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Breaking: In private email, Pa.'s Homeland Security chief pledges "support" to gas drillers, warns against groups "fomenting dissent."
Breaking: In private email, Pa.'s Homeland Security chief pledges "support" to gas drillers, warns against groups "fomenting dissent."
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An email obtained by City Paper suggests collaboration between the state Department of Homeland Security and gas drilling interests.
The email, authored by Pennsylvania Homeland Security chief James Powers, was written in apparent error: addressed to a participant in anti-drilling forums, the letter indicates that Powers mistakenly mistook its recipient for someone associated with pro-drilling interests.
In the email (full text below), Powers warns against distributing information gathered by the Pa. DHS on anti-drilling activities, saying that: "We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies."
The "support" he speaks of consists at least partly of confidential updates on anti-drilling activists and activities. A report yesterday evening by nonprofit investigative journalism outfit Pro Publica broke the news that the Pennsylvania Dept. of Homeland Security included in its regular newsletter, the Pennsylvania Intelligence Bulletin, descriptions of various activities and gatherings of activists opposed to gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.
Included in a list entitled "Dates of interest" are a series of local meetings about gas drilling issues — a drilling ordinance in Cranberry County, a hearing in Damascus, Pa. on zoning regulations — as well as the recent screening in Philadelphia of the "controversial Gasland movie," a documentary by filmmaker Josh Fox on the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, the process used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus Shale.
City Paper emailed Mr. Powers to confirm authenticity of the email and was contacted instead by Governor Rendell's chief spokesman Gary Tuma, who acknowledged that the email was authentic and said that the Pa. Dept. of Homeland Security was sharing such information with certain local interests â including gas drilling companies — because of "recent acts of vandalism" against drilling operations.
"There have been five acts of vandalism against Marcellus Shale drilling facilities," in the last two weeks, he said, "including two of which involved firearms ... shotguns fired at equipment."
A third incident involved theft, he said after being asked for details, and the other two were "minor incidents."
Tuma added that "There have been peaceful protests related to MS drilling by people who oppose drilling and the increased amount of drilling — certainly no one is trying to restrict the rights of peaceful protest conducted within the parameters of the first amendment."
Asked whether there have been any protests that were not peaceful, Mr. Tuma acknowledged, "There have not been any that I'm aware of."
The full text of the email appears below:
For Your Information & Situational Awareness
Just a short note of clarification regarding the intent of the PIB. The information provided to you via the PIB is not for dissemination in the public domain. As indicated in the caveats on the first page, the PIB is solely meant for owners/operators & security personnel associated with our critical infrastructure & key resources.
Although an internet forum is certainly a great way to spread the word and receive input from forum participants, it's still in the public domain and thus be accessed by both pro and anti-natural gas drilling folks.
Please assist us in keeping the information provided in the PIB to those having a valid need-to-know; it should only be disseminated via closed communications systems.
Thanks for your support. We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies.
Jim
James F. Powers, Jr. | Director
Office of Homeland Security
2605 Interstate Drive | Suite 380
Harrisburg, PA 17110-9382
717-651-2715 | Cell: 717-307-5335
[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
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[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
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[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
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Mr. Thompson, Thank you for keeping such a close eye on the disaster in the making called Marcellus Shale, Over the last few weeks we've become aware that PA's Homeland Security is sending out regular advisories to statewide law enforcement, re "extremists" attending drilling events. Now this.
[...] Philadelphia Citypaper (blog) [...]
I never met a Jim, or a Bill worth a f***.
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[...] laws, and even citizens’ ability to know what is going on in their community. See this and [...]
[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
[...] that his administration was tracking anti-gas drilling activists — a story broken, in part, by our very own Isaiah Thompson. From the Inky: "Let me make this as clear as I can make it," the governor said at news conference [...]
[...] Here’s a link to some back-story from Philadelphia’s City Paper where PA Homeland Security Director James Powers seems to have blurred the line between “situational awareness” and “situational ethics.” http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2010/09/09/in-private-email-pa-s-homeland-security-cheif-pledges-sup... [...]
[...] reports prepared for the state by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR) â which covertly monitored the activities of anti-drilling activists (along with other such terroristic evens as a gay rights parade) â [...]
[...] morning, following a press conference in which Governor Rendell acknowledged and apologized for a state-contracted agency's spying on anti-drilling activists (among others), a Pittsburgh City Councilman, Doug Shields, demanded a probe into the company, the [...]
[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
[...] [...]
[...] anti-terrorism laws to keep people from learning what pollutants are in their own community. See this, this, this and [...]
[...] There was a time when people tasked with preventing terrorism might have concerned themselves with whether a group of protesters includes anyone who is violent, not whether it includes anyone who believes some funny things. But it's pretty clear that the institute has a broader idea of its mission than its name might suggest. It's also clear that there are people in the state government who wanted exactly what they were getting. [...]
[...] groups that planned to protest the 2009 Group of 20 economic conference in the city”. And see this and [...]
[...] groups that planned to protest the 2009 Group of 20 economic conference in the city”. And see this and [...]
[...] groups that planned to protest the 2009 Group of 20 economic conference in the city”. And see this and [...]
