"This is the world in which activists now find themselves. Not only must they contend with the sweeping surveillance powers of the state, brought to light most recently by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden, but also the expanding—and essentially unregulated—corporate security and intelligence gathering network. Yet even against this backdrop—and in the wake of the crackdown on animal rights and environmental groups in the mid-2000s known as the “Green Scare”—the environmental movement has refashioned itself. Opposition to hydraulic fracturing—fracking—and the Keystone XL pipeline have, in just a few years, become highly visible campaigns known for massive protests and acts of civil disobedience. Such widespread public opposition, no longer limited to a fringe element, has corporations worried. In an email to Lt. Randy Morehead of the Nebraska State Patrol and John McDermott, a crime analyst at the Nebraska Information Analysis Center, TransCanada security director Michael Nagina drew attention to the recently launched Keystone XL Pledge of Resistance, which has gathered nearly 70,000 signatures for acts of peaceful civil disobedience “should it be necessary” to stop the pipeline."
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 22:56:53 +0000