OBR.FM  announces Radio Camp!  February 24th-March 9th

After a little over a year of broadcasting independent media for and by the 99%, OBR.FM kicks off its two week “Radio Camp” with a meet and greet at its studio at 9 Hamilton place in Boston, Massachusetts at 7pm Saturday February 23rd, and all are welcome.  Come see our studio, meet our radio hosts and enjoy some indy music, thought and media then spend some time with us as we go to RADIO CAMP!

What is “Radio Camp”? It is an opportunity for sharing and learning about the production of indy media through our radio station. In this two week period we plan to immerse ourselves in all the facets of OBR’s operations, from the ins and outs of broadcasting a live program to the behind the scenes work of marketing, fund-raising, social networking, podcasting, and engineering.

All of OBR’s events, meetings and activities are open to the public and we urge you to join in, we’ll be sending out reminders on Facebook and Twitter of Radio Camp activities. Check out the schedule below and note special events marked with an ** geared to the general public looking to delve into indy media.

Contact us if you have any questions or ideas for this exciting period: radio@occupyboston.org

See you @ camp!

OBR.fm RADIO CAMP SCHEDULE

Saturday February 23rd

7-11 pm – Celebrate a Radically Indy New year with OBR.FM – PUBLIC WELCOME & ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND – Open House and Party!!!

Sunday February 24th

12-2:30 pm – INTRO TO INDY RADIO & INTERNET BROADCAST TRAINING** – PUBLIC WELCOME & ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND – Learn how we make radio and how you can too!

3-5 pm – CREATING A RADIO SHOW WORKSOP **- PUBLIC WELCOME & ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND – Come and map out your ideas for a radio show or podcast

7-9 pm – OBR Marketing Work Meeting

Monday February 25th

7-9 pm – OBR Fund-raising Work Meeting

Tuesday February 26th

7-9 pm – SOCIAL MEDIA WORKSHOP** – PUBLIC WELCOME & ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND – Join us as we explore how social media can be used a promotion tool

Wednesday February 27th

7-9 pm – OBR Production Work Meeting

Thursday February 28th

7-9 pm – OBR Production Working Meeting

Friday March 1st

7-8 pm – OBR Radio Camp Conference Call

Saturday March 3nd

1-7 pm – Recording, Editing, Publicity Working Meeting

Sunday March 3rd

11-1 pm – Radio Church

2-4 pm – OBR Programming Schedule

Monday March 4th

7-9 pm – OBR Library: Editing, Tagging and Archiving Working Meeting

Saturday March 9th

11-7 pm -OBR Library: Editing, Tagging and Archiving Working Meeting

Other Items (schedule pending):

• Focus on membership
• Fundraising 2nd session
• Swag production (screen printing & button making)
• Radio HOST MEETING
• Administrative tasks and outreach

Check the OB Radio Work Calendar for the latest schedule…

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD, Massachusetts Chapter, Inc.

                                                 14 Beacon St., Suite 407, Boston, MA 02108  

PRESS RELEASE

______________________________________________________________________________

Contact:

Urszula Masny-Latos

Tammi Arford (defendant):  617-686-8892                          National Lawyers Guild, Mass. Chapter

Andrea Hill (defendant):      574-206-5632                                           617-227-7335, 617-308-0947

______________________________________________________________________________

CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST OCCUPY BOSTON DEFENDANTS DROPPED

Boston, February 8, 2013.    Today, without any notice to defense counsel or the defendants, Suffolk County prosecutors went into court and in an unscheduled, unilateral action dismissed the criminal cases that had been brought against five Occupy Boston activists which were scheduled to begin trial on Monday, February 11.  The prosecutors also dismissed all of the criminal charges remaining against the other Occupy Boston activists who were still awaiting trial as a result of the mass police arrests in October and December, 2011.  We believe that the DA’s decision amounts to an acknowledgment of the unconstitutionality of the arrests and criminal charges that had been brought against hundreds of Occupy Boston participants, and shows that the state has finally admitted that the demonstrations by Occupy activists were legal and constitutionally protected.

Fully ready to contest the charges at trial, the defendants and their representatives from the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) had subpoenaed Mayor Menino, Police Commissioner Ed Davis, and Nancy Brennan (former head of the Greenway Conservancy) to explain why the City of Boston and its police department unconstitutionally applied the Massachusetts trespass and unlawful assembly laws to impinge upon Occupy Boston participants’ rights to assemble, to express their protected speech, and to petition the government.  In addition, they had also subpoenaed Joshua Bekenstein and Mitt Romney (of Bain Capital), and Robert Gallery (CEO of Bank of America) to address their role in constructing and perpetuating excessive corporate power and an economic system that favors the wealthiest 1% of the population at the expense of the remaining 99%– an undemocratic system in which the voices of the people are ignored.  The police action in arresting occupiers demonstrated that voices of conscience that speak out against social and economic inequality are not only ignored, they are unlawfully silenced by the state’s use of violence, fear, threat, and repression.

This decision by prosecutors comes after 14 months of delay, during which defendants were repeatedly required to show up for court dates, only to have their day in court and their right to a jury trial delayed time after time.   Defendants and their NLG lawyers spent months working to prepare a case that would potentially embarrass the City and set valuable precedent that would reaffirm the constitutional rights of free speech and assembly.  In making this decision, Suffolk County prosecutors have not only prevented the defendants from having their day in court, they have employed yet another way to trample upon those who voice dissent and discouraged them from challenging injustice and inequality in this country.  In fact, a spokesperson from the District Attorney’s office today admitted that these defendants, who never had the chance to present their case to a judge or jury, “served a sentence” imposed unilaterally by the actions of the District Attorney without ever having been found guilty of any criminal offense.

