For First Time, Anti-Terrorism Law Used to Have Americans Protesting Keystone XL Pipeline Arrested

[bananas]

http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/12/17/for-first-time-anti-terrorism-law-used-to-have-americans-protesting-keystone-xl-pipeline-arrested/

For First Time, Anti-Terrorism Law Used to Have Americans Protesting Keystone XL Pipeline Arrested
By: Kevin Gosztola Tuesday December 17, 2013 10:22 am

A demonstration against Devon Energy and the company’s role in fracking and tar sands mining, including the Keystone XL pipeline, ended with four individuals being placed under arrest last week. Two of them were arrested by police on the basis that they had violated an Oklahoma anti-terrorism law prohibiting “terrorism hoaxes.”

It is strongly suspected that this happened as a result of advice that TransCanada has been giving local law enforcement in states, where protests against the Keystone XL pipeline have been taking place. They have been meeting with law enforcement and suggesting how terrorism laws could be applied to stop citizens from protesting the corporation’s activities.

I spoke with the two individuals arrested on terrorism charges, their lawyer and a spokesperson for Great Plains Tar Sands Resistance (GPTSR), which for months has been conducting nonviolent direct actions against construction of the Keystone XL pipeline in Oklahoma.

On December 13, several people entered Devon Tower in downtown Oklahoma City to protest Devon, an energy company involved in natural gas and oil production that involves fracking. They are also invested and involved in tar sands mining in Canada. Devon Energy CEO John Richels sits on TransCanada’s Board of Directors.

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[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Well, we did see this coming, did we not?

That was the purpose of the terrorism broad brush laws.

Decades ago protesters used to be arrested for being Communists.
Today's magic word is terrorist.
Same game.

[snot]

2. Hopefully that means they're starting to have an impact.

[bananas]

3. Yes - they don't attack someone who is irrelevant. nt

[starroute]

4. Oh, right -- this is the "glitter banner" case

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/12/tar-sands-keystone-protesters-arrested-terrorism-glitter

It's not uncommon for environmental protesters to face arrest, but here's an apparent first: On Friday, Oklahoma City police charged a pair of environmental activists with staging a "terrorism hoax" after they unfurled a pair of banners covered in glitter—a substance local cops considered evidence of a faux biochemical assault. . . .

As other activists blocked the building's revolving door, Warner and Stephenson hung two banners—one a cranberry-colored sheet emblazoned with The Hunger Games "mockingjay" symbol and the words "The odds are never in our favor" in gold letters—from the second floor of the Devon Tower's atrium. . . .

Oklahoma City police spokesman Captain Dexter Nelson tells Mother Jones that Devon Tower security officers worried that the "unknown substance" falling from the two banners might be toxic because of "the covert way [the protesters] presented themselves…A lot were dressed as somewhat transient-looking individuals. Some were wearing all black," he says. "Inside the banners was a lot of black powder substance, later determined to be glitter." In their report, Nelson says, police who responded to the scene described it as a "biochemical assault."

[blkmusclmachine]

5. DC has spent the years since 9/11 writing up laws to make average American citizens the newest

"terr'ists."

Somehow, I think that was the plan all along.