#blackwater — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #blackwater, aggregated by home.social.
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@justbob , I came across this and thought of you...
From 2016:#StandingRock Camp Battles Cyber Blockers, Improves Service
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews
Sat., Dec. 10, 2016UPDATES -- "Composting toilets save the day. Crews finished installing composting toilets, even some in heated tents, after the port-a-potties were yanked from Oceti Sakowin Camp. And work has been underway to fight back at the cyber blockers. Turns out they don't like being pinged to expose who they are, including cops who use stingrays to imitate cell towers to gain access to your cellphone. On Friday, five semi truckloads of supplies arrived, purchased from Amazon -- by good hearts around the world -- in response to the Last Real Indians wish list. Donors are also helping Last Real Indians purchase pickup trucks and vehicles for camp. The Dine' Camp at Oceti Sakowin is standing strong, with a new hogan. Across the river, Rosebud Camp and Sacred Stone Camp are resilient.
Standing Strong for Standing Rock."
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2016/12/standing-rock-camp-battles-cyber.html
#StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #NeverForgetStandingRock #USGovt #USPol #ErikPrince #Blackwater #PrivateSecurity #BigOilAndGas #CorporateCriminals #Oiligarchy
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Recenzje fantastyczne:
»[Recenzja] „Powódź”, „Groble” Michael McDowell«Niespieszne tempo i czasowa perspektywa narracji w powieści McDowella nadają jej charakter fabularyzowanej kroniki ludzkich wyborów i ich konsekwencji. To powieść, której osnowę tworzą nie codzienny strach i przerażenie, ale groza samego urządzenia świata i rzeczywistości. Tym właśnie jest Eleanor i potęga obu rzek.
https://www.fahrenheit.net.pl/ksiazki/recenzje/fantastyczne/recenzja-powodz-groble-michael-mcdowell/
#Fahrenheit_zin #IzabelaMatuszewska #MarzenaWasilewska #Albatros #Powódź #MichaelMcDowell #Blackwater #KasiaMeszka #LeszekFilipowicz #Groble #TheLeeve #PerdidioOyarbide #MonsieurToussaint
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pleasantly surprised by #Ecuador besting #Alemania, but… *siiiigh* i would be celebrating if it had not been for the fact they’ve capitulated to the #Blackwater #Academi #EricPrince mercenary fascist mafia.
Eric Prince proves my point: USA’s #1 export isn’t just eternal war but the #fascism that sustains it.
❝ Ecuador enlists founder of Blackwater private army as ally in ‘war’ on crime | Ecuador | The Guardian - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/12/ecuador-president-blackwater-alliance
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‘The cavalry’s coming!’: Indigenous activism from 1492 to Standing Rock
Famed Indigenous activists like Leonard Peltier and Madonna Thunder Hawk and younger activists shared their thoughts with ICT about the evolution of Indigenous activism from the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s to Standing Rock and beyond.
by Kevin Abourezk, May 11, 2026
#CannonballND – "The field is serene. The blades of brown grass, not yet awakened by spring rains, sway gently. In the distance, the #MissouriRiver cuts a blue streak across the unbroken plains. The silence is punctuated only by the sound of passing cars and the low hum of rushing water in nearby #CannonballRiver.
"But if you listen carefully, you can hear defiant voices shouting and then screaming.
"Ten years ago, this land exploded.
"For nearly a year, from April 2016 to February 2017, thousands of people stood strong against #MilitarizedPolice, #FederalTroops and #PrivateSecurityForces [#Blackwater] hired to protect the 1,176-mile #DakotaAccessPipeline. They gathered to resist a private corporation’s efforts to build a pipeline less than a mile from the #StandingRockSioux Reservation near the #NorthDakota-#SouthDakota border.
"In the end, they were forced to evacuate their camps as authorities quieted, but never fully extinguished, the uprising. Some would say the fire that ignited at #StandingRock was lit decades earlier by #NativeActivists who fought oppression and violence in the 1960s and 1970s.
"While Native people have resisted #colonization and its impacts since 1492, the rise of the American Indian Movement in the 1960s marked a turning point in the efforts of Native people to join together and speak in one voice. That torch of resistance was carried all the way from places like #AlcatrazIsland and #WoundedKnee to a field near the Missouri River in 2016.
"The #NoDAPL movement reached its height on Nov. 20, 2016, when hundreds of water protectors gathered on a bridge to clear two burned-out trucks that impeded a public roadway that provided access to the pipeline drill site and to the camp. The confrontation was the most violent clash between water protectors and authorities during the protest and led to nearly 200 people being injured, some seriously."
Read more:
https://ictnews.org/news/the-cavalrys-coming-indigenous-activism-from-1492-to-standing-rock/#USPol #NativeAmericanActivism #StandWithStandingRock #NativeAmericanHistory #Resistance #IndigenousResistance #Colonialism #CorporateColonialism
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#Blackwater Founder #ErikPrince Talks About Wagner, War, and More
By Greg Chabot, July 24, 2022
"After the success of this program [Blackwater], Prince was approached by officials in Russia asking for his help to start up a PMC. Prince turned down the generous offer that he says could have made him a billionaire. The #PMC nevertheless formed, he says, and is known as the #Wagner Group."
https://sofmag.com/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-talks-about-wagner-group/
#WagnerGroup #PMCWagner
#TrumpIsARussianAsset
#AntiWoke #ChristoFacists #ChristoFascism #Mercernaries #Prigozhin -
#PMCWagner isn't just emulating #ErikPrince, he was asked to found them (more about that in my next post)...
#Putin’s “Erik Prince” is tied to some of #Russia’s riskiest covert operations
By Greg Walters, February 21, 2018
Excerpt: "In #Syria, a mysterious private military firm called PMC Wagner has been tied to #Prigozhin. The firm is sometimes described as the Russian #Blackwater in reference to the U.S. private military contractor founded by Erik Prince, a likeness Prigozhin appears to be emulating, according to Nance."
#WagnerGroup #Putin #TrumpIsARussianAsset #AntiWoke #ChristoFacists #ChristoFascism #Mercernaries
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From 2021... This started before #Trump, but things are way worse now!
#AntiProtestLaws Threaten #Indigenous and #Climate Movements
“#CriticalInfrastructure” laws in over a dozen states wrongly invoke national security to justify targeting #PipelineProtesters.
Kaylana Mueller-Hsia, March 17, 2021
"In 2016 as a member of Congress, #DebHaaland stood for four days in solidarity with protesters at the #StandingRockSioux Reservation against construction of the #DakotaAccessPipeline. Today, as the first #NativeAmerican to be the secretary of the interior — the first to lead any cabinet department — she has the opportunity to support the #FirstAmendment rights of the protesters she joined in the past.
"With her authority over energy development on federal lands, Haaland can be a voice for Indigenous and climate movements facing an urgent threat: the rapid spread of laws to protect 'critical infrastructure' that single out activists.
"Since 2016, 13 states have quietly enacted laws that increase criminal penalties for trespassing, damage, and interference with infrastructure sites such as oil refineries and pipelines. At least five more states have already introduced similar legislation this year. These laws draw from national security legislation enacted after 9/11 to protect physical infrastructure considered so 'vital' that the 'incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety.'
"Many industry sectors are designated critical infrastructure, including food and agriculture, energy, water and wastewater, and communications, but most state critical infrastructure laws focus more narrowly on oil and gas #pipelines. While protecting critical infrastructure is a legitimate government function, these laws clearly target environmental and Indigenous activists by significantly raising the penalties for participating in or even tangentially supporting pipeline trespassing and property damage, crimes that are already illegal. Many laws are modelled on draft legislation prepared by the American Legislative Exchange Council, also known as #ALEC, a powerful lobbying group funded by #FossilFuel companies like #ExxonMobil and #Shell.
