Palast Charged with Journalism in the First Degree

[Rhiannon12866]

September 11, 2006
by Greg Palast

It’s true. It’s weird. It’s nuts. The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, has finally brought charges against… Greg Palast. I kid you not. Send your cakes with files to the Air America wing at Guantanamo.

Though not just yet. Fatherland Security has informed me that television producer Matt Pascarella and I have been charged with unauthorized filming of a “critical national security structure” in Louisiana.

On August 22, for LinkTV and Democracy Now! we videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It’s been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW’s (Prisoners of W) are still in this aluminum ghetto in the middle of nowhere. One resident, Pamela Lewis said, “It is a prison set-up” — except there are no home furloughs for these inmates because they no longer have homes.

To give a sense of the full flavor and smell of the place, we wanted to show that this human parking lot, with kids and elderly, is nearly adjacent to the Exxon Oil refinery, the nation’s second largest, a chemical-belching behemoth.

So we filmed it. Without Big Brother’s authorization. Uh, oh. Apparently, the broadcast of these stinking smokestacks tipped off Osama that, if his assassins pose as poor Black folk, they can get a cramped Airstream right next to a “critical infrastructure” asset.

So now Matt and I have a “criminal complaint” lodged against us with the feds.

http://www.gregpalast.com/palast-charged-with-journalism-in-the-first-degree#more-1487

[Cooley Hurd]

1. The War on Journalism hits our own Greg Palast...

K&R!:grr:

[Rhiannon12866]

2. Thanks! I've admired this guy's courage for years.

IMHO, as journalists go, he's just the best. But I've also been waiting for something like this. It's an outrage, but it doesn't surprise me.;(

[lyonn]

3. Palast filmed a refinery that is "critical" infrastructure?

Unprotected part of a critical infrastructure is how the govt./Exxon describes this property/business that Palast filmed, yet show the exact location of refinery. Unbelievably unexplainable logic.

[rman]

9. Yeah, like it isn't on any map

Maybe W thinks they don't have maps in the desert.

[rman]

4. So the "critical national security structure" is an oil refinery.

And filming it is a violation of national security.

Just so that we know where we're at.

[file83]

8. Yup - Corporate (private) property is now jurisdiction for DHS.

So, let's say an employee is now raped at that Exxon facility - could the courts block an investigation with a gag order due to "National Security" reasons?

Why not?

[Kurovski]

5. Remakable and disgusting intimidation.

K&R.

Oh, and Exxon stinks.

[EVDebs]

6. Palast's "Khan Job" article mentions NSA's pre9-11 'policy shift'

This article is behind his harassment. Mark my words.

""A top-level CIA operative who spoke with us on condition of strictest anonymity said that, after Bush took office, "There was a major policy shift" at the National Security Agency. Investigators were ordered to "back off " from any inquiries into Saudi Arabian financing of terror networks, especially if they touched on Saudi royals and their retainers. That put the Bin Ladens, a family worth a reported $12 billion and a virtual arm of the Saudi royal household, off limits for investigation. Osama was the exception; he remained a wanted man, but agents could not look too closely at how he filled his piggy bank. The key rule of any investigation, "follow the money," was now violated, and investigations-at least before September 11-began to die.""

http://www.strike-the-root.com/4/palast/palast3.html

At the same time, the Ptech company had FAA, Air Force, and WhiteHouse computer access all the while the wargames of 9-11 (Vigilant Warrior, Vigilant Guardian, Northern Guardian, Northern Vigilance, Tripod II, and the NRO/CIA 'plane into building' exercise).

""Ptech is used primarily to develop enterprise blueprints at the highest level of US government and corporate infrastructure. These blueprints hold every important functional, operational, and technical detail of the enterprise. A secondary use of this powerful tool is to build other smart tools in a short period of time. Ptech’s clients in 2001 included the Department of Justice, the Department of Energy, Customs, Air Force, the White House, the FAA, IBM, Sysco, Aetna, and Motorola, to name just a few. ""

Dollars of terror by Rachel Ehrenfeld
www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=17730

Ptech is now renamed GoAgile and apparently still has WhiteHouse, FAA, and Air Force computer access...

Like EVDebs in the past, who garnered a million votes for president while in a jail cell, Palast -- even behind bars-- will have given DUers and progressives everywhere the information necessary to disinfect the corrupt cesspool that has co-opted our once-great capital.

[file83]

7. Wait, so why is the Gov't putting thousands of disgruntled citizens

next to a "National Security Infrastructure Site"?

Isn't doing that even MORE dangerous than filming it?

What if those people have a riot and decide to trample the gates and blow up the refinery!?

Sounds like FEMA needs to have charges placed against them for jeopardizing National Security.

[rman]

10. They have unique and innovative ways to manage their emergencies

That's for sure.

[roody]

11. k

[Rhiannon12866]

12. Thank you.

:-)

[GETPLANING]

13. Oh NOW they are interested in protecting infrastructure...

When they want to crack down on a particular journalist who has exposed so many Bush crimes.

[Rhiannon12866]

14. Update: Reporter Palast Slips Clutches of Homeland Security

September 14th, 2006
by Greg Palast

Forget the orange suit. Exxon Mobil Corporation, which admits it was behind the criminal complaint brought by Homeland Security against me and television producer Matt Pascarella, has informed me that the oil company will no longer push charges that Pascarella and I threatened “critical infrastructure.”

The allegedly criminal act, which put us on the wrong side of post-9/11 anti-terror law, was our filming of Exxon’s Baton Rouge refinery where, nearby, 1,600 survivors of Hurricane Katrina remain interned behind barbed wire.

I have sworn to Homeland Security that we no longer send our footage to al-Qaeda — which, in any case, can get a much better view of the refinery and other “critical infrastructure” at Google Maps.

Given Exxon’s back-down, I hope to confirm with Homeland Security, Baton Rouge, that charges will be dropped today.

Matt and I want to thank you, our readers and viewers, for your extraordinary and heartfelt responses. Public support undoubtedly led Exxon to call off the feds.

http://www.gregpalast.com/reporter-palast-slips-clutches-of-homeland-security#more-1488

[samsingh]

15. imagine that