01-03-2012, 11:29 PM
US Homeland Security Monitored Occupy Wall Street, Documents Show
By Oliver Tree
March 1, 2012 9:39 AM EST
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has compiled a secret dossier on the Occupy Wall Street movement, leaked e-mails reveal.
(Photo: Reuters / Lucas Jackson)<br>Supporters of Occupy Wall Street carry a sign during a "national day of action" protest Tuesday in New York City.
(Photo: Reuters / Lucas Jackson)
Supporters of Occupy Wall Street carry a sign during a "national day of action" protest Tuesday in New York City.
The five-page document, posted on Rolling Stone magazine's website, cites the need to monitor Occupy as a "potential security risk." It emerged days after the whistleblower site WikiLeaks, with which Rolling Stone has a partnership, released 5 million e-mails from the servers of the U.S.-based private security firm Stratfor.
On Tuesday, 10 protesters were arrested in New York in a bid to revive the movement across the United States.
According to Rolling Stone, which first reported the DHS dossier's existence, Homeland Security kept tabs on Occupy through major media outlets and also combed Occupy-related Twitter feeds for information. The dossier, titled "SPECIAL COVERAGE: Occupy Wall Street," contains a section on the movement's use of social media including an interactive map of protest sites throughout the country.
"Mass gatherings associated with public protest movements can have disruptive effects on transportation, commercial, and government services, especially when staged in major metropolitan areas," the report states.
"Large-scale demonstrations also carry the potential for violence, presenting a significant challenge for law enforcement."
On Tuesday, at least 50 Occupy protesters marched from a park outside the New York Public Library's main facility in midtown Manhattan to the headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE).
An agenda posted online by Occupy organizers called for a "day of action against corporate greed," including the "shutdown" of Pfizer, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), privately held Koch Industries Inc. and the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council.
Chanting "Shame on Pfizer, you're a bunch of liars," protesters denounced the company for seeking tax breaks and other benefits for large corporations.
In a statement, Pfizer later acknowledged involvement with legislative organizations but said its aim was strictly to "advance the health of all Americans," according to Reuters.
Fellow activists assembled in dozens of other U.S. cities.
"We don't want big companies to run our democracy," protester Michael Levitin told Agence France-Presse.
Fellow protester Yoni Miller, 18, who has been involved in Occupy Wall Street since it started last September, said it was "inevitable" that the movement would rise again in the run-up to this November's U.S. elections, AFP reported.
A man was arrested outside Bryant Park, adjacent to the Manhattan library, and another eight were detained after they tried to camp overnight in Zuccotti Park -- near Wall Street in lower Manhattan and site of the Occupy movement's origins. Camping in the privately owned but publicly accessible park has been banned since last November, when New York City police cleared protesters' tent encampment from the site.
By Oliver Tree
March 1, 2012 9:39 AM EST
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has compiled a secret dossier on the Occupy Wall Street movement, leaked e-mails reveal.
(Photo: Reuters / Lucas Jackson)<br>Supporters of Occupy Wall Street carry a sign during a "national day of action" protest Tuesday in New York City.
(Photo: Reuters / Lucas Jackson)
Supporters of Occupy Wall Street carry a sign during a "national day of action" protest Tuesday in New York City.
The five-page document, posted on Rolling Stone magazine's website, cites the need to monitor Occupy as a "potential security risk." It emerged days after the whistleblower site WikiLeaks, with which Rolling Stone has a partnership, released 5 million e-mails from the servers of the U.S.-based private security firm Stratfor.
On Tuesday, 10 protesters were arrested in New York in a bid to revive the movement across the United States.
According to Rolling Stone, which first reported the DHS dossier's existence, Homeland Security kept tabs on Occupy through major media outlets and also combed Occupy-related Twitter feeds for information. The dossier, titled "SPECIAL COVERAGE: Occupy Wall Street," contains a section on the movement's use of social media including an interactive map of protest sites throughout the country.
"Mass gatherings associated with public protest movements can have disruptive effects on transportation, commercial, and government services, especially when staged in major metropolitan areas," the report states.
"Large-scale demonstrations also carry the potential for violence, presenting a significant challenge for law enforcement."
On Tuesday, at least 50 Occupy protesters marched from a park outside the New York Public Library's main facility in midtown Manhattan to the headquarters of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE).
An agenda posted online by Occupy organizers called for a "day of action against corporate greed," including the "shutdown" of Pfizer, Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC), privately held Koch Industries Inc. and the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council.
Chanting "Shame on Pfizer, you're a bunch of liars," protesters denounced the company for seeking tax breaks and other benefits for large corporations.
In a statement, Pfizer later acknowledged involvement with legislative organizations but said its aim was strictly to "advance the health of all Americans," according to Reuters.
Fellow activists assembled in dozens of other U.S. cities.
"We don't want big companies to run our democracy," protester Michael Levitin told Agence France-Presse.
Fellow protester Yoni Miller, 18, who has been involved in Occupy Wall Street since it started last September, said it was "inevitable" that the movement would rise again in the run-up to this November's U.S. elections, AFP reported.
A man was arrested outside Bryant Park, adjacent to the Manhattan library, and another eight were detained after they tried to camp overnight in Zuccotti Park -- near Wall Street in lower Manhattan and site of the Occupy movement's origins. Camping in the privately owned but publicly accessible park has been banned since last November, when New York City police cleared protesters' tent encampment from the site.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass