Category: Featured News

Best of the Rising Tide website, things formally featured on the scrolling slider on the front page or on the old front page.

Climate Action Chicago Joins NATO Summit Protests

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Join Rising Tide Chicago, Chicago environmental groups and their allies for the NATO summit weekend to give corporate criminals, and the governmental lackeys and military who serve their interests a clear message: putting profits over our planet threatens our survival and will NOT be accepted any longer!

This weekend, we’ll call for real solutions to climate change and war by encouraging communities to come together to restore natural ecosystems, create clean power & transportation and establish local food systems.

Let’s create communities that are fair and provide access to basics needs for everyone rather than our current throwaway society that benefits the 1% and destroys our planet.

*Join us for Events during Summit Weekend!

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Thursday, May 17th @ 3 pm;
Occupy Chicago Day of Environment — Planet Over Profits & War
Protest Canadian Tar Sands at Consulate with Die-In
Canadian Consulate, 180 N Stetson Ave.
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/446122835402400/?ref=ts
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Friday, May 18th @ 1:00 p.m;
Crime Busting March on Chicago’s Climate Crooks
March around the loop with us as we issue warrants for arrest for corporations and government organizations responsible for destabilizing our climate.
Daley Plaza (Clark & Washington) @ 1:00 p.m. Directly after the Nurses Union March
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/194508444002886/?ref=ts
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Friday, May 18th@ 6:30 pm;
Dinner & Overview of Summit Events
@ Holy Innocents Church, 1447 W. Superior (near Chicago & Ashland)
RSVP at risingtide.chi@gmail.com
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Saturday, May 19th @ 6:30 pm ;
Rising Waters: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands, Documentary, Dinner & Climate Justice Discussion
@ Holy Innocents Church, 1447 W. Superior (near Chicago & Ashland)
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/426580744037196/?ref=ts
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Sunday, May 20th @ 12p (noon);
Environmental Contingent in March & Rally to NATO Summit
March with thousands during the NATO summit to deliver our message: Jobs, Housing, Healthcare, Education, Our Pensions and the Environment: Not War!
@ Petrillo Bandshell in Grant Park (Columbus & Jackson)
Meet us at NW side of the Petrillo Bandshell. Look for a big green flag!
RSVP via Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/events/286684528085764/?ref=ts
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To confirm locations and to RSVP, visit http://www.climateactionchicago.org

Ft. Worth Weekly: Playing Nice? Alleged Tip Sends The FBI Out To Question Denton Drilling Activists

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Playing Nice?
An alleged tip sends the FBI out to question Denton drilling activists.

Wednesday, 11 April 2012 09:45 Photos and story by ANDREW MCLEMORE

North Texas environmental activists frequently feel as though local
officials ignore their protests against gas drilling, but it turns out
it’s easy enough to get the federal government’s attention — if the FBI
thinks you might be planning eco-terrorism.

That’s what happened to University of North Texas student Ben Kessler, a
Marine veteran and dedicated activist on fracking, who spent several
months last fall dodging FBI phone calls that he felt were attempts to
intimidate him and pump him for information about legitimate, peaceful
environmental groups. Kessler is an organizer with Rising Tide, an
international network of environmental groups that sometimes employ civil
disobedience as a protest tactic.

Kessler: “I thought they were going to invade my house.”
In early February, an FBI agent and Dallas police officer came to campus
to question one of Kessler’s professors as well. David Rogers, the FBI
agent who called Kessler repeatedly, told him the agency was following up
on an anonymous tip about environmental activism in the area.

“The first conversation we had, he was kind of lecturing me about
ecoterrorism,” Kessler said. “All of the following conversations were him
basically trying to convince me that I didn’t need a lawyer and should try
to come in as soon as possible.”

For Rising Tide leaders, the monitoring by federal law enforcement sends a
clear message: Back off. “We saw that as an act of intimidation,” said
Scott Parkins, a spokesman for Rising Tide North America.

Lydia Maese, the spokesperson for the FBI’s Dallas office, would not
confirm whether the agency was conducting an investigation. It’s FBI
policy to conduct at least a preliminary investigation of any tip, she
said, though she acknowledged that not every anonymous call results in an
agent spending months trying to contact a college student and his
associates.

“We do investigate any potential ecoterrorism violations that could
potentially cause harm to the public,” Maese said. “We do this hundreds of
times. We are obligated to resolve the matter.”

Continue reading the full article.

F.B.I. Targets Peaceful Anti-Fracking & Rising Tide Activists, Washington Post Reveals

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March 11, 2012
For Immediate Release
Rising Tide Press Contact:
Scott Parkin, 415-235-0596 (mobile)
sparki@risingtidenorthamerica.org

F.B.I. targets peaceful anti-fracking and Rising Tide activists, Washington Post reveals

Rising Tide North Texas subject of intimidation campaign by federal government

In today’s Washington Post, it was revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been investigating peaceful climate and anti-fracking activists as a threat. In response to anonymous complaints Rising Tide North Texas, a part of the Rising Tide North America network, has been the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation. The FBI has visited and called for an interview Rising Tide organizer, University of North Texas (UNT) student and a marine veteran of the Afghan war Ben Kessler, as well as UNT philosophy professor Adam Briggle.

“If all I have done to be investigated as a threat is to peacefully express my opinions, then we are in serious trouble,” said Ben Kessler. “Activism is not terrorism. The only dangerous threat in North Texas is the threat that hydro-fracturing, or “fracking,” has on the health and lives of the residents of our communities.”

