Dept of Homeland Security Did Heavy Un-American Surveillance of Occupy Protesters

Newly released documents made public for the first time this week reveal how the United States Department of Homeland Security coordinated with local law enforcement across the US to monitor the Occupy Wall Street movement.
The New York Times in conjunction with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund say the DHS has provided them with 4,000 page of government documents pertaining to how the US agency relied on nationally dispersed “fusion centers” to share and disseminate intelligence about the Occupy movement in late 2011 after it launched in Lower Manhattan that November.
Rather than demonstrating any blatantly egregious and certainly illegal surveillance tactics employed against protesters, however, the documents instead show how DHS-fusion centers from Florida to Massachusetts monitored their local OWS chapters using publically available social media postings and other open source investigation.
“In many cases, law enforcement officials appeared to simply assemble or copy lists of protests or related activities, sometimes maintaining tallies of how many people might show up,” Colin Moynihan wrote for the Times on Friday. “They also noted appearances by prominent Occupy supporters and advised other officials about what — or whom — to watch for, according to the newly disclosed documents.”
Indeed, fusion center employees shared with colleagues across the country as much information as possible about rallies, marches and other gatherings arranged at OWS encampments as more sprang up across the US following the start of an occupation in New York City’s Zuccotti Park in November 2011.
The Times have published just 77-pages—a mere sampling of the 4,000 pages of documents they say they received through Freedom of Information Act requests, but the files nevertheless showcase how federal officials alerted one another on a regular basis upon the happenings at certain encampments.

http://rt.com/usa/161152-dhs-fusion-center-occupy/