Sunday, February 23, 2014

Seriously? This industry will stoop to new lows to try to silence any legitimate opposition to their taking over of Pennsylvania

This is on the front page of the Williamsport Sun-Gazette with a very graphic photo of a well explosion... alleging that this is what these supposed "eco-terrorists" are doing in Pennsylvania. This is a thinly veiled attempt to intimidate, malign, and vilify any individual, organization, or grassroots community group who expressed legitimate concerns or objections to this industry taking over PA, threatening public health, the safety of our children, the sense of place in our... communities, and the fabric of our way of life. Nom one I know, has ever mentioned engaging in any violent, or illegal acts of vandalism, in any way, shape, or form. On the contrary, the people I am associated with, and know who oppose this extreme industrial operation, and all the danger it brings withy it, are non-violent, and would not have anything to do with anyone, or any organization that would engage in, endorse, or be involved in any violent action. We do support any individual, or organization that feels the need to exercise their constitutional right to free speech, to peacefully assemble, and to engage in legal, non-violent, civil disobedience. We would not stoop to the bullying and intimidation tactics the gas industry has tried to use in an attempt to silence those who dare to challenge their right to put our families, our homes, and our communities at risk, nor would we ever.

Ecoterror target

Gas companies bolster security in response to threats

February 23, 2014
By MORGAN MYERS (mmyers@sungazette.com) , Williamsport Sun-Gazette
Crimes targeting energy companies are escalating in severity and frequency, government and industry officials report. Simple acts of vandalism have morphed into arson, drive-by shootings and strategically placed improvised explosive devices, according to Lycoming County Department of Public Safety Director John Yingling.


"The threat could be anything from a disgruntled employee or environmentalist action group to an individual upset with a land lease or right-of-way agreement or even just a random act of violence," Yingling said.


In June, unattended seismic equipment waiting to be flown out by helicopter was torched in Brown Township, Lycoming County. While no accelerant was used, the blaze was set intentionally, according to Dan Millward, project manager for CGG Veritas.


"There's no way the fire could have jumped from one cache of heli-bags to the next," Millward said.
In Tioga County, charred debris from suspected improvised explosive devices was found at two drilling sites, according to Shell Oil spokeswoman Kelly OpDeWeegh. No one was injured, state police said.


"These devices often are found at critical junctures of infrastructure," said George Stark, Cabot Oil and Gas external affairs director. "They seem to be strategically placed by someone with knowledge."
Energy companies have increased their security measures in response to the escalating threats, according to former Marcellus Shale Coalition CEO Kathryn Klaber.


"Companies have invested millions of dollars in each one of their operations and so taking care to protect those facilities is very important," Klaber said.


Wireless cloud cameras enable security teams to monitor well sites remotely, even from a smartphone, according to eLine, a surveillance system provider for the oil and gas industry. Motion detection may be set up and will trigger an email alert with a link to associated video.


"These companies potentially could have very high-tech security equipment that can read license plates or scan for facial recognition," said Marcia Finn, state police press secretary.


Gas company officials were hush-hush when asked for details about their security strategies.
"We try not to talk too much about the security we use because then it gets people looking for it," said Robert Boulware, Seneca Resources Corp. stakeholder relations manager. "There's several different layers of security and they may not be the same from location to location," said Stark, declining to get into Cabot's strategy.


Jersey Shore-based security firm Gas Well Services, which contracts with exploration and production companies such as Anadarko Petroleum Corp., declined to comment. However, its website advertises services ranging from roving patrols to "armed and/or unarmed security guards."


If the notion of armed guards sounds extreme, so are the actions taken by some alleged criminals.
In December 2012, a gunman stepped out of his dark-colored pickup truck and fired four rounds at a security guard near a well site in Snow Shoe Township, Centre County. There were no reported injuries, according to state police.


Prominent anti-gas activist Alexander Lotorto condemned such acts of violence but said he understood the motivations behind them. Like a pressure cooker with no release valve, unvented frustrations may mount and boil over, he said.


"It's all a consequence of steam building up in the system and finally being let out by someone who fired a shot," Lotorto said. "I want to be respected and heard. Somebody who might employ violence probably wants the same thing."


Lotorto likened today's hydraulic fracturing for natural gas to the mining of anthracite coal in the 1800s.


"Pennsylvania has gone to war with industry before over conditions in coal mines," Lotorto said.
Most gas workers are non-union and have no procedure for airing grievances at work, Lotorto claimed.


"If they were to bring up a problem with the company, they get blacklisted," Lotorto said.
But disgruntled employees are only part of a broad spectrum of possible security threats to the energy sector, according to Yingling.


"Some items that look like IEDs could also be used in a drug manufacturing process or could just be a tailpipe," Yingling said.


"Most incidents, no one has been able to pinpoint that they're against the industry. It could've been random," said Craig Konkle, energy development emergency response coordinator.


Random or not, the gas industry has ramped up its awareness programs, according to Konkle.


"We have quarterly meetings in this county, which involve law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services, Emergency Management Agency and industry folks. The state police have different intelligence groups that send out bulletins of certain activity that might be investigated," Konkle said.


Depending on the type of activity or infrastructure impacted, the case could get kicked up to the state Department of Homeland Security or the FBI, according to Boulware. The discovery of an explosive device could be deemed a terroristic threat, according to Boulware.


"I guarentee you, it's bigger than you think," Boulware said. "I bet there's a whole lot more going on than what people are willing to tell you."