"Central to the new critical infrastructure laws are increased criminal penalties and vague, broad definitions that could discourage protest and particularly, nonviolent civil disobedience. Many laws make any 'damage' to or 'interference' with a facility deemed critical infrastructure a felony. Under #Ohio’s law, trespass with the purpose of 'tampering' with a facility is a third degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. In Indiana, a felony conviction is applied for any facility trespass, a crime that is typically a misdemeanor or fine.
"Vague language like 'damage,' 'tamper,' and 'impede' in critical infrastructure laws makes it unclear if, for example, knocking down #SafetyCones and starting a fire next to a natural gas facility are the same under the law. Many critical infrastructure laws do not clarify if they apply only to land a company fully owns or also to pipeline easements, which run through both public and private lands. At least some laws apply to both. Only a week after Louisiana’s critical infrastructure law was enacted, opponents of the Bayou Bridge pipeline were charged with trespassing for boating on public waters on the border of a pipeline easement.
"The combination of overly broad language and steep penalties in critical infrastructure laws make it likely that future activists and supporting organizations will be discouraged from exercising their First Amendment-protected protest rights. A lawsuit brought in response to the #BayouBridge charges will test the laws for the first time on First Amendment grounds.
"Many of these laws even extend beyond the protesters. In a proposed law in #Minnesota, anyone who 'recruits, trains, aids, advises, hires, counsels, or conspires' someone to trespass without a 'reasonable effort' to prevent the trespassing is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. In #Oklahoma organizations that conspire with perpetrators are liable to be fined up to $1 million. These laws may infringe on the freedom of association protected under the First Amendment. Indeed, the Supreme Court ruled that the illegal actions of a few individuals do not implicate an entire group.
"The criminalization of environmental protest is fueled by federal security agencies and oil and gas companies, who are often major political donors. For years, the Department of #HomelandSecurity and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have labelled activists at infrastructure sites as #DomesticTerrorists and violent extremists in order to justify further #surveillance and #policing. Government documents have been released that detail the FBI’s focus on '#AnimalRights / #EnvironmentalExtremism,' describing even #NonviolentProtesters as #extremists.
"At Standing Rock, a private security firm [#Blackwater] hired by the pipeline companies consistently referred to protesters as 'terrorists' while working with law enforcement. Ahead of the #KeystoneXLPipeline protests in 2018, #DHS agents held an '#AntiTerrorism training' for state and local authorities. In contrast, members of the #FarRight militant group the #ThreePercenters have established a significant presence at oil and gas plants with little law enforcement reaction.
"To be sure, as the recent power outages in Texas showed so vividly, the United States needs reliable energy. But it’s questionable whether pipeline construction sites that could feasibly be moved or replaced with renewable energy sources should legitimately be considered 'vital' to the energy grid. Furthermore, a singular focus on this aspect of security comes at the cost of others. Whose essential resources do pipeline projects protect and whose do they threaten? Black Americans are disproportionately likely to live near natural #GasPipelines and experience higher #CancerRisk due to unclean air. An oil spill from the Dakota Access Pipeline could devastate the #SiouxTribe’s water source. Meanwhile, on some reservations, 10 percent of households lack electricity and as many as 40 percent of households must haul water and use outhouses. The well-being of these communities must count too.
"The rise in critical infrastructure laws may foreshadow more anti-protest legislation to come. A similar wave of anti-protest laws has already begun in response to the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter protests. State legislators contemplating critical infrastructure laws should bear in mind that laws that criminalize trespassing and protect the safety of construction workers and law enforcement already exist. Critical infrastructure laws don’t fill an unmet need — they only raise the penalties for specific groups of people. Courts adjudicating #FirstAmendment challenges in the coming years should recognize that these laws are overbroad and impose disproportionately severe penalties that chill freedom of assembly and association.
"As secretary of the interior, Haaland promises to uplift the voices of Indigenous and climate protesters in the Biden administration. State legislators, law enforcement, and the fossil fuel industry should follow suit and listen to these activists rather than suppressing constitutionally protected activity under the guise of national security."
#BrennanCenter #Authoritarianism #Fascism #NoDAPL #NoKXL #PipelineProtests #WaterIsLife #ACAB #ErikPrince #BigOilAndGas #Oiligarchy #CorporateColonialism #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #AirIsLife #ExxonLied #Blackwater #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRockSioux
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YIKES! Please read and share this!
via @UnicornRiot
"We’ve been forced to spend around $55,000 to date because of Energy Transfer’s legal campaign against our freedom of the press.
"We’ve only raised back $38,916 of this so far.
"Your donation helps us keep operating despite corporate attempts to silence us"
https://donorbox.org/unicorn-riot-nodapl-legal-defense
#EnergyTransfer #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #MutualAid #LegalDefenseFund #SilencingDissent #Resistance #CorporateColonialism #Oiligarchy #CriminalizingDissent #CriminalizingProtest #Authoritarianism #EnergyTransfer #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRockSioux #IndigenousResistance #IndigenousAllies #DAPL #NorthDakota #StandWithStandingRock #SLAPPsLawsuits #FossilFuel #BigOilAndGas #Academi #ErikPrince #Blackwater #ACAB #PrivateSecurity #BigOil #KelcyWarren #Oiligarchy #WaterProtectors #CorporateFascism #StandingRockReservation
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What do #VanceBoelter and #ErikPrince have in common? Quite a bit! But Prince prefers to farm out #Assassinations to his minions!
#Theocratic #Mercenary Erik Prince and the #ChristianRight
by Mike Kuhlenbeck • 19 June 2018
"Erik Dean Prince was born in Holland, Michigan, on June 6, 1969, the youngest child and only son of Edgar and Elsa Prince, who also had daughters Betsy, Emilie, and Eileen. As documented by author Suzanne Simons in her 2009 book Master of War: #Blackwater USA’s Erik Prince and the Business of War, Prince grew up in a religious household and attended Christian schools; the Princes were members of the Reformed Church in America, a conservative Christian sect that follows the philosophical template of theologian John Calvin.
"Edgar Prince worked as a die caster and then chief engineer for the die cast machine manufacturing outfit Buss Machine Works after serving in the US Air Force. In 1965 he and two co-workers struck out on their own to establish Prince Manufacturing. By the 1970s the company expanded its operations and became financially successful, as did the Prince family. Edgar Prince died of heart failure in 1995, and the company was sold to Johnson Controls for over $1 billion.
"Surrounded by those who share their belief in Christian-based politics, the Prince family has used its fortune to help build the #ConservativeChristian movement. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Richard Nixon’s disgraced former special counsel Charles Colson (who became a born-again Christian after serving seven months in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal) were family friends. Edgar and Elsa Prince were major contributors to the Family Research Council and founded the nonprofit Edgar and Elsa Prince Foundation in 1979, substantial funds from which have gone toward the effort to abolish the legal wall separating church and state. The Prince family also has deep ties to the Council for National Policy (#CNP) which, according to its vision statement, supports “a united conservative movement to assure, by 2020, policy leadership and governance that restores religious and economic freedom, a strong national defense, and #JudeoChristian values under the Constitution.”
"From Reverend #BillyGraham’s “spiritual counsel” to twelve US presidents, to Reverend #JerryFalwell’s #MoralMajority movement of the 1970s and ’80s, to Marion Gordon #PatRobertson’s #ChristianCoalition (now the #ChristianCoalitionOfAmerica), the movement to push a #fundamentalist “Judeo-Christian” agenda into the public sphere has been an ongoing crusade. Keeping with family tradition, Erik Prince’s sister Betsy married fellow Christian right figure Dick DeVos, whose father is the founder of Amway and the past president of the CNP from 1990-1993. Betsy DeVos served as the chair of the Michigan Republican Party and now serves as US Secretary of Education under Donald Trump. The DeVos dynasty, labelled a “family of extremists” by the Center for American Progress, is undoubtedly having an influence on the Trump White House."
