24 January 2011. Updated.

23 January 2011. Updated.

22 January 2011. Comments welcome: cryptome[at]earthlink.net

Statement on the January 19th Release of Files related to John Towery

John Towery Spy Dossier Comments

Related:

towery-spy1.zip       John Towery Covert Army Spy Official Dossier 1   January 24, 2011 (16MB)
towery-spy2.zip       John Towery Covert Army Spy Official Dossier 2   January 24, 2011 (593KB)

A writes:

I am writing to you in regards to the files that were recently posted in relation to John Towery's spying on anti-war demonstrators and anarchists. I am concerned because the files you posted contain a good deal of information on the people who were being surveilled by Towery, including pictures and other information (names, social circles, etc). I am one of these people who Towery spied on, and I am named repeatedly in the document. I think that Towery's actions are incredibly important to discuss; however, it is also dangerous to post unredacted information on those he spied on. This creates a danger not only from law enforcement but from other people who would otherwise not have access to the information therein.

I request that the larger document be temporarily taken down so that it can be redacted to remove the names and personal information of activists and anarchists who were infiltrated by Towery. This information includes pictures, addresses, personal relations, and other information that could result in a danger to those named. I have long admired the work that Cryptome does, and I want to see the site continue. However, it puts many people in danger to leave the document up with our names and information in it. I understand and respect Cryptome's policy of not removing any documents, and I agree with that position. I do not seek an absolute removal, but instead I wish to see measures taken to protect myself and friends from harm that could come from this. I would appreciate hearing back from you about this, and would sincerely urge you to let us pull our names out of the document before it is spread further. I do not think that taking measures to protect the people whose activities provoked the spying would in any way compromise the mission and spirit of Cryptome.

I look forward to hearing from you.

___________

Cryptome: The authorties wanted the full document released for the reasons you suggest so they leaked it to ensnare victims. They expect an outcry of those harmed. Redactions are a means of hostage-taking and intimidating those targeted. This official treachery needs to be publicly challenged and exposed.

Any number of authorities are now using redactions, lack of redactions and inept redactions as a cover for irresponsible behavior to punish. They leak documents for this very purpose.

We would like to publish statements of those harmed by the deliberate attack. A means to do this is to send us a version redacted by those harmed to highlight exactly what was intended.

__________

A: I appreciate your swift respone. While I understand the logic of the first two paragraphs, I am a bit confused as to what you are requesting with the third. I would appreciate if you would clarify that last paragraph.

__________

Cryptome: We would like to publish statements such as yours by those harmed by the official disclosure of the documents. In addition, it would be helpful to see a version of the documents marked-up as redaction by those harmed to show what the officials should have never released so carelessly. Note that DoD complained to the police about their irresponsible handling of the documents. This complaint is in the second pack of Towery documents. Such complaints are conventional escape from culpability when deliberate harm is exposed.

A2 writes:

I would like to refer to your John Towery documents in a news story. My main question is: how do I describe your site? It appears to me to be a WikiLeaks-style site. Of course, I d like to cite your site in my story. But how do I refer to it?

__________

Cryptome: Cryptome is a library for folks to share information. Cryptome does not redact, that is deceptive and presumes the redactors are more trustworthy than readers, which none are.

It is unlike WikiLeaks in many other ways:

http://cryptome.org/0002/wikileaks-unlike.htm

A3 writes:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2009/08/393158.shtml

A4 writes:

So I'm one of the people detailed quite heavily in the Towery docs just posted on cryptome. I was the one who helped in the outing of John Towery in Olympia (I was on Democracy Now and the NY Times, and other papers for this case). I was also the individual who put in the original public records requests in 2009 that eventually leaked out the initial info on the Pacific Northwest military spying case.

So there's a problem with the Towery docs. The person who put them on the site probably did not think things over too much or read through them thoroughly, but my social security number is on there as well as a lot of personal info about activists (a lot of it false). This could be very damaging for me personally especially since my DOB & SSN are up there.

There are other activists detailed in these documents who don't want this info up. If you could take it off the site, at least momentarily, I would really appreciate it. Then we can make some changes, review it and possibly put it back up.

Please help if you can. I really can't have my SSN available to the entire world.

_________

Cryptome: The officials who released the document wanted this to happen. This is now a common tactic by officials to intimidate and punish those they target by release of personal information. This was no accident, it was deliberately done.

We'll keep it down for one day in response to your request. This is not usually done for any reason and we will explain why an exception was made to demonstrate that officials use this technique to suppress dissent.