The article also revealed cooperation between the F.B.I. and local police in Moscow Idaho around repeated protests organized by Wild Idaho Rising Tide around the tar sands heavy haul truck shipments.

Here is the article:

As eco-terrorism wanes, governments still target activist groups seen as threat

By Juliet Eilperin, Updated: Saturday, March 10, 5:12 PM

Ben Kessler, a student at the University of North Texas and an environmental activist, was more than a little surprised that an FBI agent questioned his philosophy professor and acquaintances about his whereabouts and his sign-waving activities aimed at influencing local gas drilling rules.“It was scary,” said Kessler, who is a national organizer for the nonviolent environmental group Rising Tide North America. He said the agent approached him this past fall and said that the FBI had received an anonymous complaint and were looking into his opposition to hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking.” The bureau respected free speech, the agent told him, but was “worried about things being taken to an extreme level.”

Even as environmental and animal rights extremism in the United States is on the wane, officials at the federal, state and local level are continuing to target groups they have labeled a threat to national security, according to interviews with numerous activists, internal FBI documents and a survey of legislative initiatives across the country.

Iowa Gov. Terry Brandstad (R) signed a law this month, backed by the farm lobby, that makes it a crime to pose as an employee or use other methods of misrepresentation to get access to operations in an attempt to expose animal cruelty. Utah passed a similar bill, nicknamed an “ag-gag” law, on Wednesday. Last month, Victor VanOrden, an activist in his mid-20s, received the maximum sentence of five years in prison under a separate Iowa law for attempting to free minks from one of the state’s fur farms.

At the same time, though, acts that might be defined as eco-terrorism are down. In recent years, the broad definition has included arson, setting mink free at fur farms, campaigns to financially bankrupt animal testing firms and protests in front of the homes of some of those firms’ executives.

Michael Whelan, executive director of Fur Commission USA, estimated that in the 1990s “there were close to 20 attacks per year on our farmers” and that since 2003 there have been fewer than two attacks a year on American mink farms.

“Overall we’ve seen a decline in activity, in terms of violent criminal activity,” FBI intelligence analyst Erin Weller said in an interview.

FBI officials say two factors contribute to the reduced threat.

One is their successful prosecutions of several activists, in particular the 15 convictions in 2007 for members of the Earth Liberation Front. The national sweep of radical environmentalists was chronicled in the Oscar-nominated 2011 documentary “If a Tree Falls.” Not only did several ELF members get long prison sentences — Stanislas Meyerhoff got 13 years — but also many activists testified against others to get lighter punishments.

“That’s had an impact on the movement as a whole,” Weller said.

The second factor is that environmental and animal rights activists may view a Democratic administration as more sympathetic to their goals and be less inclined to take radical steps.

“Obviously if you think there is going to be support for your position, you’re going to use legal means rather than illegal means,” Weller said.

Despite the decline in activity, the level of scrutiny has continued, say several who track state and federal enforcement.“There’s been very little change under the Obama administration,” said Will Potter, author of the book “Green is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Movement Under Siege.” After factoring in several state initiatives on top of federal enforcement, Potter said, “The political climate as a whole has gotten a lot worse.”
Read the rest of the article here

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Five Lakota Arrested for Forming Blockade on Pine Ridge Reservation

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Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Challenges.

PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION – Five Lakota were arrested Monday evening in Wanblee, South Dakota when they formed a blockade to halt a convoy of trucks going through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

At issue was there were two trucks that appeared to be hauling pipes through the reservation on their way to Canada. The new trucks that were delivered in Texas from South Korea were carrying pipes used for tar sands pipeline. Totran Transportation Services, Inc., a Canadian company apparently wanted to avoid paying the state of South Dakota $50,000 per truck or $100,000 to use its state highways. Instead Totran Transportation thought

The two trucks marked “oversize load” on them had in its convoy several pick up vehicles that were first spotted on the reservation in the late afternoon.they would use the roads on the reservation. Some 75 Lakota thought otherwise.

Once alerted about the convoy and its whereabouts, Alex and Debra White Plume decided to go and stop it. They were joined by others who formed a human blockade.

The human blockage halted the trucks. The White Plumes were told by the truckers that they had corporate authority to utilize the BIA roads.

“There are actually a number of laws that should protect Indian tribes from those who cite corporate authority,”

said Charlotte Black Elk, a well known attorney activist from Manderson, South Dakota.

“I told them nicely we did not want any trouble,”

Alex White Plume told the Native News Network late Monday night.

“But we were determined not to let them use our roads. The chief of police for the tribe told me that he was told that the FBI was prepared to arrest me and pick me up and take me to jail in two white vans.”

White Plume and his wife, Debra and three others were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and taken to jail in Kyle, South Dakota. The others arrested were: Sam Long Black Cat, Andrew Ironshells and Terrel Ironshells. Several reports on social media reported that Tom Poor Bear, vice president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe was arrested. This proved to be not true.

The five arrested were released on the personal recognizance bond.

“I was the voice for my grandchildren,”

said an exhausted Debra White Plume from home after being released from jail. White Plume was arrested last summer in front of the White House while protesting the Keystone XL pipeline.

The Oglala Nation and all American Indian tribes in South Dakota have adamantly opposed the Keystone XL pipeline that was routed through the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations that would cross the Oglala Sioux Rural Water Supply System in two places.

Late Monday, it was reported the Eagle Butte Indian tribal council met to decide to form a human blockade on their reservations if the Trotran convoy attempts to come through their reservation which is north of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

cross-posted from Infoshop News: