Chen’s nephew arrested allegedly in reprisal for his escape
According to ChinaAid Association, a US-based human rights group, Chen Kegui, the nephew of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng, has been arrested on suspicion of murder. It says the arrest was made in revenge for Chen Guangcheng’s actions.
The arrest took place in Shandong Province on Wednesday. The nephew’s lawyer told the group that the nephew wounded 3 intruders at his home after noticing his parents had been beaten. More than 20 people who were allegedly local officials invaded the home following Chen’s escape from house arrest.
According to NHK World:
The group says if convicted, Chen’s nephew could face the death penalty. It says the arrest is a reprisal against his uncle and that a fair trial cannot be expected. It condemns Shandong authorities and urges the United States and other countries to press China on the matter.
The blind activist told NHK by telephone that he had been informed of his nephew’s arrest by his mother in Shandong Province, adding that his brother is also being threatened. Hesaid he wants to appeal through the media for their safety.
The US government said on Thursday that it had conveyed its concern to Chinese authorities about reports of the arrest of Chen’s nephew. The Chinese government has not issued any comment.
Updated:
According to Reuters:
Chen, who is now receiving treatment in a Beijing hospital and preparing to go to the United States to study, said his nephew was a scapegoat of officials angered by Chen’s audacious escape and demands that they be investigated.
Asked why police in his home province of Shandong in east China would arrest his nephew, Chen said, “Revenge.”
“I think this is revenge gone wild, and it’s their final battle,” he told Reuters by telephone from the Beijing hospital where he is being kept.
Citing descriptions from relatives, Chen said his nephew acted in self-defense, picking up a kitchen cleaver after police and guards stormed into the home of Chen’s older brother, where he was staying, after midnight.
“They beat him savagely,” Chen said of his nephew. “He was beaten so badly that his face was covered in blood. I heard he was beaten so badly that three hours later his face was still bleeding,” Chen said,
White powder scares at locations in Portland OR, Connecticut and NYC
Hazmat team responding to scare at Portland State University building
Over the past two weeks, there have been six locations in the Portland, Oregon area as well as locations in Connecticut and NYC that have received envelopes containing suspicious white powder.
In Portland , two different locations received letters on Thursday. The first letter was sent to Portland State University at the Market Center building near Southwest 4th Avenue and Market Street. The second scare took place at the Oregon Health & Science University in the Marquam Plaza Building at 2525 Southwest 3rd. On Wednesday, two white powder incidents were reported. One occurred at the Hilton Hotel in Downtown Portland, the second occurred at a Port of Portland building near the Portland International Airport. On Tuesday there was a scare at the Lloyd Center mall on Tuesday and there was an intial incident at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse on April 26.
In all of the Portland cases, the envelopes were addressed to human resources offices and “anthrax” written either directly on the envelope or in a two-page letter in the envelope. Evacuations and hazmat teams were called out to address the scares, and several people who had contact with the letters were quarantined. No anthrax was found in any of the cases.
Referencing the Portland cases, FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele issued a press release today stating “the FBI and its local partners believe they have stopped the sender or senders’ ability to continue this stream of threats.” They have not as yet clarified what that means, or whether there may have been an arrest.
“White powder” scares have also been currently occurring at locations in Connecticut.
The Rowland State Government Center in Waterbury and the Ruth Chaffee School in Newington were evacuated on Thursday. Keeny Street Elementary in Manchester was also locked down. All are closed today, pending an investigation. The powder in the Manchester school was accompanied by a letter mentioning Al Qaida.
A spate of “white powder” letters were sent to several banks in NYC on April 30, saying “Happy May Day”, seemingly referencing May Day protests.
No one was injured in any of the incidents and no anthrax was found. There is no indication at present whether these incidents are related.
Occupiers who seized farm given final ultimatum
The saga continues. On April 22, Occupier broke into the Gill Tract, land owned by UC Berkeley. Claiming they wanted to save the land for “urban farming” and from development, they started tilling and planting vegetables.
Of course, the Gill Tract was not slated for development but was being used by the University students, professors and scientists for research. In moving onto the land, in addition to breaking the locks, Occupy brought in tents, porta potties, cut down trees used in research project, managed to run off the wild turkeys that had been living there. They uprooted the soil, and planted items not planned for the area.
It appears that the University’s patience may finally have been expended.
The Univeristy gave them a deadline to respond last weekend, which they ignored. Occupiers issued a statement in repsonse on Monday, stating they would not leave until the University met their demands which included:
1. turning the water back on (UC shut off the water the day after the occupation began)
2. continued access to the field to tend the crops they planted and to their “Children’s Garden” and seed bank site.
3. that university researchers “refrain from using chemical herbicides, pesticides, fungicides, chemical fertilizer or plastic tarp in the soil on the farm.
The Univeristy responded on Tuesday, calling Occupiers’ statement one with a “stunning degree of arrogance and entitlement”:
“We find it very difficult to understand the moral, legal or intellectual basis for demands that would put a self-selected group in a position to dictate how, when and where our faculty conduct important research to which they have dedicated their professional lives,” UC said. “There is also a stunning degree of arrogance and entitlement inherent in this group’s demands and statements about what they are ‘willing’ to do for our researchers.”
“While we will continue to leave the door open to an acceptance of our proposal that would allow the illegal occupants to leave the land without consequence,” UC said, “the university has no choice but to take the steps necessary to enforce our legal rights, protect academic freedom, preserve the collaborative community-based planning process and work with our law-abiding neighbors who share our interest in finding a way to allow for peaceful coexistence of urban farming and agricultural research on the Gill Tract.”
On Wednesday, the University started to get tough. They locked an the entrance gate and erected barricades to the property. They also filed a suit against the Occupiers, naming 14 people associated with the takeover and 150 unnamed ‘John Does”. The suit asks for a court order for removal of the Occupiers from the tract. The suit also seeks damages for the property damage that has been incurred and court costs. See suit here.
On Thursday, the University locked the last remaining open entrance. Although they didn’t remove anyone there, no one else is allowed to enter. Police and private security have been on site.
The latest communication from the University is that the people still there must be out by 10 am Saturday morning or risk arrest. If they leave, the University offers them a place in the discussion about the future of the tract.
“They have until 10:00 tomorrow morning to decide if they want to have a seat at the table for those discussions about how exactly we’ll keep urban agriculture going, and they have the choice to make about whether they want to have collaboration or possible confrontation,” Dan Mogulof, UC spokesperson said.
Occupier Gopal Dayaneni said they had no intention of leaving.
According to ABC7, Berkeley’s Judith Barish brought her three kids to help out at Occupy the Farm and had no qualms about their climbing the fence to get in. “People often have to break the law to stand up for something they believe in and while the university may or may not have law on its side, we think that the occupiers here have justice on their side,” she said. “Oh, no, I climb over fences a lot,” her daughter Sasha said laughingly when asked if she had issues with the fence-hopping.
See ABC video of occupiers on land and kids hopping the fence here
Surf’s Up!
Surf’s up. Really up. Watch Garret McNamara surf the highest recorded ride of a wave-78 feet high-during a competition in Portugal.
TeaMp0isoN crew hit with arrests
The hacking group known as #TeaMpOisoN is suffering from three recent arrests. On April 12, their leader, “TriCk”, 17, and another 16 year old were arrested in the UK On Wednesday evening, the “spokesperson” of the group, “MLT”, also 17, was arrested by Scotland Yard in Newcastle, England. MLT’s twitter account has been silent since that time. Last night in St Petersburg, Russia, a 28 year old man was arrested who is believed to be “Phantom”-another #TeaMpOisoN crew member, according to Softpedia
TeaMpOisoN is one of the groups under the greater umbrella of Anonymous. TeaMpOisoN has been responsible for numerous actions including breaking into the websites of Panasonic, the United Nations and the Australian Government, as well as breaching an email account with private data about Tony Blair. Perhaps their most notorious act was the alleged “phone bombing” of MI6 – sending out a script to continuously call the intelligence agency for 24 hours, effectively working as a phone distributed denial of service. TriCk claimed the reason for the phone bombing was because the group objected to the extradition of Islamic terrorism suspects from the UK to the US. It was after this that the two teenagers were arrested in April.
TeaMpOisoN also allegedly attacked websites they viewed as critical of Islam. They claimed to have hacked “Zionist” Facebook pages on New Year’s Eve last year. “ALLAH U AKBAR,” they wrote. “Great start to 2011, hacked over 1000 Racist/Zionist Facebook Pages in 1 day.”
During the riots in England last year, Blackberry Messenger service was believed to be used by looters for collaboration. The maker of Blackberry, Research in Motion promised cooperation with the police and government. In response TeaMp0isoN reportedly defaced the official BlackBerry blogs, saying “We are all for the rioters that are engaging in attacks on the police and government.”
More Occupy assaults on cops in LA on May Day (videos)
On May Day, one of the most brutal acts of violence committed by Occupiers was a female police officer being hit in the back of the head with a snare drum by an Occupier. She was about 5’1″; he was 6′ and a hefty character. She amazingly stayed on her feet despite the cheap shot, and continued her job, although it was later found that she had a concussion.
This incident came out of a bad situation where Occupiers began surrounding police, being very aggressive and threatening. This was not the only incident of violence. Here are two more videos which show other assaults. In the first video, you can see:
-at 1:23 woman yelling “fuck the police” and the crowd taking up the chant
-another attack by two people running into four cops with a huge wooden pallette/sign, using it as a weapon at 2:40. It is so forceful, one cop’s helmet is knocked off and he goes down. Cops turn around and swing batons in the air, as cameras go off-you know that it would likely be presented as “police brutality” and only the swinging batons shown.
-the man with the snare drum running after hitting the female officer at 2:58
– an officer hit by a plastic water bottle as some occupiers incongruously chant “we are peaceful”
– one can hear the crack of the hit as a tall black clothed occupier whacks another officer in the head with a red and yellow skateboard at 3:15
This second video shows the same action from another angle and shows the officer hit in the middle by the water bottle at :39 and the skateboard attack more clearly at :41
In both however, you can see the dangerous situation the police were facing.
Occupy Cleveland shows up at courthouse to support bomb suspects
Via Newsnet5 –
About 50 members of Occupy Cleveland showed up at the courthouse in Cleveland to support the suspects charged in connection with an alleged plot to blow up a northeast Ohio bridge.
The five suspects — 21-year-old Connor Stevens, 24-year-old Joshua Stafford (aka “Skully”), 26-year-old Douglas Wright (aka “Cyco), 20-year-old Brandon Baxter (aka “Skabby”) and 37-year-old Anthony Hayne (aka “Tony” & “Billy”) – pleaded not guilty during their arraignment Monday morning.
The suspects had the charges — conspiracy and attempted use of explosive material to damage physical property affecting interstate commerce — read to them in open court.
After the arrests were made, Occupy Cleveland said the five suspects were “associated with the group” but they were “in no way representing or acting on behalf of Occupy Cleveland.” The city of Cleveland decided to not renew the group’s permit a day after the arrests, but did not say if the decision was related to the bomb plot. Facebook pages showed the supects’ involvement with Occupy Cleveland, which some listed as their “employer”. Douglas Wright, the alleged ringleader, was known for his quiet commitment to Occupy Cleveland, according to the National Review. Brandon Baxter had previously been arrested an Occupy protest and spoken to the Cleveland Plain Dealer about Occupy. He also was involved with organizing at Occupy Cleveland, including organizing the “Occupy the Heart Festival”. Anthony Hayne was on the lease of the Occupy Cleveland warehouse that they had been renting. See more on connections here and here.
The FBI said the five self-proclaimed anarchists came up with a plan to blow up the Route 82 bridge over the Cuyahoga National Forest in Brecksville. They were arrested after allegedly pushing a button they thought would detonate a C4 bomb placed at the base of the bridge on April 30. The bomb was planned to go off during early morning rush hour on May 1 to coincide with “May Day”. An estimated 13, 000 people drive over the bridge each day
An undercover informant working with the FBI had provided the group with an inert bomb. Wright met the informant at an Occupy event. Baxter’s attorney claims the informant has a long criminal record and “coached the suspects”.
Occupy the Farm destroys scientific research
Via SF Gate
Occupiers are still holding land in Albany used by the University of California at Berkeley for agricultural research. The university had actually given them a weekend deadline to agree to a “negotiated departure” where the University would agree to sit down with them and arrange for part of the occupied land to be devoted to urban farming.
In light of Occupiers missing the deadline, University officials said they would consider more forceful measures against the group, Occupy the Farm. “”We’re very disappointed,” said Dan Mogulof, the UC Berkeley spokesman. “Unfortunately, because time is short, we need to begin to assess other options.”
Representatives of the Occupy group said that they intended to respond to the offer on Monday. The group has held the land since breaking the lock to the gate and entering the land on April 22. They have tilled and planted carrot, broccoli and corn seedlings.
The university wants the land vacated by mid-May in order for certain agricultural research studies to be conducted. The university claims that Occupy has already destroyed agricultural research by faculty scientists and students in the College of Natural Resources.
At one point, Mogulof said, the squatters pruned some fruit trees on the property and explained to the dean of resources that they had to do it because the trees were diseased. Turns out the pruned branches were part of a research project on how diseases affect fruit trees, he said.
Months or years of work/research and possibly someone’s degree work irreparably injured.
“We have stated publicly and made clear to the occupiers that research and a tent city cannot co-exist,” Mogulof said. “The offer on the table is that if they voluntarily and peacefully end the encampment, we are open to discussing with them and the community ways in which we can peacefully share the property. Our researchers do not need all of the acreage there in the current growing season, so therefore there remains the possibility that we can share it – some land for research and some to urban farming. But we won’t do it under duress.”
May 12 and the Radical Philosophy within Occupy
Call to “rise up again” May 12
Although Occupy’s May Day “celebrations” were muted in numbers and over whelmed by the violence at various spots such as Seattle and San Francisco, Occupy is calling on people to do it again on May 12.
Rise up on May 12th- we are the 99%!
On the 15th of October 2011 we took to the streets in over 1000 cities in 82 countries. We got organized and took the first steps on the road to dignity and global change. That was more than six months ago yet we continue to have to raise our voices to make politicians and bankers understand that they in no way represent us. We are united in our demands: the welfare of the 99% must be respected.
Governments only represent us if they follow the will of the vast majority, not just the privileged few.We are united, we are everywhere, we are where you least expect us.
We demand, firmly but without violence: social justice, wealth distribution and an ethic of commons. (emphasis added). We condemn poverty, inequality, environmental devastation and corruption as tools of subjugation by the powerful on society.
We will not stop until we achieve our objectives: the 99% will take to the streets again and again until we have a say in the world in which we live. We want global change. Let’s turn the streets into the world’s biggest loudspeaker on the 12th of May.
Because we are the 99%, we are not owned by politicians and bankers. Take to the streets on May 12th!
The claim of over 1000 cities in 82 countries is pure propaganda; even the main Occupy sites were claiming on May 1 no more than 180 cities. Yet even so, attendance was not what had been hoped for, for example, in cities like New York. Several thousands were present in New York, but more for the immigrant coalition May 1 Coalition rather than for Occupy. This attendance was after months of work and effort on the part of Occupy. So calling for an event so soon after with very little publicity announcing it seems to doom it to failure before hand.
The Radical Philosophy within Occupy
We see within the nature of the call another window into the philopsophy of OWS- a demand for “wealth distribution and an ethic of commons”.
While there are certainly many people and philosophies floating through Occupy, there are the two one might refer to as the “reformers” and the “revolutionists”. The reformers are the ones that think they can work within the system. They have been outweighed by the revolutionists from the start, and many have left. The revolutionists are the ones that planned it before it started, have been there since the beginning. They are the professional activists, those who have been involved in Spain and in Greece. They are the reason Occupy livestream is called “global revolution” -that is not hyperbole, but an envisioned goal for which they have worked for and to which they have committed their lives.
They are the people, who like Jed Brandt, wish the downfall of the United States in its present form because it is loathsome to them. Capitalism is loathsome to them, and to them, the US is the leader of capitalism and all that is evil and unhealthy. Jed Brandt works on the Occupied Wall Street Journal, “Tidal” -the few page tract handed out by Occupiers at encampments in NYC (sounds like Tides, doesn’t it?) as well as other Occupy media.
Listen to the following tape of Jed, taken in 2009, to understand.