Send a version with the critical  info redacted and we'll publish it to show what the officials should have done to the original document to protect not harm targets.

You should be aware that it is a futile task to try to conceal information that officials wanted to disclose. There are now  hundreds of copies of the material distributed worldwide. If the original document is replaced with a redacted version that will likely make the original more appealing and lead to wider interest and distribution.

_________

A4:

Thanks. I figured it was a jab at me, especially since I said some unkind things about that police department on national news.

I'll get a hold of the folks who got this file to see if they can at the very least just edit my SSN out of it. Hopefully they'll send it to you.

A5 writes:

I just left you a voice message asking you to please NOT make the Towery files available.  My personal information is in those files, including a mug shot from my arrest in March 2007.  Personal information about many genuine activists (as opposed to people POSING as activists) are contained in those files.

Please do NOT make them available!

A6 writes:

please don't release people's private information. keep folks safe!

A7 writes:

I am writing to ask that you consider removing the dates of birth and addresses included with the arrest photos on pages 12 - 16 of the document entitled "towery-spy". I am one of the activists who was subject of the illegal spying and whose personal information is included in these documents. I believe it is possible that information being made public could put me at risk of  ID fraud, or (as some of my more activist friends imagine) drive by harassment by right wing fanatics.   I hope the goal of releasing these documents will serve to expose the illegal spying activities of government agencies and employees , not put the activists who were subject to the illegal spying at risk. 

Otherwise, thanks for posting this shit.

A8 writes:

I very much agree with A and would urge you to wait till PMR activists can discuss the release of their personal information and decide if it's a positive thing to do.

A9 writes:

I am a long term activist for more than 40 years in many anti-war and radical movements and a faculty member at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.  I was a victim of Cointelpro and am vary familiar from personal experience of the destructive role of government agents and informants. Also, through the ACLU, I have gotten a fair amount of my FBI files. There are many, many lies in them as well as major violations of privacy. 

I am also a member of Port militarization Resistance and on their listserv and have seen that someone sent you John Towery's notes, files and that you are about to publish them. I URGE YOU NOT TO PUBLISH THEM.  It will spread John Towery's distorted knowledge about activists in Olympia, Washington on the internet furthering suspicion among people, jeopardizing people's jobs, making public information and lies and John Towery's distorted view of reality and any damage Towery wants to creete.  To make this information public serves no useful purpose at all. It just compounds the damage that John Towery has already done. You would be doing the government's and police agencies and military intelligence work for them. I know that is not what you want to do.

Cryptome: Control of information by covert spying and data collection on citizens is very poor around the world. The information is widely collected and distributed by ineptly designed, secured and operated data management systems. Supervisors, staff and contractors are insufficiently trained and monitored. Turnover in personnel is frequent and inadequate measures are used to protect against theft and sale of private data. Data is shared among officials, contractors, universities, research institutions and FOI offices, none of which are carefully overseen and monitored to protect private information.

Breaches in data protection are common. Authorized disclosures and deliberate leaks are used for political and financial benefits. There are white, grey and black markets in selling personal information. Contractors and hacker-theives are hired by data peddlers to break into official and personal systems and bribes are paid to officials and contractors for official and personal data. These are common practices of governments, spies, corporations and individuals.

Vows to restrict access to this data are hollow. Redactions are deceptive and intended to convey information control that does not exist. Hundreds of thousands of allegedly trustworthy officials and private parties have access to unredacted information with few controls over what they do with the information. It is an illusion that personal information is protected against abuse and can remain private. Do not believe any claims to protect personal data, it must be protected by each person first and foremost. No privacy policy is truthful. No promise of confidentiality is disinterested.

Far more public debate is needed about widespread deception and lies about spying on individuals and false promises of the privacy of personal information.

A10 writes:

"The following two files will be withheld for one day"

Ok, please explain?  No hostility or doubt, just curious.

Getting yuan for the early release?  (Sorry, had to say it, I'm drunk and its a nice mix of WL and current event tie-in and your commercial skepticism of the site.)

I live in the first and only town to create a war memorial to ongoing wars; it'll be updated yearly.  WTF.  Occasionally I think of selling pix of Tillman's name, but I've never sold anything in my life except my mindfruit.

Visualize Secession.

If I could, I would redact everything except for the first 4 pages. I would deeply, deeply, deeply appreciate it if you would delete all but the first 11 pages from the file or if not withhold it until I can send you such a document.

