NO DAPL and other pipeline concerns - Keystone, etc.

http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2017/03/15/from-the-ashes-of-standing-rock-a-beautiful-resistance-is-born/

Also just last week a lone pipeline resister was killed by police after fleeing the scene of an effective sabotage action against the pipeline.
Is effective sabotage shooting pieces of the pipeline and heavy equipment with a rifle?

the wording is weird but I would assume attempting sabotage would be not harming something, and anything that causes damage is sabotage, regardless whether it stops things from working?

What exactly constitutes an action? I've been reading through the website linked above and to me it makes very loose justifications for various illegal activity. Please correct me if I'm reading this wrong?

"direct action" does tend to equate to "illegal", yes.

for further discussion may I recommend:

http://www.ifatreefallsfilm.com/

civil disobedience implies illegal activity

I feel so square. In mind my using any techniques that could possibly harm the public goes against anything I can get behind.

that film does really grapple with those issues, I seriously recommend it.

Going to watch this tonight. Thanks!

After watching If A Tree Falls I'm further perplexed by this whole idea of actions. There seems to be a disrupt between reality and what these people want the world to be. By burning down offices or equipment, shooting at offices, stopping traffic or any of these actions, to me it seems the only long term consequences are certain individuals feel good and that are doing "something" then they are unable to deal with the criminal consequences of what those actions entail. But what have they really achieved aside from ending up in prison or with a record?

isn't it up to the individual how far they wanna take things and what price they are willing to pay as a potential consequence?

I think McGowan (subject of film) would argue exactly what you do here - his actions didn't really accomplish that much, nor did the other ones. the only one that seems to have had total local support was the horse meat factory (which was particularly horrifying and egregious if you look up the history, the locals were glad to see it burn). There's a good reason why he has focused his post-release activism around prisoner's rights as opposed to environmental direct action, he feels it's more worthwhile to pursue.

my POV is that raising awareness of an issue can be worth doing time. I mean, are you familiar with the Plowshares movement? totally nonviolent, but they get long prison sentences. isn't that their choice, to raise awareness?

(disclaimer: a lot of those people are/were personal friends)

and a few of those people are friends of friends of mine. I had many heated debates with those friends years ago. One close friend was wire tapped by the guy. But that friend had broken the law and got caught and I warned her that the police aren't just going to give up on searching for you. My main problem with these actions is the amount of misinformation that propels their ideals. One of the places they burned down was unrelated to their hostiles.

unrelated to what they thought was going on I meant.

definitely, I agree.

https://theintercept.com/2017/05/27/leaked-documents-reveal-security-firms-counterterrorism-tactics-at-standing-rock-to-defeat-pipeline-insurgencies/

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.” [...] 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.”

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.”

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.” [...] 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.

fuckheads

jesus christ

fwiw, a fair number of those "terrorists" would have been US combat veterans from Vietnam, the Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq.

nothing matters

who could have guessed

http://www.ksfy.com/content/news/Crews-cleaning-up-Keystone-Pipeline-leak-in-Marshall-County-458046943.html

"at least 210,000 gallons of oil "

goddamn it

actually this is great timing, the board's vote on Keystone XL is just a few days away and this is extra ammo against it

I added Keystone to the thread title to make this thread more searchable because qualmsley started a separate Keystone thread. Open to suggestions on the name change though.

https://www.ecowatch.com/transcanada-pipeline-explodes-west-virginia-2576042392.html?xrs=RebelMouse_fb&ts=1528427379