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Alex Jones reports on DHS spying documents
FOIA Documents: DHS Monitored Opposition to ‘See Something, Say Something’ Program
Federal agency tracked Infowars stories, user comments
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Hundreds of pages of documents released under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that the Department of Homeland Security monitored political opposition to the See Something, Say Something campaign, as well as tracking Infowars stories and user comments on a myriad of other issues while categorizing the website as “Right Wing Terrorism”.
Having initially requested copies of records in August 2011, “regarding any political profiling documents that specify what groups are monitored under fusion centers all over the country and which kinds of people are profiled,” Brian D. Hill of USWGO.com finally received the documents recently after a year of back and forth communication with the agency during which he narrowed down his request to include search results which included DHS discussion of a handful of websites, including Infowars.com.
intelligence reports circulated between different offices of the Department of Homeland Security as well as the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A). In most cases, the identities of individuals both sending and receiving the messages have been redacted.
A report dated January 24, 2011, marked “for official use only” and produced by the Amtrak Intelligence Team is entitled Opposition to “See Something, Say Something”.
The report notes how Infowars.com launched a campaign in opposition to the DHS program, which encourages citizens to report “suspicious activity” to the authorities, including via television screens at Wal-Mart stores which play a message from DHS chief Janet Napolitano.
The document notes how Infowars “claims” the campaign was based on the “V for Victory” symbol of French resistance to Nazi occupation in WWII, while implying that the movie V For Vendetta, as well as an incident in 2006 where Clay Duke spray painted a ‘V’ on the wall during a school board meeting in Panama City, Florida before shooting at board members, were motivations behind the campaign.
“Some people may associate the film in which a modern-day Guy Fawkes attacks a totalitarian regime in England with Jones’ campaign,” states the document.
The report includes screenshots of posters used in the campaign, alongside the text, “Alex Jones is calling on
people to place campaign posters in public places to counter a perceived “police state.” Supporters also might write the letter “V” on public property as a protest effort.”
The report makes it clear that the growth and success of the campaign was monitored by federal authorities.
“Jones’ Facebook page offers 58 “V for Victory” posters that people can print, and as of 24 January, 1,840 people “liked” his “V for Victory” Facebook page. Over 135,000 “like” Jones’ personal Facebook page,” states the report.
The document also includes a photo of an activist placing a ‘V’ poster on a telegraph pole in support of the campaign.
Screenshots from the report entitled ‘Opposition to See Something, Say Something’.
“On Jones’ website PrisonPlanet.com, an individual posted his photo (pictured above) in support of the campaign. Over 60 responses to the campaign shared support,” states the document.
The report then quotes an individual with the user name ‘netwrkingman’, who commented, “Just got done with my flyer campaign, EVERY Wal Mart door pole, fast food drive thru and Star Bucks drive thru in my local 3 cities is now V’d up. Woo.”
The document also notes how aggressive TSA screening policies introduced in 2010, “Spurred increased criticism that the U.S. government has become a “police state” that is abusing individual liberty.”
A subsequent email sent the next day by an individual from the “Office of Intelligence & Analysis – U.S. Department of Homeland Security – Baton Rouge, LA,” states, “For your S/A if you haven’t seen this reporting from yesterday—the groups is trying to counter the DSH (sic) “see something, say something” campaign.”
Another DHS email contains an Infowars story about how the DHS’ promotional videos for its See Something, Say Something campaign go to great lengths to portray white, middle class Americans as the most likely terrorists. The article notes how, “No matter where you look, from East Germany, to Communist Russia, to Nazi Germany, historically governments who encourage their own citizens to report on each other do so not for any genuine safety concerns or presumed benefits to security, but in order to create an authoritarian police state that coerces the people into policing each other’s behavior and thoughts.”
The emails also expose how the Department of Homeland Security has been monitoring Infowars in relation to a number of other news stories.
An email dated April 6, 2009 sent to “SL_Field” contains an article by Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center about Richard Poplawski, the man who killed three Pittsburgh police officers during a shoot-out on April 4, 2009. In the article, Poplawski attempts to lay the blame on Alex Jones for the shootings by claiming that “Poplawski was reportedly interested” in Alex Jones’ websites – Infowars and Prison Planet. What Potok fails to divulge is the fact that Poplawski had left comments on both websites disagreeing with and denigrating Alex Jones. When this was revealed, numerous large media outlets had to issue retractions withdrawing the claim that Poplawski was inspired by Jones, but the SPLC failed to follow suit.
