Tag: protests

FBI lost count of how many paid informants were at Capitol on Jan. 6, and later performed audit to figure out exact number: ex-official

The FBI had so many paid informants at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, that it lost track of the number and had to perform a later audit to determine exactly how many “Confidential Human Sources” run by different FBI field offices were present that day, a former assistant director of the bureau has told lawmakers.

At least one informant was communicating with his FBI handler as he entered the Capitol, according to Steven D’Antuono, formerly in charge of the bureau’s Washington field office.

D’Antuono has testified behind closed doors to the House Judiciary Committee that his office was aware before the riot that some of their informants would attend a “Stop the Steal” rally thrown by former President Donald Trump, but he only learned after the fact that informants run by other field offices also were present, along with others who had participated of their own accord.

The Washington field office had to ask FBI headquarters “to do a poll or put out something to people saying w[ere] any CHSs involved,” he said, so they could get a handle on the scale of the FBI’s spying operations at the Capitol that day.

“We started getting responses back” from FBI headquarters, added D’Antuono, which helped identify which field offices had planted confidential informants in the crowd. 

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Pro-life activists convicted of ‘felony conspiracy’ for protesting in front of abortion clinics, face 11 years in prison

A federal jury today found three defendants guilty of a two-count indictment charging them with federal civil rights offenses after an occurrence on October 22, 2020 at an abortion clinic in Washington, DC. 

The news came from a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release, with an announcement from US Attorney Matthew M. Graves, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Assistant Director David Sundberg of the FBI Washington Field Office.

Due to convictions of a felony conspiracy against rights as well as a violation of the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE), defendants Jonathan Darnel, 41, of Arlington, Virginia, Jean Marshall, 73, of Kingston, Massachusetts, and Joan Bell, 74, of Montague, New Jersey all face up to 11 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine that could go as high as $350,000.

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A Jan. 6 rioter was convicted and sentenced in secret. No one will say why

Hundreds of rioters have been charged, convicted and sentenced for joining the mob attack on the U.S. Capitol. Unlike their cases, Samuel Lazar’s appears to have been resolved in secret — kept under seal with no explanation, even after his release from prison.

Lazar, 37, of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, was arrested in July 2021 on charges that he came to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, dressed in tactical gear and protective goggles, and used chemical spray on officers who were desperately trying to beat back the angry Donald Trump supporters.

There is no public record of a conviction or a sentence in Lazar’s court docket.

But the Bureau of Prisons told The Associated Press that the man was released from federal custody this week after completing a sentence for assaulting or resisting a federal officer. Lazar was sentenced in Washington’s federal court on March 17 to 30 months in prison, according to the Bureau of Prisons, but there’s no public record of such a hearing. He had been jailed since July 2021.

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Police Tore Up His Protest Sign. Now They Owe Him $50,000

Last year, Delaware police prevented 54-year-old Jonathan Guessford from holding a sign warning drivers about a speed trap and wrongfully cited him for “improper hand signal” after he flipped off the officers who seized and tore up his sign. Police have now agreed to pay Guessford $50,000 as part of a settlement reached in a lawsuit alleging that police violated his civil rights.

Following several run-ins with the police, Guessford decided to “stage protests whenever he saw police officers stopping unsuspected vehicles using a radar gun,” according to legal documents. On March 11, 2022, his protest consisted of standing by the side of the road, holding a homemade sign reading, “Radar Ahead!” Guessford was soon confronted by several Delaware State Police officers, who took his sign and tore it up.

As Guessford drove away after the encounter, he flipped off the officers, leading them to eventually cite him for “improper hand signal” under a statute governing hand signals for nonmotorized vehicles like bicycles. However, body camera footage showed that officers knew that the citation was incongruous and would likely be dropped.

“Yeah, you can’t do that. That’ll get dropped,” Officer Christopher Popp said during a phone call to another officer, who replied, referring to a third officer, “I told him that’s going to get thrown out….Eventually, [Guessford is] going to do something really stupid, and then we are going to be able to really lock him up.”

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Everything you need to know about the 61 Antifa-linked ‘Stop Cop City’ suspects indicted on RICO charges

Flock Safety’s business motto is: “To solve crime, you need evidence.” The Atlanta-based “all-in-one” security technology company boasts major police departments as clients for its license plate-reading camera technology. 

On Tuesday, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr alleged in a 109-page domestic terror and felony RICO indictment that one of the 61 suspects used his employment at the security company to provide sensitive security information to his violent co-conspirators.

“On June 6, 2022, WILLIAM BUDDEN WARREN, while employed with Flock, did provide locations of future Flock camera installations so that Defend the Atlanta Forest members could avoid detection,” reads the indictment. “This would allow Defend the Atlanta Forest members to further occupy the forest. This is an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.”

