shadowproof reported earlier this month, this “Intel Group” is also directly tied to the aggressive federal prosecutions of several water protectors on serious felony charges, including the extremely rare charge of “Federal Civil Disorder.”</div><div>
</div><div>“The FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Marshal’s Service, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for North Dakota—coordinated with state and local police as part of an inter-agency “intelligence group” that monitored Standing Rock protests in real-time, with a focus on ferreting out “instigators” and “leaders of the movement”.”  – Shadowproof, The Federal Government is Trying To Imprison These Six Water Protectors</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://shadowproof.com/2017/05/18/federal-government-trying-imprison-six-water-protectors/">https://shadowproof.com/2017/05/18/federal-government-trying-imprison-six-water-protectors/</a></div><div>
</div><div>TigerSwan provided direct assistance to the US government “Intel Group” by directly forwarding them photo and video they collected at #NoDAPL demonstrations as well as providing them with access to a live helicopter video feed during their daily flyovers of water protector encampments.</div><div>
</div><div>One Intel Group email thread from November 20, 2016 (published in part two of the Intercept’s reporting on the TigerSwan leaks) shows personnel from various local, state, and federal agencies monitoring livestreams and social media postings from the incident that came to be known by some water protectors as “the Battle of Backwater Bridge.” One of the emails mentions Unicorn Riot by name, in which assistant U.S. Deputy Marc Nordquist comments on the presence of our reporters on the scene that night.</div><div>
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</div><div>Screenshot from Intel Group Email Thread 2016-11-10</div><div>
</div><div>Many of the reports also show DAPL security and/or law enforcement closely monitoring peaceful, legal events, such as fundraiser concerts and permitted first amendment rallies, as opportunities to conduct surveillance and gather personal information on activists. TigerSwan repeatedly sought out anti-DAPL events and gatherings in Illinois, where the pipeline ends, despite no direct actions against the pipeline ever having occurred there.</div><div>
</div><div>One TigerSwan report-back from a #NoDAPL protest at an Army Corps of Engineers office in Chicago signs off with the assurance that “manifestation of the anti-DAPL sentiment will continue to be monitored closely.” The same report also demonstrates TigerSwan’s heavy use of Open Source Intelligence (or ‘OSINT’) gathered via social media, at one point referring to analysts “data mining” the personal information of Chicago-area people who signed up to attend a pro-Standing Rock event on Facebook.</div><div>
</div><div>In addition to gathering information on individual “persons of interest,” part of TigerSwan’s stated mission is to protect DAPL’s reputation. Many of the leaked documents show concern with both the public’s perception of the pipeline as well as efforts by water protectors and journalists to uncover information about DAPL security contractors. Online content monitored and forwarded by TigerSwan included the hashtag #NoDAPL on Twitter, a DeSmogBlog investigation into TigerSwan’s past work for BP, as well as the Facebook page Bakken Pipeline Resistance.</div><div>
</div><div>TigerSwan is also closely involved with the National Sheriffs Association, a little-known nonprofit organization that played a large role in coordinating security operations to protect the Dakota Access Pipeline from Indigenous resistance.</div><div>
</div><div>2 Mar</div><div> TigerSwan @TigerSwan</div><div>.@NationalSheriff thanks for the follow, good to be part of the team</div><div> Follow</div><div> Nat Sheriffs' Assoc. ? @NationalSheriff</div><div>@TigerSwan proud to have you guys!</div><div>4:26 AM - 2 Mar 2017</div><div>  1 1 Retweet   1 1 like</div><div>
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</div><div>North Dakota law enforcement faced a staffing shortage almost as soon as the #NoDAPL movement kicked off, and was only able to successfully midwife the pipeline to completion with the assistance of hundreds of out-of-state law enforcement officers. This process of importing police from other states was legally done under the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), but on the informal, personal, day-to-day level, much of the coordination and messaging for the multi-state DAPL police operation was carried out by the National Sheriffs Association.</div><div>
</div><div>The National Sheriffs Association (NSA), a private group made up of publicly elected sheriffs, sent a letter in October 2016 to the Department of Justice demonizing #NoDAPL water protectors as violent drug users and asking for increased federal support to the Morton County Sheriff.</div><div>
</div><div>Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek, based in Minneapolis, is currently the “3rd Vice President” of the National Sheriffs’ Association. The sheriffs deputies he controls were critical components of the large police attack on the Oceti Sakowin Treaty Camp on October 27, 2016 [VIDEO] with the approval of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Unicorn Riot documented that the deputies had removed their otherwise standard nameplates during the attack. On October 28th a rally at Minneapolis City Hall compelled NSA vice president Stanek to withdraw his forces.</div><div>
</div><div>A slide from a TigerSwan ‘Shared Daily Intelligence Update’ for October 16, 2016 cites PR work done on DAPL’s behalf by the Sheriff’s Association.</div><div>
</div><div>A leaked recording of a December 2016 Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) board meeting features ETP COO Matthew Ramsey boasting of their company’s collaboration with the National Sheriffs Association to work against the #NoDAPL movement.</div><div>
</div><div>TigerSwan is listed on the National Sheriffs Association website as a corporate sponsor.</div><div>
</div><div>(Unicorn Riot has repeatedly tried to contact representatives of the National Sheriffs Association since October 2016, and as of this writing we have not received any response.)</div><div>
</div><div>The cozy relationship between TigerSwan and the National Sheriffs Association fits into a well-documented pattern of oil and gas interests working hand in hand with law enforcement to conduct counterinsurgency campaigns against indigenous peoples and environmentalists who oppose fossil fuel projects.</div><div>
</div><div>A TigerSwan report entitled ‘DAPL SITREP 034’, dated October 16, 2016 applauds the recent increase in bail amounts for those arrested at DAPL construction in Lee County, Iowa, speculating that a financial deterrent “may impede protestors from risking arrest due to the high cost to be released from bail.” (We reported on the increase in penalties for #NoDAPL related charges in Lee County, Iowa at that time last October.)</div><div>
</div><div>TigerSwan also laments that law enforcement in other Iowa counties “are not supportive of DAPL Security’s mission” and complains of the local sheriff’s “reluctance to arrest or cite trespassing individuals.” They then outline a plan to shift Iowa county sheriffs into taking a harsher, more repressive approach to #NoDAPL protests:</div><div>
</div><div>“We need to work closer with Calhoun, Boone, and Webster county [law enforcement] to ensure future protestors will at least be fined, if not arrested…Alternatively, we could request Lee County LE speak to other counties about tactics that are working.”</div><div>
</div><div>TigerSwan’s militarized approach to surveilling, disrupting, and encouraging prosecution of water protectors echoes past use of counterinsurgency techniques by fossil fuel corporations against their opponents. Similar to some of the TigerSwan materials is a 2010 strategy presentation made by the private intelligence firm Stratfor for Canadian oil giant Suncor, published by Wikileaks after an Anonymous hack in 2011. The power point presentation describes how to better control environmental movements by dividing them into categories such as ‘Idealists’, ‘Realists’, ‘Opportunists’, and ‘Radicals’ – with one of the main goals being to isolate the ‘radicals’.</div><div>
</div><div>In some of the leaked reports published by The Intercept, TigerSwan analysts seem to favor a similar ‘divide and conquer’ tactic as they discuss encouraging infighting between different factions of water protectors. One of the authors speculates about encouraging conflict between native and non-native people in the camps, and also states that exploiting “rifts between peaceful & violent elements is critical in our effort to delegitimize the anti-DAPL movement.”</div><div>
</div><div>Identifying and neutralizing the radicals, or ‘agitators’ within the #NoDAPL encampments was a stated goal of local and state police, the National Guard, as well as TigerSwan intelligence personnel.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div> Unicorn Riot @UR_Ninja</div><div>General says North Dakota National Guard working with law enforcement to identify "agitators" at #NoDAPL protests.</div><div>3:10 PM - 10 Sep 2016</div><div>  216 216 Retweets   106 106 likes</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>In the documents published by The Intercept, state, local, and federal agencies, as well as TigerSwan, express concern with Red Warrior Camp somehow controlling the larger body of water protectors. The reports and emails also repeatedly claim that Cody Hall, former media spokesperson for Red Warrior Camp, was somehow acting as a mastermind or ringleader. A recurring theme is uncovering what perceived leadership (or “Command and Control”) is responsible for direct actions that stopped pipeline construction.</div><div>
</div><div>TigerSwan analysts appear to be unfamiliar with the decentralized organizing models favored by modern direct action movements, and seem to seek out information that fits into an assumed militaristic, hierarchical structure.</div><div>
</div><div>TIgerSwan did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment on the initial story with which the leaked DAPL security documents were published, and has not yet publicly responded to the leaks.</div><div>
</div><div>TigerSwan’s Twitter feed – which seems to mostly be used by founder Jim Reese as a personal account – is generally free of any mention of the Dakota Access Pipeline, except for a retweet of a pro-DAPL editorial in the Wall Street Journal written by North Dakota US Rep. Kevin Cramer in December 2016. TigerSwan also retweeted a link to a December 2016 internet radio broadcast from the right-wing outlet The Blaze, in which Jim Reese expresses his admiration for DAPL employees and North Dakota law enforcement and criticizes water protectors as misguided.</div><div>
</div><div>“I think people have really forgotten what they’re protesting… I think there are a lot of people who really don’t know the facts…Our frustration now has been with the veterans that have come up over the last several weeks…I’m just not really sure what they’re coming for…we’re seeing people saying “we just coming for a fight because we wanna fight” and i’m just not sure where in our constitution that’s where our protests are because we come ’cause we wanna fight.” – Jim Reese on The Buck Sexton Show, December 5, 2016</div><div>
</div><div>Tom Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) responded to the TigerSwan revelations in a statement published on Saturday:</div><div>
</div><div>“The usage of counterterrorism tactics upon our No DAPL movement is not only extremely disturbing, but feeds into a historical narrative of  oppression that Indigenous Peoples and People of Color have dealt with for generations. Many of our brothers and sisters incarcerated across the country for their activism are political prisoners as a result of such disruptive tactics used by companies like TigerSwan.</div><div> </div><div>This reminds us of the 1970s, during the Red Power American Indian Movement, where the FBI’s counterintelligence program sought to criminalize our Indigenous organizers and spiritual leaders. However, we will not let such repressive efforts dissuade us from our moral and spiritual obligation to protect the sacred integrity of Mother Earth. We will continue to speak up for the dignity and rights of our Indigenous peoples, and we will resist any attempts to diminish that directive.” – Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network</div><div>
</div><div>Since The Intercept published their exposé featuring several leaked TigerSwan reports, the @TigerSwan twitter handle retweeted a tweet calling the firm “modern day Pinkertons” – a reference to the Pinkerton Detective Agency, known for violent and sometimes deadly attacks carried out against the labor movement the early 1900’s on behalf of corporate employers. It is unclear if the retweet was done in irony.</div><div>
</div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://shadowproof.com/2017/05/18/federal-government-trying-imprison-six-water-protectors/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://shadowproof.com/2017/05/18/federal-government-trying-imprison-six-water-protectors/</a></div><div>
</div><div>see nat am 2 </div><div>
</div><div></div><div> Below is Unicorn Riot's coverage of the [#NoDAPL] anti-Dakota Access Pipeline struggle from early summer 2016 to present: March - May 2016</div><div>
</div><div>March 29th, “Tribal Citizens Prepare to Blockade Bakken Oil Pipeline“.</div><div>April 3rd, “Tribal Citizens Build Camp in Path of Oil Pipeline“.</div><div>May 5th, “Sacred Stone Camp Resists Dakota Access Pipeline“.</div><div>May 27th, “Dakota Access Pipeline Blockade Enters 2nd Month“.</div><div>August 2016</div><div>
