Chris Hedges: State of Fear!

Shannon McLeish of Florida is a 45 year old married mother of two young children. She is a homeowner, a taxpayer and a safe driver. She votes in every election. She attends a Unitarian Universalist church on Sundays. She is also, like nearly all who have a relationship with the Occupy movement in the United States, being monitored by the federal government. She knows this, because when she reads FBI documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through the Freedom of Information Act, she was startled to see a redaction that could only be referring to her. McLeish's story is the story of hundreds of people, perhaps more, whose lives are being invaded by the state. It is the story of a security and surveillance apparatus, overseen by the executive branch under Barack Obama, that has empowered the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to silence the voices and obstruct the activity of citizens who question corporate power. Mara Verheyden Hilliard, executive director of the PCJF, said in a written statement about the released files: "This production of information, which we believe is just the tip of the iceberg, is a window into the nationwide scope of the FBI's surveillance, monitoring and reporting on peaceful protesters organizing with the Occupy movement. These documents show that the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security are treating protests against the corporate and banking structure of America as potential criminal and terrorist activity. These documents also show these federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America." The FBI documents are not only a chilling example of how widespread this surveillance and obstruction has become, they are an explicit warning by the security services to all who consider dissent. Anyone who defies corporate power, even if he or she is nonviolent, and acting within constitutional rights, is a suspect. These documents are part of a plan to make us fearful, compliant and disempowered. They mark, I suspect, a government attempt to end peaceful mass protests, by responding with repression to the grievances of Americans.