In addition to the old left and professional activists we have added into the mix the new left of Anonymous. Anonymous as a bigger entity encompasses many thoughts and philosophies. But, of those that have become political and enamored of Assange, Wikileaks and Occupy, there is a commonality of a disgust with the system, and a desire not to be infringed upon by any government rules such as those pertaining to copyright, piracy or speech. Amongst those, many would call themselves, or be classified as, anarchists.
The young involved in general are perhaps summed up with a line that many took to upon hearing it – “this shit is fucked up and bullshit”. They see no prospects for their future, they don’t know where they are going or what they are to do. They have the sense that the government should be giving it to them or taking care of them, so they feel aggrieved that this is not resolved. They feel a community among others who have a similar angst, and in that they find their emotional strength which in other areas of their lives may be missing.
So at protests you see the old communists, the new anarchists and an odd amalgam of both-the anarcho-communist. Aren’t anarchists and communists in natural philosophical conflict, one might ask? It would seem so, logically, yet they haven’t gotten the message.
- Black and red anarcho communist flags fly as black bloc gets ready to march in Seattle. Credit Foolish Reporter
Anarcho-communism advocates getting rid of the state, markets, money, capitalism and private property, while still retaining personal property. It is in favor of the common ownership of the means of production, direct democracy and “horizontal networking of associations and workers councils”. Like communism, it espouses from each according to his ability, to each according to his needs. Goods are distributed according to needs not according to labor or how much anyone worked.
The idea is that things will be shared in common, through the concept of “mutual aid”. On their May Day organizational site, May Day 2012, Occupy gives a rousing endorsement to the the anarcho communism espoused by Peter Kropotkin.
Peter Kropotkin, one of the foremost figures of Russian anarcho-communism, wrote about its importance in the book Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution. His work argues that cooperation is far more important to the evolution and survival of a species than competition. He provides evidence throughout history in a variety of societies as well as among nonhuman animals. Some examples include the Bushmen (southern Africa), the Dayak (Borneo), the Papuan people (New Guinea), the Aleut people (Alaska), the Tupi people (Brazil), the Wendat (Ontario), villages throughout Europe in the tenth and eleventh century, medieval cities, and examples in his time. It would, in fact, be difficult to find a time and place where mutual aid did not exist in some form!
Jed even talks about “mutual aid” at ~3:20 of the above video. Of course, they leave out some other interesting words from Kropotkin. He said, “houses, fields, and factories will no longer be private property, and that they will belong to the commune or the nation and money, wages, and trade would be abolished”. He believed in the “expropriation” of private property, although not personal property.
A question that is commonly asked is how they can be upset about police disruption of their property, in Zuccotti Park, for example, but not at all concerned about seizing buildings belonging to other people, such as the seizure of the Catholic Church’s building in San Francisco. The reason is the difference between private and personal property. Personal property=your car, your backpack. Thus, some were shocked at destruction of cars in San Francisco by some of the more militant anarchists. But private property-real property and homes, businesses- those should be held in common, so you don’t have a right to deny them what they need just by claiming that they don’t own a property. If they need it, they should have it- “to each according to his needs”. Everything will be held in common and parcelled out according to needs. There will be the ultimate evolution of man, and selfishness, racism and war-all just outgrowths of capitalism-will just disappear.
Foolish Reporter picked up some reading material at May Day in Seattle. Again, while every location has something of its own character, the reading picks up on common themes. Communism will help make everything equal, it is the “saving grace” rather than God, that the workers, soldiers and students must be brought into the movement. It notes how Communism is the true salvation of man:
Why not fight for the interests of the international working class, why not fight for communism?
Another question came up. “Where are the guns?” A comrade answered, “the guns are in the military along with our soldiers, our class brothers and sisters. Red Flag is being used to inform the soldiers of what is really happening and what is really being done by the capitalists so that ultimately guns can be turned around”.
“Wealth distribution and a ethic of commons” – in the words of Paul Harvey, now you know the rest of the story.
Cleveland bomb suspects: more ties to Occupy Cleveland
Cleveland bomb suspects are to appear in court on May 7 for a preliminary hearing. Those charged are Douglas L. Wright, 26, of Indianapolis; Brandon L. Baxter, 20, of Lakewood; Connor C. Stevens, 20, of Berea; and Joshua S. Stafford, 23, and Anthony Hayne, 35, both of Cleveland.
U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said the five suspects were indicted on three counts: conspiracy, attempted use of an explosive device to destroy property in interstate commerce, and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction to destroy property in interstate commerce. They could face life in prison if convicted.
The FBI said the five bought fake explosives from an undercover and put them at the base of Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad bridge, a highway bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park on May 30. 13,000 people travel the bridge daily, and the plan was to detonate it during the morning rush hour.
The affidavit details conversations the FBI secretly recorded in which its informant discussed bomb plans with some of the suspects.
In one, suspect Brandon Baxter allegedly said, “Taking out a bridge in the business district would cost the … corporate big wigs a lot of money” because it would cause structural damage and prevent people from going to work.
According to the Tallmadge Express:
The suspects had been associated with the anti-corporate Occupy Cleveland movement but don’t share its non-violent views and don’t represent Occupy Cleveland, organizer Debbie Kline said.
The alleged plotters were frustrated that other anti-corporate protesters opposed violence, Dettelbach said.
Cleveland City Councilman Brian Cummins, who has served as a liaison between City Hall and the Occupy movement, said May 3 that the charges against the men, who had been associated with Occupy Cleveland, show the group needs to watch for troublemakers.
“This is a horrific example in terms of the arrests of how the movement itself failed to identify and understand the dangerous potential of people affiliated with it,” Cummins said.
Occupy Cleveland spokesman Joseph Zitt said he wasn’t sure the group had the resources to monitor all protest participants for criminal activity.