</div><div>After covering the camp in the spring of 2016, Unicorn Riot returned to Standing Rock Reservation on Wednesday, August 10th, when Standing Rock tribal members and allies blocked the entrance to the Dakota Access Pipeline construction site.</div><div>On Thursday, August 11th, a dozen or so people were arrested blocking the construction site entrances.</div><div>Day 3, Friday, the fight to protect land & water intensified around the construction sites of the Dakota Access Pipeline.</div><div>On the 4th day, the pipeline resistance encampment swelled and prepared for more action.</div><div>Monday, August 15th, land defenders stormed the construction site halting construction, and the next day construction was halted as well.</div><div>August 17th saw State Police begin checkpoints, roadblocks, and psyops as protesters united to defend water.</div><div>August 24th, camps prepared as Federal injunction hearing looms.</div><div>Camps Organize to Stay as Injunction Postponed.</div><div>On August 31st, Non-Violent Direct Action Stopped DAPL Construction for Over 6 Hours.</div><div>September 2016</div><div>September 6, indigenous water protectors swarmed Dakota Access Pipeline site, stopped work</div><div>September 7, U?pa Nu?pa was interviewed about ongoing #noDAPL actions</div><div>North Dakota highway patrol refused to release email correspondence with Energy Transfer Partners</div><div>September 8, ND National Guard took over Dakota Access Pipeline checkpoints</div><div>Friday, September 9, US Govt. overruled federal judge and requested pipeline construction halted at Lake Oahe</div><div>Meanwhile, cultural activities continued at #NoDAPL camps despite more arrests/warrants</div><div>September 13, 20 were arrested during #NoDAPL lockdown, including 2 Unicorn Riot journalists</div><div>September 14, direct actions continued against Dakota Access Pipeline while legal repression intensified</div><div>On September 16 a federal judge dissolved the unconstitutional temporary restraining order Dakota Access, LLC had filed against Stranding Rock tribal members</div><div>September 19, as solidarity protests spread nationwide, the federal appeals court ordered construction temporarily stop on Dakota Access segment as Solidarity Protests Spread Nationwide</div><div>September 21, #NoDAPL noise demo demanded freedom for jailed water protector Olowan Martinez</div><div>September 22, water protectors disrupted the annual meeting of the North Dakota Petroleum Council</div><div>September 25, water protectors planted trees on DAPL construction site</div><div>In Iowa on September 26, a non-violent direct action from the Mississippi Stand camp stopped DAPL construction for the day</div><div>September 26, a caravan of water protectors stopped work at DAPL site</div><div>September 27, militarized police arrested 23 water protectors in DAPL work stoppage</div><div>September 29, a #NoDAPL solidarity action took place at MN Enbridge office</div><div>October 2016</div><div>October 3rd-4th saw the "Toxic Tour," Governor debate disruption, and water protectors attend their court arraignment</div><div>October 4, we learned North Dakota Governor Dalrymple's email inbox was full of support for #NoDAPL</div><div>October 5, Buffer Zone Holds as Caravans Continue to Disrupt DAPL – New Felony Charges</div><div>October 7, 6 Arrested in Iowa #NoDAPL Action, Including Unicorn Riot Journalist</div><div>October 8, Iowa Water Protectors Blockade DAPL Drill Site Twice in 24 Hours</div><div>October 9, Federal Appeals Court Rules to Allow DAPL Construction</div><div>October 10, 27 Arrests After Water Protectors Pray at DAPL Site on Indigenous People's Day</div><div>October 12, Lockdown Stops DAPL Construction in Iowa, 3 Arrested, Including Unicorn Riot Journalist</div><div>October 14, Emails Show North Dakota Budget Bureaucracy Behind #NoDAPL Policing</div><div>October 16, Direct Actions Continue to Stop DAPL Construction in Iowa and North Dakota</div><div>October 17, Four Unicorn Riot Journalists Face Charges For Covering #NoDAPL</div><div>October 17, Water Protectors Blockade Highway in Bismarck, Some Charges Dropped</div><div>October 20, As DAPL Construction Advances, Water Protectors Continue Direct Action</div><div>October 22, Water Protectors’ Prayer Walk Ends up with 127 Arrests, Including Unicorn Riot Journalist</div><div>October 23, Law Enforcement Attack Private Drone as Water Protectors Erect Blockade & New Winter Camp</div><div>October 24, Mississippi Stand Blockades Iowa DAPL Drill Waste Site, Drilling Stops</div><div>October 25, Records Release: Morton County’s Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Assistance Agreement</div><div>Hundreds Flood Minneapolis City Hall to Demand Local Sheriff Withdraw from North Dakota</div><div>October 26, Tensions Rise as Pipeline Construction Nears #NoDAPL Blockade</div><div>October 27, Police and Military Attack Oceti Sakowin Treaty Camp</div><div>November 2016</div><div>November 1, #NoDAPL Solidarity Rally & Sit-In in Minneapolis Prods Sheriff into Removing Deputies</div><div>November 1, DAPL Resistance Continues Despite Advancing Construction</div><div>November 2, Police Attack Water Protectors Defending Sacred Sites</div><div>November 5, DAPL Construction Nears US Army Corps Land While Still Lacking Permits</div><div>November 6, Water Protectors Attempt to Reclaim Sacred Burial Site, Demonstrate in Cemetery</div><div>November 8, Dakota Access Announces Plan to Drill Under Missouri River Within Weeks</div><div>November 11, Dakota Access Pipeline Work Stopped As Water Protectors Storm Site; 30+ Arrested</div><div>November 14, #NoDAPL Water Protectors March on ND State Capitol after Caravan Disrupts Construction</div><div>November 14, Mississippi Stand Goes Inside Pipeline and Shuts Down DAPL Construction</div><div>November 14, Army Corps Delays DAPL Easement</div><div>November 15, "No More Stolen Sisters" Demonstration Blockades DAPL Man Camp; 25+ Arrests</div><div>November 16, Despite Army Corps Statement, DAPL Moves Horizontal Drill to Missouri River Crossing</div><div>November 17, Demonstration in Bismarck-Mandan, Cass County Deputies Beat Man Bloody</div><div>November 20, Police Attack Unarmed Water Protectors w/ Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas, and Water Cannons; 300+ injured</div><div>November 21, Land Defense & Water Protection Actions Ripple Across Turtle Island</div><div>November 22, Hundreds Target U.S. Army Corps Building in St. Paul w #NoDAPL Message</div><div>November 22, Anonymous DDOS Munitions Vendor After Sheriffs Attack #NoDAPL</div><div>November 22, #NoDAPL Water Protector Faces Possible Loss Of Her Arm After Police Attack</div><div>November 24, Water Protectors Bridge onto Turtle Island; Mandan Thanksgiving Street Feast</div><div>November 25, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Announces Intent to Close Oceti Sakowin #NoDAPL Camp</div><div>November 29, Excessive Force Lawsuit Filed Against Morton County Sheriff for November 20 Bridge Assault</div><div>December 2016</div><div>December 1, Direct Action Continues To Disrupt Dakota Access Pipeline Construction in Iowa</div><div>December 3, Divest from DAPL; Three Wells Fargo Locations Targeted in Minneapolis, Eight People Locked Down and Two Arrested</div><div>December 4, Army Corps Denies Dakota Access Pipeline Easement</div><div>December 8, Veterans Apologize for Genocide & March to Backwater Bridge in Blizzard</div><div>December 8, Nebraska Supplied State Troopers, Surveillance Aircraft to North Dakota Under EMAC</div><div>December 12, #DivestFromDAPL Action Disrupts Wells Fargo Branch Grand Opening, Doors Secured with Bike Locks</div><div>December 19, First Water Protector Trials Set for January as Another ND Pipeline Leaks</div><div>January 2017</div><div>January 2, Massive #DivestFromDAPL Banner Unfurled During Vikings Game at US Bank Stadium</div><div>January 5, Interview: Water Protector who Scaled Vikings Stadium to Drop “US Bank DIVEST #NoDAPL” Banner</div><div>January 15, Indigenous-Led Pipeline Resistance Camps Spread Across the USA</div><div>January 24, Hundreds of Minnesotans Protest, Take to the Streets on Trump’s Inauguration</div><div>January 25, Trump Pushes Forward DAPL & KXL Pipeline Approvals; Resistance Continues</div><div>January 30, Denver Joins Global Prayer Action to #DefundDAPL</div><div>February 2017</div><div>February 7, Army Corps Grants Easement as Repression Continues at Standing Rock</div><div>February 17, Eviction Threats Loom as Hundreds Remain at #NoDAPL Camps</div><div>February 22, Militarized Force Executes Eviction of Main #NoDAPL Encampment</div><div>February 23, North Dakota Dismantles #NoDAPL Oceti Camp</div><div>February 27, Three Unicorn Riot Journalists Face Trial This Week From DAPL Coverage</div><div>March 2017</div><div>March 2, Three Unicorn Riot Journalists Have #NoDAPL Arrest Charges Dropped</div><div>March 11, Rise With Standing Rock: Native Nations March on Denver</div><div>March 22, Dakota Access Pipeline Sabotaged in Several States, Authorities Claim</div><div>April 2017</div><div>April 5, One Year Sacred Stone Celebration</div><div>April 16, North Dakota Sheriff Advising South Dakota and Nebraska on Keystone XL</div><div>April 16, North Dakota Sheriff Advising South Dakota and Nebraska on Keystone XL</div><div>May 2017</div><div>May 10, Dakota Access Pipeline Spills at South Dakota Pump Station</div><div>May 29, DAPL Security Leak Shows Coordinated Surveillance and Repression of Water Protectors</div><div>May 2017</div><div>June 1, Dakota Access Pipeline Begins Commercial Operations</div><div>June 14, Federal Judge Says Dakota Access Pipeline Environmental Review Was Inadequate</div></div><div></div><div>" Solutions to Uncertainty"</div><div></div><div><a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/security-firm-hired-counter-dapl-protesters-may-have-been-operating-illegally">http://www.alternet.org/environment/security-firm-hired-counter-dapl-protesters-may-have-been-operating-illegally</a></div><div>
</div><div>Last month, it was revealed that the security firm TigerSwan had been hired to combat water protectors protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline through surveillance methods and counterterrorism measures. Now, a North Dakota investigative board says TigerSwan had been <a href="http://www.grandforksherald.com/4289485-dakota-access-security-firm-operated-nd-without-license-board-says" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">illegally providing</a> these security services in the state without a license.According to a complaint filed by attorneys from the North Dakota Private Investigative and Security Board on June 27 in Burleigh County District Court, the agency denied an application from James Patrick Reese, the founder of TigerSwan, to become a licensed security firm. Despite the denial of the application, the complaint alleges, the security firm continued to operate illegally in the state. TigerSwan was hired by Energy Transfer Partners last year in an effort to combat the growing protests by indigenous activists and their allies against construction of the oil pipeline.In North Dakota, providing investigative private security services without a license issued by the security board is classified as a B misdemeanor. The board is now asking a state district court to issue an injunction against TigerSwan and Reese, as well as levy an administrative fine for each violation.<div class="proper-ad-unit" style="margin: auto; padding-bottom: 25px; position: relative; min-width: 100px; text-align: center; box-sizing: border-box !important;"><div id="proper-ad-alternet_content_1" style="position: relative; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box !important;">The complaint alleges that TigerSwan “maintains roving security teams to monitor valve sites in the state.” It also states that the firm’s officers are armed with semiautomatic rifles and sidearms. The complaint further accuses the security firm of monitoring those affiliated with and participating in the DAPL protests.Maxine Herr, a spokeswoman for the Morton County Sheriff’s Department, <a href="http://www.grandforksherald.com/4289485-dakota-access-security-firm-operated-nd-without-license-board-says" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">told the Grand Forks Herald</a> that they did not know TigerSwan was allegedly operating without a license in North Dakota.“The whole point of any daily reports we got was just to know where they were doing construction because we knew those would be potential areas for protests and therefore potentially unlawful activity,” Herr said.Internal documents leaked to The Intercept in May reveal the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">military-style measures</a> employed by TigerSwan to constantly monitor and counter the Dakota Access protesters. Energy Transfer Partners’ hiring of TigerSwan, which was founded as a contractor for the U.S. military and State Department, was part of a collaborative effort between local and federal law enforcement to quash the protests against the pipeline, including officials from the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Justice, Marshals Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.According to the leaked documents, TigerSwan compared the activists to jihadists and terrorists, saying the DAPL protests “generally followed the jihadist insurgency model,” and that the firm “can expect the individuals who fought for and supported it to follow a post-insurgency model after its collapse.” Other reports also highlight a grand-scale security operation that relied on the mass surveillance of water protectors. Some of this manifested in the form of aerial surveillance through drones and helicopters, eavesdropping via radio and even infiltrating camps and activist circles.The security firm paid particular attention to protesters and activists of Middle Eastern descent. “The presence of additional Palestinians in the camp, and the movement's involvement with Islamic individuals is a dynamic that requires further examination," stated one document cited by The Intercept.Equally concerning is TigerSwan’s role in helping law enforcement form cases against water protectors. According to an October 16 document, the security team collected “information of an evidentiary level” that would “aid in prosecution of protesters.” Many indigenous activists who protested the pipeline are <a href="http://www.salon.com/2017/06/22/an-indigenous-woman-is-facing-federal-charges-for-protesting-the-dakota-access-pipeline_partner/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">currently facing charges</a> in court for their participation in the movement.In an email, Daniel Sheehan, chief counsel of the Lakota People’s Law Project, said that the project's lead counsel, Chase Iron Eyes, "was specifically targeted" by TigerSwan. He added:<blockquote>In this leaderless, peaceful movement, law enforcement struggled to identify and target those whom they believed inspired others. Chase relayed to me that, at the time of his arrest, a Mandan County Deputy Sheriff told him, 'We know you’re the leader out here. If you don’t get everyone out of this camp, we’ll throw the book at you.' TigerSwan’s briefings of state and local police, not the truth on the ground, informed these types of statements. ... It's notable that Chase and other water protectors are now charged with trespassing upon ancestral lands which the U.S. government unlawfully seized from the Lakota for private profit.</blockquote>The security firm also waged a propaganda campaign aimed at changing the dominant media narrative around the pipeline protests once the social movement began garnering national attention. In September, employees discussed the development of a “Social Engagement Plan” as well as an information operations campaign.<div class="proper-ad-unit" style="margin: auto; padding-bottom: 25px; position: relative; min-width: 100px; text-align: center; box-sizing: border-box !important;"><div id="proper-ad-alternet_content_2" style="position: relative; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box !important;">The security board’s complaints against TigerSwan said it became aware that the firm was providing security services without a license in September. After sending a letter to TigerSwan, the company responded and denied it was conducting such operations. In November, TigerSwan submitted an application, and the board denied it the following month based in part on a “positive criminal history for one or more disqualifying offense.” Reese denied this claim and provided copies of dismissal records for arrest. In January, the board met once more to consider Reese’s application for TigerSwan and again denied it because it was incomplete.Watch: Daniel Sheehan, chief counsel of the Lakota People’s Law Project, discusses TigerSwan and its actions at the Dakota Access Pipeline<div style="text-align: start;">=</div><div style="text-align: start;">danny sheehan: perry trump investors:  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR0BVn68EBU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR0BVn68EBU</a></div><div style="text-align: start;">
