Community Defense, part one: How to collect information on extremist groups.
We've all seen the recent news about threats and criminal acts against elected officials, their offices, their homes, and in two cases their relatives or relatives' homes.
This diary is the first of a short series about how we can help to protect and defend them.
There's plenty to do, and you can participate even if you're not in an area where these threats and acts are occurring.
The reason this is important is that law enforcement, including the FBI and Secret Service (USSS) are swamped right now. They do not have the time to watch every extremist group that might launch a violent plot or commit a violent act. But we do.
This is like a neighborhood watch in a high crime area. The police can't be everywhere all the time. But we can.
Observe and report: collecting intel.
One of the most important tasks is to detect and predict violent plans before they become violent acts. If you can get advance information, you can get law enforcement involved. Similarly, if you can get evidence after an act occurs, for example someone bragging about having done it, that's potentially useful for prosecuting them.
Here's where to start:
Find the URLs of extremist sites. This is relatively easy to do. Once you find one, check out its Links page and you'll find more. Go back over diaries on hate groups and you'll find more.
Pick one or two, or a handful, to monitor.
Create an email address specifically for this purpose, using a fictitious name.
Now go to those sites regularly and see what turns up. At least at first, LURK, DON'T POST. You need to become familiar with the sites, the people, the language they use, the issues they rant about. Just read and take notes. Follow the links and see what else turns up. Do this regularly.
Coordinate with your friends: Alice takes sites A and B, Bob takes sites C and D, Carlos takes sites E and F, etc. Share your notes when you hang out together.
IF you see mention of invitation-only email lists and forums, sign up. Send the list managers or moderators email from your "very special" email address, using your fictitious name. Say something along the lines of "I've been lurking on (whatever site) for a while, but I don't post because I don't want our enemies finding me. Sign me up." Now you have inside access to a place where people will talk more freely.
Never, ever, ever, make postings or send messages that appear to approve of a violent plan or act, as a way of getting more information. Legally this can constitute entrapment, and it can blow any cases that might otherwise be brought. You don't want it on your conscience that some terrorist walked free because of something you did. It can also make you look like part of the plot, leading to wasted time on the part of law enforcement and potentially a lot of embarrassment on your part. It's best to just say nothing in those forums, and let law enforcement do the heavy lifting.
What to do when you find something that appears to be evidence of a violent plan or act:
Take screen shots with date/time stamp. Capture only the browser window or email screen in question (or clean up your desktop so your folder labeled "My Porn" doesn't show:-). Give these screen shots names that are consistent and will be easy to use in a file system. Group them in folders by the main URL of the sites involved.
Unless what you found is an indication of an imminent threat, make the phone call during business hours. FBI and Secret Service offices have Duty Officers (DOs) on hand to answer calls 24/7, and the DOs can drag agents out of bed in the middle of the night if need be. If you have a serious and immediate emergency to report, they'll do that. But otherwise, let these people get their rest, and call them during business hours.
When you call, keep it simple: "I've been monitoring an extremist site called (name), and last night I found something posted that sounds like a call for (whatever violent act) against (whatever person or office). I have screen shots and notes that can be turned into a Facts In Evidence report. Is there a place I can send this material?"
If they want what you have, go to the next step, below:
Preparing a Facts In Evidence report.
In prosecuting a crime, a fact is a small piece of information that is clearly and unambiguously true, either by way of physical evidence or by testimony. A fact is something you can testify is true.
For example, "On Monday 22 March 2010, at 5:45PM, I opened a browser window using Firefox, and entered the URL www.violentnuts.org." That's one fact in and of itself. "When the first screen opened, an image appeared, and I captured it as a screenshot, which I saved as VNuts-01 in the attached folder." That's another fact. A statement such as "This organization promotes violence against elected officials," is not a fact, it's an inference that you made.
So here's how to do this:
First of all refer to your notes. You should have noted the date and exact time of every observation, down to the minute. You want to document every single step you took in order to get to the page that contains the material that you believe is a threat or plan for , or evidence of, violent acts: the original URL, the first link you clicked, the URL that showed on the browser from having clicked it, the page it opened up, the next link you clicked, etc. etc., all the way to the page with the bad stuff on it.
If a subsequent visit to the same page finds the original material gone or missing, that's important as well: it indicates potential "guilty knowledge" on the part of the person who posted it. They knew they did a no-no so they went back to try to scrub the evidence. But guess what? You have the original screen shots when the bad stuff was posted. Now take another screen shot showing the scrubbed screen, and add that to your collection. In this case the additional fact in evidence is as follows: "When I subsequently went to that page (specify date, time), I found that the posting referred to previously, was no longer present. I saved this as Screenshot VNuts-27 in the attached folder."
