Posted on 05/14/2015 5:29:18 AM PDT by thackney
FBI documents obtained by the Guardian and Earth Island Journal show the bureau colluded with an oil company and illegally spied on environmental activists in Houston.
The Guardian reports the FBI’s Houston division closely monitored groups that oppose the Keystone-XL pipeline, cultivated informants in activist groups, and shared intelligence with TransCanada, the company building the pipeline.
Furthermore, the investigations violated FBI policy because agents failed to get prior legal approval to begin monitoring the activists. In an interview with the Guardian, the bureau admitted the error.
The documents, about 80 pages obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, show the investigation was opened in early 2013 after a meeting of the FBI and TransCanada. It was closed in June 2014 after the bureau failed to identify extremist activity amongst anti-Keystone demonstrators, the Guardian reports. But that’s contrary to FBI documents published on the Guardian website.
“The Houston Division has identified an emerging threat from environmental extremists targeting construction projects of the TransCanada Keystone XL Pipeline within the Houston domain. Many of these extremists believe the debates over pollution, protection of wildlife, safety, and property rights have been overshadowed by the promise of jobs and cheaper oil prices,” the document said. “The Keystone Pipeline, as part of the oil and gas industry, is vital to the security and economy of the United States.”
The controversial pipeline would bring heavy Canadian tar sands to Houston area facilities for refinement and export. It’s attracted impassioned opposition and support from those who decry environmental destruction and carbon-wafting fossil fuels or who herald the project’s job creation and its push towards national energy independence.
The Guardian investigation shows the FBI targeted activists with the South Texas group Tar Sands Blockade. It logged the identities of individuals caught photographing oil facilities or TransCanada buildings and shared them with the corporation.
According to the group’s website, Tar Sands Blockade organizes activists in the East Houston neighborhood of Manchester, where a Valero refinery and other industry make toxic living conditions for local residents, they allege.
According to the Guardian, the FBI’s Houston investigations were opened under post-9/11 policies that “allow agents to open intrusive investigations into individuals or groups, even if they have no reason to believe they are breaking the law.”
Now, tell me again why this was “illegal” (FBI investigating probable terrorism of an oil pipeline deeply feared and hated) and the IRS harassment and targeting of conservative was “not illegal”?
Domestic Eco-terrorism.
“FBI investigating probable terrorism of an oil pipeline deeply feared and hated”
And this was not ‘deeply feared and hated’.
That is a concoction by those with agendas, just like one would say global warming is ‘deeply feared and hated’.
Someone in the FBI should show Obama the report in post #4 and highlight that last sentence. Maybe tape it to his teleprompter....
Don’t be surprised, the FBI spies on groups for the Tea Party to the a Junior Leagues’ Garden Party.
What newsworthy is that they spied on a liberal group. They spy in Tea Party memebrs every day.
ugh. “on Tea Party members”
“The Guardian reports the FBI’s Houston division closely monitored groups that oppose the Keystone-XL pipeline, cultivated informants in activist groups, and shared intelligence with TransCanada, the company building the pipeline.”
Nothing in that sentence is illegal except perhaps The Guardian which is a leftist as they come
Yep, and most will not look past the footnotes
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