</div><div style="text-align: start;">93% white army corp saw danger to water, so moved to rez</div><div style="text-align: start;">
</div><div style="text-align: start;"></div>24 min Published on May 30, 2017 bit over top host?<div id="watch-description-text" class="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 4px 0px 0px; border: 0px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); max-height: 42px; overflow: hidden; text-align: start;">Mercenary corporation TigerSwan (formerly Blackwater) is making a list, and you might be on it. Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down
</div><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=139&v=m4Bl5UHtWys">https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=139&v=m4Bl5UHtWys</a>
<a href="https://wearechange.org/security-co-running-dakota-access-pipeline-ties-u-s-military-iraq-afghanistan/">https://wearechange.org/security-co-running-dakota-access-pipeline-ties-u-s-military-iraq-afghanistan/</a></div></div></div></div></div><div></div><div>bs</div><div><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">Who should be the next FBI Director? Jim Reese.<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">Never heard of him? In part, that’s why Reese is the right leader for the job. Unlike others now jockeying for the prestigious Pennsylvania Avenue position, Reese has spent his life outside the headlines.<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">Over the hills and far away — risking life, limb, and mind, in service of the United States.<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">A 25-year veteran of the Army, Lt. Col. Reese is a retired Delta Force operator. The military’s most elite special mission unit, Delta is tasked with the riskiest, most important missions. Reese has fought these battles on the ground and in the operations center.<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">During the Iraq War, he commanded a task force that hunted down al Qaeda and other terrorists. And within the special operations community, Reese’s reputation is legendary. Distinguished former Delta operator Dalton Fury once argued that Reese “quite possibly would have made Ulysses S. Grant appear wanting when it came to working through chaos, calming nerves, and demanding the best out of subordinates.”<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">I have the fortune of knowing Reese personally. And I fully concur with that tribute of his individual leadership skills. He is not just any mentor. Reese has no qualms issuing challenge alongside praise. He tells you when he believes you’re wrong. He believes that success requires a fidelity to introspection and durable outcomes.<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">That characteristic of fidelity offers the first reason why Reese would be a great pick for the FBI. He is a leader who would not buckle under political pressure, nor yield to public expectation. He would use his office to advance the FBI’s mission rather than his own persona.<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">He would not, for example, follow the tradition of some senior military and government leaders who spend their evenings attending lavish dinner parties at Washington embassies and hotels. And he would not waver in supporting FBI agents and analysts as they performed their necessary duties. Whether Trump or Pelosi, no politician could import political pressure onto a Director Reese.<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">But Reese would also innovate. Like any big organization, the FBI is ripe for reform. Establishing a successful global company after leaving the military, Reese would bring a blend of public and private sector thinking to bear. He could make the bureau more efficient and forward looking. That will be necessary in the years ahead.<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">For one, facing growing mistrust of our political system, the FBI should probably increase its staffing of political corruption details. The bureau might do well to transfer more lower-level counter-terrorism duties away from agents and towards local police-dominated Joint Terrorism Task Forces. Regardless, Reese despises static thinking. His is an open-door, if-in-doubt-<a href="http://freebeacon.com/national-security/jim-reese-delta-force/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; border: none; outline: 0px;">innovate philosophy</a> of two parts: “No. 1: Strive to be a good listener. You have to be a good listener and an active listener. No. 2, if in charge, take charge.”<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">The next FBI director needs to be able to inspire the trust of the organization and the American people. Reese is the man for the job. He might not be a political celebrity, but he is an intellectual warrior. He deserves an interview with the Department of Justice.<p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; direction: ltr;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" line-height="line-height" color="color" rgb="rgb" max-width="max-width" px="px" background-color="background-color">Tom Rogan (<a href="https://twitter.com/tomrtweets" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; border: none; outline: 0px;">@TomRtweets</a>) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a foreign policy columnist for National Review, a domestic policy columnist for Opportunity Lives, a former panelist on The McLaughlin Group and a senior fellow at the Steamboat Institute.</div><div>=<div>see main private intel military</div><div>
</div><div>also psy-ops</div><div>=<a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/2/as_oil_starts_to_flow_through">https://www.democracynow.org/2017/6/2/as_oil_starts_to_flow_through</a>...And, you know, this is shocking. You know, as you know, I’ve reported from Afghanistan. I’ve, you know, seen private military contractors. And TigerSwan is a company that, in fact, has a great deal of its experience particularly operating as a private military contractor in Afghanistan and also in Iraq, in war zones. It’s composed of—founded by a Delta Force retiree and composed of many combat—combat veterans. And they were hired to perform this private security function by Energy Transfer Partners. And it was a very disturbing set of revelations in reading these daily situation reports that they put out: a clearly militarized counterintelligence program established by TigerSwan to address a domestic, you know, protest situation.And what the report showed was an intent to gather information through all sorts of means, infiltrate those who were gathered in opposition to the Dakota Access pipeline, and to try to manipulate them and to try to increase rifts between them and to try to increase tensions. And also, in the reporting that TigerSwan was doing, it was quite clear, based on those I interviewed, including lawyers that I interviewed, that also it seems that what they were trying to do was make the water protectors and those resisting the construction of the pipeline appear to be more dangerous than they were, to increase a more stringent response by law enforcement. And as was said in the title of the piece, the framework that TigerSwan used was also one that seemed to be much more geared from its experience in war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan, referring to the water protectors as "jihadists" and essentially, you know, seeing this as a war zone situation and treating it that way....----<a href="https://www.revealnews.org/article/paramilitary-security-tracked-and-targeted-nodapl-activists-as-jihadists-docs-show/">https://www.revealnews.org/article/paramilitary-security-tracked-and-targeted-nodapl-activists-as-jihadists-docs-show/</a>As people nationwide rallied last year to support the Standing Rock Sioux’s <a href="http://grist.org/justice/inside-the-camp-thats-fighting-to-stop-the-dakota-access-pipeline/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">attempts to block the Dakota Access Pipeline</a>, a private security firm with experience fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan launched an intrusive military-style surveillance and counterintelligence campaign against the activists and their allies, according to internal company documents.Its surveillance targets included everyone from Native American demonstrators to the actress Shailene Woodley, along with organizations including Black Lives Matter, 350.org, Veterans for Peace, the Catholic Worker Movement, and Food and Water Watch. The records label the protestors “jihadists” and seek to justify escalating action against them.The activities of the company spanned, but were not limited to, the four states through which the pipeline passes: South Dakota, North Dakota, Iowa, and Illinois. The documents also show that its surveillance efforts continued after the breakup of the Standing Rock camps this winter, including at ongoing pipeline protests in southeastern Pennsylvania, Iowa, and South Dakota.The internal documents from the firm, called TigerSwan, take the form of situation reports, or “sitreps,” prepared between September and April for its employer, Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners. The records detail a range of tactics that experts from the American Civil Liberties Union, National Lawyers Guild, and Electronic Frontier Foundation say would likely be illegal if conducted by law enforcement.A private security company probably doesn’t face the same prohibitions, legal scholars say, but the close collaboration between TigerSwan and local, state, and federal authorities detailed in the firm’s internal reports raised red flags with them. Several legal experts described the contractor’s tactics as highly disturbing and perhaps unprecedented.“It’s like a big brother society, with a private corporation — with even less restraints than the government — totally interfering with our right to privacy, free speech, assembly, and religious freedom,” said prominent civil rights attorney Jeff Haas, who works with the National Lawyers Guild and represents several of the nearly 800 people arrested while opposing the pipeline.If the government can’t do it, he added, “Why should a private corporation working for another private corporation be able to?”TigerSwan did not respond to requests for comment. Energy Transfer Partners said it would not answer questions related to its security procedures, but acknowledged that it had shared some information with law enforcement.Dakota Access is <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-dakota/articles/2017-05-31/dakota-access-pipeline-expected-to-begin-shipping-thursday" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">expected to begin shipping oil</a> today.The tactics used against the self-described “water protectors” were first <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">reported last weekend by The Intercept</a>, which based its coverage on documents provided by a contractor who worked with TigerSwan, according to the news outlet. Grist independently obtained more than a dozen similar documents prior to The Intercept’s report.According to the situation reports provided to Grist, TigerSwan also conducted surveillance of a church in Chicago, a 17-year-old girl in Iowa, and an AmeriCorps volunteer in Akron, among others. Reports <a href="http://grist.org/justice/a-celebrity-guide-to-supporting-environmental-activists-without-stealing-the-spotlight/" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">of the actress Woodley’s arrest</a> and the number of social media views she racked up were included in the reports.The company specifically focused some of its most intense efforts on people of color — including Native American groups (like the Red Warrior Society and the American Indian Movement), members of Black Lives Matter, Palestinian activists, and those it labeled as “Islamists.”Several of TigerSwan’s targets expressed surprise and outrage when informed of the surveillance against them, but also vowed to defy efforts at intimidation. “This is crazy!” said 21-year-old Alex Cohen, an Iowa activist named in the reports, which detail tracking him and his group’s movements and activities. At least some of TigerSwan’s knowledge could only have been gained through direct infiltration, he said.A 17-year-old member of Cohen’s group was also included among the tracking reports. She was flattered when told the company considered her a threat. “I think it feels amazing that they are intimidated enough — not only by myself but by my friends — to write this!”In addition to intrusive surveillance, the leaked documents reveal that the security firm attempted to create divisions between activists, manipulate and discredit pipeline opponents, and collect evidence that law enforcement could use to prosecute Standing Rock activists.The ACLU’s human rights program director, Jamil Dakwar, said the records obtained by the news outlets suggest the company was painting an exaggerated picture to persuade both Energy Transfer Partners and law enforcement to take a more aggressive stance against those opposing the pipeline.Said Dakwar: “They are operating with no transparency, no accountability.”<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Self-defense or ‘hand-to-hand combat’</h2>Last September, security guards employed by a company called Silverton deployed dogs against demonstrators near Standing Rock, resulting in several injuries, negative media attention (<a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2016/9/4/dakota_access_pipeline_company_attacks_native" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">Democracy Now! caught them on camera</a>), and an investigation — the dog handlers “were not registered as security officers” in the state of North Dakota, <a href="http://www.co.morton.nd.us/vertical/Sites/%7B90CBB59C-38EA-4D41-861A-81C9DEBD6022%7D/uploads/Morton_Investigation_summary_of_security_licensure.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">according to local officials</a>.Energy Transfer Partners appears to have responded by putting TigerSwan in charge of Dakota Access security, consolidating several contractors under its umbrella — including Silverton, which kept operating even after the dog incident, <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3762272/SITREP-029-10-10-16-Redacted.pdf" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">according to the leaked documents</a>.Based in North Carolina, TigerSwan has offices throughout the world, <a href="https://apps.usaspending.gov/AdvancedSearch?SenderId=47516812&SPHostUrl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.usaspending.gov&SearchPageURL=%2fPages%2fAdvancedSearch.aspx&AwardSummaryPageURL=%2fTransparency%2fPages%2fAwardSummary.aspx&fromDB=false&sub=y&ST=C,G,L,O&FY=2017,2016,2015,2014,2013,2012,2011,2010,2009,2008&A=0&SS=USA&k=tigerswan&pidx=1&SB=AD&SD=DESC#" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">tens of millions of dollars worth of contracts</a> with the federal government for security services abroad, and an Army Special Forces veteran as its chairman.Many of the Standing Rock supporters named in the TigerSwan situation reports told Grist they had no idea that they had been the subject of surveillance by the company — and some disputed much of what the firm reported about them.