A private security firm that had hunted militants in Afghanistan and Iraq was hired by the Texas-based pipeline developer Energy Transfer Partners to track protestors at Standing Rock, S.D.
TigerSwan’s “surveillance targets included everyone from Native American demonstrators to the actress Shailene Woodley, along with organizations including Black Lives Matter, 350.org, Veterans for Peace, the Catholic Worker Movement, and Food and Water Watch. The records label the protestors ‘jihadists’ and seek to justify escalating action against them,” says Grist, which gained access to internal documents from the firm.
The tactics were first reported last weekend by The Intercept. Grist said it independently obtained more than a dozen similar documents prior to The Intercept’s report.
The company focused on people of color in its investigations, especially Native Americans, members of the Black Lives Matter movement and Palestinians, all of whom were camped at Standing Rock to fight the development of the Dakota Access Pipeline. DAPL cuts “directly under Lake Oahe — the primary drinking water source for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and millions more people downstream,” says Grist.
“In addition to intrusive surveillance, the leaked documents reveal that the security firm attempted to create divisions between activists, manipulate and discredit pipeline opponents, and collect evidence that law enforcement could use to prosecute Standing Rock activists,” reports Grist, adding that TigerSwan provided information to local law enforcement. This revelation could become a constitutional issue, if the government hired a private firm to do searches it legally couldn’t under freedom of speech laws.
President Trump approved the pipeline, after President Obama stopped its construction in the last weeks of his presidency.