I think the City of Tacoma should have redacted most all of the rest of the document.  

Interesting to see the comments that flow in to attack the messenger rather than the message.

_________

Cryptome: No changes will be made in the documents. Comments are welcome to foster debate and skepticism on what is too often "redacted" -- a vile deception to mislead persons about what is known and lied about and peddled about them. The City of Tacoma and whoever aided and abetted Towery and others like him knew exactly what they were doing in failing to protect persons from the Towerys, the USG and their political overseers in order to advance their careers and to enrich themselves.

They should not be protected by citizens concealing information about official criminality. That is another way officials draw citizens into complicity.

More documents about this need publication. Pass the word.

__________

A11:

Agreed.

Please post this statement concerning the files if you would.

Statement on the January 19th Release of Files related to John Towery

Following the acknowledgement by the U.S. Army at Joint Base Lewis McChord that an individual known as John Towery was working as a confidential  humint source (CHS) for the Pierce County Washington State Sheriff’s office and the Tacoma Police Department, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee – Tacoma requested, under appropriate provisions of Washington State Open Records Laws the following information:

Public Disclosure Request # 10-2798

“All records, payment summaries, employment records, email, memo’s and reports related to the use of  John Jakob, aka John Jacob Towery, John Towery II as a confidential police informant from 1 Apr 2005 until 03 Dec 2010. See TNT article 3 Dec 2010 “Tacoma PD Spies on Activists.”

In the past, the BORDC-Tacoma has requested and received 1,000’s of pages of documents detailing the wide variety and methods used by the Tacoma PD and other regional and national agencies to monitor protected 1st Amendment Activities.

We know that serious violations of Federal and State law have occurred in the manner in which personal information is collected and shared about local groups, activists, and personalities. In order to substantiate our belief that this activity continues and to document the depth and insidious nature of the result compelled us to try and understand more of what he did, when he did it and what he reported.

On January 19th the City of Tacoma released 133 pages of information primarily from the single notes and collection of one part of the records we know exist. We know that many more pages remain but have yet to be released. This document was released in an electronic format and was first available on City of Tacoma publicly accessible reading rooms.

The responsibility for protecting personal information and complying with releasability and redaction of any documents rests with the releasing agency, in this case the City of Tacoma.  The documents are publicly available to all that request them from the clerk’s office.

We have received numerous phone calls, hate email, and threats related to our efforts to expose the improper handling of sensitive information. The outrage should be directed at those parties responsible for protecting that data as a matter of course. Senate Bill 5048 is currently under consideration in the Washington State Judiciary Committee which is intended to curb such abuses, make clear remedies available to damaged parties, and provide for oversight and auditing of such information. The City of Tacoma and other local and state governmental entities should also be a focus of these outrages not the people trying to expose them.,

Our efforts to expose this violation of federal and state laws shall continue until all such damaging and untrue documents, allegations, and misinformation are expunged or removed from available public records. We hope you would join us.

A12 writes:

So some folks are trying to work on the file, but after given it much more thought, I would also echo people's calls to take this off the site. Unfortunately, the damage has already been done now that my name, birth date and SSN are now available to hundreds, if not thousands, of people I do not know.

One issue with these documents is that people who do not know us, but most likely other folks in Olympia and Tacoma, will take these documents at face value and as truth. There's a number of things in there about me that are not true at all (I don't have the patience to get into all of them now) ranging from making up a town that I was born in, to accusing me of various "criminal anarchist" acts and other crimes like smoking pot (which I've never done in my life) to other, more serious things.

I also agree that making these public, which apparently Tacoma did in their own way first, can be very problematic. I'm also not too sure how many of the folks with their mugshots in these documents, along with their charges, guessed political affiliations and FBI numbers want these online.

Unfortunately because of either the carelessness or vengeance of officials in Tacoma and Pierce County my SSN is out there and I will most likely have to change this.

Tacoma and Pierce County will also hear from me about this matter.

But I would urge you to please take this off the site or at least keep it off so people can figure out what to change from it. I know there are a lot of folks with their mugshots who probably don't want them made public and it will take a while to get a hold of these folks. Most of the info is also on personal relationships, where people live, where some folks work. And I can easily say without hesitation that the whole idea that the Army is trying to push through these document releases is a lie. Towery was not working for Pierce; he was working for the Army. They are intentionally trying to distort the facts by releasing these documents.

A13 writes:

Please give folks the best opportunity to protect themselves and their privacy by holding these documents until they have been appropriately redacted.

