#CriminalizingDissent: #Greenpeace Ordered to Pay $667M to #DakotaAccessPipeline Firm over #Protests

#DemocracyNow, March 20, 2025

"A jury in #NorthDakota has ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $660 million in damages for defaming #EnergyTransferPartners, the corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The Texas-based pipeline company accused Greenpeace of orchestrating criminal behavior by training and providing funds to the #Indigenous-led protests at #StandingRock. Greenpeace and its supporters, including other #nonprofits and #advocacy groups, argued that the lawsuit is part of a conspicuous attempt by #corporations to destroy the right to #FreeSpeech. Longtime #HumanRights and #environmental lawyer #StevenDonziger, who was part of the independent trial monitoring team observing the trial, says it was purposely held in a region of the country with deep ties to the #FossilFuel industry. Donziger said most of the jurors in the case were connected to the industry and were 'predisposed' to rule in favor of Energy Transfer despite the 'false narratives' presented at the trial. Greenpeace plans to appeal the ruling."

Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/20/greenpeace_lawsuit_north_dakota_pipeline
#StandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #SLAPPs #ViewerSupportedNews #GreenpeaceUSA #SLAPPsLawsuits #CriminalizingDissent #NorthDakota #StandingRockSiouxTribe #StandingRockReservation #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #WaterIsLife #KelcyWarren #ArrestKelcyWarren #ErikPrince #Blackwater #ACAB

Defenders in #Appalachia Against #MountainValleyPipeline Avoided #FelonyCharges

"Initially we were charged with #conspiracy. The real conspiracy is between the #prosecutors and the #judges, between the #cops and the #corporations."

By #AppalachiansAgainstPipelines, #CensoredNews, March 3, 2025

"Last Tuesday, 12 pipeline fighters had court in Giles County for charges resulting from three different actions against the Mountain Valley Pipeline in 2023 and 2024 in and around the #JeffersonNationalForest, including one site where #MVP was drilling through the mountain under the #AppalachianTrail.

"Eleven of the defendants accepted non-cooperating plea deals -- all of them were facing absurd felony charges, including
felony abduction and felony 'unauthorized use of a vehicle.' In the end, they plead to misdemeanor charges and there were NO felony convictions. They were sentenced to community service, probation, and to pay restitution. The court room was PACKED all day long with supporters!"

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2025/03/defenders-in-appalachia-against.html
#ReaderSupportedNews #LandDefenders #WaterProtectors #MountainProtectors #CriminalizingDissent #SilencingDissent #JeffersonNationalForest #AppalachianTrail #CorporateColonialism #AppalachiansAgainstPipelines #SLAPPs #WaterIsLife #NoPipelines #MountainValleyPipelineLLC #Virginia #WestVirginia #NorthCarolina #ACAB #CorporateGreed #ComplicitGovernment

Trump's BIG Warning: 'All Federal Funding Will STOP For Any College, School, or University That Allows Illegal Protests'

March 4, 2025

"US President Donald Trump has announced a ban on what he calls "illegal protests," warning that schools and colleges allowing such demonstrations will lose all federal funding. On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his threat to cut funding for educational institutions that permit 'illegal #protests,' marking his latest move to control federal spending in the education sector.

"Trump took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to issue a statement, warning that students participating in these protests would face expulsion or arrest. He also declared that
agitators will be permanently sent back to the country from which they came.'

"In a stern warning to educational institutions, Trump declared, 'All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter.'

"The announcement comes as the US government weighs the withdrawal of over $50 million in contracts from Columbia University, following allegations that it failed to protect Jewish students during protests against Israel's war in Gaza.

"Trump has consistently opposed protests against him, despite his and his party's emphasis on free speech in the US. The Republican leader has previously threatened to cut federal funding to schools, colleges, and universities over teachings on gender and race, allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls' sports, or enforcing COVID-19 vaccine mandates."

