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WaPo reports that DHS was sharing info on @benjaminwittes and NYT's Mike Baker bc they wrote on internal unclassified docs showing DHS knew fuckall about what they were doing in Portland. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/dhs-compiled-intelligence-reports-on-journalists-who-published-leaked-documents/2020/07/30/5be5ec9e-d25b-11ea-9038-af089b63ac21_story.html
WaPo caveats its reports on the intel reporting by saying this only happens with terrorism or other violent actors.
Wittes complains, specifically, that this got shared as intelligence. https://twitter.com/benjaminwittes/status/1288979803098488833
The thing is, DOJ and DHS have DEFINED Portland in terms that DOJ has previously used to define terrorism.
What distinguishes protestors in Portland (who Barr thinks of in terms of threatening federal property) from Mohamed Osman Mohamud?
What distinguishes protestors in Portland (who Barr thinks of in terms of threatening federal property) from Mohamed Osman Mohamud?
Mohamud, shortly after he turned 18 (and after his father ASKED THE FBI FOR HELP to ensure his son DIDN'T turn to extremism), got caught in an FBI sting. He pressed a button on a fake FBI bomb targeting Pioneer Square, the same "target" as the protests.
The reason why DOJ succeeded in sending Mohamud to prison, as teenager, for 30 years is precisely the same rationale Billy Barr is using: intent to use violence against Federal property.
This is NOT to defend what DHS did.
On the contrary, it's to note that as soon as you accept many of the frames for terrorism that Lawfare long has, then something like this would be inevitable.
On the contrary, it's to note that as soon as you accept many of the frames for terrorism that Lawfare long has, then something like this would be inevitable.
In the past, Lawfare has argued that the special category for "violence Muslims do" doesn't result in the treatment of Muslim speech as appropriate for intelligence gathering.
It does. https://www.emptywheel.net/2015/12/05/yes-calling-only-muslims-terrorists-does-result-in-disparate-treatment-of-muslims/
It does. https://www.emptywheel.net/2015/12/05/yes-calling-only-muslims-terrorists-does-result-in-disparate-treatment-of-muslims/
Gotta say I didn't imagine Ben Wittes would go from being favorably retweeted by Trump to having his journalism targeted in a frame used for terrorists in 3.5 years. But then it was probably inevitable. https://www.lawfareblog.com/thoughts-strange-day%E2%80%94and-very-strange-presidential-tweet
One more point. In response to one of Wittes' Pollyannish promises that Trump wouldn't be that bad, he took solace in his belief (which was false) that intelligence was focused overseas.
I noted then BLM was already being targeted as "intelligence." https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/05/27/ben-wittes-delusion-fbi-is-the-intelligence-community/
I noted then BLM was already being targeted as "intelligence." https://www.emptywheel.net/2016/05/27/ben-wittes-delusion-fbi-is-the-intelligence-community/
Again, the import of the Trump Effect is NOT that we need to replace Trump (though we absolutely do). It's that he has now made visible to mainstream voters and commentators like Wittes what they did not see in the past.
Here, our frame for terrorism needs to change.
Here, our frame for terrorism needs to change.
Correction: different target, but both courthouses with squares in front. A few blocks away. https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1289150523493330944
