Diaries decrying DHS monitoring of social media tend to ignore more direct organizational infiltration by police (and other) provocateurs and saboteurs, which is much more insidious than merely "keeping tabs" on public, or even private media discussion and plans around protests, demonstrations and organizations.
There is no doubt some overlap, in terms of monitoring, in identifying targets of opportunity for infiltration and sabotage, and infiltrators can enhance the "mere" monitoring of communications.
But monitoring in itself is of minimal threat to peaceful, non-violent, legal first amendment actions and organizations...except to the extent that is used to gain intel for potential sabotage.
There's really no way to prevent monitoring or infiltration, per se, beyond legal constraints, which can and should be enforced and advocated. But all the "security culture" in the world, especially when it tends to emphasize anonymous participation, which not only protects activists, but also cops, heh...cannot protect us, really.
But when there's a firm commitment and consensus to eschew "violence", and everyone sticks to that, it effectively robs the cops of their most common, prevalent and effective tactic for discrediting and cracking down on movement activities.
Regardless of their rationale for it, those who advocate "violence", and other extremely confrontational tactics, especially against the consensus of the larger group, must be considered suspect, at the very least...and to the extent that they persist in that, and especially act in defiance of consensus in this regard, bringing down the heat on everyone, they must be ejected, ostracized, and denounced, preferably with documentation, which should be circulated to all movement contacts.
Even that, however, leaves us open to swirling accusations, even from infiltrators, aimed at sowing distrust and division in the movement, even if most groups engage in a very principled and democratic practice around such warnings about troublemakers.
In fact, overly broad permissions on "official" websites and other accounts, have led to a number of instances of direct sabotage of communications, including dissemination of false information and accusations to sow conflict among groups and individuals, in classic COINTELPRO style.
And there's no way to really stop independent, rogue, or police false-flag operations, no matter how democratic and disciplined other elements of the movement may be.
Indeed, this was a major factor back in the 70's, in deciding to stand down from mass mobilizations, and all the "radical" posturing, to concentrate instead on direct local grassroots organizing, where people are more likely to know each other, and to avoid activities likely to detract from and destroy the grassroots support they rely on, in the communities they themselves live in.
To the extent that mass actions do ensue, they absolutely must be very seriously considered from this perspective, as to how to prevent the whole thing from degenerating into a clusterfuck of police manipulation, for media exploitation against the movement.
Excerpts from recent Truthout post:
Across the country, Occupies are struggling with disruption and division, attacks on key persons, escalation of tactics to property damage and police conflict as well as misuse of websites and social media.
In Oakland, CopWatch filmed an Oakland police officer infiltrating. And, in another video CopWatch includes audio tape of an Oakland police chief, Howard Jordan, talking about how police departments all over the country infiltrate, not just to monitor protesters but to manipulate and direct them.
In 11 of 15 occupations there were reports of verbal attacks on police and/or escalation of tactics from nonviolence to property destruction or violence.In 11 of 15 occupations there were reports of verbal attacks on police and/or escalation of tactics from nonviolence to property destruction or violence.
Of course, there is a lot of suspicion, but people are rarely able to prove infiltration. These incidents could be people with real political disagreement within the Occupy, or they could be people who are emotionally disturbed, mentally ill or who bring other personal challenges with them. Or, it could be an infiltrator manipulating these people, playing on their fears and prejudices. This is not a simple issue, as we will discuss in Part II, it is best to judge people by their actions and not label them as infiltrators without direct proof.
No doubt the information in this article is incomplete. We have only been able to survey and talk with people at about 20 occupies. We would very much like to hear from others around the country about experiences at their occupation as understanding these tactics is the first step to confronting and addressing them. (Send your comments to research@october2011.org.)
Truthout: Infiltration of Occupy
Also, just to supplement the somewhat parallel discussion of DHS monitoring, EPIC has released a report FOI'd from DHS, listing the words being searched for in monitoring Facebook, Twitter, and even dkos.
This list includes several categories, including reference to government agencies, HAZMAT, nuclear, health concerns, infrastructure, SW border security, terrorism, cyber security, and even weather/disaster emergency.
Here's just one of those lists, under the category of Domestic Security:
• Assassination
• Attack
• Domestic security
• Drill
• Exercise
• Cops
• Law enforcement
• Authorities
• Disaster assistance
• Disaster management
• DNDO (Domestic Nuclear Detection Office)
• National preparedness
• Mitigation
• Prevention
• Response
• Recovery
• Dirty Bomb
• Domestic nuclear detection
• Emergency management
• Emergency response
• First responder
• Homeland security
• Maritime domain awareness (MDA)
• National preparedness initiative
• Militia
• Shooting
• Shots fired
• Evacuation
• Deaths
• Hostage
• Explosion (explosive)
• Police
• Disaster medical assistance team (DMAT)
• Organized crime
• Gangs
• National security
• State of emergency
• Security
• Breach
• Threat
• Standoff
• SWAT
• Screening
• Lockdown
• Bomb (squad or threat)
• Crash
• Looting
• Riot
• Emergency Landing
• Pipe bomb
• Incident
• Facility
DHS Monitoring Keywords
So...since there is no way to avoid Ever using Any of these words, heh, nor to prevent monitoring and infiltration, I would propose that people should just generally watch their freakin' mouth, and their actions, as well as what others are saying and doing around them, especially in regard to mass actions of any kind.
Revolution demands no less anywhere.