In response to claims that persons identified in the Towery spy dossier are working on a redacted version:

Cryptome:

No redacted version has come in to Cryptome. We'll pull the main Towery document for another day for completion of your redactions. As Cryptome states in this file of comments on the Towery doc:

http://cryptome.org/0003/towery-comments.htm

Officials intend to create suspicion and disgreement among their targets with this commonplace method. Please do not fall for the provocation.

Their aim is to scare targets with threats of exposure by "accidental" and "unauthorized disclosures," they often leave out material to foster accusations from those identified.

Our intention is to use this matter as an example of what officials do to irresponsibly punish those targeted without accountability.

Those with mug shots and ID in the document deserve admiration not concealment as if guilty of wrongdoing.

A14 writes:

Obviously, those of us who knowingly risk arrest in resistance to an injustice do not do so with any perceived need for "concealment as if guilty of wrongdoing."  That is not the concern here.  Rather, my concern is how my personal information can be used by those who might wish to cause me harm.  (And I do not mean to imply that all who were arrested in the protests "knowingly" risked arrest.)

I have openly voiced my resistance and stood my ground in the venues of my choosing.  John Towery's spy dossier is not a venue of my choosing and my mug shot and personal information are not a meaningful component of my message.  Publicizing such information is the kind of dirty trick I expect of law enforcement, but not from those who are ostensibly on my "side."

That said, I do very much appreciate your willingness to pull the documents and allow for some redaction.  Since you say that no redacted version has come to Cryptome, can you advise how those of us wishing to have our information redacted would go about making that happen?

__________

Cryptome:

No offense intended against your courage. Question now is how to best use it against this attack. Based on our experience be sure that Cryptome is not the only outlet for the file, there are likely quite a few who will not disclose that, indeed will keep it secret for most treacherous use.

The covert release of damaging information is widespread by officials. The redaction game is totally corrupt. It will entrap you once you take a bite. It is in heavy use by officials for just that purpose. That is why we do not redact and do not promise to know what to redact, that is a common ploy of those hoping to exaggerate their importance. Its targets should certainly  protect their information not trust those who promise to do it for them.

To redact download the original file off Cryptome if you do not have a copy and mark up what should be redacted, either by hand or digitally if you have a graphics program to do that. I will send you a temporary URL for downloading the file. Let me know. Or I will email a copy if that will help. It is 10MB in size so your email should have the capacity to receive it.

After making the redactions by all those affected generate a new PDF and send it to us.

A15 writes 23 January 2011:

Thank-you so much for you interest and support during this difficult time.

Folks that have been damaged by the incompentence or malice by the City of Tacoma should attend the next "Citizens' Review Panel" on 1st Monday of February at 0530 Pm:

http://www.cityoftacoma.org/Page.aspx?hid=7043 

One of the topics is supposed to be the Tacoma PD's compliance with CFR 28.

The audio of the meeting on Dec 6th 2010, includes my testimony alleging they are not in compliance and providing a file/checklist from the Dept of Justice to help them do so:

http://131.191.254.124/ondemand/ondemand-a/120610CRP.wma

People should also push members of the Judiciary Committee in Olympia to expand and pass SB 5048 "Washington State Enhanced Intelligence Bill:"

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?year=2011&bill=5048 

Folks should also demand the complete release of all records associated with the Towery Dossier to include all the emails amongst City of tacoma staff that discussed what to releasse and approving it for dissemination.

There is also a "Citizens Forum" on the 2nd Tuesday of the month where citizens can speak for 3 minutes about any topic under the Council's control.

A16 writes 23 January 2011:

My two cents on the two Towery .zip files temporarily removed from cryptome: post them back up in full.

First, the victims so called of this invasion of privacy have already had their privacy invaded, and the documents, as you point out, are already public, not just because Cryptome released them, but because it was decided releasing them was in the public interest, that this interest overrode considerations of personal privacy, and that the FOIA request had to be honored. This decision was made correctly.

Second, the "private information" cited by those claiming to be named and targeted in the case isn't really private: date-of-birth? That's public. Social security numbers? Semi-public and usually revealed by the "victims" themselves when applying for a driver's license, to enter Evergreen State College, etc. The SSN isn't supposed to be used for anything other than Social Security anyway, it even says so on the little paper card they hand out to the suckers who willingly apply for one, myself included. Street addresses, telephone numbers? These appear in court documents as public information, and in phone books. Email addresses? Fairly public, if you ask me. If the argument is that release of the documents of already collected intelligence creates a nexus for or faciliates identity theft, then so does the internet, and the people who spoke up in the Democracy Now! piece linked to on the IndyMedia article about the cryptome release can all be traced fairly easily using search engines, and their SSNs can be got for a small price.