“This company is demented,” said Clayton Thomas-Müller, a member of the Canadian Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, and a campaigner with 350.org — a nonprofit organization frequently cited in the reports. TigerSwan reported on Thomas-Müller’s trip to the camps, though his purpose was simply to bring donated clothes from Winnipeg to the protestors at Standing Rock, he said.In September, <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3762279/DAPL-SITREP-SEP-11-Redacted.pdf" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">the leaked documents show</a>, TigerSwan set up an “information operations campaign” targeting the Standing Rock activists — which, <a href="https://www.rand.org/topics/information-operations.html" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">according to the nonprofit RAND Corporation</a>, is defined in military and security circles as including “the collection of tactical information about an adversary as well as the dissemination of propaganda in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent.”<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3762273/SITREP-022-10-3-16-Redacted.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">TigerSwan’s Oct. 3 report</a> describes trying to delegitimize the protests by exploiting “ongoing native versus non-native rifts, and tribal rifts between peaceful and violent elements.” Several situation reports also refer to “source reporting” and “informant collection,” suggesting the use of infiltrators to gather information from within the Standing Rock camps and protest groups.The documents often portray protesters in what their targets say are exaggerated terms, apparently to inflate the potential danger they posed. For example, <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3762268/SITREP-058-11-9-16-Redacted.pdf" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">the Nov. 9 report</a> ominously warns: “An element of the Black Panther Party from Chicago is active within the camps in ND. A member of that delegation led 30–40 activists in hand-to-hand combat training in Camp 2.”“That’s definitely talking about me,” Kelly Hayes said when read the report over the phone. “But that’s definitely a misrepresentation.”Hayes is a member of the Menominee Tribe; she’s not a Black Panther, she told me, identifying herself as part of a collective of indigenous and black organizers from Chicago “aimed at the defense of communities of color.” She taught what she describes as several “small pockets of women and fem folks” very basic self-defense classes, adding that she has never engaged in violent action.The classes she taught were not advertised in the camp or on social media. “It was a word-of-mouth thing,” she said, and thus could only have been reported from someone on the ground in the camps.“That really does say something about how infiltrated everything must have been,” she said. “It really just shows you that every step people took out there, they were under constant scrutiny and surveillance.”Hayes made several trips to Standing Rock, the first during the early stages of the movement in spring 2016, when there were no more than a few dozen people at the camps — which later grew to house thousands. She ran the first direct action and blockade training sessions at Standing Rock, and came back subsequently to run more.“We are educators, and we are protesters, and we are community members — and we’re doing movement work,” she said. “It sounds to me like these for-profit individuals were trying to make things sound more exciting and important to impress their employers.”TigerSwan’s activities also reached well beyond the protest camps. A significant portion of the <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3762498/SITREP-060-11-11-16-Redacted.pdf" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">Nov. 11 situation report</a>, for instance, is devoted to monitoring organizations and people of interest to the firm in the greater Chicago area, including the surveillance of a “local anti-DAPL church” and people who protested in the wake of Donald Trump victory in last year’s presidential election.The company also reported on anti-pipeline sentiments at a second church in Illinois’ capital, Springfield, and, <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3762268/SITREP-058-11-9-16-Redacted.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">according to an earlier situation report</a>, was probing links between Black Lives Matter Chicago and groups at local universities that it discovered via social media.“I’m not entirely surprised that they would hone in on the black and brown organizing,” Hayes said. “They’re spending a lot of money, right, to infiltrate and figure out who we are and how we connect? That fear comes from a recognition of our power.”<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Is any of this even legal?</h2>U.S. laws regarding surveillance and other counterintelligence tactics don’t appear to specifically govern TigerSwan, an overseas military contractor operating as a private security force on American soil.Several legal experts said the example it presents might be unprecedented. What happens when “private police” share information and act in concert with — or potentially at the behest of — public law enforcement agencies, but are not covered by the same laws?That’s the sort of question that Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government asked police chiefs from across the country to consider <a href="https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/247182.pdf" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">at a 2014 symposium</a>. The chiefs concluded that it would be a bad idea to hire an elite special-forces unit recently demobilized from Afghanistan to provide hostage-rescue services to a city police department.“Military units are more oriented toward the use of decisive force against enemies, and less toward apprehending violators and achieving peaceful solutions,” the police chiefs reasoned. The private companies, they said, had profit motivation that could create “perverse incentives.”Legal experts told Grist that the same sort of concerns apply to TigerSwan’s involvement at Standing Rock — especially as detailed in the leaked “situation report” documents.<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3762272/SITREP-029-10-10-16-Redacted.pdf" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">TigerSwan’s Oct. 10 report</a>, for example, says that its “social media cell has harnessed a URL coding technique to discover hidden profiles and groups associated with the protesters allowing the firm to access private social media information. … Self-incriminating information can be gathered on protesters to be used at a later date.” TigerSwan gained access to a private Facebook page created by Cohen’s group, Mississippi Stand, which provided information on rides to get members to protests.“If they were getting unauthorized access to Facebook profiles — not the public stuff, but things that they shouldn’t have — then that could potentially be a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the federal anti-hacking law,” said David Greene, senior staff attorney and civil liberties director at the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.Greene said that if TigerSwan simply exploited a Facebook vulnerability, it wouldn’t be a violation. The company would have had to break a security measure that the social network had in place for it to be a legal matter — and it’s unclear if that happened, based on the limited details provided in the records.Stephanie Lacambra, a criminal defense attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the activities are potentially serious enough, however, that a subpoena should be sought to find out exactly what TigerSwan did.Green added that “people who were spied on might have private causes of action. A typical cause of action might be for intrusion — the idea that their privacy was violated in a way that was sort of highly offensive.”Jeff Haas with the National Lawyers Guild said he’s particularly concerned about the relationship between TigerSwan and law enforcement agencies. The documents provided to Grist detail multiple occasions that the firm met with or shared information with police and sheriff’s departments.The Morton County Sheriff’s Department — where Standing Rock is located — told Grist that it communicated with TigerSwan “in order to monitor and respond to illegal protest activity.” But it asserted that the sheriff’s department was responsible for maintaining safety on public land, while TigerSwan ran security on DAPL property.“For a while, the courts have ruled that you’re not entitled to infiltrate or spy on people unless you have probable cause to believe they’ve committed a crime,” Haas said. “The government couldn’t meet that standard probably here.”But the information provided by TigerSwan could have helped police forces overcome that prohibition. Elizabeth Joh, a private security legal scholar at the University of California, Davis, referred to such techniques as a “potential end run on the basic constitutional restraints we place upon police.”Haas agreed. “It’s like we have a second level of government interference of surveillance that’s shared with official government forces, but how do you control that? I’m not sure the law is totally clear, but this could be a way to basically get around the Constitution. And until these documents got leaked, it was certainly a way to get around the public knowing about it.”<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">‘We have sources in the camp’</h2>Joye Braun, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, hatched the idea that would become the Dakota Access resistance camps around Easter 2016. She felt frustrated that Energy Transfer Partners was ignoring tribal sovereignty, threatening sacred land, and cutting directly under Lake Oahe — the primary drinking water source for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and millions more people downstream.On April 1, she and others raised the first yurts on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation and along the shore of the Missouri River. Apart from a few trips home “to do laundry,” Braun said, she never left the camps until hospitalized for pneumonia nearly one year later, in late February 2017. She was one of the last people to go.“Very early on,” Braun recalled, “I can remember sitting around the fire talking hypothetically: ‘What if they start using the things they did to the Iraq or Afghanistan people on us?’ We all laughed and said, ‘We are all Lakota and Dakota! We’ll survive!’”As it happens, that talk around the fire turned prophetic.After the Standing Rock encampments shut down at the end of February, Braun helped found the Cheyenne River camp in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, about a block away from her home. It’s a place to continue the resistance to Dakota Access (which still faces legal challenges) and prepare opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, <a href="http://grist.org/justice/trumps-victory-could-be-a-big-win-for-the-dakota-access-pipeline-but-opponents-stand-strong/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">authorized by President Trump</a> shortly after his inauguration.TigerSwan followed.<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3762495/SITREP-207-04-09-17-Redacted.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">The April 9 situation report</a> to Energy Transfer Partners states: “The Cheyenne River camp is much more organized than previous camps” and notes that its founders likely came from the ranks of the original Dakota Access protesters.It continues: “We have sources in the camp working to confirm this information.”<hr style="box-sizing: content-box; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(221, 221, 221); border-image: initial; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; clear: both; margin: 0.90909rem 0px 0.86364rem; height: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em 0px 0.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; line-height: 1.3; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What is TigerSwan?</h2>A private military, government, and corporate security contractor based in Apex, North Carolina, TigerSwan was founded in 2007. <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?sub=y&ST=C&FY=2017,2016,2015,2014,2013&A=0&SS=USA&k=TigerSwan" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">Over the past five years</a>, the company has worked on nearly 40 U.S. government contracts, totaling $10 million.In 2013, <a href="http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000149592" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">CNBC profiled the company</a> as it began to take on corporate clients concerned by cybersecurity threats. By 2011, half of TigerSwan’s business was for corporations.Retired Lt. Col. Jim Reese cofounded TigerSwan and serves as its chair. He’s a veteran of the Army’s elite Delta Force. During the Iraq War, he led a task force targeting al Qaeda members, and he was a sought-after advisor throughout the war in Afghanistan. Reese’s name is now <a href="http://www.tigerswan.com/2817-2/" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">being pitched</a> for FBI director.A $1 billion State Department contract from 2005 <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/hamptonroadscom/store/1451.pdf" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">names Reese</a> as “key personnel” working for Blackwater, the controversial contractor now known as Academi. <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/article24470287.html" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit;">McClatchy reports</a> that in 2007, as Blackwater was under investigation for the deaths of 11 Iraqi civilians, it canceled a deal to buy farmland for a training ground near North Carolina’s Fort Bragg. TigerSwan instead bought the property with financing from Blackwater.http://www.cshagen.com/<div class="post-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 40.5469px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="post-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 54px; word-break: break-word;"><a href="http://www.cshagen.com/tigerswan-counterterrorism-tactics-used-to-defeat-dakota-access-pipeline-insurgencies/" rel="bookmark" title="TigerSwan Counterterrorism Tactics Used to Defeat Dakota Access Pipeline “Insurgencies”" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">TigerSwan Counterterrorism Tactics Used to Defeat Dakota Access Pipeline “Insurgencies”</a></h2><div class="post-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="http://www.cshagen.com/tigerswan-counterterrorism-tactics-used-to-defeat-dakota-access-pipeline-insurgencies/" title="TigerSwan Counterterrorism Tactics Used to Defeat Dakota Access Pipeline “Insurgencies”" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">MAY 30, 2017</a> / </div></div><div class="post-content" style="box-sizing: border-box;">By C.S. Hagen CANNONBALL – Documents leaked to media outlet The Intercept showed private security firm BlackSwan worked closely with law enforcement from five different states, and used military-style counterterrorism measures against the movement opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline.  <div id="attachment_3315" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 40%; line-height: 32.895px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; float: left; margin-right: 1em; width: 211px;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Activists-at-Oceti-entrance-while-fires-rage-behind-them-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen-e1487870562608.