PA Homeland Security paid a company $125,000 to spy on and report to natural gas industry interests the names of protesters and groups that lawfully protested gas exploration; then Homeland Security distributed those names to law enforcement nationally. So what did the natural gas industry intend to do with the names of the lawful protesters? What did national law enforcement intend for the lawful protesters whose names were distributed by PA Homeland Security that labeled the protesters a threat to the national infra structure, in effect terrorists? Despite this spying exposed, will those collected protesters' names be used by federal government to prevent them from getting a federal job or a government clearance? The Nazis Government used this tactic to intimidate and suppress political opposition. Will U.S. Government use the spied protester names to injure them financially, e.g. prevent protesters receiving credit or loans at banks the Government controls since the financial crisis? The Government used all of the above tactics when it ran COINTELPRO 1964 THROUGH the 1980's to crush political dissent. Homeland Security (sanctioned spying) on Americans' because they exercise constitutionally protected activities is foreseeable to intimidate, coerce and terrify Citizens from speaking out. U.S. and foreign private security companies now work so closely with U.S. law enforcement agencies in America under federal quasi-government contracts sharing information on U.S. Citizens; assist in tracking individuals and to share with U.S. Government assets they cause to be forfeited from Americans, private security companies appear to have merged with U.S. police agencies. U.S. Government too easily can use its relationship with private security companies to spy on and damage any American deemed a threat. In retrospect, Hitler created the Gestapo a secret âPrivate police organization that worked closely with German police to spy on, arrest and eliminate anyone that disagreed with the Nazi Government and to seize huge amounts of property from German Citizens. Currently Homeland Security works for a democracy; however if U.S. Government radically changes, e.g., becomes fascist, Homeland Security could spy on all Americans. The German police before Hitler worked for a democracy; under Hitler German police worked for a fascist government; following World WAR II the German police worked for the East German Stasi, a brutal police force under the USSR.
[...] stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies." http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2010...nting-dissent/ Reply With Quote + Reply to [...]
[...] Breaking: In private email, Pa.'s Homeland Security chief pledges âsupportâ to gas drillers, warns against groups âfomenting dissent.â http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2010/09/09/in-private-email-pa-s-homeland-security-cheif-pledges-sup... [...]
[...] reports prepared for the state by the Institute of Terrorism Research and Response (ITRR) — which covertly monitored the activities of anti-drilling activists (along with such terroristic events as a gay rights parade) — [...]
[...] In an email sent to what he believed was a pro-drilling advocate a few weeks ago, Powers revealed why: “We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies,” he said. Powers’s email is the rare, albeit unintentional, acknowledgment that he is nothing more than an apparatchik of the corporate state, a corrupt system where government power is wielded for the security of private industry first and foremost. [...]
[...] In an email sent to what he believed was a pro-drilling advocate a few weeks ago, Powers revealed why: “We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies,” he said. Powers’s email is the rare, albeit unintentional, acknowledgment that he is nothing more than an apparatchik of the corporate state, a corrupt system where government power is wielded for the security of private industry first and foremost. [...]
[...] In an email sent to what he believed was a pro-drilling advocate a few weeks ago, Powers revealed why: “We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies,” he said. Powers’s email is the rare, albeit unintentional, acknowledgment that he is nothing more than an apparatchik of the corporate state, a corrupt system where government power is wielded for the security of private industry first and foremost. [...]
[...] Breaking: In private email, Pa.'s Homeland Security chief pledges âsupportâ to gas drillers, warns against groups âfomenting dissent.â http://citypaper.net/blogs/clog/2010/09/09/in-private-email-pa-s-homeland-security-cheif-pledges-sup... [...]
[...] and for what purpose? The state has declined so far to disclose a list of the recipients. But in an email that Powers inadvertently sent to an anti-drilling group, he all but admits that the intelligence [...]
[...] and for what purpose? The state has declined so far to disclose a list of the recipients. But in an email that Powers inadvertently sent to an anti-drilling group, he all but admits that the intelligence [...]
[...] and for what purpose? The state has declined so far to disclose a list of the recipients. But in an email that Powers inadvertently sent to an anti-drilling group, he all but admits that the intelligence [...]
[...] James F. Powers, Pennsylvania's director of homeland security, was miffed. Somehow an intelligence bulletin discussing the activities of natural gas drilling opponents turned up on an online forum in early September, so Powers emailed the woman who posted it. The bulletin, he wrote her, was meant only for state and local law enforcement and for critical infrastructure owners, including businesses wrapped up in the state's enormously profitable natural gas drilling industry. But since the bulletin was posted on an unsecured forum, anyone could access it. This was not good, Powers explained, because the bulletin could fall into the wrong hands. âWe want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies,â Powers wrote. [...]
[...] and for what purpose? The state has declined so far to disclose a list of the recipients. But in an email that Powers inadvertently sent to an anti-drilling group, he all but admits that the intelligence [...]
[...] bill would also narrow the citizenry's ability to obtain records about government contractors — you know, like the kind the state recently contracted with the spy on [...]
[...] and for what purpose? The state has declined so far to disclose a list of the recipients. But in an email that Powers inadvertently sent to an anti-drilling group, he all but admits that the intelligence [...]
[...] and for what purpose? The state has declined so far to disclose a list of the recipients. But in an email that Powers inadvertently sent to an anti-drilling group, he all but admits that the intelligence [...]
[...] In an email sent to what he believed was a pro-drilling advocate a few weeks ago, Powers revealed why: “We want to continue providing this support to the Marcellus Shale Formation natural gas stakeholders while not feeding those groups fomenting dissent against those same companies,” he said. Powers’s email is the rare, albeit unintentional, acknowledgment that he is nothing more than an apparatchik of the corporate state, a corrupt system where government power is wielded for the security of private industry first and foremost. [...]
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