Do you think the looting and destruction in cities are the doings of Erik Prince?

[tenderfoot]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/07/us/politics/erik-prince-project-veritas.html

WASHINGTON — Erik Prince, the security contractor with close ties to the Trump administration, has in recent years helped recruit former American and British spies for secretive intelligence-gathering operations that included infiltrating Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations and other groups considered hostile to the Trump agenda, according to interviews and documents.

One of the former spies, an ex-MI6 officer named Richard Seddon, helped run a 2017 operation to copy files and record conversations in a Michigan office of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the largest teachers’ unions in the nation. Mr. Seddon directed an undercover operative to secretly tape the union’s local leaders and try to gather information that could be made public to damage the organization, documents show.

Using a different alias the next year, the same undercover operative infiltrated the congressional campaign of Abigail Spanberger, then a former C.I.A. officer who went on to win an important House seat in Virginia as a Democrat. The campaign discovered the operative and fired her.

Both operations were run by Project Veritas, a conservative group that has gained attention using hidden cameras and microphones for sting operations on news organizations, Democratic politicians and liberal advocacy groups. Mr. Seddon’s role in the teachers’ union operation — detailed in internal Project Veritas emails that have emerged from the discovery process of a court battle between the group and the union — has not previously been reported, nor has Mr. Prince’s role in recruiting Mr. Seddon for the group’s activities.

<snip>

Mr. Prince invited Project Veritas operatives — including Mr. O’Keefe — to his family’s Wyoming ranch for training in 2017, The Intercept reported last year. Mr. O’Keefe and others shared social media photos of taking target practice with guns at the ranch, including one post from Mr. O’Keefe saying that with the training, Project Veritas will be “the next great intelligence agency.” Mr. Prince had hired a former MI6 officer to help train the Project Veritas operatives, The Intercept wrote, but it did not identify the officer.

Mr. Seddon regularly updated Mr. O’Keefe about the operation against the Michigan teachers’ union, according to internal Project Veritas emails, where the language of the group’s leaders is marbled with spy jargon.

They used a code name — LibertyU — for their operative inside the organization, Marisa Jorge, who graduated from Liberty University in Virginia, one of the nation’s largest Christian colleges. Mr. Seddon wrote that Ms. Jorge “copied a great many documents from the file room,” and Mr. O’Keefe bragged that the group would be able to get “a ton more access agents inside the educational establishment.”

The emails refer to other operations, including weekly case updates, along with training activities that involved “operational targeting.” Project Veritas redacted specifics about those operations from the messages.

In August 2017, Ms. Jorge wrote to Mr. Seddon that she had managed to record a local union leader talking about Ms. DeVos and other topics.

“Good stuff,” Mr. Seddon wrote back. “Did you receive the spare camera yet?”

As education secretary, Ms. DeVos has been a vocal critic of teachers’ unions, saying in 2018 that they have a “stranglehold” over politicians at the federal and state levels. She and Mr. Prince grew up in Michigan, where their father made a fortune in the auto parts business.

AFT Michigan sued Project Veritas in federal court, alleging trespassing, eavesdropping and other offenses. The teachers’ union is asking for more than $3 million in damages, accusing the group of being a “vigilante organization which claims to be dedicated to exposing corruption. It is, instead, an entity dedicated to a specific political agenda.”

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[tenderfoot]

1. kick

[BlueTsunami2018]

2. Proud Boys, blackwater ops, cops and black bloc.

These riots are instigated by professionals. There are plenty of opportunists taking advantage and picking up the cues but regular people wouldn’t have started this on their own. It’s too organized and similar. The pallets of bricks and kindling to set fires didn’t just spawn like in a video game, someone is setting this all up.

[tenderfoot]

3. A lot of the action in LA happened in my neighborhood...

Most of the places looted were high end clothing stores on Fairfax and Melrose and the Grove.

Nordstrom's etc. got hit. No one could be bothered with Ross For Less across the street.

The protest marched through peacefully and the looters/vandals swept in from behind. The police concentrated on the marchers and totally ignored the vandals. Then they lobbed tear gas and acted as the aggressors.

BTW, how the f*** did those police cruisers get lit up?

This shit was planned.

[sarisataka]

4. I said no

Back in the day while gaming out counter insurgency scenarios we had one that used a fictional modern industrialized nation with a population of several hundred million rather than the usual third world analogue.

I was on the 'Red Team' with the mission to disrupt that nation. It was chilling how easy it was.

Now it may be professionals with different goals than we had but the actions and targets lead me to believe it is opportunistic amateurs with perhaps, even likely, outside agitators who have read some RW fiction.

[roamer65]

6. Human civilization is now a very high house of cards.

We narrowly missed a similar event in 2012.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_1859_geomagnetic_storm

Eventually one will hit and fry most electrical systems, including computers and networking devices.

It will set us back about 100 years.

[Ghost Dog]

8. Professionals in the present context

perhaps would not want their actions to appear to be so professional, though.

[sarisataka]

9. Always possible

When working counter insurgency (to use the military term) a major effort of intelligence gathering is to determine how many opposing groups you are facing, their skills and is there a coordinated effort.

Also another factor is, given experience, even amateurs will grow into professionals.

[customerserviceguy]

5. I try to avoid

"neat" little conspiracy theories whenever possible. However, I can be persuaded by solid evidence.

[keithbvadu2]

7. Prince has the experience, wherewithal, and willingness to do it.

Prince has the experience, wherewithal, and willingness to do it.