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; display: block;"><img class="wp-image-3315 size-medium" src="https://i2.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Activists-at-Oceti-entrance-while-fires-rage-behind-them-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen-e1487870562608-201x300.jpg?resize=201%2C300" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Activists-at-Oceti-entrance-while-fires-rage-behind-them-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen-e1487870562608.jpg?resize=201%2C300 201w, https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Activists-at-Oceti-entrance-while-fires-rage-behind-them-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen-e1487870562608.jpg?resize=768%2C1144 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Activists-at-Oceti-entrance-while-fires-rage-behind-them-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen-e1487870562608.jpg?resize=687%2C1024 687w, https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Activists-at-Oceti-entrance-while-fires-rage-behind-them-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen-e1487870562608.jpg?resize=676%2C1007 676w, https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Activists-at-Oceti-entrance-while-fires-rage-behind-them-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen-e1487870562608.jpg?w=1352 1352w" sizes="(max-width: 201px) 100vw, 201px" width="199" height="297" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); line-height: 1; max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block;" /></a>Eviction Day at the camps outside of Standing Rock – photo by C.S. Hagen</div>Activists were identified, then tracked by name through sightings, Tweets, and Facebook posts. Protest sites were allocated numbers, and detailed accounts of day-by-day actions were monitored and reported to Energy Transfer Partners, the parent company of Dakota Access, LLC. Police officers in areas along the pipeline route who were unwilling to make arrests were dealt with, according to documents, and BlackSwan mercenaries daily planned operations with local police. The result led to a massive misinformation campaign, the arrests of 761 activists, journalists, and Native Americans, and more than $38 million the state spent during the emergency state declared by former Governor Jack Dalrymple. In addition, at least three activists who joined the movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline, have been targeted by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. TigerSwan communications described the movement as “an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component,” comparing anti-pipeline activists to jihadist fighters, and stating the agency expected a “post-insurgency model after its collapse,” according to the documents. A September 13, 2016 situation report filed to Energy Transfer Partner Chief Security Officer John Porter by TigerSwan said the Dakota Access Pipeline was 99.98 percent on private land, for which all permissions had been obtained. In November 2016, however, Republican Public Service Commissioner Julie Fedorchak stated in an <a href="http://hpr1.com/index.php/feature/news/hpr-exclusive-julie-fedorchak-interview/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; margin-bottom: 0px;">interview </a>that the pipeline is solely on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ lands and does not have even one case of eminent domain usage against a private individual. “All the easements were obtained voluntarily and only go through Corps land,” Fedorchak said.TigerSwan’s agenda toward correcting and “guiding” the media was also evident as it continuously stressed its agents would be responsible for contacting the press with corrections to their outlined agenda.<a href="https://i1.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-30-at-5.18.19-PM.png" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out;"><img class="alignleft wp-image-3704" src="https://i1.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-30-at-5.18.19-PM.png?resize=234%2C71" alt="" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-30-at-5.18.19-PM.png?resize=300%2C91 300w, https://i1.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Screen-Shot-2017-05-30-at-5.18.19-PM.png?w=546 546w" sizes="(max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px" width="234" height="71" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 1em 1.2em 0px; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); line-height: 1; max-width: 40%; height: auto; float: left;" /></a>TigerSwan Inc., with offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, India, Latin America, and headquartered in North Carolina, has won more than 13 contracts with the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security since 2014 worth more than $9, according to <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/Pages/AdvancedSearch.aspx?sub=y&ST=C&FY=2017,2016,2015,2014&A=0&SS=USA&k=TigerSwan" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; margin-bottom: 0px;">USASpending</a>.gov. TigerSwan was founded by Delta Force veteran Jim Reese. The retired lieutenant colonel first worked for the State Department with counter-terrorism operations in Afghanistan, and was also a former vice president of Blackwater Worldwide, “the world’s most powerful mercenary army,” according to a book written by Jeremy Scahill entitled “Blackwater The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.” The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation looked into private security firms involved with the Energy Transfer Partners near Standing Rock Sioux Reservation last year, and whether the multiple companies involved were authorized to work in the state. The investigation has not led to any charges filed. The North Dakota Secretary of State holds one record for TigerSwan, LLC, established in Fargo on November 7, 2016, seven months after the controversy began. While North Dakota militarized its police and the state legislature attempted to criminalize many forms of protest last session, the fact that a private security firm retained by a tight-lipped, multi-billion dollar corporation has “profoundly anti-democratic implications,” according to The Intercept. “While we were working in the NoDAPL camps, we knew that these tactics were being used,” Dallas Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network said. “Our devices would stop working for periods of time, hard drives would be cleared of information and footage, and from time to time camp security would identify infiltrators inside the camp who were working for Energy Transfer Partners.”While the controversy neared its end, an i<a href="http://hpr1.com/index.php/feature/news/standing-rocks-invisible-enemy/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; margin-bottom: 0px;">nvisible enemy</a> was reported extensively by activists present at the Standing Rock camps. Cellular phones were suddenly drained of power and rendered useless, hard drives were wiped clean. Electronic bugs were discovered inside the nearby Prairie Knights Casino, owned by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The attacks were considered “psychologically-driven” by nonprofit Geeks Without Bounds, who helped activists fight what it called “cyber warfare.” In addition to the cyber warfare, at least one private security person attempted to infiltrate the camps, and one individual armed with a fake gun wrapped in duct tape was sighted. <div id="attachment_3579" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 40%; line-height: 32.895px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; float: left; margin-right: 1em; width: 310px;"><a href="https://i1.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Bennon-Nastacio-and-Kyle-Thompson-on-October-27-2016-online-sources.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; display: block;"><img class="size-medium wp-image-3579" src="https://i1.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Bennon-Nastacio-and-Kyle-Thompson-on-October-27-2016-online-sources.png?resize=300%2C248" alt="" srcset="https://i1.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Bennon-Nastacio-and-Kyle-Thompson-on-October-27-2016-online-sources.png?resize=300%2C248 300w, https://i1.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Bennon-Nastacio-and-Kyle-Thompson-on-October-27-2016-online-sources.png?w=583 583w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" width="258" height="214" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); line-height: 1; max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block;" /></a>Brennon Nastacio and Kyle Thompson on October 27, 2016 – online sources</div><a href="http://hpr1.com/index.php/feature/news/armed-dapl-mercenary-arrested-in-bismarck/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; margin-bottom: 0px;">Kyle Thompson</a>, of Bismarck, was disarmed by activists then turned over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Thompson was later handed over to Morton County, and then released, called a victim. No charges were filed at that time, but Thompson was later arrested in an unrelated case on drug and weapons charges in April 2017 by Bismarck Police. “Now we have the evidence. This proof also tells us more about the militarization of the police and the violence they imposed on water protectors. By comparing indigenous peoples to civilians and jihadist fighters, police and security were essentially given permission to carry out war-like tactics on water protectors.” The activists who disarmed Thompson of an AR-15 as he was headed toward the main camp, Oceti Sakowin, face felony charges. Thompson worked for Thompson-Gray LLC, listed under Silverton Consulting International by the Ohio Secretary of State, according to paperwork discovered inside his truck. The company was not authorized to work in North Dakota, and was owned by Charles Graham Clifton, a man who has at least three civil lawsuits filed against him. TigerSwan has ingratiated itself with the National Sheriffs’ Association by becoming a silver partner, according to the National Sheriffs’ Association website. The National Sheriffs’ Association was involved heavily during the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy and wrote a letter the US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, demonizing unarmed activists and the federal government’s lack of response in what it called a deluge of arson, vandals, rioting, and intimidation. North Dakota is the second-biggest oil producing state in the United States, and has within its borders an oil patch among the ten largest in the world. Historically, the state been lackadaisical about instituting stricter regulations. A spirit of leniency toward oil companies has been fostered in North Dakota, analysts say. Criticism over lowering fines for oil and saltwater spills and property tax hikes to support big oil’s return have mounted. In January 2016 the North Dakota Industrial Commission, Oil and Gas Division agreed to scrutinize the issues, but behind closed doors. <div id="attachment_2713" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 100%; line-height: 32.895px; margin-bottom: 1.1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; width: 686px;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Law-enforcement-preparing-to-move-on-activists-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; display: block;"><img class="wp-image-2713 size-large" src="https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Law-enforcement-preparing-to-move-on-activists-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen.jpg?resize=676%2C507" alt="" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Law-enforcement-preparing-to-move-on-activists-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen.jpg?resize=1024%2C768 1024w, https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Law-enforcement-preparing-to-move-on-activists-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen.jpg?resize=300%2C225 300w, https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Law-enforcement-preparing-to-move-on-activists-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen.jpg?resize=768%2C576 768w, https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Law-enforcement-preparing-to-move-on-activists-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen.jpg?resize=676%2C507 676w, https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Law-enforcement-preparing-to-move-on-activists-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen.jpg?w=1352 1352w, https://i0.wp.com/www.cshagen.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Law-enforcement-preparing-to-move-on-activists-photo-by-C.S.-Hagen.jpg?w=2028 2028w" sizes="(max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px" width="664" height="498" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); line-height: 1; text-align: left; max-width: 100%; height: auto; display: block;" /></a>Law enforcement behind their own barricade – photo by C.S. Hagen</div>Some of the state’s top politicians are chairmen or members of regulating agencies governing big oil and Native American interests. Additionally, big oil supports the political campaigns of Senator John Hoeven, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, and Rep. Kevin Cramer, making their voices, according to some, <a href="http://hpr1.com/index.php/feature/news/gray-eminence-the-power-behind-dakota-access/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.1s ease-in-out; margin-bottom: 0px;">tainted</a>.The cozy relationship between TigerSwan, law enforcement agencies, the National Sheriff’s Association, and the Peace Garden State’s politicians with the oil and gas industry suggests a partnership that threatens free speech, human rights, and the very basis of democracy. “The usage of counterterrorism tactics upon our NoDAPL movement is not only extremely disturbing, but feeds into a historical narrative of oppression that indigenous peoples and people of color have dealt with for generations,” Tom Goldtooth, also of he Indigenous Environmental Network stated. “May of our brothers and sisters incarcerated across the country for their activism are political prisoners as a result of such disruptive tactics used by companies like TigerSwan.” </div><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2017/5/31/private_mercenary_firm_tigerswan_compares_anti">https://www.democracynow.org/2017/5/31/private_mercenary_firm_tigerswan_compares_anti</a>An explosive new investigation by The Intercept reveals how international private security firm TigerSwan targeted Dakota Access water protectors with military-style counterterrorism measures. TigerSwan began as a U.S. military and State Department contractor. It was hired by Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline. The investigation is based on leaked internal documents, which show how TigerSwan collaborated closely with law enforcement agencies to surveil and target the nonviolent indigenous-led movement. In the documents, TigerSwan also repeatedly calls the water protectors "insurgents" and the movement an "ideologically driven insurgency." We are joined by Alleen Brown, reporter with The Intercept and lead author of their story, "Leaked Documents Reveal Counterterrorism Tactics Used at Standing Rock to Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies," and by Tara Houska, national campaigns director for Honor the Earth. She is Ojibwe from Couchiching First nations.