Source:
https://www.msn.com/en-in/news/world/trump-s-big-warning-all-federal-funding-will-stop-for-any-college-school-or-university-that-allows-illegal-protests/ar-AA1Aer9h
#USPol #CriminalizingDissent #SilencingDissent #Fascism #CorporateColonialism #Resistance #ResistFascism #CharacteristicsOfFascism

#WinonaLaDuke: #DAPLPipeline Lawsuit Against #Greenpeace Aims to Silence #Indigenous #Protests, Too

#DemocracyNow, March 04, 2025

"As the oil company Energy Transfer sues Greenpeace over the 2016 #StandingRock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline, we speak with #IndigenousActivist Winona LaDuke, who took part in that historic uprising. LaDuke is an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of #Anishinaabe who lives and works on the White Earth Nation Reservation and was among the thousands of people who joined the protests in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to protect water and Indigenous lands in North Dakota. She highlights the close links between North Dakota’s government and Energy Transfer and says that while the lawsuit targets Greenpeace, Indigenous water and land defenders are also on trial. 'North Dakota has really been trying to squash any kind of #resistance,' says LaDuke. 'If they can try to shut down Greenpeace, they’re going to shut down everybody.'"

Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/4/winona_laduke
#ViewerSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince

#Greenpeace on Trial: $300M Lawsuit over #StandingRock #Protests Could Shutter Group & Chill #FreeSpeech

#DemocracyNow, March 04, 2025

"A closely watched civil trial that began in #NorthDakota last week could bankrupt Greenpeace and chill #EnvironmentalActivism as the climate crisis continues to deepen. The multimillion-dollar lawsuit by #EnergyTransfer, the oil corporation behind the #DakotaAccessPipeline, claims Greenpeace organized the mass protests and encampment at Standing Rock between 2016 and 2017 aimed at stopping construction of the project.

"Although the uprising at Standing Rock was led by #Indigenous #WaterDefenders, Energy Transfer is instead going after Greenpeace for $300 million in damages — an amount that could effectively shutter the group’s U.S. operations. 'This case is not just an obvious and blatant erasure of #IndigenousLeadership, of #IndigenousResistance,' says Deepa Padmanabha, a senior legal adviser for #GreenpeaceUSA. 'It is an attack on the broader movement and all of our First Amendment rights to free speech and #PeacefulProtest.'"

Watch / listen / read transcript:
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/3/4/greenpeace
#ViewerSupportedNews #StandWithStandingRock #WaterIsLife #NoDAPL #KelcyWarren #Trump #BigOil #CorporateColonialism #BigOilAndGas #EnvironmentalRacism #StandingRock #SLAPPs #NoDAPL #WaterIsLife #SLAPPsLawsuits #SilencingDissent #ACAB #EnergyTransfer #UnicornRiot #CriminalizingDissent #ACAB #Blackwater #ErikPrince

Trump allies circulate #MassDeportation plan calling for ‘processing camps’ and a private citizen ‘#army’

The group, led by #Blackwater veteran #ErikPrince, has close #Trump ties.

By Dasha Burns and Myah Ward
02/25/2025 05:55 AM EST

"Prince declined to comment, and the other contractors and former immigration officials listed as key personnel in the document also declined to comment or could not be reached.

"The founders of the new special entity called #2USV have a long history with the U.S. government. Blackwater was formed by Prince in 1996 to provide training services to law enforcement, military personnel and other government agencies. It gained widespread attention for its work in Iraq and Afghanistan, providing security services for U.S. officials and military personnel, with critics viewing its rise as a result of the U.S. military’s overextension in the Middle East.

The military contractor came under scrutiny in 2007 following the #NisourSquareMassacre, when #Blackwater contractors opened fire and killed 17 Iraqi civilians and wounded 20 others — raising questions about oversight and accountability of private contractors. Several contractors were charged with manslaughter, and four were convicted in 2014. Trump pardoned them at the end of his first term in December 2020.

"Trump’s pardon was just one example of the influence of Prince’s family during the first Trump administration. #BetsyDeVos, Prince’s sister, served as the president’s #Education secretary, while Prince used his Trump connections as he chased business ventures in the U.S. and abroad.

"In 2018, he reportedly helped raise money for an effort to spy on progressives and Democratic organizations opposed to Trump." [As well as #DAPL #WaterProtectors!]
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/25/documents-military-contractors-mass-deportations-022648
#Blackwater
#ErikPrinceColonialism
#SilencingDissent
#USPol #Project2025 #CriminalizingActivism
#ClimateActivists #NoDAPL #Crapitalism
#Fascism #Trump #ChristoFascist
#CorporateFascism #SilencingDissent #ClimateActivists #Activists #NoDAPL #CriminalizingDissent
#CrackdownOnProtests #AntiProtestLaws #CorporateFascism #CorporateColonialism
#CharacteristicsOfFascism #ErikPrinceColonialism #Academi #TripleCanopy #SilencingDissent #ErikPrinceIsAWarCriminal

Ahead of Another Summer of Climate Disasters, Let’s Talk about Real Solutions

"#Capitalism has no future on this planet. We will need a far-reaching revolution to address this crisis."

