WhoWhatWhy reports an FOIA document obtained from the FBI that records:
An identified [DELETED] as of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protestors (sic) in Houston, Texas if deemed necessary. An identified [DELETED] had received intelligence that indicated the protesters in New York and Seattle planned similar protests in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, Texas. [DELETED] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs, then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles.
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4 comments:
The text you quote, and the rest of it cited in the WhoWhatWhy article, is interesting and ominous. But I was disappointed that the bulk of the article's commentary and analysis was so speculative and left obvious questions un-analyzed. Here are four examples I noticed while reading it:
(1) No evidence was presented for why "deemed necessary" indicates an "organization" in any interesting sense (especially a governmental organization, as opposed to, say, a militia or activist group).
(2) More strangely, no evidence was presented grounding the (bizarre) assurances that that FBI would pursue right wing groups - so it can't have been a right wing group.
(3) Another major lacuna in the article is that, even if it was a governmental organization, the conditions of necessity are unfortunately left unspecified - they could be violent and deadly activity, for example, in response to which sniper fire might be defensible.
(4) And, finally, unless I'm missing something, the other element of pure speculation and framing in the article is the suggestion that the FBI did nothing about it. When, in fact, the report itself is evidence to the contrary - the FBI was at least keeping tabs on the group, as appears to be standard practice in both eventually foiled, and not-foiled, violent plots.
All that being said, I certainly think there is no reason to think that the government would be more concerned about anti-Occupy violence than it was about Occupy itself. See, for example, this very thorough, non-speculative, well-documented reporting by Mother Jones (which at one point helpfully contrasts anti-Occupy activity with anti-real-terrorist activity):
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/nsa-spying-occupy-homeland-security?page=1
(Just to emphasize: insofar as you've just posted the excerpt from the document, and insofar as WhoWhatWhy is trying to publicize its contents, I have no objection).
Yes, I don't always agree with WhoWhatWhy, but I think they sometimes find some interesting stuff.
I've never read them before, but based on this instance I'm inclined to agree. Despite reading a fair amount about OWS, I had not come across this item elsewhere; and, as the article notes, this is somewhat peculiar.
Russ Baker is the investigative reported who started it. He's author of the book, Family of Secrets, about the Bushes, which I have not read.
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