Mountain Valley Pipeline protesters targeted by Virginia anti-terrorism center
Monitoring of activists in Virginia is part of a growing national trend.
MARK HAND JUN 8, 2018, 2:05 PM
Virginia police agencies are coordinating with a state anti-terrorism center to monitor residents opposed to a major pipeline that will transport large volumes of natural gas from West Virginia into Virginia. Civil liberties advocates are concerned that the collaboration represents another example of U.S. police agencies seeking to crack down on peaceful environmental protests.
The anti-terrorism unit, known as the Virginia Fusion Center, is partnering with sheriffs along the route of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline and EQT Midstream, the primary sponsor of the pipeline, to conduct surveillance of pipeline protesters. Documents obtained by the Climate Investigations Center and provided to the Richmond Times Dispatch reveal close coordination between the Virginia Fusion Center and EQT Midstream, a subsidiary of Pittsburgh, Pa.-headquartered EQT Corp.
There are 79 state fusion centers across the country. The collaboration among pipeline companies, private security companies, and fusion centers has become increasingly common as opposition has grown to the massive build-out of energy infrastructure across the nation. These centers have also been known to share tips and lessons learned with centers in other states to help them conduct surveillance of participants of protest campaigns.
In Virginia, the records show that the Virginia Fusion Center distributed “pipeline situation reports” that included information on how many people on Facebook were “interested” in meetings of groups such as the Sierra Club, Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), and Preserve Floyd — a grassroots organization created to preserve the rural nature of Floyd County, Virginia.
https://thinkprogress.org/state-police-work-with-anti-terrorism-center-to-spy-on-pipeline-protesters-7cf02f5be875/
I really do hate police state mentality when we have a First Amendment in Constitution, that says that I can protest.....................who really is the terrorist, just throw the word around to justify an end to the means?
= new reply since forum marked as read
and our water shed will be contaminated by this pipeline if it leaks. This makes me sick. Where the hell were the State Police at Charlottsville? Too busy spying on peaceful demos to stop Nazis from beating up and murdering innocent citizens?