One of the documents also covers the DHS’ reaction to an incident in January 2011 where a sticker was placed on the mirror inside a restroom at the Mitchell Courthouse, Baltimore City Circuit Court. The sticker, which read “9-11 Was an Inside Job. Learn the truth at InfoWars.com PrisonPlanet.com Jonesreport.com,” prompted the courthouse to contact the DHS and ask for advice on whether “I&A, SLPO and other LE/IC partners have reported similar activities?”
“This is a promotional sticker from Prison Planet and Infowars: He’s a conspiracy theorist from back in the late nineties that gets some airplay from but no one else takes him seriously. He believes that there’s a cabal of secret global elites that control the government through secret societies like Skull and Bones, Bohemian Grove, Masons, etc,” stated the DHS reply.
“The fact that this incident was even reported seems like a complete waste of time and paper, the fact that it was even reported at all is really pretty scary,” notes Donna Anderson. “This was merely a sticker, a thin piece of paper glued to a mirror, but because the message suggested a government cover-up, it was deemed a “threat” and reported to the DHS.”
A long email from April 2009 containing numerous news articles makes reference to how some on the political right were claiming that the DHS had begun to demonize conservatives as part of a “plan” to move away from any focus on Islamic terrorism”. The email contains articles from World Net Daily, the American Spectator, Atlas Shrugged, Stormfront, as well an Infowars story entitled Secret DHS Doc Predicts Violence in Response to New Gun Restrictions.
This article also forms the body of a subsequent email circulated within the DHS and sent to “A&P Managers” which also contained an attachment entitled, “Homeland Security Assessment Rightwing Extremism Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.”
The email notes how, “This must be the article (see attached email chain) that generated the calls to the NOC this morning.” The article describes how a DHS document warns federal and local officials to expect “terrorism” in response to planned firearm restrictions.
The document also contains dozens of comments from respondents to the articles, highlighting how the DHS is also closely monitoring remarks made on the Internet.
An email from August 2009 contains an article which includes a reference to an Infowars story about preparations for martial law in the event of a mass pandemic.
Screenshot of the Infowars.com front page in a report entitled “Right Wing Terrorism”.
Another document contains a power point-style report entitled “Right Wing Terrorism”. Included along with images of racist scrawlings on restroom walls, white supremacists, neo-nazis, and other race-hate groups is the Oath Keepers organization, the Sovereign Citizen movement and a screenshot of the Infowars.com front page next to the words, Hardin – American Police Force – Conspiracy theorists believe this is the new location for the FEMA camp.”
This refers to investigation conducted by Infowars in September 2009 during which it was revealed that a private security force had begun patrolling the streets of Hardin, Montana after the group was originally contracted to provide security at a previously empty detention center located in the town.
Another email from February 2010 which includes the acronym “FYI” (for your interest), contains an Infowars story by Kurt Nimmo documenting how police officers in Canada had been caught posing as anarchists in order to provocateur violence and demonize legitimate protesters.
Another email dated February 19, 2011 contains a link to Infowars article written by Steve Watson and Paul Joseph Watson entitled Don’t Be Evil? 10 Ways In Which Google Runs The World, which describes how Google has grown to become “literally an a corporate arm of the intelligence community.”
An email dated May 3, 2011 contains an L.A. Times article which discusses how “conspiracy theorists” doubt the official narrative behind the death of Osama Bin Laden following the dubious tale about how the Al-Qaeda leader was “buried at sea”.
These documents illustrate the fact that the Department of Homeland Security is slowly evolving into a KGB-lite style secret police outfit that seems to be just as concerned about monitoring political free speech as it is about genuine threats to the homeland.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) also admits that it has documents which contain political profiling pertaining to Alex Jones, Infowars as well as the Drudge Report, but has thus far refused to release them despite facing a Freedom of Information Act request.
Read the full list of released documents below, courtesy of USWGO.com.
Final Notification of FOIA Request sent to USWGO – PDF
Document 1 – PDF
Document 2 – PDF
Document 3 – PDF
Document 4 – PDF
Document 5 – PDF
Document 6 – PDF
Document 7 – PDF
Document 8 – PDF
Document 9 – PDF
Document 10 – PDF
Document 11 – PDF
Document 12 – PDF
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.