suggest weapons, jihadi and palestinian in standing rock camp; dog kennel as jail; co brought in to manage after dog bite bad PR, claimed to be IT/Mgmt, not intel so no licese sought <a href="https://boingboing.net/2017/05/27/provocateurs-and-drones.html">https://boingboing.net/2017/05/27/provocateurs-and-drones.html</a>Tigerswan, a secretive private mercenary company, was hired by Energy Transfer Partners to run campaigns against Dakota Access Pipeline protesters in five states, including states in which they were not licensed to operate -- the measures they deployed were developed as counterterrorism tactics, includingTigerswan prepared reports that called the indigenous-led protests "an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component" and compared them to jihadi fighters. The reports were leaked by a Tigerswan contractor to The Intercept, who supplemented the with thousands of pages of documents secured through public records requests.Tigerswan appears to have also run an online disinformation campaign, "creating and distributing content critical of the protests on social media."Tigerswan conducted substantial infiltration and provocateur operations against the water protectors. These infiltrators engaged in "exploitation of ongoing native versus non-native rifts, and tribal rifts between peaceful and violent elements."<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; border-left: 4px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding-left: 1em; margin: 1em;">Perhaps one of the most striking revelations of the documents is the level of hostility displayed by TigerSwan toward the water protectors. TigerSwan consistently describes the peaceful demonstrators using military and tactical language more appropriate for counterterrorism operations in an armed conflict zone. At times, the military language verges on parody, as when agents write of protesters “stockpiling signs” or when they discuss the “caliber” of paintball pellets. More often, however, the way TigerSwan discusses protesters as “terrorists,” their direct actions as “attacks,” and the camps as a “battlefield,” reveals how the protesters’ dissent was not only criminalized but treated as a national security threat. A March 1 report states that protesters’ “operational weakness allows TS elements to further develop and dictate the battlespace.”In one internal report dated May 4, a TigerSwan operative describes an effort to amass digital and ground intelligence that would allow the company to “find, fix, and eliminate” threats to the pipeline — an eerie echo of “find, fix, finish,” a military term used by special forces in the U.S. government’s assassination campaign against terrorist targets.TigerSwan pays particular attention to protesters of Middle Eastern descent. A September 22 situation report argues that “the presence of additional Palestinians in the camp, and the movement’s involvement with Islamic individuals is a dynamic that requires further examination.” The report acknowledges that “currently there is no information to suggest terrorist type tactics or operations,” but nonetheless warns that “with the current limitation on information flow out of the camp, it cannot be ruled out.”</blockquote><a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">LEAKED DOCUMENTS REVEAL COUNTERTERRORISM TACTICS USED AT STANDING ROCK TO “DEFEAT PIPELINE INSURGENCIES”</a> [Alleen Brown, Will Parrish and Alice Speri/The Intercept]...<a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/">https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/</a>no link imgSHADOWY 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 movement as “an ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component” and compare the anti-pipeline water protectors to jihadist fighters. One report, dated February 27, 2017, states that since the movement “generally followed the jihadist insurgency model while active, we can expect the individuals who fought for and supported it to follow a post-insurgency model after its collapse.” Drawing comparisons with post-Soviet Afghanistan, the report warns, “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.”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.The leaked documents include situation reports prepared by TigerSwan operatives in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Texas between September 2016 and May 2017, and delivered to Energy Transfer Partners. They offer a daily snapshot of the security firm’s activities, including detailed summaries of the previous day’s surveillance targeting pipeline opponents, intelligence on upcoming protests, and information harvested from social media. The documents also provide extensive evidence of aerial surveillance and radio eavesdropping, as well as infiltration of camps and activist circles.TigerSwan did not respond to a request for comment. Energy Transfer Partners declined to comment, telling The Intercept in an email that it does not “discuss details of our security efforts.”dakota-pipeline-protest-powerpoint-tigerswan-1495817931 A screen shot taken from one of the “daily intelligence updates” developed by TigerSwan that were shared with members of law enforcement. Photo: PowerPoint screen grabAdditional documents, obtained via public records requests, consist of communications among agents from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Justice Department, the Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as well as state and local police. The “Intel Group,” as its members refer to it, closely monitored anti-Dakota Access protests in real time, scooped up information on the water protectors from social media, and shared intelligence.Included among the documents obtained via public records requests were “daily intelligence updates” developed by TigerSwan that were shared with law enforcement officers, thus contributing to a broad public-private intelligence dragnet. In the internal situation reports, TigerSwan operatives comment frequently about their routine coordination and intelligence sharing with law enforcement. The intel group went so far as to use a live video feed from a private Dakota Access security helicopter to monitor protesters’ movements. In one report, TigerSwan discusses meeting with investigators from North Dakota’s Attorney General’s Office.
North Dakota’s Attorney General’s Office declined to comment.TigerSwan’s internal reports and the intelligence briefings shared with law enforcement name dozens of DAPL opponents. Some of those named are well-known activists, while others have minimal public affiliation with the water protector movement. The reports’ authors often comment on camp dynamics, including protester morale and infighting, and speculate about violent or illegal actions specific individuals might take and weapons they might carry. The documents reveal the existence of a “persons of interest” list as well as other databases that included identifying information such as photographs and license plate numbers.
The situation reports also suggest that TigerSwan attempted a counterinformation campaign by creating and distributing content critical of the protests on social media.
The Intercept is publishing a first set of TigerSwan’s situation reports from September 2016, which describe the company’s initial operations. We are also publishing two additional situation reports dated October 16 and November 5, along with PowerPoint presentations shared with law enforcement that correspond to the same dates. The names of private individuals whose actions are not already in the public record, or whose authorization we did not obtain, have been redacted to protect their privacy. The Intercept will publish the remaining situation reports in the coming weeks.In addition, The Intercept is publishing a selection of communications, obtained by public records requests, detailing coordination between a wide range of local, state, and federal agencies, which confirm that the FBI participated in core Dakota Access-related law enforcement operations starting soon after protests began last summer. Finally, we are publishing two additional documents, also in the public record, that detail TigerSwan’s role spearheading Energy Transfer Partner’s multipronged security operation.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
Police guard a bridge near Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation on December 3, 2016 outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota, as Native Americans and activists from around the country gather at the camp trying to halt the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.  / AFP / JIM WATSON        (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) Police guard a bridge near Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux reservation outside Cannon Ball, N.D., on Dec. 3, 2016. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty ImagesA Public-Private PartnershipBeginning in April of last year, indigenous activists calling themselves water protectors and their allies spent months attempting to block construction of the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline, which runs near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota and traverses three other states. DAPL opponents were met with a heavily militarized police apparatus including local and out of state police and sheriff’s deputies, as well as Bureau of Indian Affairs police and National Guard troops. The police became notorious for their use of so-called less than lethal weapons against demonstrators, including rubber bullets, bean bag pellets, LRAD sound devices, and water cannons.But it was the brutality of private security officers that first provoked widespread outrage concerning the pipeline project. On Labor Day weekend of 2016, Democracy Now! captured footage of pipeline security guards attacking peaceful protesters with dogs.In the aftermath of that incident, Energy Transfer Partners turned to TigerSwan — a company with a deep background in counterterrorism operations — to oversee the work of the other security companies contracted to protect the pipeline. Other security firms working along the pipeline included Silverton, Russell Group of Texas, 10 Code LLC, Per Mar, SRC, OnPoint, and Leighton, documents show.Based in Apex, North Carolina, TigerSwan was created by retired Army Col. James Reese during the height of the war in Iraq. Reese, a former commander in the elite Army special operations unit known as Delta, entered into the exploding private security and intelligence industry hoping to compete with Blackwater, then the most successful of the private military companies supporting U.S. war efforts in the Middle East and Afghanistan. TigerSwan has an estimated 350 employees and maintains offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, India, Latin America, and Japan.Records from the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board show that TigerSwan has operated without a license in North Dakota for the entirety of the pipeline security operation, claiming in a communication with the board, “We are doing management and IT consulting for our client and doing no security work.” In September, the licensing board learned about the company’s position as a Dakota Access contractor and wrote a letter to its North Carolina headquarters requesting that it submit a license application.
TigerSwan then did so, but the board denied the application on December 19. After James Reese wrote a letter objecting to the decision, the security board’s executive director responded on January 10 that “one reason for the denial concerns your failure to respond to the Board’s request for information as to TigerSwan’s and James Reese’s activities within the State of North Dakota.” Neither TigerSwan nor the board responded to questions regarding the current status of the company’s license.
The leaked situation reports indicate that during the company’s first weeks working on the pipeline, TigerSwan operatives met with law enforcement in Iowa and North Dakota, including Sheriff Dean Danzeisen of Mercer County, North Dakota, who “agreed to sharing of information.” (In the report, TigerSwan misspells the sheriff’s name as “Denzinger.”) By September 13, the documents indicate, TigerSwan had placed a liaison inside the law enforcement “joint operation command” in North Dakota. The fusion of public and private intelligence operations targeting water protectors was underway.One of TigerSwan’s lines of communication with law enforcement was via intelligence briefings that echo the company’s internal situation reports. The briefings obtained by The Intercept were sent by TigerSwan’s deputy security director Al Ornoski to a variety of recipients, including the Gmail account of Sheriff Danzeisen. Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier, who was regularly involved in policing the protests, also received at least one of the TigerSwan briefings.
Danzeisen did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Morton County Sheriff’s Department wrote in an email to The Intercept that the department “did maintain communication with TigerSwan security in order to understand when and where DAPL construction activities were taking place. This gave law enforcement situational awareness in order to monitor and respond to illegal protest activity.”
TigerSwan also aided prosecutors in building cases against pipeline opponents. According to an October 16 document obtained via a records request, the security team’s responsibilities included collecting “information of an evidentiary level” that would ultimately “aid in prosecution” of protesters.
A leaked report dated September 14, 2016, indicates that TigerSwan met with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation “regarding video and still photo evidence collected for prosecution.” The same document describes plans to “continue building Person of Interest (POI) folders and coordination with [law enforcement] intelligence.” TigerSwan’s situation reports also describe conversations between the company’s operatives and FBI agents on at least four occasions.
Activists on the ground were tracked by a Dakota Access helicopter that provided live video coverage to their observers in police agencies, according to an October 12 email thread that included officers from the FBI, DHS, BIA, state, and local police. In one email, National Security Intelligence Specialist Terry Van Horn of the U.S. attorney’s office acknowledged his direct access to the helicopter video feed, which was tracking protesters’ movements during a demonstration. “Watching a live feed from DAPL Helicopter, pending arrival at site(s),” he wrote. Cecily Fong, a spokesperson for law enforcement throughout the protests, acknowledged that an operations center in Bismarck had access to the feed, stating in an email to The Intercept that “the video was provided as a courtesy so we had eyes on the situation.”Asked about the intel group, Fong replied, “The Intelligence Group was formed from virtually the beginning. It involved personnel from our [State and Local Intelligence Center], the BIA, FBI, and Justice” consisting of “around 7 people who monitored social media in particular, in this case, because that was the medium most if not all of the protestors were using.”“I’m honored that they felt that we were a big enough threat to go to this level of intervention,” Ed Fallon, an activist mentioned several times in the TigerSwan documents, told The Intercept.As the water protector movement expanded from North Dakota to other states, so did the surveillance. A report dated March 29, for instance, points to a meeting between TigerSwan and “the Des Moines Field Office of the FBI, with the Omaha and Sioux Falls offices joining by conference call. Also in attendance were representatives of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Department of Homeland Security, Iowa Department of Emergency Services, Iowa Department of Homeland Security and Iowa Department of Wildlife. Topics covered included the current threat assessment of the pipeline, the layout of current security assets and persons of interest. The FBI seemed were [sic] very receptive to the information presented to them, and follow-up meetings with individuals will be scheduled soon.”TigerSwan’s relationship with public police agencies was not always harmonious. The situation reports describe TigerSwan’s frustration with the amount of leeway some law enforcement gave protesters in Iowa and the company’s efforts to convince officers to use more punitive tactics.
In a situation report dated October 16, TigerSwan applauds a recent increase in bail in Lee County, Iowa, calling it “significant because this may impede protestors from risking arrest due to the high cost to be released from bail.” The document contrasts that county’s tactics to those used by others. “Calhoun, Boone and Webster county law enforcement are not supportive of DAPL Security’s mission” the report says, noting those agencies’ “reluctance to arrest or cite trespassing individuals.”
“We need to work closer with Calhoun, Boone, and Webster county [law enforcement] to ensure future protestors will at least be fined, if not arrested,” the analyst notes. “Alternatively, we could request Lee County LE speak to other counties about tactics that are working.”
Contacted for comment, recently elected Lee County Sheriff Stacy Weber said he hadn’t discussed TigerSwan with the previous sheriff. “As far as I knew, the protest stuff was over with, and we haven’t had any protests since,” he said. In fact, Weber hadn’t heard of the company until earlier this week, when a TigerSwan program manager named Don Felt stopped by the office. “He dropped his card off and said he wanted to say hello,” Weber said.
safety-and-security-3-1495817940 An image on the homepage of the TigerSwan website headlined “Security & Safety: Vulnerability Management.” Photo: TigerSwan.com

Find, Fix, EliminateTigerSwan’s internal files describe its utilization of aerial surveillance, including use of helicopters and drones to photograph and monitor the pipeline opponents. The September 12 situation report notes that an operation by construction workers was “over-watched by a predator on loan to the JEJOC from Oklahoma.” The TigerSwan contractor who provided the Intercept with the situation reports said he did not believe the company ever operated a predator drone, but metadata in images he shared pointed to a camera used by a commercially available Phantom 4 drone. One of the daily intelligence updates notes plans to obtain night-vision goggles, LRADs, body armor, and FLIR (forward looking infrared) cameras.
