The Truth comes out
“As Truthout previously reported, the FBI responded to our FOIA request two weeks after we filed it by stating the agency was 'unable to identify main file records responsive to the FOIA.'
“We are currently poring over the documents, which we sought under the Freedom of Information Act, and will publish a series of reports later today and throughout the week.”
http://truth-out.org/news/item/8012-dhs-turns-over-occupy-wall-street-documents-to-truthout
Also from Truthout: “As many of you know, Truthout’s website has recently been hit with a number of severe 'DDOS' attacks from an unknown source. We’re very grateful for all of your support and words of encouragement throughout this challenging time. “Early this morning (March 21), we migrated our website to a sturdier, more defensible web platform. We’re hopeful that this new home will enable us to withstand the ongoing DDOS assault, and stand up to any future attacks we may face.”
The Guardian obtained records from Oakland public officials using the California Public Records Act. The following description will suffice:
"In total, the reports on arrests and use of force, as well as complaints filed with the OPD, spanning from Oct. 25, 2011 to Feb. 11, 2012, paint the picture of an agency engaged in something akin to urban warfare against a feared enemy."
http://www.sfbg.com/2012/03/13/opd-spies-and-beats-protesters
Updated version:
“Oakland Police Department's internal communications about the Occupy Oakland movement — which the Guardian obtained through the California Public Records Act — confirm what many protesters already know: plainclothes officers frequent meetings, police monitor Occupy Oakland's online communications, anarchists are feared, and police use of force that injures protesters, often brutally, is common practice.”
http://www.sfbg.com/2012/03/13/opd-spies-and-beats-protesters?page=0%2C0
This concept of peaceful protest being met with military-style tactics suggestive of warfare has been a source of interest throughout the OWS saga. It has been documented on many occasions that not only were cops infiltrating the organizational structure, they were also instigating violence and illegal activity. There were reliable reports that the cops were also sending in proxies that accomplished all sort of cop-friendly things like stealing personal property, sabotaging internet and communications gear, spreading computer viruses, hacking or downing networks, and planting people that were prone to inciting violence or other illegal activity.
This was verified in November just prior to the raids. But because anyone could be called an “occupier” and there are shoddy, biased news outlets like KTLA that were standing by to make bogus news “reports” out of them, there wasn't much recourse except to point out that appeared those people were recruited by hostile parties including the news outlets that aired or published those reports.
Sue Basko has written extensively on the subject, with much ado and criticism, but there hasn't been much of a dispute about the accuracy of her posts. These tactics, the various hostile acts became part of the experience, in some instances fascinating to watch because of the collaborative efforts involved and the reports of the same tactics being used at other occupations. The motives so transparent, the activities of but a few that call themselves “occupiers” so mindless and counterproductive, that there is almost no choice but to believe that these are the people described by Basko on different occasions.
And now it is confirmed that the most likely suspects, DHS, local police, the banks and predictable political interests, were indeed collaborative in efforts to derail or undermine the movement. This video was posted on November 26, 2011.
While all this drama and intrigue was going on, and knowing that the cops have become noticeably more violent and aggressive, there remain some simple principles behind all of this. The banks have ravaged the economies of countless nations and governments, including this one, and they continue to be dependent on the citizens and taxpayers to pay off on their losses as they will far into the future, indeed for generations to come.
The message
“Back in 2002, the top 10 U.S. banks controlled 55 percent of all U.S. banking assets. Today, the top 10 U.S. banks control 77 percent of all U.S. banking assets.
“These banks have gotten so big and so powerful that if they collapsed our entire financial system would implode.
“You would have thought that we would have learned our lesson back in 2008 and would have done something about this, but instead we have allowed the 'too big to bail' banks to become bigger than ever.
“And they pretty much do whatever they want.”
The OWS message as it was originally conceived was rather simple. Somewhere along the way that message was targeted like no other since the civil rights movement. It is dangerous in the sense that the ruling class, the 1 percent, are fearful of the message taking hold because they know it would represent a tangible threat to their empire.
But the mistrust and resentment of the banking sector was strictly a byproduct of their own gaffes, blunders, and public relations disasters that include awarding themselves huge bonuses paid for by the people they just screwed over. 84% of foreclosures in California aren't even legal, yet they continue to render people homeless while consolidating their power and expanding their influence over their alleged regulators. They continue to engage in patently illegal practices, but don't have a lot to worry about using the contemporary business model which allows for those practices to go unprosecuted.
Somehow the OWS message was beaten into the ground using a bunch of tactics that are in fact illegal, but because they were the result of police activity, they will never be prosecuted. The proxies that have called themselves “occupiers' were, and in some cases still are, nothing more than proxies for the cops, useful tools that probably have a lot to fear from law enforcement otherwise they wouldn't be so prone to carrying their water.
But the message isn't going to disappear because it is valid and substantial. To my knowledge, no allegation of misconduct by banking executives from a reliable source has ever been contested or refuted. They simply go away after a settlement is reached, the taxpayers' money is used to pre-empt prosecution.
Trust us, you don't want to know
Fukushima citizens are no longer able to purchase foreign Geiger counters because the Japanese government has banned claiming they are inaccurate and may cause panic.
Killer stockbroker
"It has now also emerged that - along with another man and his company - Sgt Bales owed a reported $1.5m (£950,000) from an arbitration ruling nearly a decade ago which found him guilty of securities fraud while he was working as a stockbroker."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17454316
Pic from http://serendipics.blogspot.com/2008/07/you-write-what-you-told.html
Grumpy
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