WHEN THE GAS INDUSTRY USES THE STATE POLICE AND THE FBI JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE TO SILENCE A CITIZEN: INTELLIGENCE OFFICER AT MY DOOR

WHEN THE GAS INDUSTRY USES THE STATE POLICE AND THE FBI JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE TO SILENCE A CITIZEN: INTELLIGENCE OFFICER AT MY DOOR, 2.14.14.


by Wendy Lynn Lee


UPDATE: TREMENDOUS THANKS TO ALL OF THE SUPPORTIVE FOLKS WHO'VE RESPONDED TO THIS POST. I HAVE BEEN JUST OVERWHELMED AND AMAZED AT THE NUMBER OF BLOGS AT WHICH IT'S BEEN REPOSTED--AND THE NERVE IT HAS CLEARLY TOUCHED. I WILL BE UPDATING AND ADDING POSTS AS THIS STORY DEVELOPS, AND I HAVE BEEN TRACKING THE SITES WHERE IT'S BEEN REPOSTED. I HAVE LISTED THESE AT THE BOTOM OF THE POST.

I was brushing my teeth, and getting kidney meds into my cat, Switch, when I heard my three dogs going nuts downstairs.

I jostled down the stairs, wiping toothpaste off my face to attend to the rapping, and the doggies.

There was a man at the door.

I thought it was a Jehovah Witness, so I was wondering whether to make coffee.

I arrived at the door, signaled to the fellow--who I could now see was holding out a badge--that I needed to get my dogs outside. 'Barky, not bitey," I believe I said.


The man's name is MIKE HUTSON, Pennsylvania State Police, Intelligence Unit, Williamsport Office.

He was investigating reports of "vandalism" at unspecified compressor station locations, and he had with him a copy of the excellent Jeremy Alderson's Fall/Winter (2.2) Edition of the NO FRACK ALMANAC (http://www.nofrackalmanac.com/downloads/volume2_2.pdf).

He wanted to know about the pictures--the ones I have included here.

He wanted to know about the activists in the anti-fracking movement--and whether or not "they" commit acts of vandalism and/or violence.

He wanted me to give him names of "bad apples."


I know of no such "apples."

So, I scoffed.

Such a notion--as I made very clear to Mr. Hutson--is preposterous.

I reminded him of the activism of Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchu, Aung San Suu Kyi , Ella Baker, and Martin Luther King, and made very clear that these were our heros.


I mentioned Socrates who was willing to die for what he stood, and that he was executed for daring to question authority.

In fact, if there's to be a discussion of violence, I said, he'd be far better to investigate the industry. It will use whatever it can to silence us--and that is what brought the state police--an intelligence unit in a big black window-tinted van--to my door in rural Pennsylvania.

Many of us in this movement spend time wondering if we are surveilled. We try to avoid paranoia--all the while we know that, given the immense power and money at stake, this is an industry that does not conceive of the law as anything other than either a nuisance or a weapon to cast legitimate exercise of free speech as "eco-terrorism."

We see that everyday in its flagrant flouting of environmental, safety, and zoning law, and in it's liberal use of retired intelligence agents to harass, follow, surveil, and intimidate us.

Many of us have experienced vandalism clearly intended to silence our voices.

I used to wonder if I was surveilled, if my phone was tapped.

Now when I call my mom, I say into the phone that the agent listening might as well go get donuts.


Now I have the state police intelligence unit at my door.

What more effective way to intimidate a movement activist than to make up a complaint about "vandalism" at "compressors" that will get the police to her door?

But I have a message for this industry:

I AM NOT AFRAID OF YOU. AND I AM NOT AFRAID OF THE STATE YOU WIELD AS YOUR PERSONAL POLICE FORCE.

Here's the good news:

First, I got nothin' to hide. In fact, I'll bet that makes the industry even more nervous. I'm a mommy and a professor with some goddamn convictions, a steady paycheck, and a deep sense of duty to my four kids.

Doesn't get more ferocious than that.

Second, as a movement, we must be making some real headway for the industry to go to all the trouble to fake a vague charge against some unspecified folks in order to get an intel-officer dispatched on the tax payer 's dime and time to the door of an activist with no arrest record, no history of violence.

What she's got is a raft-load of knowledge about an industry that ought to be criminalized, a capacity to write down what she knows, a good camera, and some guts.

And she's keeping all four.

*Update: Thank you "BJ" for bringing the following two items to my attention--particularly thefact that Mr. Hutson is with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.

http://stepsofpa.com/PDF/11_Terrorism.pdf

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/10/hazardous_devices_found_at_gas.html

Wendy Lynne Lee
Shale Justice

All photographs: Wendy Lynne Lee, taken with a Nikon, and a telephoto lens on PUBLIC ROADS.

POSTED ALSO AT:

http://www.ronpaultribune.com/index.php/90-content/dailypaul-com/13619-gas-industry-uses-the-state-police-the-fbi-joint-terrorism-task-force-to-silence-a-citizen-intelligence-officer-at-my-door-2-1

http://www.dailypaul.com/312489/when-the-gas-industry-uses-the-state-police-and-the-fbi-joint-terrorism-task-force-to-silence-a-citizen-intelligence-offi

http://pennsylvaniafrack.com/2014/02/16/when-the-gas-industry-uses-the-state-police-and-the-fbi-joint-terrorism-task-force-to-silence-a-citizen-intelligence-officer-at-my-door-2-14-14/

http://protestationdotorg.wordpress.com/2014/02/15/when-the-gas-industry-uses-the-state-police-to-silence-a-citizen-intelligence-officer-at-my-door-w/

http://earthfirstjournal.org/newswire/2014/02/14/when-the-gas-industry-uses-the-state-police-to-silence-a-citizen-intelligence-officer-at-my-door/