The Occupy Surveillance Doc Dump

I've been reading through some of the Occupy Surveillance Doc Dump during the past few days when I get a chance. It's not surprising, and it's not pretty.

What's been released are what look to be some -- by no means all -- the raw field reports from the FBI on their monitoring of OWS and related encampments from prior to the Zuccotti/Liberty encampment until the early spring 2012 break up of remaining Occupy outposts.

There have been plenty of expressions of shock and outrage that Teh Gubmint was actually spying on Occupy back in the day -- as if it wasn't obvious from the get. It was taken for granted that something like COINTELPRO would be launched against the Occupy Movement, and so it would be -- as these and many other documents reveal. Yes, and...?

Raw field reports are not typically very useful for civilians because of their nature. They are "raw," produced in abundance, and not intended as actionable items. They need to be analyzed and put into some kind of coherent form to be useful; further, the noise they contain needs to be suppressed as much as possible.

It's obvious to me at any rate that these documents represent only a fraction of what was produced during the hey-day of Occupy. They skim the surface of what was/is going on regarding the surveillance and eventual suppression of the Occupy Movement. It is the picture of an American Stasi operation, and it's one that most Americans seem to be inured to and to accept.

Those of us involved in Occupy -- even as peripherally as I was -- sensed that this sort of thing was going on, expected it to be, and mostly really did not fear it. As I've written elsewhere, some of the "spies" actually introduced themselves and attempted to make nice with the demonstrators. We knew they were reporting back to some HQ somewhere (police departments and fusion centers), and we expected there would be consequences. Legal tended to assure us that whatever those consequences were, they would be "mild" -- based on assurances Legal seemed to be getting from the Authorities.

On the other hand, there was a lot of paranoia about what could  happen, and these documents provide a clue to the source of the paranoia. Occupy was officially classified as "Domestic Terrorism" and much of the effort to surveil, control and suppress it came from that particular nexus. Occupy was considered to be "Domestic Terrorism" not because it was engaged in any sort of domestic terror activities or armed insurrection of any kind (please), but because its impetus was overtly revolutionary, even if the "revolution" was more of spirit and mind than of physical rebellion and overthrow.

Most of what I've read so far indicates there was little official interest in suppressing Occupy until there were disruptive actions, primarily port shut downs and general strikes. But this image of official indifference doesn't jibe with what was actually happening in the streets, particularly in New York, Oakland, and elsewhere as early as mid September, 2011, soon after the advent of the Occupy Movement. Official efforts at intimidation and police violence against Occupy demonstrators were almost immediate, despite the fact that there was no violence from Occupy.

It didn't matter how non-violent Occupy was in other words. Police suppression, often violent, would become routine, coordinated, destructive, arbitrary and vicious. The whole question of "nonviolence" with regard to Occupy was absurd on its face and a distraction from what was really going on. The brou-ha-ha over the issue (infamously via Chris Hedges' meltdown over Black Block)  highlighted how easily a movement which was nonviolent by definition (regardless of Black Block) could be paralyzed by the fear of violence.

The whole point of the official response, at least from what I gather, was to paralyze the Movement before it could become a serious threat to the existing power structure. The primary weapon would be fear. Fear of violence, whether internal or external. There were plenty of willing tools within and outside the Movement who were more than capable of spreading dissension, fear, uncertainty and doubt, and the periodic application of police violence on top of it was sufficient to paralyze and eventually disperse the Movement -- to the extent that now it hardly seems to exist any more.

The strategy may have been ad hoc, but it worked. On the surface, at least, it worked.

Interestingly, there are a number of documents in the dump that indicate what looks to be official sympathy with the Movement and its aims and goals -- such as they were. One, starting on page 90, goes to great length stating the Movement's interests objections and principles as if they were perfectly legitimate in the eyes of Authority. Another, beginning on page 88, deals with "protester safety" and "first amendment rights." Of course given events, much of this is probably eyewash, but nevertheless, it's surprising how comprehensive and apparently sympathetic some of the official interest was.