If true, the implications are serious. Carr alleges that dozens of mostly out-of-state suspects—and at least three known foreign suspects—are members of the “Defend the Atlanta Forest” group, a network of “anarchist, anti-police, and anti-business” violent extremists who have organized acts of violence, intimidation and property destruction in Georgia and other states since 2020 to stop the construction of a future first responder training facility. 

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FBI Knew Ukrainian Spy Was at Capitol Riot: QAnon Shaman

Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman,” claimed the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) knew that an alleged Ukrainian spy participated in the riot at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Chansley, who was sentenced to 41 months in prison over his involvement in the January 6 riot but was released earlier this year, said in an interview with conservative activist Laura Loomer that the FBI questioned him about the presence of Sergai Dybynyn, an alleged Ukrainian spy with reported ties to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has risen to prominence amid the Russia-Ukraine war.

The FBI has not confirmed Chansley’s statement, which could not be independently verified. Newsweek reached out to the FBI via email for comment.

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Denmark set to ban Quran burning, citing increased terror threat

Amid growing pressure and threats of terrorist retaliation, officials in Denmark have caved and called for burning the Quran to be made a crime after such acts sparked protests domestically and around the Muslim world.

Danish citizens may soon no longer be able to desecrate the book, which is seen by many believers as the literal word of god and thus among the holiest objects on earth, nor any other religious objects deemed significant by any faith group.

The proposal, announced Friday, has not yet been presented to the Danish parliament, which did away with its archaic blasphemy laws in 2017. Free speech is enshirined in the constitution, thus it will be difficult to institute restrictions.

According to Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard, the new law would be written into existing legislation banning the desecration of other nations’ flags, and would “prohibit the inappropriate treatment of objects of significant religious importance to a religious community.”

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Neo-Nazi group NSC-131 holds anti-immigration protest outside Woburn hotel

Members of a neo-Nazi group demonstrated outside three Woburn hotels on Saturday, delivering anti-immigration messages about a week after city officials said that nearly 60 migrant families were being housed in hotels in the city.

Photos posted on social media by protesters and a group called New England Nazi Watch showed several demonstrators standing outside a Red Roof Inn on Commerce Way, wearing face coverings and holding a banner indicating they were part of Nationalist Socialist Club 131.

The group, also known as NSC-131, is a self-described “pro-white, street-oriented fraternity dedicated to raising AUTHENTIC resistance to the enemies of our people in the New England area.” It has been classified as a neo-Nazi organization by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The hate group took credit for the protest on the social media platform Telegram.

“NSC 131 organized an emergency mobilization in Woburn, Massachusetts to oppose invaders and their collaborators,” the group wrote. “The action was conducted in response to hundreds of Haitian invaders being housed in Woburn hotels with taxpayer dollars.”

In an email to the Globe on Monday, the group said it had protested outside three hotels.

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Citizens Rally Outside Artillery Factory in President Biden’s Hometown that Produces Parts of Cluster Bombs Destined To Kill Eastern Ukrainians and Russians

One of President Joe Biden’s biographers, David Hagan, author of No Ordinary Joe, tells the story of a 10-year-old Joe Biden taking a $5 bet to climb a burning coal pile in his hometown of Scranton. Young Joe took the bet and scampered up the mountainous mound of fiery fissures and won the bet. Biden had the $5 bill framed and it hung in his Senate office for decades.

As a boy, Joe Biden was a risk-taker of his own life. Now, President of the United States and leader of NATO, he has taken all of us to the fiery brink of nuclear war. 

Just off Interstate 81 near Scranton, Pennsylvania, Biden’s hometown, is Exit 185 to what is now called the President Biden Expressway.

On July 22, multiple peace and justice organizers went to Scranton to focus on what the Ukrainians and the President of the United States say is the most important weapons needed: artillery shells, and now the added dimension of putting bomblets inside artillery shells for use as cluster bombs.

Drive down the steep slope of the President Biden Expressway to find the #4 Merchant of Death in the U.S., General Dynamics, operating the Army Ammunition Plant just a chip-shot away from the central shopping center of downtown Scranton.

During the Vietnam War students from the nearby University of Scranton protested outside the 155 mm artillery slaughterhouse. There is no record of any protests at the General Dynamics facility in decades. That changed on Saturday, July 22, when anti-war activists drove to Scranton from Vermont, Virginia, New Jersey, Long Island and New York City, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pittsburgh and upstate New York.

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Special Delivery: Severed Finger “From Living Human” Sent by Mail to French President Emmanuel Macron’s Home

France is burning under President Emmanuel Macron.

On Monday, in a disturbing turn, a severed human finger was sent to the official presidential home. The package did not contain any correspondence, only the finger, which investigators determined came from “a living victim” who, according to police sources, has been identified.

The Evening Standard reports:

The macabre parcel containing the amputated digit arrived at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Monday.

“The finger was initially put in a fridge where the police put their snacks,” said a source at the official presidential home. “This was to make sure it was preserved and could be analysed as quickly as possible.”

Tests later identified the finger as belonging to a “living human being,” who was contacted and “given full medical support,” said the source.

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