I didn't download the documents before they were pulled because they seemed large and boring. I did see a note scribbled in the margin of a printed out email, presumably by Towery, mentioning a Brendan (BRENDAN MASLAUSKAS DUNN? Two last names, one Lithuanian, one local, my gosh it would be hard to track that fellow down) and a "multi-story" at 810 E. 4th Ave in Olympia, I suppose. Is this some kind of private information the police and/or the domestic spies victimizing these people don't have? Of course not, it's written right there. Is this something outsiders shouldn't have access to? Will Brendan arrive home to find house burgled now? Doubtful.

Third, I bet there are more domestic spies infiltrated into this local movement and I bet they are named in the FOIA and court documents. These people won't want to be nailed down with personal information. Speculation on my part of course. But check this, right from the ACLU website:

http://www.aclu.org/spy-files/spying-first-amendment-activity-state-state

Washington

Evergreen College Faculty Member Forwards Student E-mail to Washington State Patrol. On March 15, 2007, an Evergreen State College faculty member forwarded a student's message detailing information about an upcoming anti-war protest scheduled at the Port of Tacoma to the Washington State Patrol.

http://www.theolympian.com/2010/08/04/1326232/documents-reveal-surveillance.html

and also:

FOIA Request Shared with the Military and Misattributed to "Activist Group". A March 29, 2010 Daily Intelligence Bulletin, shows that local law enforcement shared information on a series of public records request with Ft. Lewis. Though the request was made by a local college student performing an independent study, the bulletin attributes the request to an "activist group." The bulletin then warns law enforcement agencies about the dangers of public disclosure. It is unclear why the local law enforcement agencies initially forwarded information about the request to the military, and why the military then shared this "warning" with the rest of the country.

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2010/08/05/18655440.php

and:

Tacoma Police Infiltrate Anti-War Group. An Aug. 5, 2008 document contained a quote from an undercover officer who had infiltrated an anti-war group. The quote stated, "It was very funny to watch them on Friday night, just so you know, they are scared sh*tless of TPD, that's pretty much all they talked about. Then they try to pscyh each other up enough to take one for the team, the car ride to the tide flats was hilarious ..."

http://www.theolympian.com/2010/08/04/1326232/documents-reveal-surveillance.html

Ibid.

I don't think all the infiltrators have been outed. One of them probably still poses as the friendly professor at Evergreen, or the helpful volunteer from the street ready to fix the computer at protest HQ, or whoever. Is mass paranoia the way to exclude infiltrators? Probably not. Documentation of their activities will keep them in line, though.

I saw about a year ago there was a riot in downtown Olympia, on East 4th Ave, incidentally, and it looked for all the world the work of a few provocateurs. The old trick of pretending to be anarchists to do the bankers' dirty work.

Also of possible interest (this looks fairly old to me btw):

http://www.blacklistednews.com/?news_id=5717

Fusion Centers and Military Intelligence: Best Friends Forever!

Another case which is emblematic of the close cooperation among fusion centers and military intelligence is the case of John J. Towery, a Ft. Lewis, Washington civilian contractor who worked for the Army's Fort Lewis Force Protection Unit.

In July, The Olympian and Democracy Now! broke the story of how Towery had infiltrated and spied on the Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (OlyPMR), an antiwar group, and shared this information with police.

Since 2006, the group has staged protests at Washington ports and has sought to block military cargo from being shipped to Iraq. According to The Olympian:

OlyPMR member Brendan Maslauskas Dunn said in an interview Monday that he received a copy of the e-mail from the city of Olympia in response to a public records request asking for any information the city had about "anarchists, anarchy, anarchism, SDS (Students for a Democratic Society), or Industrial Workers of the World." (Jeremy Pawloski, "Fort Lewis investigates claims employee infiltrated Olympia peace group," The Olympian, July 27, 2009)

What Dunn discovered was highly disturbing to say the least. Towery, who posed as an anarchist under the name "John Jacob," had infiltrated OlyPMR and was one of several listserv administrators that had control over the group's electronic communications.

The civilian intelligence agent admitted to Dunn that he had spied on the group but claimed that no one paid him and that he didn't report to the military; a statement that turned out to be false.