Possible assassination of Occupy leaders has received a good deal of attention, thanks to some documents out of Charlotte and Jacksonville (regarding Houston) (pg 61 and 68-69) that indicate someone had a bright idea to deploy snipers against protesters. Exactly who that might have been is impossible to determine from what's been released, but the implication is or was that there was some sort of official interest in exploring/exploiting the "assassination" option. The documents themselves are murky on this issue (deliberately so, given the redactions) but it's not surprising that "assassination" might be factored in as a tool of suppression.

If the official view is or was that Occupy is or was a Domestic Terrorist operation, then any tool to suppress it could be and no doubt was considered. Again, this is not terribly surprising... and there is no way to tell from the documents who was considering deploying snipers in Houston (and elsewhere?) to take out Occupy "leaders." Some of those who have taken a look at this part of the doc dump suspect its release is strategic, in an effort to maintain an atmosphere of fear and dread at what could happen should Occupy return to public prominence. Yes, well...

Yves Smith highlights how intimately banks were involved in the official surveillance and suppression actions against Occupy. Again, there's no real surprise here, but merely confirmation.

Naomi Wolf gets into some of the real sophistication of the surveillance and suppression actions.

As I've said many times, we live in an increasingly regimented and restrictive police state. There's still a lot of denial about that fact, much of it within what passes for the "progressive" community, in part based on the premise that "it's not as bad" as the Soviet or Nazi examples -- not yet. But I would go somewhat further and say that in the physical sense it's not as bad as it used to be in this country. Instead, Our Rulers learned many lessons from previous Movements and the often failed efforts to suppress them. They don't intend to let any Movement ever again overcome their authority and rule. Period.

A Wells Fargo Horror Story -- and an Update On The Van

Rousseau House in California, plundered by a series of banksters

I came across this story over at Naked Capitalism the other day, then I read that the homeowner had killed himself just days before the scheduled eviction in May. And I read the linked amended complaint.

And I thought "JFC on a merry go round, this is the most outrageous WF horror story yet." Almost beyond belief, and yet given all the other horror stories I've read, it's only unusual in that the homeowners had/have decent legal advice, and that the poor guy was driven to suicide.

Notice that the house above is quite a modest little house, similar to many I've been inside during parts of my working career. That the final refinance in 2007 was for over $350,000 is somewhat shocking, but that's what was still happening to real estate values in California at the time. In fact, I was dealing with a lot of builders, brokers and construction contractors during the boom before the crash, and by 2007, the warning signs were very clear that the crash was about to come, indeed had already come, in some cases that I can't detail here, but people were still refinancing and some were able to take cash out of their homes until well into 2008.

I say $350,000 is somewhat shocking for this house because in a realistic market it wouldn't be worth much over $200,000 if that. It's probably appraised for under that now, though WF ultimately acquired the house for a trustees sale bid of over $400,000.

So the homeowner was being screwed, whether or not there was fraud in the final refinance.

Nevertheless, according to the story, the homeowners were diligent in making mortgage payments. The problem came because they made those payments in person with cashier's checks at a Wachovia branch.

That and grossly false, misleading and predatory lending practices by World/Wachovia.

From the narrative in the amended complaint, the homeowners presented a cashiers check at the bank in April, 2009, in the amount of $1615, the stated mortgage payment amount. The check was handled by an employee who -- apparently -- entered a keystroke wrong during the transaction so that the check was not properly credited to the correct account. The homeowners received a receipt for the check and went on their way.

The next day, the check cleared, but what happened to the money is a mystery. There is also the mysterious claim of a stop payment being ordered on the check, which is simply not something that can happen on a cashiers check.

According to the complaint:

On or about May 5, 2009, while making the monthly payment at the WACHOVIA branch, Plaintiff O. ROUSSEAU the teller confirmed that their account still showed a missing payment for April. At Plaintiff’s request, Branch Manager PERI KERMANI called the corporate office to inquire about the disputed payment. Plaintiff was given a facsimile number to send a written dispute and proof of payment.