#ChristoFascists #ChristoFascism #Mercenaries #PrivateSecurity #MAGA #MAGADeathCult #RightWing #ViolentExtremists
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Michigan native #ErikPrince proposes #deportation plan to #ElSalvador, report says
By Justin Engel, Apr. 14, 2025
"Erik Prince, the former CEO of #Blackwater USA and a Michigan native, is among a group of defense contractors proposing to expand plans for deporting #immigrants to a prison in El Salvador, Politico reported.
"The pitch would attempt to avoid #legal challenges by designating part of the El Salvador prison system as #AmericanTerritory, the report stated.
" 'It’s unclear how seriously the White House is considering the plan by Prince, who has drawn scrutiny for his firm’s role in a deadly massacre in Iraq two decades ago,' the Politico report stated. 'But it would give Prince’s group an unprecedented and potentially highly lucrative role in an expanded version of a transnational operation that has elicited its own web of controversies, in part because it has swept up immigrants who do not have criminal records in the United States.'
"The report coincides with President Donald Trump’s plans to host #NayibBukele, the president of El Salvador, at the White House on Monday, April 14.
"Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 #Venezuelan immigrants — whom officials with President Donald Trump’s administration have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country’s notorious maximum-security gang prison. It is also holding a Maryland man who the administration admits was wrongly deported but has not been returned to the U.S., despite court orders to do so.
"Trump has ties to the family of Prince, an automotive supplier heir from Holland. Prince is the brother of #BetsyDeVos, the secretary of education during the first Trump administration.
"Prince, a major Republican donor, has been accused of acting as a back channel on behalf of Trump. As Trump was preparing to take office in 2017, Prince met with a official close to Russian President Vladimir #Putin in the #Seychelles, islands off the coast of east Africa. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his Russia investigation said the meeting was set up ahead of time with the knowledge of former White House aide #StephenBannon.
"Prince soared to notoriety after Blackwater USA employees in 2007 shot and killed #Iraqi #civilians in Baghdad’s #NisourSquare during the Iraq war, casting a light on the role played by private contractors in U.S. military operations overseas.
"In the wake of the scandal the company’s name was changed and Prince sold his shares to a private equity fund."
#ErikPrinceColonialism #Blackwater #Academi #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal #TripleCanopy #PrivateArmy #OffLeash #ProjectVeritas #Project2025 #TigerSwan #Fascism
#Authoritarianism -
#ErikPrince: Private sector can help with #MassDeportations
Leland Vittert
Tue, February 25, 2025"Erik Prince, founder of the former security contractor #Blackwater, denied proposing a 'private army' for mass deportations and instead described a logistics plan to help the #Trump administration fulfill its immigration goals.
" 'This is not some idea of a private army,' Prince said Tuesday on NewsNation’s On Balance. 'It was a memo generated to describe how to achieve the logistics necessary to move the millions of people that they intend to deport.'
"Prince pushed back against a Politico report that described a plan circulated among Trump allies calling for 'processing camps' and a private citizen force to carry out deportations.
"He said that the memo outlines how to accomplish mass deportations 'in a #legal, #ethical manner” with necessary #DueProcess. [WHAT A JOKE!!!]
" 'If people think it’s a huge number, think about how we’ve been invaded. We’ve had millions of people float into the country illegally, actually paying the cartels to smuggle them in,' Prince said.
"According to the Politico report, Prince and other contractors submitted a 26-page proposal before Trump’s inauguration that included using private aircraft, 'processing camps' on military bases, and deputizing private citizens to make arrests.
"The plan reportedly carries a $25 billion price tag to deport 12 million people before the 2026 midterms.
"Prince suggested the government would eventually need the private sector to help achieve Trump’s immigration goals, noting that deportation flights 'for years, even when other administrations are doing it, were largely contractor managed and operated.'
Source:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/erik-prince-private-sector-help-044932521.html#ErikPrinceColonialism #PrivateArmy #ErikPrinceColonialism #Blackwater #Academi #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal #TripleCanopy #PrivateArmy #OffLeash #ProjectVeritas #Project2025 #TigerSwan #Fascism #Authoritarianism #PrivateSecurity
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Very often, I find myself wondering, "Is there an #ErikPrince connection to x, y or z?" And very often, I am right!
#ErikPrinceColonialism #Blackwater #Academi #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal #TripleCanopy #PrivateArmy #OffLeash #ProjectVeritas #Project2025 #TigerSwan -
#StandingRock Chair on #Greenpeace Verdict -- False, Self-serving Narrative in Insulting Lawsuit
"If Greenpeace can be held liable for telling the truth about #SiouxNation Treaty rights, then we are all in trouble."
By Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire, via #CensoredNews, March 27, 2025
"As Chairwoman of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, I take offense to the jury verdict in the #EnergyTransfer #SLAPP lawsuit against Greenpeace. We expect more from #NorthDakota judges and members of the jury from our neighboring communities.
"#EnergyTransfer’s claims in this case were ridiculous. They were wholly disrespectful of the #StandingRockSioux Tribe, our ancestors, and our youth, who started the movement in 2016 to protect our water from an oil spill from #DAPL. Neither Greenpeace nor anyone else paid or persuaded Standing Rock to oppose DAPL.
"Our young people and our elders urged us to protect our water and #UnciMakah (grandmother earth). That is what happened, and is happening still. Energy Transfer’s false and self-serving narrative that Greenpeace manipulated Standing Rock into protesting DAPL is patronizing and disrespectful to our people.
"We understand that many Morton County residents support the #OilIndustry, even out-of-state #pipeline companies such as Energy Transfer. But we are your neighbors, and you should not be fooled that easily. Energy Transfer does not know us. They don’t know who we are – an Indigenous Nation that has survived every attack because our ancestors are with us.
"Greenpeace did not manipulate Standing Rock, but #EnergyTransfer has manipulated #MortonCounty. DAPL crosses our Treaty and aboriginal land for hundreds of miles.
"Our ancestors occupied this land for thousands of years before #NorthDakota came into existence. The land between the Heart and Missouri River are our #unceded Treaty lands under the 1868 and 1851 Fort Laramie Treaties. Our aboriginally-occupied territories extend east to the James River and beyond. That is a historical truth. If Greenpeace can be held liable for telling the truth about Sioux Nation Treaty rights, then we are all in trouble."The construction of Fort Rice on our northern boundary in 1864 was a violation of the Fort Laramie Treaties. This required our Tribe to be vigilant. No one should be surprised that warrior society burials are found in this area, near the pipeline route.
"And do not insult our cultural experts, who have wisdom over matters most residents of Morton County or bureaucrats at the State Historical Society know absolutely nothing about. Energy Transfer and its lawyers should be ashamed of themselves. Everyday North Dakotans on the jury should know better.
"When it comes to the excessive police and private security response to the generally peaceful protests at #CannonBall, believe your eyes. The scenes of guard dogs menacing Tribal members are reminiscent of the violence of #WhiteSupremacists in the #DeepSouth during the 1950’s and 60’s, but it was in North Dakota, in this day and age. It was on the news and on the internet.
"Many of the protesters were Native American veterans of the United States armed forces. Energy Transfer used attack dogs against peaceful protesters and war heroes. But the jury sided with the out-of-state, unlicensed security with the attack dogs, instead of North Dakota veterans who supported Standing Rock.
"A Texas oil company has come to North Dakota, and its lawyers and propaganda machine are weaving stories about how the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and our supporters have lied, and how the poor pipeline company, a trillion dollars richer than in 2016 when this all started, should receive extra millions from non-profit organizations. It’s a funny thing about liars – they always accuse everyone else of lying. The Greenpeace trial was marked by secrecy.
"The court is not making the transcript public. The documents obtained by Greenpeace about Energy Transfer’s terrible safety record are protected by a secrecy order and are not available to the public. The judge exhibited so much bias in favor of Energy Transfer that a team of international human rights lawyers felt compelled to monitor the trial. One prominent monitor stated 'In my six decades of legal practice, I have never witnessed a trial as unfair as the one against Greenpeace that just ended in the courts of North Dakota.'
"Standing Rock has tried to work for greater transparency on DAPL. It is our experience with the Army Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer that all documents relating to DAPL pipeline safety are heavily redacted, and kept secret. What are they hiding? Who is looking out for the communities that may be affected by an oil spill? And why didn’t the North Dakota court allow Greenpeace to address these questions at the trial?
"DAPL is a dangerous pipeline. It crosses our unceded Treaty and aboriginal land. Energy Transfer destroyed Tribal burials as identified by our cultural experts, and committed violence against our people. That is the history that North Dakota and Morton County must reckon with. After the Greenpeace verdict, that day seems farther off than ever."Source:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/03/standing-rock-chair-on-greenpeace.html
#StandWithStandingRock #SLAPPsLawsuits #SLAPPs #FossilFuel #BigOilAndGas #Academi #EricPrince #Blackwater #ACAB #PrivateSecurity #BigOil #KelcyWarren #Oiligarchy #CorporateColonialism #WaterProtectors #StevenDonziger #EnvironmentalRacism #ReaderSupportedNews #CorporateFascism #SilencingDissent #StandingRockReservation -
Statement of #IndependentTrialMonitors
On Verdict in #GreenpeaceUSA Trial:"It is our collective assessment that the jury verdict against Greenpeace in #NorthDakota reflects a deeply flawed trial with multiple due process violations that denied Greenpeace the ability to present anything close to a full defense. Attorneys on our team monitored every minute of the proceedings and found multiple violations of #DueProcess that denied Greenpeace its right to a fair trial. The problems included a jury that was patently biased in favor of #EnergyTransfer, with many members working in the #FossilFuel industry; a judge who lacked the requisite experience and legal knowledge to rule properly on the complex #FirstAmendment and other evidentiary issues at the center of the case; and incendiary and prejudicial statements by lawyers for Energy Transfer that tried to criminalize Greenpeace and by extension the entire #ClimateMovement by attacking constitutionally-protected advocacy.
"Our fear that this was an illegitimate #corporate-funded #SLAPP harassment case was confirmed by our observations.
"We will be issuing a full report documenting these violations and larger flaws in the case in the coming weeks.
"While the trial court verdict is in, the case is far from over. Greenpeace has a right to appeal to the North Dakota Supreme Court and ultimately to the #USSupremeCourt. Our committee will continue its work monitoring this critically important case that raises troubling concerns for all advocates in the country."
— #MartyGarbus | #NataliSegovia | #JeanneMirer | #TerryCollingsworth | #StevenDonziger | #NadiaAhmad | #ScottWilsonBadenochJr. | #PaulPazYMiño | #AyishaSiddiqa | #WadeMcMullen | #KipHale | #SimonTaylor
Read individual statements:
https://www.trialmonitors.org/statement-of-independent-trial-monitors-on-verdict-in-greenpeace-trial
#NorthDakota #EnergyTransferPartners #StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #SLAPPs #ViewerSupportedNews #GreenpeaceUSA #SLAPPsLawsuits #CriminalizingDissent #NorthDakota #StandingRockSiouxTribe #StandingRockReservation #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #KelcyWarren #ArrestKelcyWarren #ErikPrince #Blackwater #ACAB #FreeSpeech -
#CriminalizingDissent: #Greenpeace Ordered to Pay $667M to #DakotaAccessPipeline Firm over #Protests
#DemocracyNow, March 20, 2025
"A jury in #NorthDakota has ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $660 million in damages for defaming #EnergyTransferPartners, the corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Texas-based pipeline company accused Greenpeace of orchestrating criminal behavior by training and providing funds to the #Indigenous-led protests at #StandingRock. Greenpeace and its supporters, including other #nonprofits and #advocacy groups, argued that the lawsuit is part of a conspicuous attempt by #corporations to destroy the right to #FreeSpeech. Longtime #HumanRights and #environmental lawyer #StevenDonziger, who was part of the independent trial monitoring team observing the trial, says it was purposely held in a region of the country with deep ties to the #FossilFuel industry. Donziger said most of the jurors in the case were connected to the industry and were 'predisposed' to rule in favor of Energy Transfer despite the 'false narratives' presented at the trial. Greenpeace plans to appeal the ruling."
Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/20/greenpeace_lawsuit_north_dakota_pipeline
#StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #SLAPPs #ViewerSupportedNews #GreenpeaceUSA #SLAPPsLawsuits #CriminalizingDissent #NorthDakota #StandingRockSiouxTribe #StandingRockReservation #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #KelcyWarren #ArrestKelcyWarren #ErikPrince #Blackwater #ACAB -
Boo hiss...! Jury Finds #Greenpeace at Fault, Awards #Pipeline Developer Hundreds of Millions
By Mary Steurer, North Dakota Monitor, via #CensoredNews
"Breaking news from the courtroom
A Morton County jury on Wednesday ordered Greenpeace to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the developer of the #DakotaAccessPipeline, finding that the #environmental group incited illegal
behavior by anti-pipeline #protesters and defamed the company in the late 2010s."During closing arguments on Monday, the lead attorney representing #EnergyTransfer told jurors that Greenpeace’s actions caused between $265 million and $340 million in damages to the company. He asked the jury to award Energy Transfer that amount plus additional punitive damages.
"The nine-person jury delivered a verdict in favor of Energy Transfer on most counts. The verdict brought to a close a more than three-week trial in Mandan.
"The jury began deliberating Monday afternoon after hearing testimony from dozens of witnesses, including current and former Greenpeace employees, #IndigenousActivists, Energy Transfer representatives and law enforcement.
"This story will be updated.
"Thank you to the non-profit media #NorthDakotaMonitor for sharing their coverage with other media."
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/03/jury-finds-greenpeace-at-fault-awards.html
#StandWithStandingRock #GreenpeaceUSA #SLAPPs #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #CriminalizingDissent #NorthDakota #StandingRockSiouxTribe #StandingRockReservation #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #UnicornRiot #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince -
Witness: Most tribal nations at #DakotaAccessPipeline #protest ‘didn’t know who #Greenpeace was’
By: Mary Steurer - March 3, 2025
"A #Lakota organizer said in a video deposition played to jurors Monday that the #StandingRockSiouxTribe led the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, not Greenpeace.
"#NickTilsen, an Oglala Sioux Tribe citizen and #activist, called the notion that Greenpeace orchestrated the protests 'paternalistic.'
"'I think that people underestimate the complexity and the sophistication of tribal nations,' Tilsen said.
"Tilsen’s deposition was the latest testimony heard by the nine-person jury in the marathon trial between pipeline developer Energy Transfer and Greenpeace.
"#EnergyTransfer claims Greenpeace secretly aided and abetted destructive and violent behavior by protesters during the #demonstrations, which took place in south central #NorthDakota near the #StandingRockReservation in 2016 and 2017. It also claims that Greenpeace orchestrated a misinformation campaign to defame the company, leading a group of banks to back out of financing the project. Energy Transfer seeks roughly $300 million from the environmental organization."Greenpeace denies Energy Transfer’s allegations. The group says it has never condoned violence, and only played a supporting role during the protests.
"Tilsen said he got involved in the protests before Greenpeace. He was invited to join the cause by former Standing Rock Chairman Dave Archambault and his sister, Jodi Archambault, he said.
"'They called me and said, ‘Hey, we need your help at Standing Rock,’ Tilsen said.
"Standing Rock has long opposed the Dakota Access Pipeline, stating the project poses a pollution threat, infringes on tribal sovereignty and has disrupted sacred cultural sites.
"It was Standing Rock leadership that laid the groundwork for the protests against the pipeline’s construction in 2016, Tilsen said.
"He said organizers later invited Greenpeace to support the camps, including by providing supplies and nonviolent direct action training. Tilsen said he only felt comfortable reaching out to Greenpeace because a friend of his, Cy Wagoner, worked there.
"He said since Wagoner is from the #NavajoNation, he trusted that Greenpeace would respect Standing Rock’s leadership of the camps.
"Indigenous communities are often reluctant to invite outside nonprofits to help with Native rights issues, Tilsen added. He said they often don’t understand Native nations’ unique relationship with the U.S. government.
"Greenpeace wasn’t a big part of the protests, Tilsen said.
"'To be honest, most of the tribal nations didn’t know who Greenpeace was,' he said.
"Countless other groups — including representatives from more than 300 Native nations — came to the protest camps in solidarity with Standing Rock, said Tilsen.
"'Quite frankly, our list of allies was hundreds,' he said.
"Tilsen said he was involved in several protest actions against the Dakota Access Pipeline in 2016 and 2017, including those that involved marching on the pipeline easement, jumping in front of equipment and using lockboxes — also known as 'sleeping dragons' — to disable construction machinery.
"None of the protest actions were coordinated by Greenpeace, he said.
"Tilsen said he never saw or endorsed any destruction of property or acts of violence toward construction workers or law enforcement. He also pushed back on the assertion that any of the protest activities he participated in qualified as trespassing.
"The pipeline passes through land recognized as belonging to the #SiouxNation under #treaties signed by the U.S. government in 1851 and 1868. The U.S. government later annexed that land in violation of those treaties.
"Tilsen asked how Lakota citizens could be trespassing on land that was unlawfully taken from them.
"'This is the conundrum we find ourselves in,' he said.
"Employees of Greenpeace said during video depositions played last week that the environmental organization brought 20 to 30 lockboxes to the camps.
"Tilsen said while he saw many lockboxes during protests, he wasn’t sure where any of them came from. He also said he never heard anyone from Greenpeace tell demonstrators to use the devices.
"Tilsen said that David Khoury, an employee for Greenpeace, helped identify potential sites for protest actions. Tilsen added that while Wagoner — another Greenpeace employee — didn’t plan protest activities, he trained people on how to conduct them.
"The trial, which is before Southwest Central Judicial District Judge James Gion, is expected to last roughly four more weeks."
Source:
https://northdakotamonitor.com/2025/03/03/witness-most-tribal-nations-at-dakota-access-pipeline-protest-didnt-know-who-greenpeace-was/
#StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince -
#WinonaLaDuke: #DAPLPipeline Lawsuit Against #Greenpeace Aims to Silence #Indigenous #Protests, Too
#DemocracyNow, March 04, 2025"As the oil company Energy Transfer sues Greenpeace over the 2016 #StandingRock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, we speak with #IndigenousActivist Winona LaDuke, who took part in that historic uprising. LaDuke is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of #Anishinaabe who lives and works on the White Earth Nation Reservation and was among the thousands of people who joined the protests in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protect water and Indigenous lands in North Dakota. She highlights the close links between North Dakota’s government and Energy Transfer and says that while the lawsuit targets Greenpeace, Indigenous water and land defenders are also on trial. 'North Dakota has really been trying to squash any kind of #resistance,' says LaDuke. 'If they can try to shut down Greenpeace, they’re going to shut down everybody.'"
Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/4/winona_laduke
#ViewerSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince -
#Greenpeace on Trial: $300M Lawsuit over #StandingRock #Protests Could Shutter Group & Chill #FreeSpeech
#DemocracyNow, March 04, 2025"A closely watched civil trial that began in #NorthDakota last week could bankrupt Greenpeace and chill #EnvironmentalActivism as the climate crisis continues to deepen. The multimillion-dollar lawsuit by #EnergyTransfer, the oil corporation behind the #DakotaAccessPipeline, claims Greenpeace organized the mass protests and encampment at Standing Rock between 2016 and 2017 aimed at stopping construction of the project.
"Although the uprising at Standing Rock was led by #Indigenous #WaterDefenders, Energy Transfer is instead going after Greenpeace for $300 million in damages — an amount that could effectively shutter the group’s U.S. operations. 'This case is not just an obvious and blatant erasure of #IndigenousLeadership, of #IndigenousResistance,' says Deepa Padmanabha, a senior legal adviser for #GreenpeaceUSA. 'It is an attack on the broader movement and all of our First Amendment rights to free speech and #PeacefulProtest.'"
Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/4/greenpeace
#ViewerSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince -
#StandingRock Chair: #EnergyTransfer's Lawsuit Against #Greenpeace: 'Frivolous,'
Seeks to Silence #Tribe and #Allies"The #DakotaAccessPipeline, referred to in our prophecy as the #BlackSnake, has come to harm our land, our water and our people." -- Standing Rock Chairwoman #JanetAlkire
By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, March 4, 2025
STANDING ROCK NATION, #NorthDakota -- "In the case now before the district court in North Dakota, Energy Transfer versus Greenpeace, Standing Rock Chairwoman Janet Alkire blasted Energy
Transfer with the facts and made it clear that the #StandingRockNation led the resistance to Dakota Access Pipeline."Chairwoman Alkire said Dakota Access Pipeline destroyed #BurialGrounds, brought in #SecurityForces and #LawEnforcement that brutalized peaceful #protesters, and has already had a spill at Standing Rock -- while the pipeline is concealing its devastating safety records.
"'From the beginning, Energy Transfer has engaged in a security battle, secrecy battle and #propaganda battle against our Tribe,' Alkire said.
"'It promotes lies and propaganda to discredit our Tribe and our good faith concerns with DAPL’s impacts on our Reservation environment, and the global climate. Part of the attack on our Tribe is to attack our allies.'
"'Today, Energy Transfer is taking Greenpeace to court, frivolously alleging defamation and seeking money damages, designed to shut down all voice supporting Standing Rock.'"
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/03/standing-rock-chair-energy-transfers.html
#ReaderSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince -
Britain leads the world in cracking down on climate activism, study finds
Research shows UK police arrest environmental and climate protesters at three times the average global rate
Damien Gayle
Wed 11 Dec 2024 01.00 EST"British police arrest environmental protesters at nearly three times the global average rate, research has found, revealing the country as a world leader in the legal crackdown on climate activism.
"Only Australia arrested climate and environmental protesters at a higher rate than UK police. One in five Australian eco-protests led to arrests, compared with about 17% in the UK. The global average rate is 6.7%."
Original article:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/11/britain-leads-the-world-in-cracking-down-on-climate-activism-study-findsArchived version:
https://archive.ph/ukkvZ#CriminalizingDissent
#ACAB #Autocracy #Corporatocracy
#Fascism #CriminalizingDissentIsAutocracy
#ClimateCrisis #GlobalBurning
#CorporateFascism #HumanRights #CivilLiberties #ClimateActivists
#Blackwater #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock
#ClimateAction #PipelineProtests #WaterProtectors #BigOilAndGas #AntiProtestLaws #SLAPPs #ErikPrinceColonialism #Article20 #2023PublicOrderAct
#Project2025 #HR9495 #GlobalWitness #AntiTerrorLaws -
Pioneering research reveals growing dangers and repression of climate activism globally
Press release issued: 11 December 2024
"A new report has uncovered the many risks of participating in climate and environmental protests across the world – and how more countries are criminalising and repressing this activity in a bid to keep it in check.
"The report, led by the University of Bristol, is the first to examine global statistics on this form of protest and identify alarming trends. It reveals that more than 2,000 climate and environmental protesters have been killed over the past 12 years and that a raft of new anti-protest legislation has been enacted.
"It calls for governments, police forces and the legal system to help protect people’s right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression."
"Lead author Dr Oscar Berglund, Senior Lecturer in International Public and Social Policy at the University’s School for Policy Studies, said: “This research sheds important light on how the growing pursuit of climate and environmental protest is being handled globally. Our evidence clearly shows a global crackdown in liberal democracies as well as autocracies.
"'This is worrying because it focuses state policy on punishing dissent against inaction on climate and environmental change instead of taking adequate action on these issues. It also represents authoritarian moves that are inconsistent with the ideals of vibrant civil societies in liberal democracies.'