Joseph Piek, a Fort Lewis spokesperson confirmed to The Olympian that Towery was a contract employee and that the infiltrator "performs sensitive work within the installation law enforcement community," but "it would not be appropriate for him to discuss his duties with the media."

In September, The Olympian obtained thousands of pages of emails from the City of Olympia in response to that publication's public-records requests. The newspaper revealed that the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WJAC), a fusion center, had copied messages to Towery on the activities of OlyPMR in the run-up to the group's November 2007 port protests. According to the paper,

The WJAC is a clearinghouse of sorts of anti-terrorism information and sensitive intelligence that is gathered and disseminated to law enforcement agencies across the state. The WJAC receives money from the federal government.

The substance of nearly all of the WJAC's e-mails to Olympia police officials had been blacked out in the copies provided to The Olympian. (Jeremy Pawloski, "Army e-mail sent to police and accused spy," The Olympian, September 12, 2009)

Also in July, the whistleblowing web site Wikileaks published a 1525 page file on WJAC's activities. [Cryptome mirror of the WJAC file: http://cryptome.org/0003/wajac-spy.zip (57MB)]

Housed at the Seattle Field Office of the FBI, one document described WJAC as an agency that "builds on existing intelligence efforts by local, regional, and federal agencies by organizing and disseminating threat information and other intelligence efforts to law enforcement agencies, first responders, and key decision makers throughout the state."

Fusion centers are also lucrative cash cows for enterprising security grifters. Wikileaks investigations editor Julian Assange described the revolving-door that exists among Pentagon spy agencies and the private security firms who reap millions by placing interrogators and analysts inside outfits such as WJAC. Assange wrote,

There has been extensive political debate in the United States on how safe it would be to move Guantanamo's detainees to US soil--but what about their interrogators?

One intelligence officer, Kia Grapham, is hawked by her contracting company to the Washington State Patrol. Grapham's confidential resume boasts of assisting in over 100 interrogations of "high value human intelligence targets" at Guantánamo. She goes on, saying how she is trained and certified to employ Restricted Interrogation Technique: Separation as specified by FM 2-22.3 Appendix M.

Others, like, Neoma Syke, managed to repeatedly flip between the military and contractor intelligence work--without even leaving the building.

The file details the placement of six intelligence contractors inside the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WAJAC) on behalf of the Washington State Patrol at a cost of around $110,000 per year each.

Such intelligence "fusion" centers, which combine the military, the FBI, state police, and others, have been internally promoted by the US Army as means to avoid restrictions preventing the military from spying on the domestic population.

(Julian Assange, "The spy who billed me twice," Wikileaks, July 29, 2009)

The Wikileaks documents provide startling details on how firms such as Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), The Sytex Group and Operational Applications Inc. routinely place operatives within military intelligence and civilian fusion centers at a premium price.

Assange wonders whether these job placements are not simply evidence of corruption but rather, are "designed to evade a raft of hard won oversight laws which apply to the military and the police but not to contractors? Is it to keep selected personnel out of the Inspector General's eye?" The available evidence strongly suggests that it is.

As the American Civil Liberties Union documented in their 2007 and 2008 reports on fusion center abuses, one motivation is precisely to subvert oversight laws which do not apply to private mercenary contractors.

The civil liberties' watchdog characterized the rapid expansion of fusion centers as a threat to our constitutional rights and cited specific areas of concern: "their ambiguous lines of authority, the troubling role of private corporations, the participation of the military, the use of data mining and their excessive secrecy."

And speaking of private security contractors outsourced to a gaggle on intelligence agencies, investigative journalist Tim Shorrock revealed in his essential book Spies For Hire, that since 9/11 "the Central Intelligence Agency has been spending 50 to 60 percent of its budget on for-profit contractors, or about $2.5 billion a year, and its number of contract employees now exceeds the agency's full-time workforce of 17,500."

Indeed, Shorrock learned that "no less than 70 percent of the nation's intelligence budget was being spent on contracts." However, the sharp spike in intelligence outsourcing to well-heeled security corporations comes with very little in the way of effective oversight.

The House Intelligence Committee reported in 2007 that the Bush, and now, the Obama administrations have failed to develop a "clear definition of what functions are 'inherently governmental';" meaning in practice, that much in the way of systematic abuses can be concealed behind veils of "proprietary commercial information."