Which Plaintiffs (the homeowners) did.

From then on, the situation deteriorated alarmingly. While the homeowners continued to be diligent about making payments until the bank refused to accept them, they were dicked around and lied to by bank personnel constantly throughout a torturous process of trying to rectify the erroneous April "delinquency." They submitted all the documentation necessary to clear the supposed "delinquency" and never once did the bank actually clear it, though they were told it had been taken care of. They were assessed more and more collection fees, NSF fees, a constant tidal wave of fees while they not only tried to straighten out the mess the bank had caused, they were attempting to get their loan modified because of loss of income due to unemployment.

 As has so often been the case, while they were attempting to get the loan modification, the bank was proceeding with foreclosure, which the homeowners tried to get them to stop but were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, even as the bank was refusing to accept offered mortgage payments, they were constantly calling and dunning the homeowners for payment.

As has so often been the case, while attempting to secure a loan modification, the homeowners were repeatedly told that required documents had not been received -- though they had been sent over and over again -- and thus they could not get the modification, and then, apparently, the missing documents would somehow be found and the modification process would supposedly continue only to stop again.

Meanwhile, the foreclosure process churned along, oblivious.

Finally, from what I gather, the homeowners were denied a modification and told to pay up the arrears or get out. By the time they found out how much they had to pay to satisfy the largely bogus debt that was caused by a bank error in the first place, they had one hour to meet a deadline to deliver more than $26,000 demanded to the bank's collection agency in Texas. They had the money, but they couldn't meet the deadline because they couldn't access that much at one time given cash withdrawal restrictions on the account in question.

Wells Fargo acquired the property at a trustees sale purportedly held November 22, 2010, five days after the homeowners were told how much to pay and given a deadline they couldn't meet to satisfy the alleged default. At the time of the court filing, dated January 11, 2011, WF was under temporary injunction from enforcing an unlawful detainer against the Rousseaus. Apparently the injunction was lifted in May of 2012, and the Rousseaus were informed that they would be evicted on May 15, 2012; two days beforehand, when Norman Rousseau was unable to complete repairs on the engine of a motorhome that the couple intended to move into once they were evicted, Mr. Rousseau fatally shot himself.

All because a teller at Wachovia failed to credit the correct account for a payment made in April of 2009 and no one at any of the participating financial institutions and collection agencies between then and the date of Norman Rousseau's suicide had the courage or the brains to recognize that the bank had made a simple -- and not uncommon -- mistake that could have been and should have been easily corrected years before Norman Rousseau took his own life.

That and all the appalling fraud and deceit that went into the Rousseau's final refinance.

And all the lies they were told and the promises that were broken.

And the many tens of thousands of dollars that were being pillaged and looted all along the way.

This is a snapshot of a completely brainless and totally out of control modern banking practice. I'm sure that none of the institutions or people involved on the banking end believe they actually did anything wrong or that they are in any way responsible for the Rousseau's agony and eventually for Norman Rousseau's suicide. They never think that way. They can't. There are no personal relationships at all in these situations. Everything is objectified and scripts and flowcharts rule. "If this, then that." There is no provision for acknowledging or correcting errors, even simple ones such as mis-keying a payment.

As has long been obvious, all of the incentives for banks and mortgage servicers are aligned toward pushing homeowners into foreclosure. Despite ostensible programs to prevent foreclosure, the financial and corporate-bureaucratic incentives are still toward foreclosure. Consequently, millions of people are still losing their homes every year when it is highly likely that foreclosure is actually the least desirable outcome not just for the homeowner but for everyone involved including the banks and servicers who are incentivised to foreclose.

How many of these cases are due to fraud at the outset, errors along the way, and corporate-bureaucratic blindness is anybody's guess, but I am sure the Rousseau's situation is not unique. I've read too many similar stories.

