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News you may have missed #0254 (activism edition)

January 15, 2010 by intelNews Leave a comment

US activists file lawsuit over domestic spying. Anti-war activists in Washington State are suing military analyst John Towery and police officials for allegedly infiltrating and spying on two antiwar groups in Olympia. The suit also names the City of Olympia and a US Coast Guard employee.
Antiwar activist to stage sit-in at CIA HQ. American political activist Cindy Sheehan says she intends to stage a sit-in in front of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on January 16, to protest the Agency’s unmanned drone attacks in Pakistan. Sheehan, whose son was killed in the Iraq War in 2004, attracted international attention for her extended protest at a makeshift camp outside President George Bush’s Texas ranch.
Is there legal basis for CIA drone strikes in Pakistan? We at intelNews have asked this question before. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is asking it also, and has requested to see the US government’s estimates of civilian casualties caused by the strikes.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with ACLU, CIA, Cindy Sheehan, civil liberties, domestic intelligence, Iraq War, John Towery, News, news you may have missed, Pakistan, political activism, Predator drones, United States, US Coast Guard, Washington state

News you may have missed #0073

August 20, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Homeland Security denies involvement in domestic spying case. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that reports on antiwar groups gathered by John Towery, an undercover Army spy in Washington state, did not make their way into DHS intelligence data banks.
Sudan’s new spy chief speaks to the press. Mohamed Atta Al-Moula Abbas, who replaced Salah Gosh as head of Sudan’s National Security and Intelligence Services last week, has spoken publicly for the first time.
US special operations forces can’t exploit intelligence. US special operations forces are successfully collecting valuable operational intelligence materials in the field, but can’t exploit and disseminate those materials, according to a new report.

Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with domestic intelligence, informants, John Towery, Mohamed Atta Al-Moula Abbas, National Security and Intelligence Services (Sudan), News, news you may have missed, Salah Gosh, Sudan, United States, US Army, US Department of Homeland Security, US Special Forces, Washington state

FOIA request reveals US Army spying on activists

July 29, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

Eileen Clancy

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
US government documents released through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by activists in Washington state have helped unmask a US Army informant operating amidst their ranks. John Towery, a member of the US Army’s Force Protection Service at Fort Lewis in Washington, claimed to be an anarchist named “John Jacob” in order to join Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance. He then spied on the groups on behalf of several regional and federal government agencies, including Immigration Customs Enforcement, Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and the US Army. This is the latest in a long line of similar incidents, which inevitably point to a systematic campaign of domestic intelligence gathering against antiwar groups. Read more of this post