If the stuff you have is in the form of email, you will need to capture screen shots of the email on your email application. First, be sure to set your email app to display complete headers. This will provide routing information that technical analysts can use toward the goal of identifying the actual source of the material.
When you write your report, organize it such that each fact in evidence is a separately numbered item. This also enables you to refer back to them easily enough, for example, "On this occasion, the posting originally referred to in FIE 12 above, was no longer present."
Write these reports in PLAIN TEXT using NO FORMATTING, not even boldface or underline. Use an ordinary text editor (WordPad in Windows, TextEdit in Mac, various others in Linux), or a word processor with all of the formatting and other clever tricks turned OFF. Save the document in the format .TXT or .RTF. You won't be able to include pictures in the body of the report, just refer to them as separate attachments. Do not worry about page breaks, or about a table of contents; all of that stuff will be lost or irrelevant when the person you send it to makes use of it.
You can compose an introductory paragraph, for example: "Since (date), I have been engaged in volunteer monitoring of extremist sites. I believe I have found an instance of (whatever: a threat or plot for violent acts, or evidence in a case), and that is the subject of this report. The key item is contained in (FIE number, from your numbering of facts) and shown in the attached screenshot (screenshot name/number). The text of the posting includes the words (insert quote here) which I believe constitute evidence of illegal activity."
When you contact law enforcement, ask them if you should conclude your report with a statement attesting to its truthfulness. If they offer language for this purpose, use it. Otherwise, try something like the following: "I swear that the foregoing information is truthful and complete to the best of my knowledge. Signed, (name)."
Now send your stuff to the individual you spoke with at FBI or USSS, and then follow up with a phone call letting them know the date and time you sent it (just in case your screen shots caused it to get stuck in a spam filter or something). All they will be able to say after they get it is "thank you for reporting that," or words to that effect. They will never be able to tell you anything else about what use was made of your information, unless the time comes when you need to testify in court about what you found (for example if you grabbed a screenshot on a day when the leader of some group made a violent threat they later scrubbed, and that screenshot is pertinent to a crime).
If you don't want to call the Feds yourself:
Send your FIE reports to SPLC. Here's their web page: http://www.splcenter.org/ Phone number is 334-956-8200. Call them up and tell them you're willing to monitor certain sites and send them FIE reports they can use to follow up. Get an email address where you can send reports and attachments. If they see something that's worthy of reporting to FBI or USSS, they will do so.
Thanks to fellow dKos diarist Ferallike, here's a link to an SPLC website where you can report information: http://www.splcenter.org/...
Just below the map are two links, one of which says "Report hate incidents." Clicking that link gets you a quick form for making a brief report. That is not the place to send FIE reports. If you want to send FIE reports, phone or email SPLC and speak to someone about what you're able to do, and ask for an email address to send reports and attachments.
What's a real threat or plot?
Calling for revolution is protected speech. Telling people to prepare for an armed uprising is protected speech. Threatening harm to a public official is not protected speech. This is like the old saying about pornography: you know it when you see it.
Posting someone's home address is currently legal (and damn well shouldn't be, but I am not going to debate that here). However, as we have seen, a posting of that kind could become evidence in a criminal or civil proceeding.
Discussing firearms and even bombs is not illegal, until it rises to the level of an actual plan. However, that information may be useful as part of background information.
Even something as simple as a consistent mis-spelling of a name or other word can become evidence in a trial. For example if someone has an idiosyncratic spelling of a name or word, and the same spelling turns up in a threat note or "press release" taking responsibility for a crime, that's an indication that the same person is involved. This is why you want to save everything, even stuff that is not specifically a threat or plot.
If you develop a working relationship with someone at SPLC or the FBI, you'll be able to call them to ask about ambiguous instances. "I just found someone saying (whatever-it-is), would you like me to compile a report and send it in?"
A few words about analysis.
Most people do not have the expertise needed to perform intel analysis on the material they collect. However, after you have been watching a given group or persons for some period of time, you may begin to develop enough of a sense about them, that you can make useful inferences.
The best analysis starts with a quick overview, and then makes very careful inferences that stick very closely to the facts presented. Only after you've done that, can you draw bigger conclusions that are a further step removed from the facts in evidence.
Next installment in the series: guarding homes and offices.
Hopefully I'll get to publishing that tomorrow (Friday) night. Otherwise, over the weekend.
Remember, the life you save may be someone you voted for.
Now go out there and gather the goods.