It's one reason I was an advocate long ago for the nationalization of the banks; they are simply too hidebound, blind and dumb to function on behalf of even themselves let alone on behalf of the People in the current financial climate.

They should be run strictly in the public interest for the duration.  But until somebody with clout picks up that cudgel, we'll continue to encounter tragic stories like that of the Rousseaus.

None of this has to happen.

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As for the van, I spent part of the morning in Atwater discussing options with repair folks face to face instead of on the phone. I also drove the van for a short distance, and it was obvious that it wasn't going to make it much farther at all. I got it to the repair shop across the street from where I had left it last Saturday, and when the proprietor saw me drive up and said: "You've got a transmission problem." He explained how he had come to that conclusion when Omar at the first shop had brought the van over for a diagnosis on Monday. I asked about the differential. He said he didn't drive the van, but all the sound he heard when the van was on the lift was coming from the transmission and he thought there was metal on metal (oh yes) requiring a rebuild. I asked him whether he could do it, how soon he could have it ready, and how much he'd charge. He said he most certainly could do it; probably take until until Wednesday of next week, and it would cost X number of dollars (a good deal less than I was anticipating.)  I said, "Let's do it."

The vans that I had been considering as replacements were either sold before I could get to them or they were inappropriate for my needs; as I've said, this red Astro van has been a very good friend on the road for a number of years now. I bought it specifically for the trips back and forth between New Mexico and California, and despite the occasional mechanical problem and infrequent breakdown, it has been a godsend and a jewel. And then I think how lucky I am to be able to write that last sentence at all.

So many Americans don't have the option to just go out and "buy a van" or have it repaired as needed let alone to have a second home in New Mexico to go back and forth to. Those are just a few of the examples of the privileges we have. And when I think about the real struggles so many Americans are facing, struggles that are so far beyond my minor inconveniences (in perspective a broken down van or stalled refinancing are minor inconveniences, yes) I'm humbled.

The Rousseau's story is devastating. That sort of thing is happening to way too many Americans, and there seems to be nothing to thwart the demons of destruction abroad in the land.

Rise up, resist, refuse. It's a start!

Occupy Our Homes

Occupy Our Homes from Housing is a Human Right on Vimeo.

This is a day of national action highlighting the shame of millions upon millions of foreclosures in the last three years, many of them fraudulent and illegal, contrasted with the titanic profits of the bailed out banks that have been so relentlessly throwing people out if their homes during the economic meltdown.

Millions and millions of Americans have been forced into poverty since 2007, and more and more of them are winding up homeless, yet millions upon millions of homes lie vacant all over the land, seized properties that are little more than a glut on the market.

1) Do not dispossess or evict any more Americans.

2) Make foreclosed properties available to those who lack shelter

3) Refinance all existing mortgages at .01% interest; reduce principle by 50% or more.

4) Nationalize all TBTF banks.

Greece

The video is of Greek factions fighting it out in the streets of Athens last week.

The news of the Prime Minister's decision to put the latest EuroZone extortion plan to a vote of the Greek People has sent shock waves through world markets.

"OH NO!!! YOU CAN'T DO THIS!!!!"

Well, of course not. You do not put matters like this to a vote of the people. It's just not done.

Except they did it in Iceland, twice, and the People said a resounding "NO!" to the terms the Banksters set, Iceland defaulted on the debt, and the investors in Britain and the Netherlands are still fuming about it. Iceland seems to be fine. There were no dire repercussions, and for what it's worth, Iceland can still borrow whatever it needs to to stay financially afloat.

Hm.

Someone has to break the thrall of the Banksters over governments around the world, and if that job falls to the Greeks, then Hurrah!

Of course they may not get to the point of a referendum before... Papandreou's government falls, there's an invasion (led by the British, of course, they know how to do these things), and the Parthenon is sold for scrap lime.

In a sense, it doesn't matter. If the spell is broken, liberation is nigh.