“The group has not taken any action. It’s something we’re going to have to come together and consider,” he said.
The men had considered different plots, including trying to bring down financial institution signs in downtown Cleveland or attacking other targets, including a law enforcement center, oil wells, a cargo ship or the opening of a new downtown casino, according to the affidavit.
The document also alleges that one suspect talked about being part of group planning to cause trouble during an upcoming NATO summit in Chicago.
Brandon Baxter had previously been quoted at an Occupy Cleveland protest about foreclosures. According to Ohio Media Trackers:
He told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in early March that he felt “the powers that be, whoever they might be—on all levels of government and those who hold corporate power—are not listening, because not enough people are actually taking a stance.” Occupy Cleveland’s Facebook page indicated that Baxter was involved in helping them organize and advertise events as recently as February 2012. Baxter and two of the other alleged co-conspirators — Joshua Stafford and Anthony Hayne — list Occupy Cleveland as their “Employer” on Facebook, where the three list one another as friends.
Occupy Cleveland spokesperson Zitt stated “These people participated in certain aspects of the movement, but once we discovered what was going on, we decided they could not be part of it. I wish we had learned earlier”.
Zitt’s statement is an interesting statement. What did they find out and when did they find it out? May 1? As we noted in our prior story, Anthony Hayne is still listed on the lease to Occupy Cleveland’s warehouse that they were renting.
Major cyber attack aimed at natural gas pipeline companies
Cyber security analysts work in the “watch and warning center” at the federal government’s secretive cyber defense lab, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. The Homeland Security Department’s Control System Security Program facilities are intended to protect the nation’s power grid, water and communications systems.
Mark J. Terrill/AP
Excerpted from Christian Science Monitor:
A major cyber attack is currently underway aimed at computer networks belonging to US natural gas pipeline companies, according to alerts issued by the US Department of Homeland Security.
At least three confidential “amber” alerts – the second most sensitive next to “red” – were issued by DHS beginning March 29, all warning of a “gas pipeline sector cyber intrusion campaign” against multiple pipeline companies. But the wave of cyber attacks, which apparently began four months ago – and may also affect Canadian natural gas pipeline companies – is continuing.
That fact was reaffirmed late Friday in a public, albeit less detailed, “incident response” report from the Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), an arm of DHS based in Idaho Falls. It reiterated warnings in the earlier confidential alerts made directly to pipeline companies and some power companies.
The ICS-CERT is charged with helping secure the nation’s industrial control systems – computerized systems that open and close valves, switches and factory processes vital to the chemical, industrial, and power sectors. Their “fly away” teams visit factories, power plants, and pipeline companies to investigate cyber intrusions.
“ICS-CERT has recently identified an active series of cyber intrusions targeting natural gas pipeline sector companies,” the confidential April 13 alert warns. “Multiple natural gas pipeline organizations have reported either attempts or intrusions related to this campaign. The campaign appears to have started in late December 2011 and is active today.”
Approximately 200,000 miles of these interstate natural gas transmission pipelines in the US supply 25 percent of the nation’s energy. Pipeline safety has been a major issue in recent years, highlighted by the San Bruno, Calif. pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in the Bay Area in September 2010.
In yesterday’s public warning, ICS-CERT re-affirms that its “analysis of the malware and artifacts associated with these cyber attacks has positively identified this activity as related to a single campaign from a single source. It goes on to broadly describe a sophisticated “spear-phishing” campaign – an approach in which cyber attackers attempt to establish digital beachheads within corporate networks.
See more of the story here
Cleveland bomb suspect named on Occupy Cleveland warehouse lease
One of the self described anarchists arrested last week for attempting to blow up a local bridge signed the lease for a West Side warehouse where about a dozen members of the Occupy Cleveland group live. Anthony Hayne, 35, of Cleveland, has a criminal record dating back to 2000. He was one of five men arrested by the FBI and charged with setting fake explosive charges under the Ohio 82 bridge between Sagamore Hills Township and Brecksville Monday night. The FBI said Hayne helped paln the attempt, bringing two black boxes suspects thought contained bombs.
According to Cleveland.com:
In a one-hour recording of a Friday evening general assembly meeting of the group posted on its website, occupy leaders expressed concern about Hayne’s name being on the lease, which strengthens his link to the group.
“We have a person facing terrorism charges on the lease of our warehouse,” said one of the leaders. “If this gets into the media, it would be a disaster.”
During the general assembly meeting, one leader asked the group, “Is it just me? Aren’t you uncomfortable living in a warehouse where a guy has been arrested for terrorism? I don’t want to live in a place and have the FBI show up.”
Another member said the group was having problems with neighbors near the warehouse, strengthening the argument to move.
At the meeting, the leaders ousted a man from the movement who is known only as “Crazy Larry” because he assaulted another member the night before.
“He thought the member had some information about the bombing,” Zitt said. “He threatened and hit him. We threw him out, and as he left the building he smashed a window and sliced bike tires. He’s not the kind of person we want involved with our group.”
Zitt said Saturday that Crazy Larry was upset about the bombing.
Zitt stressed the Occupy Cleveland movement is dedicated to non-violence. He said if they had known Hayne and the other four men were considering terrorism, they would have thrown them out.
“These people participated in aspects of the movement, but once we discovered what was going on we decided they could not be part of it,” Zitt said. “I wish we had learned earlier.”
At the time of his arrest, Hayne was wanted by Cuyahoga County for violating his probation. In January, Hayne pleaded guilty to theft and breaking and entering a Lakewood restaurant and stealing $2,000. He was placed on probation for 18 months. A judge issued a warrant for his arrest in April.
He served a year in prison starting in 2007 for beating his wife.
Here is the GA meeting video, courtesy Lefty Report, where they discuss Hayne:
Occupy: More militancy coming and ‘Summer Disobedience School”
“Take your rules, we don’t need them, all we want is total freedom” -Occupy anarchist chant, Seattle. Credit Foolish Reporter
Now that May Day is done, where does Occupy go from here?
They bragged with great hyperbole about May Day bringing “the greatest shutdown NYC has ever seen” and initially threatening to shut down the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. But they had to back off the plan to shut down the Bridge, when it turned out they wouldn’t have union support(translation wouldn’t have the numbers necessary to blockade it). And the “greatest shutdown ever seen” turned out to be not any kind of a shutdown at all.
Many newspapers are openly scoffing at them, even the Village Voice, the great liberal alternative in NYC, which paper had been very supportive of them.
Yet, in some sense, this is the bit of the dangerous time. It, in a sense, parallels the 70s, when realizing that protest was limited, people either moved to work within the system, such as by running for elected office, like Tom Hayden, or moved to act in more militant directions, a la the Weather Underground and Bill Ayers(now something of a mentor to Occupiers).
Marisa Holmes- professional activist, member of the SDS, and major OWS organizer- said “May Day will be the big kickoff of Phase 2 of Occupy. I think we will see a lot of people in the streets taking more militant actions than they had in the past.”
May Day did bring a rash of violence from somewhat minimal exchanges in NY with the biting of a cop and some vandalism to full-on riots in San Francisco and Seattle, and the bomb threat in Cleveland.
Yet capitalism was still there at the end of the day.
In discussions afterward, some Occupy/Anonymous twitter accounts seemed to speak of the fact that they were not succeeding at changing anything, that they needed to move beyond simple protests into more militant action.
What “militant action” may mean is of course open to interpretation. But we see in the Cleveland bombing case where some Occupiers went. If you need to kill people to allegedly free them, it could be that there is something off in your calculation.
Unicorn slaying cop-“Anything is possible!”. Credit Foolish Reporter
This summer, the OWS Direct Action Group launches “Summer Disobedience School”:
We’ve completed Spring Training – and we’re moving and communicating in the streets like never before. Now we take our fight to sites of injustices throughout NYC, gradually building a culture of radical non-violent disobedience. We’ll be disrupting banks, corporations and the state all summer long, starting with the crooks in mid-town. We graduate as a full-on revolutionary force September 17th: City-Wide Shut Down!
“Non-violent” is also an interesting term. To most of us, we understand what that means. But to many Occupiers, non violent means not attacking people. Thus, attacking property would be okay. Also attacking police for example who are arresting you, that’s fine too. “De-arresting” people(fighting cops to get an arrestee back)=also not violent because you didn’t “attack” first. It also seems to be perfectly fine to do everything to precipitate a police response, all the while yelling “this is a peaceful protest”. This extends even to threatening to “doxing” cops, and spilling their private lives onto the internet in revenge. This has been done already in multiple cases, with the assistance of Anonymous. In one case, they leaked naked pictures of a female officer.
While many Occupiers are in fact peaceful, many others also have a belief in “diversity of tactics”, meaning they leave their options open to ways other than peace. Thus some are black bloc anarchists ready to smash things up.
Many believe the changing of the society has to come up from the proletariat rioting in the streets. They’ve tried it in Spain and in Greece. They are intent on having it happen here, so expect to see more attempts over the summer and the run up to the election. Some tough things may be coming.
But America is a unique creature, built on the power of the individual. The nature of its character is not the collective, but that enduring independent spirit.
One may try, but it will not be overwhelmed so easily.
OWS pic of the week: “Money Bunny”
A notable May day picture:
The “Money Bunny” (with whip):
There might be something to this after all…
Supporter: “OWS is worthwhile because it may cause a kid to drop out”
The Village Voice seems to have flipped on OWS, with another story appearing to mock them.
It starts with a big banner:
Then the VV then goes on to discuss why it is difficult to take OWS seriously, citing the following comment from an OWS supporter, “Mantelln”, who talks about the difference that OWS makes, because it may cause a kid to drop out:
Dude, you should think about the shit you are saying and how irrelevant to important issues and culturally biased your opinions are and how press like this is worthless.
Back in the good old days of America, people would have shot those cops and burned the banks (if good old Americans hadn’t been such racist imperialists…).
Sleepin on the sidewalk can make a difference, btw. Some kid sees that and thinks, wow fuck all you lame punk assed suits, I wanna drop out! Why should people work so hard in this country when half of the work is bullshit designed to make some douche bag you don’t agree with rich, and the other half goes to killing or enslaving people in developing countries to make some other douche bag rich?
VV then winds up:
As we pointed out yesterday, not every member of the OWS movement advocates killing cops. Nor do they all think working hard is “bullshit.” But some apparently do, which makes the movement as a whole look ridiculous. In other words, any point OWS may have is immediately lost when idiots like “Mantelln” open their mouths (or bite cops, dress like hobos, sleep in the street, or dump buckets of feces and urine in lower Manhattan).
Sure, we’d love to live in a fantasy land where nobody has to work, nobody has to shower, and unicorns farting rainbows are galloping down Broadway. Unfortunately, this is the real world — and when you start advocating laziness and killing cops, you tend to lose a little credibility.
Village Voice:Has Occupy become a joke?
When the Village Voice, the liberal alternative newspaper of NYC, wonders if you have become a joke, it just may be that you have jumped the shark.
According to the Village Voice:
Occupy Wall Street’s May Day antics were billed as the resurgence of the Occupy movement. Unfortunately for the occupiers, May Day was widely considered to be a “dud,” and has many in the media arguing that the movement has become nothing more than a joke — just a bunch of “bums” running around New York City complaining about one thing or another.
With yesterday’s headline of“OWS Bums Are A Big Joke: Hard workers enjoy a good laugh as May Day skirmishes fizzle,” the New York Post is leading the charge.
From the Post:
Occupy Wall Street’s call for May Day mayhem largely fizzled yesterday — but at least provided a good laugh for hardworking people gazing from their office windows at the demonstrators’ antics as cops took a few dozen into custody. “How can anyone take them seriously? They look like homeless people,” quipped Financial District bartender Kimberly Leo. “I saw one woman complaining about not having a job, but she had a shirt with the word “nympho” on it,” Leo, 26, said. “These people need a change of wardrobe and a shower.”
Reuters, the Daily News, the Associated Press and several other media outlets made similar (although, slightly more subtle) arguments.
We witnessed several of Tuesday’s May Day festivities. While not everyone involved in the demonstrations were “bums” (which we pointed out in a post yesterday), the media’s take doesn’t seem to be too far off — it’s hard to take many of these people seriously when they’re biting cops, dumping buckets of feces in public places, and strolling around New York in Halloween costumes.
As Susan Ostrowski, a 55-year-old woman who works at a Wall Street insurance company, suggests, it seems some of the occupiers would be better served by “find[ing] jobs and protest[ing] on their time off. They should get involved politically, register to vote rather than sitting and sleeping on the steps in sleeping bags.”
The Voice took a poll asking the question has OWS become a joke? At last count, 27.4 % said yes, 28.79 % said no, and 44.16 said “When had OWS not been a joke?”
HT: Maddley Burns
Occupy Wall Street twitter account hacked
In the early morning hours of yesterday morning, the official Occupy Wall Street twitter account began sending out advice on how to better your credit score.
According to BetaBeat:
One follower recognized this particular spam from a virus spreading on Facebook and warned the rebels they’d had a breach. But judging by the number of retweets and favorites, not all the freedom fighters were hip to the scam. When the account announced at 4:06 a.m. that it had been hacked and was “working on shutting it down,” a few followers breathed relief. “Yeah, I was wondering why you’d be tweeting about credit reports,” tweeted one Erik Smith
“Freedom fighters”? And then there were the rest of us that had a bit of a giggle.
Oakland Labor March shows Occupy losing influence
Are the SEIU and unions ready to start throwing Occupy under the bus?
Since Occupy started, the group has made every effort to bring in like minded liberal-oriented organizations with some success.
But, according to SF Gate, with all the violence that Occupy has been involved with all over the Bay Area, Oakland Occupy “appeared to be losing some of its cachet”.
Attempts by Occupy Oakland adherents to join the March for Dignity demonstration – an annual event that predates the Occupy movement and involves thousands of demonstrators for immigrant and worker rights – didn’t go too well.
The March for Dignity folks had permits to march from the Fruitvale BART Station to Oakland City Hall. Occupy protesters apparently wanted to get in with this huge crowd and waited at San Antonio Park to join the tail end of the March for Dignity to City Hall.
“There were some heated conversations between Occupy and the organizers for the March for Dignity,” said Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan. “At one point (immigrant) marchers stopped and took a different route to avoid the Occupy people who were in the (San Antonio) park.”
The largest march in Oakland on Tuesday wasn’t organized by Occupiers. It was organized by Dignity and Resistance. And that group’s event had no incidents involving police.
In downtown Oakland, where Occupy protesters staged a demonstration, 39 people were arrested during the course of the day, police said.
“We’ve been planning this a long time,” said Miguel Perez, a representative of the group that organized the march. “This march is about immigration and labor. It’s not Occupy.”
Many marchers actually refused to go near the occupiers:
Many of the marchers cut their participation short at San Antonio Park, refusing to go to City Hall after hearing of the clashes Occupy was having with police there. Those who did continue to City Hall left when the march ended, packing up their signs and banners.
“We are peaceful protesters,” said Gary Jimenez, vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 1021. “We don’t condone the destruction of property or vandalism. We believe in using our voices.”
Note the rejection by the SEIU local vice president. More disavowal by unions may be on the way.
Marchers weren’t about to be co-opted by privileged protesters:
The March for Dignity was a community event that included senior citizens, children and families all marching for a common cause – their cause. It’s hardly a recruitment center for mask-wearing, middle-class and privileged white kids who arrive by bicycle and try and win the crowd. These are people with varying degrees of legal residence who came to this country willingly – and most want to stay.
HT: Maddley Burns
Occupy: Indoctrinate
Occupy worked very hard to get people out for May 1, trying to establish connections with immigrant groups and community advocacy organizations.
What is not often mentioned is the effort that they have been making to reach into high schools to influence students.
A major person behind this effort in NYC is Justin Wedes, a former high school teacher. Wedes abruptly quit his job as a city public school teacher after getting caught red-handed falsifying time sheets, according to the New York Post. Former South Brooklyn Community HS science teacher Justin Wedes, who often rails against corporate greed and corruption, “cut and pasted’’ the signature of a supervisor onto his time sheets while applying for a national education grant, Special Schools Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon found.
In this first video, you see the results of months of Wedes and others cultivating students at Paul Robeson High School in NYC. Occupy members have had meetings at the school to talk with the kids and influence them. It’s also a bit ironic that it is “Paul Robeson High School”. Robeson, a remarkably multi-faceted man, was an amazing singer, incredibly bright, lawyer and civil rights activist. He was also an infamous supporter of Soviet Communism.