"The findings showed murders and disappearances of climate and environmental activists are common in many countries, with international non-governmental organisation (NGO) Global Witness reporting at least 2,106 killings between 2012 and 2023. Brazil had the highest number with 401 fatalities, followed by 298 in the Philippines, 86 in India, and 58 in Peru.
"A significant proportion of climate and environmental protests involved arrests, according to the research. The highest proportion, one in five, was found in Australia, followed by 17% in the UK – much higher than the international average of 6.3%.
"Non-violent protesters were also found to be given lengthy prison sentences to act as a deterrent. For example, this year in the UK many climate activists have been sent to prison, with the longest sentence being five years.
"The report defines environmental protests as being aimed at stopping specific environmentally destructive projects, such as fossil fuel exploration and #extraction, #deforestation, dam building or #mining. #ClimateProtests are described as more urban-based events, which tend to have broader policy demands, such as ending oil exploration, or more overarching political demands, for instance enacting a #GreenNewDeal.
"The researchers analysed data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) and Global Witness to gather global data and explore trends as well as new anti-protest legislation introduced in countries in different parts of the world.
"Four main ways were identified to criminalise and repress climate and environmental protests. Anti-protest laws are being introduced, criminalising groups, introducing new crimes, making punishment more severe for existing crimes, increasing police powers, and giving officers impunity when harming activists. Protest is also being criminalised through prosecution and courts.
"Dr Berglund explained: 'This involves using existing legislation, including anti-terror or anti-organised crime laws, to curb protest. Climate protest is being de-politicised in the courts, prohibiting mentions of climate change or environmental damage in proceedings, or otherwise changing court processes in order to increase the likelihood of activists being found guilty.'
"The third category is through policing, which is carried out not only by state actors like police or military, but also private security and military or organised crime groups. This sees a range of attempts to prevent protests through using stop and search, arrests, physical violence, and threats and intimidation of protesters.
"Dr Berglund said: “Perhaps most shockingly, we found killings and disappearances to be common in some countries. In many ways, these are an extension of policing as they are either carried out or permitted by the same authorities, often following death threats and other forms of intimidation.”
"The report makes numerous recommendations, including for public authorities to conduct regular evaluations and publish data demonstrating how their actions help safeguard the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression. It also calls for anti-terror and anti-organised crime legislation against climate and environmental activists to stop.
"Dr Berglund said: 'Human rights frameworks should be at the forefront of policing considerations and operations to ensure that the public can exercise their right to protest without impediment or fear.'
"'Climate and environmental protests are increasingly prevalent, for good reason as the climate crisis worsens, and responses to this activity are evolving at pace. Further research is needed to better understand the situation so suitable measures can be identified and implemented to protect human rights and keep protesters safe.'"
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2024/december/climate-activism.html
#CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Autocracy #Corporatocracy #Fascism #CriminalizingDissentIsAutocracy #ClimateCrisis #GlobalBurning #CorporateFascism #HumanRights #CivilLiberties #ClimateActivists #Blackwater #NoDAPL #StandWithStandingRock #ClimateAction #PipelineProtests #WaterProtectors #BigOilAndGas #AntiProtestLaws #SLAPPs #ErikPrinceColonialism #Article20 #2023PublicOrderAct
#Project2025 #HR9495 #GlobalWitness #AntiTerrorLaws -
From 2019: Criminalization of #HumanRights Defenders of #IndigenousPeoples Resisting #ExtractiveIndustries in the United States
Report to the Inter-American
Commission on Human RightsPrepared by the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program on behalf of the Water Protector Legal Collective
6/24/2019
Introduction
1. Peaceful demonstrations are a catalyst for the advancement of human rights. Yet around the world governments are criminalizing dissent and suppressing public #protest, often as a means to protect #CorporateInterests. In this context, indigenous peoples increasingly find themselves as the subjects of arrests, criminal prosecution and police violence when defending the lands they rely upon for their existence and survival from #ResourceExtraction by industries who are operating without the free prior and informed consent of the affected communities.
2. This report is submitted to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (#IACHR) in conjunction with a thematic hearing held during the 172nd period of sessions. At the hearing,
Commissioners heard directly from those involved in the indigenous-led resistance to the #DakotaAccessPipeline (DAPL) at Standing Rock, North Dakota. This report addresses the criminalization and suppression of protest by indigenous human rights defenders and their allies by United States (U.S.) federal, state and local governments, working hand-in-hand with private security forces [#Blackwater], specifically in relation to the construction and operation of #DAPL by #EnergyTransfer
Partners and Dakota Access, LLC (Dakota Access) and the connected #BayouBridgePipeline (collectively the “#BakkenPipeline”).3. Standing Rock is an emblematic case of #IndigenousResistance to extractive industry that drew attention from around the world as water protectors met on the banks of the #MissouriRiver in peaceful assembly in what was the largest gathering of indigenous peoples in the U.S. in 100 years. Standing Rock is merely one example of how the U.S. government works with industry to approve energy projects carried out without the meaningful participation or consent of
indigenous nations. Indigenous peoples are left with no choice but to peacefully protest and then are criminalized for their efforts to defend their lands and resources.4. Since Standing Rock, there has been an alarming trend by the United States government and state legislatures to criminalize opposition to pipelines and other energy projects. These #AntiProtest and so-called “#CriticalInfrastructure laws” progress towards criminalizing dissent and implicitly condone the use of excessive force towards human rights defenders, often including indigenous peoples and their allies who are at the forefront of resistance to extractive industries. As the international community has acknowledged, these laws are incompatible with domestic and international law. The governments’ use of excessive force and mass arrests to threaten, intimidate, and silence “#WaterProtectors” seeking to defend their lands, resources, and #culture, and the collusion with private security forces, violate fundamental human rights to #FreeSpeech and Aassembly enshrined in international human rights law and the #USConstitution.
5. The information provided here builds on a 2016 request for Precautionary Measures filed by the #StandingRock, #CheyenneRiver and #YanktonSioux tribes, past Commission hearings on similar matters that remain unsettled, and reports on Indigenous Peoples and Extractive Activities, and the Criminalization of #HumanRightsDefenders. In addition, the United Nations has reported on the situation at #StandingRock through the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of of indigenous peoples. Despite condemnation from these international bodies and mechanisms, water protectors continue to suffer impacts from the criminalization of their dissent, while the United States moves forward permitting new #pipeline projects on indigenous territories.
#HR9495 #StopHR9495 #CriminalizingDissent #Fascism #Authoritanism #CharacteristicsOfFascism #CorporateFascism #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #ErikPrince #ErikPrinceColonialism #Blackwater #StandWithStandingRock #NoMiningWithoutConsent #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #StandingRockSioux #LandDefenders #WaterDefenders #WaterProtectors #DefendTheSacred
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It's not over yet... A pox on #Harris for not speaking out against #IsraeliWarCrimes and alienating #ArabAmericans!
House #GOP Moves to Ram Through Bill That Gives #Trump Unilateral Power to Kill #Nonprofits
Dozens of #Democrats still support the bill — giving the Republican-controlled House plenty of breathing room to pass it next week.
Noah Hurowitz
November 15 2024"A controversial '#nonprofit killer' bill is back on track after it was blocked earlier this week.
"A majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives rejected the bill on Tuesday out of fear that it could grant President-Elect Donald Trump legal tools with which to target his ideological foes, but Republicans are swiftly pressing ahead.
"The #StopTerrorFinancing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, which would empower the secretary of the Treasury to designate any #nonprofit as a '#terrorist supporting organization' and revoke its tax-exempt status, is set to go before the Committee on Rules on Monday for a hearing that could tee up the bill for a new floor vote.
"The hearing was announced Thursday evening, just two days after 144 Democrats and one Republican voted against the bill as part of a fast-track parliamentary procedure that required a two-thirds majority.
"The bill, also known as #HR9495, has come under withering criticism from a broad coalition of organizations that say its sponsors are pushing it as a means of cracking down on free speech — particularly speech in support of #Palestine. In a joint statement earlier this week, a coalition of #ArabAmerican and #MuslimOrganizations pledged to continue to fight the bill.
"'This bill was designed to #criminalize organizations and #activists who oppose the U.S.’s unconditional support of #Israel’s #genocide of Palestinians and the slaughter of #Lebanese civilians,' read the statement, which was signed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, American Muslims for Palestine, and others. 'We will continue to stand firm in protecting all organizations’ freedom to speak and operate without fear of political retribution.'
"Offices for the chair and ranking member of the Ways and Means Committee, through which the bill must pass, did not respond to requests for comment.
"With #ProIsrael groups lobbying for the bill, it gained popularity among House Democrats, in part due to a provision providing tax relief to Americans held hostage abroad.
"The reelection of Trump, however, galvanized opponents, including Rep. #LloydDoggett, D-Texas, who led the charge to reject the bill on Tuesday. Doggett doubled down on Thursday after learning of the newly scheduled Rules Committee hearing.
"'In this mislabeled bill, House Republicans are hiding behind hostages,' Doggett said in a statement to The Intercept. 'Their rush to reconsider this bill is solely to offer Trump more and more power, while Trump’s nominees for key #NationalSecurity posts this week indicate how he will be using it.'"
Read more:
https://theintercept.com/2024/11/15/nonprofits-trump-bill-gop-republicans/#StopHR9495 #CriminalizingDissent #KristiNoem #Blackwater #ErikPrince #Fascism #Autocracy #SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists #AntiWarActivists #FirstAmendment #WaterProtectors #PeaceActivists #ClimateJustice #ClimateActivists #Protests #StandWithStandingRock #GazaGenocide #LebanonGenocide
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US military contractor CACI to face retrial over allegations of torture at #Iraq prison
Tyler Li | U. Ottawa Faculty of Law, CA
June 15, 2024"The case against #CACI is one of many legal actions against private military contractors accused of detainee abuse, including those against #TitanCorporation (later known as L-3 Services) and CACI for their roles in alleged abuse at #AbuGhraib, as well as against #Blackwater for incidents like the #NisourSquare massacre in #Baghdad. Many of these cases faced similar legal challenges, specifically dismissals based on national security concerns and the complexities of applying US law to actions taken in war zones."
#Iraqis #EndlessWars #HumanRightsViolations #ErikPrince #MilitaryContractors #WarCrimes #L3Services
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#Iraqis Tortured at #AbuGhraib Win $42 Million Judgment Against U.S. Military Contractor #CACI
#DemocracyNow
November 14, 2024"A federal jury in Virginia has ordered the U.S. military contractor CACI Premier Technology to pay a total of $42 million to three Iraqi men who were tortured at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison. The landmark verdict comes after 16 years of litigation and marks the first time a civilian contractor has been found legally responsible for the gruesome abuses at Abu Ghraib. We discuss the case and its significance for #HumanRights with Baher Azmy, the legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented the Abu Ghraib survivors. 'This lawsuit has been about justice and accountability for three Iraqi men — our clients, Salah, Suhail and Asa’ad — who exhibited just awe-inspiring courage and resilience,' he says."
Watch (full transcript available later today):
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/11/14/baher_azmy_caci_guantanamo_lawsuit_torture#Blackwater #ErikPrince #EndlessWars #Iraq #WarCrimes #MilitaryContractors
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From 2020: #War Contractor #ErikPrince Has Close Ties to [#Trump] White House & Report Reveals His Dirty Tricks for Trump
"So, there are direct ties and connections between Trump, the Trump White House and #ProjectVeritas and #JamesOKeefe. And here’s Erik Prince, brother of the secretary of education, a shadow adviser to the White House, who now finds his efforts to help Project Veritas are going towards targeting the paper that exposed Erik Prince’s secret meetings in the #Seychelles, for instance, and a potential back channel between the incoming Trump administration and the #Putin government at the time."
Read more / listen:
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/10/war_contractor_erik_prince_has_close#Blackwater #ErikPrinceColonialism #SilencingDissent #USElections #Project2025 #CriminalizingActivism #ClimateActivists #NoDAPL #Crapitalism #Fascism
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If Trump does win, I suspect that the so-called "Christian" Coalition will make sure he ends up in jail, and then their puppet, #JDVance, will bring about a #theocracy.
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/if-trump-wins-2024-election-1235096091/
#Elections2024 #USElections #HeritageFoundation #Fascism #ChristoFascism #ChristianCoalition #BetsyDevos #ErikPrince #Blackwater #JusticeThomas
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Las Vegas Is Going All In On Its Water Conservation Plan
--
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/las-vegas-going-all-in-water-conservation-plan-180983974/ <-- shared technical article
--
[Las Vegas was never a smart place for a city, a happenstance of cultural, commercial and other social factors, including the legalization of gambling in 1931 with the associated organised crime and now commercial money-making interests driving large growth; climate change and dwindling water resources have only exacerbated that poor location’s various issues – but it is refreshing to see that the city and state officials realise that they were on the proverbial ‘borrowed time’, or in this case: water]
#water #hydrology #waterresources #watersecurity #climatechange #drought #LasVegas #ColoradoRiver #growth #urban #urbandevelopment #sutainability #zeroscaping #waterconservation #Nevada #sustainability #greywater #blackwater #watersaving #urbanplanning #townplanning #regulations #fines #enforcement #legislation #USWest -
above article from 2021
#Michigan
#MIpol
#ErikPrince
#Blackwater
#ProjectVeritas
#DeVos
@michigandemocrats -
So, one of my guilty pleasures is horror movies (I post about those on my "no politics" account). One of my favorites are the Omen movies -- the whole notion that the "Antichrist" would be someone in charge of a large corporation (Thorn Industries) makes total sense! And that "Damien Thorn" was born on June 6th was something that stuck with me.
My personal take on what a real Antichrist would look like became more apparent as I saw the rise of the rabid right and #ChristianCoalition, led by baby-faced zealot #RalphReed. Anyhow, the point I'm trying to make is that good ol' #ErikPrince was born on June 6, 1969, and inherited a lot from his father's business venture (Prince Industries). Could the war-mongering #Christofascist and his evil sister be the manifestation of humanity's worst traits?
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/the-strange-ascent-of-betsy-devos-and-erik-prince
#Evil #ChristianRight #Crusades #Corporatocracy #Warmongers #Hatemongers #Blackwater #PrivateArmies #ChristianCrusader #Fascism
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Footing the $15 Million Bill for the #DakotaAccessPipeline's #PrivateArmy
Sen. John Hoeven added monies to the Department of Justice’s budget for FY 2017 to reimburse #NorthDakota for incurred costs.
By Ruth Hopkins ,
IndianCountryTodayMediaNetworkPublished: May 23, 2017
“Last fall, the eyes of the world were fixated on #StandingRock.
“Among the images burned into the brains of so many abroad were those of Morton County sheriff’s department, joined by law enforcement officers from across the country, bedecked in military gear and armed to the teeth, brutalizing defenseless water protectors for expressing their first amendment rights and freedom of religion. Eyes were opened when mercs sicced vicious attack dogs on women and children guarding sacred burial grounds with their lives. Folks thousands of miles away watched in horror as they witnessed concussion grenades being thrown into crowds and elders being maced in the midst of sweat lodge raids. People will never forget live stream video picked up by mainstream media, showing hundreds of civilians being shot with water cannons in subzero temperatures by a corporate police state army. Some photos of injuries were judged too graphic to post by social media, as they revealed a young woman with a near severed limb and another who’d been blinded in one eye.
“This was not Iraq or Afghanistan. There was no foreign enemy invading our shores. These events occurred in the middle of the United States, on Lakota treaty lands; and the only thing these innocent people had done was dare to stand in the way of the Dakota Access Pipeline, the same one Bismarck, North Dakota residents rejected due to fears it would contaminate their water supply. This war zone created by Dakota Access and Morton County was meant to subdue Standing Rock residents and water protectors and force them to accept an unwarranted risk to their fresh water and the desecration of ancestral graves, under the barrel of a gun.
