{"id":459679,"date":"2022-01-06T18:41:11","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T18:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/?p=382774"},"modified":"2022-01-06T18:41:11","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T18:41:11","slug":"judge-rules-against-pipeline-company-trying-to-keep-counterinsurgency-records-secret","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/06\/judge-rules-against-pipeline-company-trying-to-keep-counterinsurgency-records-secret\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Rules Against Pipeline Company Trying to Keep \u201cCounterinsurgency\u201d Records Secret"},"content":{"rendered":"
Last week,<\/u> a North Dakota court ruled against a bid<\/a> by the oil company Energy Transfer to keep documents about its security contractor\u2019s operations against anti-pipeline activism secret. The court thwarted the pipeline giant\u2019s attempt to narrow the definition of a public record and withhold thousands of documents from the press. Judge Cynthia Feland ruled that Energy Transfer\u2019s contract with the security firm TigerSwan cannot prevent the state\u2019s private security licensing board from sharing\u00a0these records with The Intercept, refusing to accept the company\u2019s attempt to exempt the records from open government laws.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first opinion that I\u2019ve been aware of that\u2019s made it clear that when you give records to a public entity like this private investigation board, they become public records,\u201d said Jack McDonald, attorney for the North Dakota Newspaper Association. \u201cWhat relationship there was between Energy Transfer and TigerSwan \u2014 that doesn\u2019t affect the records.\u201d<\/p>\n The North Dakota case revolves around 16,000 documents that an administrative law judge forced TigerSwan to hand over to the state\u2019s\u00a0Private Investigation and Security Board in the summer of 2020 as part of discovery in a lawsuit accusing the company of operating without a security license. TigerSwan was hired by Energy Transfer in September 2016 to lead its security response to the Indigenous-led movement to stop construction of the Dakota Access pipeline,\u00a0or DAPL, at the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.<\/p>\n A portion<\/a> of the discovery documents were already made public in court filings. The documents provided unprecedented detail about the security firm\u2019s activities against members of the anti-pipeline movement, known as water protectors, and raised questions about whether public officials\u2019 responses to Energy Transfer\u2019s activities were appropriate.<\/p>\n In October 2020, I made a public records request under the aegis of The Intercept for the full set of documents that gave rise to the court case. This week, Energy Transfer attorneys said they plan to appeal the latest ruling and requested a stay to prevent the North Dakota security board from releasing the material.<\/p>\n Led by a former commander of the elite Army unit Delta Force, TigerSwan approached the water protectors as \u201can ideologically driven insurgency with a strong religious component,\u201d according to internal documents leaked to The Intercept. Company tactics \u2014 including aerial surveillance, communications monitoring, infiltration of activist circles, and coordination with law enforcement agencies \u2014 were revealed by The Intercept in an investigative series<\/a>. In one of the discovery documents that has already been released, TigerSwan bluntly said that its \u201ccounterinsurgency approach to the problem set is to identify and break down the activist network.\u201d<\/p>\n\n Energy Transfer is pouring money into fighting more documents disclosures. The pipeline company hired Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, a law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, one of former President Donald Trump\u2019s longtime attorneys. Critics say the firm’s aggressive lawsuits against environmentalists are designed to strain\u00a0its opponents’ resources and chill public\u00a0debate.<\/p>\n Kasowitz Benson Torres represented Energy Transfer in a federal suit<\/a> accusing Greenpeace and others of launching the Standing Rock movement through a misinformation campaign and of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, which was designed to take down the mob. The suit against Greenpeace was dismissed<\/a> by a federal judge, who said that its RICO interpretation was \u201cdangerously broad.\u201d (Energy Transfer and Kasowitz Benson Torres declined to comment for this story.)<\/p>\n \u201cThe dehumanization, demonization, and lawfare tactics used against water protectors from Standing Rock and Line 3\u201d \u2014 another contested pipeline<\/a> \u2014 \u201cto front lines across the world are bankrolled by private fossil fuel corporations with endlessly deep pockets,\u201d said Natali Segovia, legal director of the Water Protector Legal Collective, which represents opponents of the Dakota Access pipeline and other polluting projects. \u201cThese documents are crucial to understanding just how far those tactics run and the extent of the harm they have already caused to those that were at Standing Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n Shortly after TigerSwan<\/u> handed over its documents to the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board, Energy Transfer began fighting to get them back, including by suing the board itself. The fight continued after TigerSwan and the board agreed to a settlement in the licensing dispute, in which TigerSwan affirmed that it would not operate in the state and would pay $175,000 but admitted no fault.<\/p>\n\u201cThe dehumanization, demonization, and lawfare tactics used against water protectors … are bankrolled by private fossil fuel corporations with endlessly deep pockets.”<\/blockquote>\n