Notice the effort to demonize “privatization”. Why would the kids have an issue with it? Because the union has a problem with it. Charter schools in NY have been largely successful and provide a viable option for children from poorer communities. Kids and parents line up to get into those schools. It’s called competition and it improves education. That’s just a bit frightening to the unions, who want to have a monopoly to be continue to provide that sterling education they have been providing-not. Think of it this way, kids, if you were forced to only eat in the cafeteria, and chose from the lousy food provided, wouldn’t you want to have the option of food outside those restrictions?
Beyond the very specific approach to reach out to certain schools in NYC, was the general effort to gets kids out for May 1 by making it “cool”. Organizer Marisa “I’m not for reform, I’m for revolution” Holmes actually made a video, noting that you could leave school, and “do whatever you want to do”.
Who wouldn’t want to go to what appears to be a holiday party? In this second video, the kids have heard the pitch, but have no idea even why they are there, apart from the fact it seems fun. The girl with the anarchy symbol on her face could as well been at a St Patrick’s Day Parade and it have been a shamrock. Notice the requisite event tee shirt-souvenir-looks like capitalism to me.
See video here
If you wonder how we get the Justin Wedes and Marisa Holmes types, the effort to recruit has been going on for a very long time.
SEIU, Anarchist, Occupy Training Manuals, including children’s guide to anarchy
Via the Blaze-
The Blaze discusses an array of SEIU (Service Employees International Union) , Occupy and Anarchist training manuals which detail how to take actions and push to get what you want.
Amongst the worst, the SEIU manual, which :
details how legal, political, media and regulatory pressure can all be exploited to manipulate employers and help the union realize its goals. It encourages, in a not-so-subtle way, the blackmailing of employers with whom it disagrees by first damaging their reputations, and encourages placing “outside pressure” to jeopardize “relationships between the employer and lenders, investors, stockholders, customers, clients, patients, tenants, politicians, or others on whom the employer depends for funds.”
One of the most telling passages of the SEIU manual reads:
It may be a violation of blackmail and extortion laws to threaten management officials with release of ‘dirt’ about them if they don’t settle a contract. But there is no law against union members who are angry at their employer deciding to uncover and publicize factual information about individual managers.
Perhaps the most morally offensive of them all, an anarchist’s guide book for children. “A Rule is to Break” A Child’s Guide to Anarchy“ guides children on being their ”best self” by breaking the rules.
And who should give you a definitive review of the value of this book but Bill Ayers!
“… A delight to read! A children’s book on anarchy seems somehow just right: an instinctive, intuitive sense of fairness, community, and interdependence sits naturally enough with a desire for participatory democracy, feminism, queer-rights, environmental balance, self-determination, and peace and global justice.” – Bill Ayers / author (’To Teach: The Journey in Comics‘ and ’Fugitive Days’), teacher, Barack Obama’s alleged terrorist pal, and grandpa. ”
HT Maddley Burns
Wells Fargo to give $25,000 to aid Mission District damaged by vandals
Wells Fargo today announced a $25,000 grant to aid merchants in the Valencia Corridor of San Francisco.
The grant will be administered by the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association and the Lower 24th Street Merchants and Neighbors Association, who serve local businesses in the Mission District of San Francisco.
Many small businesses in this neighborhood were impacted by a recent wave of vandalism, and these funds will allow for repairs and improvements so that local merchants can reopen for business. Reports estimate that more than 30 businesses were damaged during a recent streak of vandalism, which amount to necessary repairs in the tens of thousands of dollars.
“This grant will help our local merchants make much-needed repairs like replacing broken windows, removing graffiti and aiding in the general clean up required to open their doors again,” said Erick Arguello, President of the Lower 24th Street Merchants and Neighbors Association.
“Many small businesses in the Valencia Corridor don’t have the cash reserves to handle unexpected expenses like vandalism,” said Deena Davenport, President of the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association
Businesses were damaged by a Black Bloc that rampaged through the District after an Occupy pre-May Day “ruckus party” against gentrification in Dolores Park. Local occupiers claim that the damage was not caused by occupiers. See prior story and video from inside the black bloc rampage here
Occupiers rampage through the Bank of the West in Oakland
Occupiers veer off in a clearly organized May Day attack. Notice not only the organized destruction but the organized camera making sure the “attack” on the evil bank is properly recorded. Also the one brave employee lady who tells them to “get out”:
Occupy SF: re-seizes building, occupier hits man in head with brick
Via ABC News from San Francisco-see video of incident here
About 200 Occupiers marched up from Van Ness and took over the building at 888 Turk Street about midday yesterday. They unfurled banners from the roof and invited others to come inside and join them. They tore down the fence around the building, and pried open the doors. They wanted to make the building an urban commune — in their words, “to reclaim and liberate it for the people.”
They had seized this building about a month ago, causing $25,000 in damages before they were evicted by the police. See the prior stories here and here
Around 5:30 pm, one of the Occupiers climbed on the roof and began throwing heavy metal pipes, bricks and other objects down on the police and crowd gathered outside the building. While several bricks were aimed at the officers on Turk Street, only one of the demonstrators was hurt when he was hit in the face by a brick. The man on the roof, Jesse Nesbit, 34, was arrested after he left the building and charged with felony assault.
The building was raided at 5 this morning, and protesters were peacefully evicted from the building. This time there was not as much damage as the prior occasion, although it included the destroyed fence and pried open doors. 26 protesters were arrested and charged with trespassing. Many were from out of the city, some from out side the state.
The building owned by the Catholic Church was in process of being prepared for rental, the money from which would to be used to provide income to assist low income high school students.
Citizen Journalist 