ΖΗΤΩ ΟΙ Έλληνες! (Or something. I used Google Translate, and something tells me that is not how you say "Long live the Greeks!" in Greek.)

Screed of the Day

Just read this. It is Scott Creighton's latest anti-bankster/gov't collusionist screed over at American Everyman, and it's a winner.

Excerpt:

This was, and is, a crime against humanity and none of this would have been possible if government was not working in direct opposition to the best interest of the people of this country. None of it. And both parties are culpable.

Without the destruction of the protections of the Glass-Steagall Act, or the Banking Act of 1933 none of this would have happened. Part of the Roosevelt’s New Deal program, this Glass-Steagall separated commercial and investment banking institutions. This kept Wall Street firms from becoming “Too Big Too Fail” and from betting on the demise of the liar loans they created. Glass-Steagall was destroyed by the previous administration, the Clinton administration, just prior to their leaving office, setting up what would come later under Bush. They also made it illegal to regulate the very derivatives that would end up fueling this latest great depression. When one looks at it clearly one can see that both parties, working in near perfect synchronicity, conspired with the banks to defraud the people of this country and to cripple the economy in such a way that now they are able to pass certain reforms which would have been unthinkable in 1999.

They (the banks and financial institutions) made money on this plot of theirs in every conceivable way and they continue to this day to profit immensely from their scheme.

Not only did they profit from the government programs designed to help unqualified buyers with their down payments, but the profited from the payments made, from the bundling of the loans, from betting against the loans when they were doomed to fail, from the eventual foreclosures and resale of the property, and then from the bailouts and backdoor bailouts as well.

I'll say. Paine ain't go nothin' on Creighton.

The Biggest Fraud in Human History

According to L. Randall Wray, the blossoming mortgage and foreclosure crisis represents the Biggest Fraud in Human History.

That's saying something. But given the nature of the beast, it's probably quite true. Much of the real estate bubble was based on fraud, perpetrated by almost all the players, deliberately engineered to produce enormous profits at the top of the pyramid, not so much as you slid down toward the bottom, but still, even there, an illusion of profit could be manufactured or maintained for as long as housing prices kept going UP.

Drill deeper, though, and we find that the whole structure of capitalist economies is built on fraud, complicity, conquest, exploitation, theft, and sleight of hand. That's what it is and has always been. Don't like it? Move to Russia! As they used to say. Only you won't escape there any more. If anything, it's worse there than it is here.

The deregulation of the banks and the financial "industry", combined with the pretense of an "Ownership Society" caused this situation. Unraveling it is going to take some heavy lifting, but I think it can be done. The outlines of a solution have been clear enough for years now. The avoidance of a solution has characterized the entire Recessionary Period. We can assume the avoidance is due to the fact that the predators are still making out like the bandits they are, and they have no intention of setting their ravening aside for the Greater Good. They won't do it. Don't ask them.

What should be done is simple: 1) Nationalize the banks; 2) Prosecute criminal fraud; 3) Provide substantial and sustained debt relief to households until the recessionary pressure is relieved.

None of that, of course, is being done. Consequently the Endless Recession continues; the banksters and fraudsters continue to prosper; the People suffer and pay for it.

And of course the TeaBagging segment of the People like it that way.

James K. Galbraith has suggested approximately the same solution I've been yelling about for years. He doesn't do it quite as straightforwardly since he's an economist, but he gets to approximately the same place nonetheless.

• Nationalize the banks
  
• Prosecute criminal fraud
  
• Provide substantial debt relief to households.

As long as there's a banker's grandson in the White House, unfortunately, and as long as the banksters rule the roost in Congress, regardless of which major party is nominally in power, none of that will be done.

But it is interesting to see all the hankie wringing over the little problem of "documents not in order" that is causing the supposed freeze on foreclosures which apparently is as fraudulent as any other aspect of this whole miserable mess. But then, that's been true every time a "foreclosure freeze" has been announced. It's true of all the myriad work-out programs, too. The whole system is fraudulent, top to bottom, inside out.