#CrimeThinc, May 8, 2024

"The mainstream climate movement begins from a premise that guarantees failure. Not just failure. Catastrophe. And the more effective it is, the more harm it will cause.

Let’s explore why.

#ClimateReductionism

"When people think of environmentalism these days, they are likely to picture civil disobedience in the streets, media activism, enthusiastic lobbying, and conferences aiming to set global goals for carbon emissions—all under the leadership of non-governmental organizations, academics, and progressive politicians. Ecological struggle, however, has always also included anti-capitalist and anti-colonial currents, and these currents have been getting stronger, more dynamic, and better connected over the past couple decades.

T"hat growth, however, has not been without setbacks, often caused by intense targeted repression that leaves movements exhausted and traumatized, like the #GreenScare that began in 2005 and the repression of #StandingRock and other #Indigenous-led #AntiPipeline movements a decade later.

"Systematically, at precisely the moments when radical currents are licking their wounds, the predominantly white, middle-class vision of environmentalism takes the stage and pushes the entire conversation in reformist directions.

"The actual crisis we are facing is a complex ecological crisis, in which police killings, repressive laws, ongoing histories of #colonialism and #WhiteSupremacy, #HabitatLoss,#LandGrabs, food cultures, human health, #urbanism, borders, and wars are all entangled. The leadership of the environmental movement has made the strategic decision to reduce all of this to a question of climate—the climate crisis—and to recenter the state as the protagonist, as our potential savior. This means centering the #ParisAgreement and the #COP summits as the solution to the problem, and using performative #activism and #CivilDisobedience to demand policy shifts and investment in support of green energy."

Read more:
https://crimethinc.com/2024/05/08/ahead-of-another-summer-of-climate-disasters-lets-talk-about-real-solutions
#ACAB #CriminalizingDissent #CapitalismMustDie #CorporateColonialism #Corporatocracy #ClimateJustice

So, I'm wondering if these are being launched to spy on #USCitizens -- maybe even take action against them? Weaponized #PoliceDrones is an idea that's been floating for years... Are we about to become a full #PoliceState?

Intelligence officials [FAIL TO] reveal source of drones in classified briefing

by Melissa Koenig, December 18, 2024

"US Coast Guard licensed captain and New Jersey resident Paul Sprieser, 56, has said he does not believe all the sightings can be explained by commercial aircraft or other sanctioned activities.

"'There's a large percentage of them that are not commercial aircraft, like these stationary objects in the sky that are the size of an SUV that are just hanging out there for five or six hours, or seven hours,' Sprieser told DailyMail.com.

"It is possible that the drones could be the result of a 2018 defense contract to develop and test '#counterterrorism' drones.

"The Department of Defense is allowed to deny claims of third-party technologies if the drones were placed on a secure tech list for contract disclosures, which means the government is applying special restrictions to the information.

"The restrictions are added when technologies protect national security or to keep advanced systems hidden from hostile nations, and the developer holds primary liability if the government is not operating the drones, Retired CIA Intelligence Officer Rudy Ridolfi explained to DailyMail.com.

"He noted that the Federal Aviation Administration issued an air restriction alert on November 21 prohibiting flights over the Picatinny base for 'special security reasons' through December 26.

"'This FAA notice shows US drone testing is happening in the area. It's a warning for others to stay out of the area during those dates,' Ridolfi said.

"'While the nature of the testing isn't specified, it's most likely the testing of payloads related to reconnaissance.'

"The drone sightings began in mid-November when drones were spotted over the US Army's Picatinny Arsenal and President-elect Donald Trump's golf course in Bedminster — both in New Jersey.

"In the weeks that followed, similar drones were reported throughout the state, especially in and around Morris county, and have since spread to other states in the region."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/intelligence-officials-reveal-source-of-drones-in-classified-briefing/ar-AA1w4oTQ?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=824e6b335c634e4fad5a4b97424f7e5a&ei=10

From 2022: How an Undercover Colorado Springs Police Officer Tried to Entrap #Leftists with Illegal Firearms Charges

March 8, 2022, #ItsGoingDown

"Thanks to reporting from Colorado Springs Independent, it is now public knowledge that #ColoradoSprings Police infiltrated the #ChinookCenter and a number of groups that organize there such as Colorado Springs #DemocraticSocialistsOf merica (#DSA) and Colorado Springs #TenantUnion, using a pink haired cop named April Rogers who went by 'Chelsie Kurti' and pretended to be a sex worker.

"#CSPD’s infiltration of Chinook Center initially looked exactly like their infiltration of Colorado Springs Socialists back in 2017: Go undercover into an easy-to-join leftist group, surveil, and arrest as many people as possible as soon as they take a march off the sidewalk. However, we recently had a couple of local activists who had previously been involved with Chinook Center reach out to us with their experiences involving CSPD officer April Rogers. These experiences show a police department desperate to entrap leftist organizers. If there’s no crime, Colorado Springs Police Department will create one.

"If you are involved in any level of left-wing, anti-capitalist, or anti-state political organizing – tighten up your security. We highly encourage anyone involved in radical organizing to create an alias for yourself and use a separate phone number and email for organizing purposes. Apps like Burner and MySudo provide burner phone numbers and emails. You can also follow this guide to create an anonymous Signal number.

"As this situation with the Chinook Center also shows, standing with survivors of abuse can also protect you from police infiltration.

"The CSPD undercover wasn’t going around smashing windows or planting piles of bricks in order to justify violent police repression, she was quietly surveilling everyone she could, asking for personal information, adding folks on social media, and as we’ve recently learned, working to get local leftists to buy firearms for her illegally. Officer April Rogers repeatedly asked about levels of gun knowledge, about building firearms, and suggested making straw purchases. She also spoke about some kind of front range gun running operation, and suggested starting a leftist 'militia.'

"We’ve attached statements from two leftist organizers who had the misfortune of being targeted by Officer April Rogers posing as Chelsi Kurti. These statements provide an important look into the tactics of the police, and show that they’ll create crimes where there are none. The idea that your group is above ground and therefore you were never in any danger is incredibly naive."

Read more:
https://itsgoingdown.org/how-colorado-springs-police-tried-to-entrap-leftists/

From 2022: #ColoradoSprings Cops Attempt to Entrap #Activists: Denver Spy Files Revealed Police Spying for a Decade

by #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, March 10, 2022

"An undercover, pink-haired undercover cop in Colorado Springs, attempted to create crimes, and ensnare activists in illegal firearms purchases. Even a #MutualAid group was targeted. This current case in Colorado is a reminder of how Denver cops spied on everyone who supported #BigMountain, #Peltier and #AIM, in the 1990s. Even a grandmother with a Peltier bumper sticker and their attorneys were followed. The documents came out during discovery during a court case.

"The current Colorado Springs covert operation reveals how undercover cops target organizers, and attempt to entrap them, including those in #BlackLivesMatter, and shows that #COINTELPRO continues."

https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2022/03/colorado-colorado-springs-cops-attempt.html

'Weird' Newspaper Could Taint Jury Pool in #DAPL Case, Court Told

The Strange Case of #EnergyTransfer v. #Greenpeace and #RedWarriorSociety

By #BrendaNorrell, #CensoredNews, Dec. 13, 2024

"A newspaper that mysteriously appeared in the mail boxes of Morton County residents could taint the jury pool in the upcoming case of Energy Transfer v. Greenpeace. It is the latest strange development in the case filed against Greenpeace, Red Warrior Society and water protectors over the protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

"Now, eight years later, Energy Transfer's $300 million lawsuit filed against Greenpeace, known as a SLAPP lawsuit to silence protesters, is slated for North Dakota Court in February. Besides all this, the pipeline has been on a fishing expedition serving the media and water protectors with third-party subpoenas to extract their information.

"Central ND News, the 'weird' newspaper targeting Standing Rock Water Protectors, and promoting the Morton County Sheriff, has generic bylines called 'staff reports.' The funders are a conservative group promoting pipelines. It was mailed to Morton County from Chicago, Illinois.
Everett Jack, an attorney representing Greenpeace, said during a Monday afternoon hearing. 'We should have the right to figure out who sent it when they did and why.'"

Read more:
https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2024/12/weird-newspaper-could-taint-jury-pool.html