As we have seen when the Abu Ghraib torture scandal broke in 2004, and The New York Times belatedly blew the whistle on widespread illegal surveillance of the private electronic communications of Americans in 2005, cosy government relationships with security contractors, including those embedded within secretive fusion centers, will continue to serve as a "safe harbor" for concealing and facilitating state crimes against the American people.

------------

In sum, I think it's in the public interest to release the public information and the protestors need to just suck it up and hide themselves better next time, if hiding is what they are all about.

__________

Cryptome 23 January 2011:

Upon hearing from these writers and several more who telephoned, Cryptome believes that the Towery dossier was deliberately released without redactions as means of disinformation to threaten, smear and punish citizen targets and as a cover-up of official illegality by local law enforcement in conjunction with the US government.

Based upon statements of citizens targeted by the Towery dossier and upon close examination of it, the dossier contains a mixture of true, false, selective and misleading information, some of which appears to be forged and fabricated to distort a truthful account of illegal official spying on citizens.

The Towery and probably other spying operations -- some of which are likely still underway -- were illegally directed by the US military in an illegal arrangement with local law enforcement to avoid violating law prohibiting domestic spying by the military.

The Towery dossier deliberately misrepresents the complexity, extent and depth of the operation and carefully omits mention of other, related spying operations. There is considerably more information about the operation that has not been released by officials. This piecemeal release is a common tactic to test public response to partial releases in order to plan future releases or calculated withholding of information.

Some of the targets of the Towery spying operation have said they intend to take legal action against officials involved in the Towery dossier release. Cryptome will welcome an opportunity to assist such legal action with affidavit or testimony concerning the damage to citizens intended by release of the Towery dossier.

A17 writes 23 January 2011:

You wrote:

"Upon hearing from these writers and several more who telephoned, Cryptome believes that the Towery dossier was deliberately released without redactions as means of disinformation to threaten, smear and punish citizen targets and as a cover-up of official illegality by local law enforcement in conjunction with the US government.

...

"Some of the targets of the Towery spying operation have said they intend to take legal action against officials involved in the Towery dossier release. Cryptome will welcome an opportunity to assist such legal action with affidavit or testimony concerning the damage to citizens intended by release of the Towery dossier."

--------------------------------------------

I write:

OK but all the "personal information" seems to be available via simple search engine, examples pasted in below (with special attention to A's outing of "personal info" of opponents in his media venues).

Undoubtedly there is sowing of FUD etc going on, especially Towery's comments about "other informants" which were intended to terrorize, and which are probably true anyway.

It might be interesting to trace the web of deceit but I understand there are some scared young people involved who think they need protection even though their vital stats are hanging out for all and sundry to see and use.

Pastebin of sekrit dox follows:

[Research of personal information omitted.]

__________

Cryptome:

Thanks for your diligent contributions. More to come I hope as this matter unfolds. We will all be targeted for smearing if it goes as planned.

The personal information is the truthful component of the dossier, to give it sheen of verisimmilitude, but is fronting for much more false, misleading, distorted, forged and fabricated information. No spy report or dossier is ever truthful but is seeded with truthful stuff to costume the lies and conspiracy theories so beloved of spies.

And more will come as the orchestrated releases continue. This is what the Towery dossier targets know has been going on for quite a while and they expect to release more of the manufactured dossiers as they come in. A bombshell or two will be lobbed, as if capitulating to public demand, perhaps a commission will be set up to investigate. But all of it will be for show.

Manufactured and subpoenaed releases are small admissions of illegality to hide greater ones. Standard legal stonewalling. The 9-11 Commission got the same treatment from the nation's protectors and due to stonewalling about declassification wound up whitewashing the 9-11 failure.

But as the 9-11 Commission stated among themselves, it needed to release its interview reports or it would be suspected of a cover-up, but even now only 2/3 of the those interviews have been released -- TLA agencies are stonewalling declassification. Just as WJAC will do, invoking sacred cow national security.

__________

A17 writes 24 January 2011:

You're right, John. I slept on it and they've already been up to these sort of things, to such an extent that even I, an outsider thousands of miles away, know that the police in Tacoma intentionally leaked confidential defense documents obtained from a fusion center operation in order to force a mistrial, in one of the cases surrounding this. If you or I so much as called a witness on the other side of a case up on the phone to chew the fat or discuss baseball, we would be slapped with all sorts of obstrution of justice and contempt charges, or worse. So this sure as hell isn't equal, but I think the people getting the royal treatement in Olympia and Tacoma as if they were the protestors in Minnesota at the RNC, civilians subject to full military intelligence and harrassment, I think the Olympians and Tacomans are being successfully manipulated by the perceived threat and accruing harm of having supposed personal details released.

