(PA) State tracks anti-Marcellus Shale drilling groups, notifies law enforcement

[RamboLiberal]

Source: The Patriot-News

Big Driller may be watching you.

According to recently leaked documents, the Pennsylvania Office of Homeland Security has been tracking anti-gas drilling groups and their meetings — including a public screening of the film “Gasland,” a documentary about the environmental hazards of natural gas drilling. The office has included the information in its weekly intelligence bulletins sent to law enforcement agencies.

The bulletins are also sent to gas companies drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Activists and environmental groups have responded with outrage and some alarm.


Read more: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/09/post_122.html

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As a PA resident this is outrageous!

[Divernan]

1. So DHS is moonlighting as private corporate spy for the gas companies.

Outrageous doesn't begin to describe this.

Our tax money financing a government agency used to provide information to private gas companies.
Now what the hell are the private companies going to do with this info? Do their employees all wear brown shirts?

And don't overlook Tom Ridge's connections with the agency he formerly led, and his current role as paid shill for the private gas companies.

I hope the ACLU gets on this.

[baldguy]

2. "Moonlighting"? I thought that was their primary purpose.

So-called law enforcement agencies have always been used by the corporatocracy to suppress individuals & groups seeking the truth.

[PA Democrat]

6. I made the same comment on another thread about Tom Ridge.

The tactics being used by these companies to bully property owners into allowing them to drill are despicable.

[24601]

13. No, not DHS (federal gov't) this is the POHS, a state agency n/t

[herbm]

3. Like the man said, Pa is Phili on one end Pittsburgh on the other, Alabama in the middle.

[Mnemosyne]

11. I grew up here, moved to Alabama for a few and once again living in PA - sadly you are correct.

Hopefully one of my major accomplishments next year will be to get the hell out of this state.

NW Pa - red delusion central...

[herbm]

14. I know what you mean, I live in Austin and thank G*d it ain't Texas. My Grand parents lived in Nanty

Glo, Pa and it was wonderful and I always liked P'Burgh. The rest of Pa was somewhere else. Like the rest of Texas.

[Dawson Leery]

4. The DHS must be dismantled.

As for law 'enforcement', they have always been the tool of the elite class.

[RamboLiberal]

5. Rendell to discuss the monitoring tonight (Tue)

HARRISBURG -- Gov. Ed Rendell will hold a news conference this evening concerning media reports that the state Office of Homeland Security has been keeping track of people who attended recent meetings opposed to Marcellus shale drilling, including a Pittsburgh City Council meeting and gatherings in Allegheny, Butler and Philadelphia counties.

Gene Stilp, a Harrisburg citizen activist and opponent of natural gas drilling, said the Philadelphia City Paper and the Harrisburg Patriot-News obtained leaked information about the monitoring efforts by state Homeland Security officials, which were supposedly done in the interest of public safety.

Mr. Stilp said word got out recently when the state office mistakenly sent an e-mail about its tracking efforts to an opponent of the drilling. One event that was monitored was a screening of the anti-gas drilling film "Gasland'' in Philadelphia, as well as a Pittsburgh council meeting about gas drilling, he said.

"I am demanding that the state House and Senate hold hearings on this,'' he said today. "This is not the way Pennsylvania government is supposed to run.''



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10257/1087480-100.stm#ixzz0zXdxyIY1

[Newsjock]

7. Pa. Gov. Looking Into Intel Report On Activists

Source: Associated Press

Gov. Ed Rendell said Tuesday he was looking into circumstances surrounding an intelligence bulletin circulated by his homeland security office that listed events likely to be attended by environmental, animal rights and peace activists as potential security threats.

... The 12-page bulletin includes a list of four municipal hearings on Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling, a forestry industry conference and a screening of the documentary "Gasland" as events likely to be attended by anti-drilling activists.

James Powers, the governor's homeland security director, told the Patriot-News of Harrisburg that he started inserting information about anti-drilling activists in his tri-weekly intelligence bulletins about a month ago because of several recent acts of vandalism around the state related to the natural gas industry.

Aside from the drilling-related events, the bulletin mentions other potential security concerns that it said could involve "anarchists and Black Power radicals." It lists demonstrations by anti-war groups, deportation protesters in Philadelphia, mountaintop removal mining protesters in West Virginia and an animal rights protest at a Montgomery County rodeo. It includes "Burn the Confederate Flag Day," the Jewish high holidays and the Muslim holy month of Ramadan as potential sources of risk.

Read more: http://cbs3.com/wireapnewspa/Pa.governor.looking.2.1912163.html

[gratuitous]

8. Uh huh

Yeah, those peace protestors, always up to no good. Don't they know that blasting the living bejeebers out of a bunch of foreigners is just the good old American way of life? Don't they got no patriotism at all? Better do some undercover surveillance, a little rat-fucking, and some infiltration with an eye toward COINTELPRO tactics.

"Black Power radicals"? Really?

[Roy Rolling]

9. John Lennon

Well, I guess they don't have John Lennon to kick around anymore.

[PA Democrat]

10. Guess who is a paid lobbyist for the natural gas drilling companies?

Former Secretary of Homeland Security, former PA governor Tom Ridge.

Is Tommy doing some dirty work for his new corporate bosses? Putting environmentalists on a terrorist watch list?

[Divernan]

12. You know if they're doing this in PA, they're doing it nationwide.

nt

[harun]

16. I believe you are correct.

[L. Coyote]

15. WATCH the film "Gasland" and see what is at risk

WATCH the film "Gasland" and see what is at risk

http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/613/index.html

Week of 3.26.10
"Gasland"
Will the boom in natural gas drilling contaminate America's water supply?