“Here in the states, hundreds of Native Nations and the American public sided with Standing Rock. Scores came to camp along the shores of the Mni Sosa (Missouri River). Others rallied in the local cities, signed petitions, and called the White House. Millions were outraged by the injustice.
“Yet who is paying for the corporate police state brutality I just mentioned? You are.
“Senator John Hoeven (R-ND), who accepted money from Energy Transfer Partners (the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline) and has been vocal in his support of both the Dakota Access Pipeline as well as the Keystone XL pipeline, has announced that North Dakota will receive $15 million in federal funds to reimburse the state for costs incurred as a result of militarizing Barney Fife and company while they pushed the pipeline through for ETP and engaged in the violent, forced removal of water protectors. Hoeven slid said monies into the Department of Justice’s budget as part of Fiscal 2017 funding legislation.
“By the way, Hoeven sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee and is now the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Welcome to Custer’s wet dream.
“The distinguished Senator from North Dakota would have us believe his state was alone in its mission to extinguish #NoDAPL. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“When Morton County requested backup, law enforcement officials from across the nation came to North Dakota via the Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC). The Sheriff’s Association also showed up in full force.
“New York Daily News writer Shaun King obtained audio where #EnergyTransferPartners freely admitted that they worked closely with the Sheriff’s Association, and wow, did they ever. They became one and the same.
“#WaterProtectors who lived at camp can attest to #ETP and law enforcement’s collusion and fraternization, but the record speaks for itself.
“The Sheriffs’ Association has a $3.46 million budget, according to tax forms. Some of this funding comes from corporate sources, like TigerSwan. TigerSwan maintains offices in Iraq and Afghanistan. TigerSwan’s CEO is a former adviser to the multinational private security firm, Blackwater. Blackwater was founded by Erik Prince, a Trump campaign donor and the brother of Betsy DeVos, the US Secretary of Education. Besides funding the Sheriff’s Association, TigerSwan is in charge of Dakota Access intelligence and supervising overall security for the company. Tigerswan works for Dakota Access, while funding and partnering with the Sheriffs’ Association.
“The Sheriff’s Association purchased military gear from the US Department’s Defense Logistics Agency thanks to the Defense Department’s 1033 program. Think corporate welfare for the defense industry.
“Wait, there’s more. #EnergyTransferPartners CEO #KelcyWarren offered to reimburse North Dakota and Morton County for costs due to defending the Dakota Access Pipeline.
“So why are US taxpayers forking over $15 million to North Dakota?
“Despite the fossil fuel industry’s wishes, America is not an oil company with an army. We should not be bankrolling our own oppression.”
#BigOilAndGas #CorporateColonialism
#colonialism #Genocide #StandWithStandingRock #StandingRockSioux #TigerSwan #ErikPrince #Blackwater #DAPL #ACAB #ErikPrinceColonialism -
A shadowy and controversial secret club meets in the California woods every year — and at least 5 US presidents were members
by Áine Cain
Mar 11, 2018,"George H.W. #Bush joined the club in 1973, while chairing the Republican National Committee during the Watergate scandal.
"Domhoff writes that Bush belonged to a camp called Hill Billies, along with top executives from #BankOfAmerica, #GeneralMotors, and #ProcterAndGamble.
"Bush also brought along a future president as a guest on one trip to Bohemian Grove. He introduced his son — George W. Bush — at a lakeside talk in 1995, saying that he'd make a great president, according to Domhoff."
#BohemianGrove #Oligarchy
#Corporatocracy
#Corruption #Koch #Blackwater -
Security Firm Running #DakotaAccessPipeline Intelligence Has Ties to U.S. Military Work in #Iraq and #Afghanistan
By Steve Horn
Oct 28, 2016"#TigerSwan is one of several security firms under investigation for its work guarding the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota while potentially without a permit. Besides this recent work on the #StandingRockSioux protests in #NorthDakota, this company has offices in Iraq and Afghanistan and is run by a special forces Army veteran.
"According to a summary of the investigation, TigerSwan 'is in charge of Dakota Access intelligence and supervises the overall security.'
"The Morton County, North Dakota, Sheriff’s Department also recently concluded that another security company, Frost Kennels, operated in the state while unlicensed to do so and could face criminal charges. The firm’s attack dogs bit #protesters at a heated Labor Day weekend protest.
"Law enforcement and private security at the North Dakota pipeline protests have faced criticism for maintaining a militarized presence in the area. The American Civil Liberties Union (#ACLU) and National Lawyer’s Guild have filed multiple open records requests to learn more about the extent of this #militarization, and over 133,000 citizens have signed a petition calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene and quell the backlash.
"The Federal Aviation Administration has also implemented a no-fly zone, which bars anyone but law enforcement from flying within a 4-mile radius and 3500 feet above the ground in the protest area. #DallasGoldtooth, an organizer on the scenes in North Dakota with the #IndigenousEnvironmentalNetwork, said on Facebook that '#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.
"What is TigerSwan?
"TigerSwan has offices in Iraq, Afghanistan, #Jordan, #SaudiArabia, #India, and #LatinAmerica 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 said in a press release 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 $57.7 million worth of U.S. government contracts and subcontracts for security services.
"Company founder and CEO James Reese, a veteran of the elite Army Delta Force, 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 U.S. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the latter well known for killing Osama Bin Laden.
"One of TigerSwan’s advisory board members, Charles Pittman, has direct ties to the #OilAndGasIndustry. Pittman “served as President of #Amoco Egypt Oil Company, Amoco Eurasia Petroleum Company, and Regional President BP Amoco plc. (covering the #MiddleEast, the Caspian Sea region, Egypt, and India),' according to his company biography.
'Sad, But Not Surprising'
"Investigative journalist #JeremyScahill told #DemocracyNow! in a 2009 interview that TigerSwan did some covert operations work with #Blackwater USA, dubbed the 'world’s most powerful #mercenary army' in his book by the same name. Blackwater has also guarded #OilPipelines in central #Asia, according to Scahill’s book.
"Reese advised Blackwater and took a leave of absence from TigerSwan in 2008 in the aftermath of the #NisourSquareMassacre, a shooting in Iraq conducted by Blackwater officers which saw 17 Iraqi civilians killed. TigerSwan has a business relationship with Babylon Eagles Security Company, a private security firm headquartered in Iraq which also has had business ties with Blackwater.
"'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 #GlobalExchange, 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 conducting parallel investigations to the one recently completed by Morton County. TigerSwan did not comment on questions posed about their contract."
https://www.desmog.com/2016/10/28/private-security-firm-dakota-access-iraq-afghanistan-blackwater/
#TigerSwan #BigOil #NoDAPL #Blackwater #HumanRights #Covert #Corporatism #CIA #Corporatocracy #Corruption #Capitalism #Colonialism #ACAB #ErikPrince #ErikPrinceColonialism
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The Intercept and Grist begin release of 50 #TigerSwan documents
by Brenda Norrell, Censored News, April 14, 2023
"The #Intercept and #Grist began releasing new TigerSwan spy documents in new coverage of the mercenaries hired by the #DakotaAccess Pipeline. They now have 50,000 TigerSwan documents, and another 9,000 are held up in the court battle for now. The documents reveal TigerSwan spying on #WaterProtectors at #StandingRock in #NorthDakota, Bold Iowa, and at other locations.
"[Murdered] #Pauite #journalist, drone #activist and filmmaker #MyronDewey was among those that TigerSwan spied on and stalked at Standing Rock..."
#WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #IndigenousNews #Blackwater #ErikPrinceRead more: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2023/04/the-intercept-after-spying-on-standing.html
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2016 via #DemocracyNow: #TigerSwan Security, Linked to #Blackwater, Now Coordinates Intel for #DakotaAccess
"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 #NativeAmericans 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."
#NoDAPL #ErikPrinceListen: https://www.democracynow.org/2016/11/21/jeremy_scahill_tigerswan_security_linked_to