Not having read the material in question, the two zips, I am only guessing that the nature of that personal information was actually very public and already out in the open. A for example took pains to keep his address, phone, etc off the net, but then puts it all on a jpg. By all accounts the guy is some sort of asshole anyway who likes to publish "personal info" of people he doesn't like, telephones and home addresses. Or maybe he figures they're fair game if they're public employees, to which I'd agree. And maybe he rubs pro-war elements the wrong way who go on to wreck his reputation.

A2, a musical talent and an activist from Olympia, came under scrutiny of military intelligence back around the time just after Bush Jr went to war in Iraq for organizing something called Rock Against Bush.

There do seem to be multiple concurrent operations going on with possible protest groups in the Puget Sound area, if I had to make a guess. So-called force protection at the local military bases has projected itself out into the community beyond base gates and boundaries in cooperation with but not limiting itself to these fusion centers set up by the federal government to coopt local law enforcement into "the secret stuff." As local municipal and state budget resources dwindle well below their projected amounts because of the global credit squeeze and currency devaluations, local police will come under more pressure, even from civilian authorities, to let the military do more of the policing. US Marines stopping shoplifters, and at the Port of Olympia the Olympia PD can stand down and let the big boys in khaki do it, it being making sure there are no protests OUTSIDE the gates, entry road, etc.

Your statements about how this will unfold reminds me that this isn't supposed to be a national issue. The G-men probably want this to be a local story without wider coverage, because that makes penetration and control simpler, and keeps the consequences confined to one small community. I think cryptome has done something really good by presenting it widely, and of course Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and others have been trying to make this a national news item. Ft. Lewis/McChord mil intel has been operating outside the bases since at least 1947 with the Maury Island UFO intrigues. I'm sure there are all sorts of cozy relationships which wouldn't withstand the light of public scrutiny. Moreover Olympians in the past have used the "necessity defense" aka Nuremberg to argue in court they had to protest in obediance to a higher law. The OLYPRM rightly or wrongly perceived it had turned at least one military commander after its initial action, someone who refused to go to Afghanistan and became a cause celebre. If you look at how the CFR or whoever it is who is behind these wars have been running things since 2003, it's all about maintaining public apathy in the US and Western Europe to an extent enabling controlled politicians who go along with the wars to remain in office. The last thing they want is for a politicized movement of youth to start citing the UN Charter and Nuremberg as obligations for intervening against the wars and any forces supporting them.

Your thanks are very kind but misplaced; I have no real contributions to make to this item beyond some outdated background info and a suggestion the protestors not let themselves be controlled by things that don't matter.

Thank you for following this story. I think it's important. I know Olympia PD has been engaged in torturing people since long before 9/11. I know Seattle PD think they can shoot down deaf Indian woodcarvers on the street in broad daylight with total impunity. I know local law enforcement there in Puget Sound is mostly corrupt and has no problem framing people like the young black libertarian activist shot down near Sea-Tac a while back. The Washington Soviet Socialist Republic has all the makings of a hardcore, conformist, fascist political unit if the people in power there ever got autonomy (beyond fake "sovereignty" movements like the Cascadia thing intended to generate bucks/loons for the initiators).

PS

Kenn Thomas the author and 'zine maker has done a lot of research on the Maury Island incident and has Clay Shaw, Guy Banister and Jim Garrison [three JFK assassination figures] in the Tacoma area at the time. He thinks Fred Crisman was one of the "three tramps" in Dallas. I figured out L. Ron Hubbard was in the same area (Kitsap Peninsula near Maury Island) at the same time too, for whatever that's worth. L. Ron was I guess mentioned in some classified documents as being connected with Jack Parsons in Orange, CA, and there was one of those people diagrams made, you know, who knows whom and how they connect. This was some early attempt to study/track the UFO phenomenon by the US govt. Not sure how it relates to the current affair with Towery et al., but there it is.

A18 writes 23 January 2011:

I am currently redacting the Towery docs to satisfy the wishes of many of the folks mentioned in them. A sent a redacted version earlier but he does not think it made it through to you. We are taking this opportunity to redact more names and addresses and other personally identifying information. I expect to be done with this in about an hour.  At that time I will send you the redacted file.

towery-spy1.zip       John Towery Covert Army Spy Official Dossier 1   January 24, 2011 (16MB)