The reports also reveal a widespread and sustained campaign of infiltration of protest camps and activist circles. Throughout the leaked documents, TigerSwan makes reference to its intelligence-gathering teams, which infiltrated protest camps and activist groups in various states. TigerSwan agents using false names and identities regularly sought to obtain the trust of protesters, which they used to gather information they reported back to their employer, according to the TigerSwan contractor.
The September documents make numerous references to Silverton personnel, who were overseen by TigerSwan, attending protests in Iowa. Silverton did not respond to a request for comment.
Covert operations are implicit in many of the other situation reports, which are filled with details that only individuals with close and consistent access to the protesters’ communities could have gathered. On a few occasions, however, the reports make that presence more explicit, for instance by referring to “sources in the camp.”
For example, the November 5 situation report describes the “exploitation of documents found at Camp 1.” Apparently, they didn’t contain much revealing material. “Of most concern,” the situation report says, “were the ‘Earth First’ magazines found on the camp. These magazines promote and provide TTP’s [tactics, techniques, and procedures] for violent activity.”In an October 3 report, TigerSwan discusses how to use its knowledge of internal camp dynamics: “Exploitation of ongoing native versus non-native rifts, and tribal rifts between peaceful and violent elements is critical in our effort to delegitimize the anti-DAPL movement.” On February 19, TigerSwan makes explicit its plans to infiltrate a Chicago protest group. “TigerSwan collections team will make contact with event organizers to embed within the structure of the demonstration to develop a trusted agent status to be cultivated for future collection efforts,” the report notes, later repeating its intent to “covertly make contact with event organizers.”
“At every action I went to, they had their own people walking around with a video camera getting in people’s faces,” Ian Souter, a protester who was described as a “person of interest” in a TigerSwan report, told The Intercept.
Perhaps one of the most striking revelations of the documents is the level of hostility displayed by TigerSwan toward the water protectors. TigerSwan consistently describes the peaceful demonstrators using military and tactical language more appropriate for counterterrorism operations in an armed conflict zone. At times, the military language verges on parody, as when agents write of protesters “stockpiling signs” or when they discuss the “caliber” of paintball pellets. More often, however, the way TigerSwan discusses protesters as “terrorists,” their direct actions as “attacks,” and the camps as a “battlefield,” reveals how the protesters’ dissent was not only criminalized but treated as a national security threat. A March 1 report states that protesters’ “operational weakness allows TS elements to further develop and dictate the battlespace.”
In one internal report dated May 4, a TigerSwan operative describes an effort to amass digital and ground intelligence that would allow the company to “find, fix, and eliminate” threats to the pipeline — an eerie echo of “find, fix, finish,” a military term used by special forces in the U.S. government’s assassination campaign against terrorist targets.
TigerSwan pays particular attention to protesters of Middle Eastern descent. A September 22 situation report argues that “the presence of additional Palestinians in the camp, and the movement’s involvement with Islamic individuals is a dynamic that requires further examination.” The report acknowledges that “currently there is no information to suggest terrorist type tactics or operations,” but nonetheless warns that “with the current limitation on information flow out of the camp, it cannot be ruled out.”
Haithem El-Zabri, a Palestinian-American activist singled out in the reports, was shocked to hear his name mentioned in that context. “As indigenous people, Palestinians stand in solidarity with other indigenous people and their right to land, water, and sovereignty,” he told The Intercept. “To insinuate that our assumed faith is a red flag for terrorist tactics is another example of willful ignorance and the establishment’s continued attempts to criminalize nonviolent protest and justify violence against it.”
Such ethnic and religious profiling of protesters was not unusual. An October 12 email thread shared among members of the intel group provides a striking example of how TigerSwan was able to cast suspicion on specific individuals and communicate it to law enforcement officials. Cass County Sheriff’s Deputy Tonya Jahner emailed several other officers, including two FBI agents, with an overview of information provided by “company intel.” The information pertained to a woman whom Jahner labeled as a “strong Shia Islamic” with a “strong female Shia following.” The woman had “made several trips overseas,” Jahner wrote.
TigerSwan agents also regularly tracked individuals’ movements across state lines.
On November 4, according to one of TigerSwan’s internal documents, a white SUV pulled up to a pipeline valve site in South Dakota. Approached by a security guard, the driver introduced himself as Gary Tomlin and informed the official that he was a freelance reporter covering the pipeline. In an interview, 63-year-old Tomlin, who covers the local school board for the Galesburg, Illinois, Register-Mail, said he had set out to travel the length of the pipeline and write a story about it as a freelancer. “I had time and the ability to do it, and I thought, well, I’ll go look at that sucker,” he said.
A situation report from that day notes, “This is the same individual identified in the SITREP a few days ago in Illinois and Iowa.” The security company, OnPoint, quickly contacted TigerSwan Intel “for an assessment of Gary Tomlin” and notified the guard in the next “sector” that Tomlin was on his way. “Movement of Spread Team 6 was conducted so as to intercept and/or observe Gary Tomlin’s movement throughout the South Dakota Sector,” the document states. “It is my belief,” the analyst adds, “that Gary Tomlin is hiding his true intentions and that he has a plethora of information to provide to the protesters. It is estimated that he will arrive in North Dakota on the evening of the 4th or morning of the 5th.”
Tomlin laughed at the notion that he was working with protesters. When he arrived at the camps in North Dakota, few people would talk openly with him. “They were highly aware of infiltrators,” he said. “I fit the profile of those security people — I’m a white old man.”
Cody Hall, a prominent native activist whose movements are tracked closely in the TigerSwan reports, told The Intercept he knew he was being followed whenever he left the camp.
“It was obvious, they were driving in trucks, SUVs, they would be right behind me, right next to me … it was like, damn, man, it’s like you’re getting an escort,” he said. “That was always the scary thing: How did they know that I was coming?”Robert Rice hosted a series of videos critical of the pipeline protest movement without disclosing that he was working for TigerSwan. The videos, which were posted on two Facebook pages, were taken down after The Intercept reached out to the firm for comment.
Social Engagement PlanA document dated October 16, obtained via a public records request, lays out the mission of the TigerSwan-led security team working in North Dakota: In addition to protecting the pipeline workers, machinery, and construction material, the company was also expected to “protect the reputation of DAPL.” The public relations mission quickly became a priority for the firm, documents show. As a leaked situation report from early September puts it, success would require “strategic messaging from the client that drives the message that we are the good guys, tell the real story and address the negative messaging with good counter messaging.”
On numerous occasions, TigerSwan agents stressed the need to change the public narrative established by protestors and to swing public support in favor of the pipeline. As accounts of protest repression garnered nationwide support for the NoDAPL movement, the firm’s agents painstakingly collected and analyzed media coverage, warning their client about how certain incidents might be received by the public.
“This article is only in the Huffington post, but the expansion of the tribe’s narrative outside of the Native American community media outlets is of concern,” an October 3 report notes. TigerSwan agents regularly describe protesters’ accounts of events as “propaganda.”
But TigerSwan personnel did not limit themselves to monitoring the narrative — they also tried to change it.In a report dated September 7, TigerSwan agents discuss the need for a “Social Engagement Plan.” On September 22, they discuss the development of an information operations campaign run by the company’s North Carolina-based intel team and Robert Rice, who without disclosing his TigerSwan affiliation posed as “Allen Rice” in a series of amateurish videos in which he provided commentary critical of the protests. The videos, posted on the Facebook pages “Defend Iowa” and “Netizens for Progress and Justice,” were removed after The Intercept contacted TigerSwan, Rice, and the pages’ administrators for comment. None responded.
With the Dakota Access Pipeline construction nearing completion, TigerSwan might have found itself out of a lucrative contract. But in the months leading up to the first oil delivery through the pipeline, the company made sure to stress the continued need for security.
“Everyone must be concerned of the lone wolf,” a TigerSwan operative wrote in a March 7 report. “Should we slip from that conscience, we may all be amiss. I cannot afford this in my duties, nor will We/I allow or accept this. I cannot thank everyone for enough for their support during this entire process, However, the movement continues, and We/I will not stop. That’s not in my vocabulary. We will always over-watch as the protectors what is in the best interest for ETP, as we are the guardians.”In recent weeks, the company’s role has expanded to include the surveillance of activist networks marginally related to the pipeline, with TigerSwan agents monitoring “anti-Trump” protests from Chicago to Washington, D.C., as well as warning its client of growing dissent around other pipelines across the country.In a March 24 report discussing the likely revival of protests as summer approaches, TigerSwan writes, “Much like Afghanistan and Iraq, the ‘Fighting Season’ will soon be here with the coming warming temperatures.”
Documents published with this story:
Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-07Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-11Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-12Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-13Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-14Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-09-22Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-10-16Internal TigerSwan Situation Report 2016-11-05Security Operations Overview 2016-10-16Security Operations Overview 2016-10-19Shared Daily Intelligence Update 2016-10-16Shared Daily Intelligence Update 2016-11-05Intel Group Email Thread 2016-10-12</div></div><div></div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://democracynow.org/2016/11/21/jeremy_scahill_tigerswan_security_linked_to">https://democracynow.org/2016/11/21/jeremy_scahill_tigerswan_security_linked_to</a></div><div>
</div>We speak with Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill, who has spent years reporting on private security contractors such as the private security firm TigerSwan, which has links to the now-defunct mercenary firm Blackwater and is in charge of coordinating intelligence for the Dakota Access pipeline company. He discusses the company’s track record as more than 100 Native Americans and allies fighting the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline have been injured by police in North Dakota. Many were attacked with rubber bullets, tear gas, mace canisters and water cannons in freezing temperatures. The attack began after the water protectors attempted to clear access to a public bridge, which has been blocked by authorities using military equipment chained to concrete barriers.</div></div></div></div><div></div><div>http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/11/01/1589340/-Security-Firm-Running-Dakota-Pipeline-Intelligence-Tied-to-U-S-Military-Occupations-Abroad</div><div>
</div><div>TigerSwan is one of several security firms <a href="http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/investigators-dog-handlers-were-not-licensed-to-work-security/article_4414ac82-191b-516a-bdd7-a4d0ff635247.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">under investigation</a> for its work guarding the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota while potentially without a permit. Besides this recent work on the Standing Rock Sioux protests in North Dakota, this company has offices in Iraq and Afghanistan and is run by a special forces Army veteran.<a href="http://www.co.morton.nd.us/vertical/Sites/%7B90CBB59C-38EA-4D41-861A-81C9DEBD6022%7D/uploads/Morton_Investigation_summary_of_security_licensure.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">According to a summary of the investigation</a>, TigerSwan “is in charge of Dakota Access intelligence and supervises the overall security.”The Morton County, North Dakota, Sheriff's Department also <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2016/10/26/morton_county_finishes_investigation_into_dogs" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">recently concluded</a> that another security company, Frost Kennels, operated in the state while unlicensed to do so and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/26/north-dakota-pipeline-protest-guard-dogs-charges" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">could face criminal charges</a>. The firm's attack dogs bit protesters at a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/09/06/dakota-access-pipeline-sacred-sites-federal-judge" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">heated Labor Day weekend protest</a>.Law enforcement and private security at the North Dakota pipeline protests have <a href="http://www.mynewsletterbuilder.com/email/newsletter/1412762216" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">faced criticism</a> for maintaining a <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2016/10/video-dakota-access-pipeline-protest-absolutely-nuts-total-war-zone" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">militarized presence</a> in the area. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and National Lawyer's Guild have <a href="https://www.nlg.org/nlg-and-aclu-submit-foia-and-open-records-requests-to-investigate-unconstitutional-surveillance-of-water-protectors-at-standing-rock/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">filed multiple open records requests</a> to learn more about the extent of this militarization, and <a href="http://act.credoaction.com/sign/dapl_assault/" target="blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">over 133,000 citizens</a> have signed a petition calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene and quell the backlash.The Federal Aviation Administration has <a href="http://tfr.faa.gov/save_pages/detail_6_7258.html#areas" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">also implemented a no-fly zone</a>, which bars anyone but law enforcement from flying within a 4-mile radius and 3500 feet above the ground in the protest area. Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer on the scenes in North Dakota with the Indigenous Environmental Network, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/dallasgoldtooth/posts/10105870218846183" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">said on Facebook that</a> “DAPL private security planes and choppers were flying all day” within the designated no-fly zone. Donnell Hushka, the designated public information officer for the North Dakota Tactical Operation Center, which is tasked with overseeing the no-fly zone, did not respond to repeated queries about designated private entities allowed to fly in no-fly zone airspace.<h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 500; line-height: 30pt; margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; letter-spacing: 0.125px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What is TigerSwan?</h3><a href="http://www.tigerswan.com/contact/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">TigerSwan has offices</a> in Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, India, and Latin America and has headquarters in North Carolina. In the past year, TigerSwan won two U.S. Department of State contracts worth over $7 million to operate in Afghanistan, according to USASpending.gov.TigerSwan, however, claims on its website that the contract is worth $25 million, and <a href="http://www.tigerswan.com/tigerswan-wins-state-department-award/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">said in a press release</a> that the State Department contract called for the company to “monitor, assess, and advise current and future nation building and stability initiatives in Afghanistan.” Since 2008, TigerSwan has won about <a href="https://apps.usaspending.gov/AdvancedSearch?SenderId=47516812&SPHostUrl=https%3a%2f%2fwww.usaspending.gov&SearchPageURL=%2fPages%2fAdvancedSearch.aspx&AwardSummaryPageURL=%2fTransparency%2fPages%2fAwardSummary.aspx&fromDB=false&sub=y&ST=C,G,L,O&FY=2017,2016,2015,2014,2013,2012,2011,2010,2009,2008&A=0&SS=USA&k=tigerswan&pidx=1&SB=AD&SD=DESC#" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">$57.7 million</a> worth of U.S. government contracts and subcontracts for security services.Company founder and CEO <a href="http://www.tigerswan.com/meet-team/leadership/james-reese/" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">James Reese</a>, a veteran of the elite <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_Force" target="blank" title="" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">Army Delta Force</a>, served as the “lead advisor for Special Operations to the Director of the CIA for planning, operations and integration for the invasion of Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom” in Iraq, according to his company biography. Army Delta partakes in mostly covert and high-stakes missions and is part of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Special_Operations_Command" target="blank" title="" style="background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC)</a>, the latter well known for killing Osama Bin Laden. One of TigerSwan's advisory board members, Charles Pittman, has direct ties to the oil and gas industry. Pittman “served as President of Amoco Egypt Oil Company, Amoco Eurasia Petroleum Company, and Regional President BP Amoco plc. (covering the Middle East, the Caspian Sea region, Egypt, and India),” <a href="http://clients.fwv-us.com/development/tigerswan-v2/meet-team/board-advisors/charles-pittman/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">according to his company biography</a>.<h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 500; line-height: 30pt; margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; letter-spacing: 0.125px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Sad, But Not Surprising”</h3>Investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2009/8/20/reports_private_military_firm_blackwater_was" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">told Democracy Now! in a 2009 interview</a> that TigerSwan did some covert operations work with Blackwater USA, dubbed the “<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Blackwater-Rise-Worlds-Powerful-Mercenary-ebook/dp/B0097CYTYA" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">world's most powerful mercenary army</a>” in his book by the same name. Blackwater has also guarded oil pipelines in central Asia, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=vpo5E5JagJEC&pg=PA236&lpg=PA236&dq=blackwater+usa+pipeline&source=bl&ots=dhmgUHcM3u&sig=atRA5zNDt4G0zxMUCSls4IvSiQg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjbu6nnhPrPAhWIwiYKHRAxCmgQ6AEIXTAJ#v=onepage&q=blackwater%20usa%20pipeline&f=false" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">according to Scahill's book</a>.<a href="http://newsok.com/article/feed/113678" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">Reese advised Blackwater</a> and took a leave of absence from TigerSwan in 2008 in the aftermath of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nisour_Square_massacre" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">Nisour Square Massacre</a>, a shooting in Iraq conducted by Blackwater officers which saw 17 Iraqi civilians killed. TigerSwan has a <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/tigerswan-announces-strategic-alliance-with-iraqi-security-company-61992847.html" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">business relationship</a> with <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160109141143/http://besc.net/" target="blank" title="" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">Babylon Eagles Security Company</a>, a private security firm headquartered in Iraq which also has had <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20160127030611/http://besc.net/clients.htm" target="blank" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">business ties with Blackwater</a>.“It is sad, but not surprising, that this firm has ties to the US interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the women-led peace group CODEPINK and the co-founder of the human rights group Global Exchange, told DeSmog. “It is another terrifying example of how our violent interventions abroad come home to haunt us in the form of repression and violation of our civil rights.”The North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation and the Private Investigation and Security Board are also <a href="http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/investigators-dog-handlers-were-not-licensed-to-work-security/article_4414ac82-191b-516a-bdd7-a4d0ff635247.html" target="_blank" title="" style="box-sizing: border-box; background: transparent; text-decoration: none;">conducting parallel investigations</a> to the one recently completed by Morton County. TigerSwan did not comment on questions posed about their contract</div><div></div><div>2014</div><div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">e TigerSwan firearms training center near Cedar Creek has new owners and a new name.</div><div class="subscriber-preview" style="box-sizing: border-box;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The 1,000-acre shooting range and training facility is now known as the Range Complex and will operate as a standalone business based in Cumberland County, said Steve Swierkowski, who has remained as the company's vice president for training.</div><div class="subscriber-only" style="box-sizing: border-box;" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The official transition took place March 8 and was announced Wednesday. The new general manager is Dave Cook, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces sergeant major and Delta Force operator.</div></div><div></div><div>2009 blue nc</div><div>
</div><div><div class="node-content" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden view-mode-full"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">From the <a href="http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=322048" style="text-decoration: none;">Fayetteville Observer</a> and from their press release:<blockquote style="margin: 1em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding-left: 1em;">James Reese, a retired Army special operations soldier, has been named chief executive officer of TigerSwan Inc. of Apex. The comprehensive security solutions company was founded by veterans of Delta Force. Reese will be responsible for the strategic direction and growth of the company. He was recently a vice president with Blackwater Worldwide, where he ran a high-threat security program in Iraq and Afghanistan.</blockquote>Another war-profiteering patriot slopping at the public trough?<a /><blockquote style="margin: 1em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding-left: 1em;"><a>About TigerSwan</a><a /><a href="http://www.tigerswan.biz/services.html" style="text-decoration: none;">TigerSwan</a> offers a full spectrum of management and technical solutions across a wide range of functional and program areas.</blockquote>For those of you not well-versed in the lingo, that's Blackwater doublespeak for "mercenaries." Welcome to my neighborhood, Mr. Reese. Just remember, every dollar your company sucks from the US defense budget is one less dollar going to provide our troops with the equipment and training they need.</div></div></div></div><nav class="clearfix" style="zoom: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><ul class="links inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none none;"><li class="addthis-share first" style="display: inline; list-style: none; padding: 0px 15px 0px 0px;" /><li class="blog_usernames_blog last" style="display: inline; list-style: none; padding: 0px 15px 0px 0px;"><a href="http://bluenc.com/blogs/james" title="Read James's latest blog entries." style="text-decoration: none;">James's blog</a></li></ul></nav><section id="comments" class="comment-wrapper" style="margin: 1.5em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a id="comment-95032" /><article class="comment comment-by-node-author odd first comment-with-signature clearfix" style="zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 20px;"><a id="comment-95032" /><a 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id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><h3 class="comment-title" style="margin: 0px; font-weight: 400;"><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a 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id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a href="http://bluenc.com/comment/95032#comment-95032" rel="bookmark" style="text-decoration: none;">More on Reese</a></h3></header><footer class="submitted">Submitted by James on <time datetime="2009-03-30T08:47:32Z" pubdate="pubdate">Mon, 03/30/2009 - 08:47</time></footer><div class="comment-content"><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a id="comment-95032" /><a 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href="http://www.democracynow.org/2005/9/23/blackwater_down_fresh_from_iraq_private" style="text-decoration: none;">What a guy.</a><blockquote style="margin: 1em; border-left: 1px solid rgb(153, 153, 153); padding-left: 1em;">One of the people who’s brought in private security companies is a powerful businessman by the name of James Reese. He lives in the wealthy, elite, gated community of Audubon Place. They have the only privately owned street in the city of New Orleans. Well, he brought in a company called Instinctive Shooting International, which is an Israeli firm, and it’s actually owned and operated by a guy who lives in New Jersey and has had contracts to train New York City police officers, but he is an Israeli martial arts expert.
::
He serves in Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration. He also runs a powerful business lobby, and Naomi has talked about him as well. He also was quoted openly in the Wall Street Journal saying he doesn’t want black people or poor people to return to New Orleans.</blockquote></div></div></div></div><div class="user-signature"><a href="http://www.jamesprotzman.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">James Protzman</a></div></article><a id="comment-95035" /><article class="comment even comment-with-signature clearfix" style="zoom: 1; margin-bottom: 20px;"><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><header class="comment-header"><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><h3 class="comment-title" style="margin: 0px; font-weight: 400;"><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a href="http://bluenc.com/comment/95035#comment-95035" rel="bookmark" style="text-decoration: none;">welcome indeed</a></h3></header><footer class="submitted">Submitted by cstalberg on <time datetime="2009-03-30T10:41:48Z" pubdate="pubdate">Mon, 03/30/2009 - 10:41</time></footer><div class="comment-content"><a id="comment-95035" 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id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035" /><a id="comment-95035">Gosh, at least Erik Prince set up his headqurters in the middle of nowhere. These fools headquartered in our backyard. Say 'NIMBY' Mr. Reese. We're going to become your worst nightmare. Erik Price's headache will now be shared with you. We've identified your training facility in Linden Mr. Reese. Maybe we'll pay you a surprise visit like we did at Blackwater!</a></div></div></div></div><div class="user-signature">Visit Academi Watch (aka Blackwater Watch) at <a href="http://academiwatch.com/" style="text-decoration: none;">http://academiwatch.com</a></div></article></section></div><div></div><div>LI scrape</div><div><div>TigerSwan Inc.</div><div>" Solutions to Uncertainty"</div><div>
</div><div>JAMES REESE</div><div>Security and Investigations Professional</div><div>
</div><div>Stephen McCormick</div><div>Watch Officer at TigerSwan</div><div>
</div><div>Shawn Sweeney</div><div>Vice President of Operations at TigerSwan</div><div>
</div><div>John Bosnjak</div><div>Vice President, Government Services at TigerSwan</div><div>
</div><div>Niki Reese PA- C</div><div>NEUROSURGERY PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATE VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER • MEDICAL SCOOL FACULTY</div><div>
</div><div>Shaza RF</div><div>CHRM</div><div>
</div><div>Loretta Moye</div><div>Human Resources Director</div><div>
</div><div>Brian Smith</div><div>VP, Finance at TigerSwan, Inc</div><div>---</div><div><div>TigerSwan Inc.</div><div>" Solutions to Uncertainty"</div><div>Shawn Sweeney</div><div>Shawn Sweeney</div><div>Vice President of Operations at TigerSwan</div><div>John Bosnjak</div><div>John Bosnjak</div><div>Vice President, Government Services at TigerSwan</div><div>Anthony Turpin</div><div>Anthony Turpin</div><div>President, TigerSwan International, Ltd</div><div>Niki Reese PA- C</div><div>Niki Reese PA- C</div><div>NEUROSURGERY PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATE VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER • MEDICAL SCOOL FACULTY</div><div>Brian Smith</div><div>Brian Smith</div><div>VP, Finance at TigerSwan, Inc</div><div>Brian Searcy</div><div>Brian Searcy</div><div>Cofounder/Vice Chairman at Global Guardian</div><div>Faz Brahimi</div><div>Faz Brahimi</div><div>Experienced in Marketing/ Communication</div><div>Kenneth Russell</div><div>Kenneth Russell</div><div>On siter Contract Manager, JSOMT-C, Ft. Bragg NC</div><div>Carolee Martin</div><div>Carolee Martin</div><div>GS 15 Ministry of Defense Senior Advisor United States Department of Defense</div></div></div><div></div>