###  END ###

Urszula Masny-Latos
Executive Director
NLG-Massachusetts Chapter
14 Beacon St., Suite 407
Boston, MA 02108
617-227-7335
nlgmass-director@igc.org
http://www.nlgmass.org

On Saturday Jan 26th, ~1,500 people gathered in Portland, ME, voicing opposition to a tar sands pipeline that would run from Montreal to Portland.

Here’s some video footage of the event, courtesty of Michael Horan.

There’s also a Flickr slideshow.

by Steve

On December 18, 2012, the FBI fulfilled a FOIA request (local copy here) from the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF). Since then, several organizations have written articles about these documents. This post is another one of those articles. However, I’m going to focus on breadth more than depth; you can consider this a set of FOIA factoids.

Page numbers reference material in the FOIA release.

The FBI reviewed 387 pages of material, and released 99 (pg. 109).

A significant number of reviewed pages were deleted by the FBI: 81 pages (pg 9); 8 pages (pg 30); 4 pages (pg 34); 58 pages (pg 39); 76 pages (pg 43); 60 pages (pg 107) = 287 pages total.

The documents contains 577 redactions. If nothing else, the redactors are thorough.

Eleven documents claim “statistical accomplishment” as part of their purpose (pages 16, 18, 35, 51, 59, 62, 72, 90, 101, 104, and 106).

The FOIA documents mention a total of 21 different FBI offices:

• Albany (pg 51)
• Anchorage (pg 11, 54)
• Birmingham (pg 16)
• Boston (pg 57)
• Charlotte (pg 18)
• Denver (pg 20, 21
• Indianapolis (pg 1)
• Jackson, MI (Pg 25, 62)
• Jacksonville (pg 64, 68, 70)
• Los Angeles (pg 72)
• Memphis (pg 75, 78)
• Miami (pg 82)
• Modesto (pg 99)
• New York (pg 35)
• Omaha (pg 85, 88)
• Pittsburgh (pg 75)
• Portland (pg 57)
• Richmond (pg 90, 93)
• Sacramento (pg 99),
• Tampa (pg 101, 104)
• Washington, DC (106)

The FOIA documents mention at least eight collaborations between the FBI and financial institutions:

• Bancorp South Bank (pg 62)
• Federal Hall and Museum Of American Finance (pg 38)
• Hancock Bank (pg 62)
• Kessler Federal Credit Union (pg 62)
• New York Stock Exchange (pg 35)
• Peoples Bank (pg 62)
• Regions Bank (pg 62)
• Zions Bank (pg 41)

The FOIA documents mention at least 27 different government agencies, including:

• Border Enforcement Security Task Force/BEST (pg 32)
• Charlotte Weapons of Mass Destruction Operations Unit/WMDOU (pg 59)
• Customs and Border Protection/CBP (pg 32)
• DC Fire Department/DCFD (pg 106)
• DC Metropolitan Police Dept/MPD (pg 106)
• Department of Homeland Security/DHS (pg 32)
• Des Moines Police Department/DMPD (pg 88)
• Domestic Security Alliance Council/DSAC (p 31)
• FBI (many times)
• Homeland Security Investigations/HSI (pg 32)
• Immigrations and Customs Enforcement/ICE (p 32)
• Iowa Fusion Center (pg 88)
• Joint Terrorism Task Force/JTTF (many times)
• Los Angeles County Sheriffs Dept/LASD (pg 72)
• Metropolitan Transit Agency/MTA (pg 72)
• Miami Command and Tactical Operations Center/CTOC (pg 82)
• New York Police Department/NYPD (pg 60)
• Portland (ME) Police Department (pg 57)
• Richmond VA Federal Reserve Bank (pg 90)
• Shelby County Sheriffs Office/SCSO (pg 79)
• Stockton Port Police (pg 99)
• Tampa Bay Area Intelligence Unit/TBAIU (pg 101)
• Tennessee Governors Office (pg 75)
• US Attorney General’s Office (pg 104)
• US Coast Guard (pg 32)
• US Secret Service/USSS (pg 106)
• Virginia Fusion Center (pg 94)

Five documents are concerned with west-coast Port Shutdowns (pages 31, 45, 47, 54, and 99).

The FOIA documents are worth reading. Yes, there are 112 pages, but it’s a relatively short 112 pages (large print, and many redactions). I’ll conclude with a list of things that caught my attention.

• pg 2, 51, 64, 66, 73. Characterizations of Occupy protests as “peaceful”, or “not condoning violence”.
• pg 19-22. The FBI had an interest in meetings conducted by a Bank Fraud Working Group in Denver, CO, including a discussion of “cyber threats in the financial industry, including what banks and their customers can do to thwart such threats”.
• pg 31. This report describes protester attempts to shut down west coast shipping ports. “A few incidents of violence were reported by the Oakland Police Department; however, reported violence was not between the protesters and the drivers or longshoremen”. (The report says who wasn’t involved in the violent behavior, but doesn’t say who was.)
• pg 35. Concern about “anarchist groups” that might wish to “disrupt, influence, and/or shut down normal business operations of financial institutions”.
• pg 54. FBI Intelligence included Linked-in profiles, and printouts of Facebook pages.
• pg 57. A Drano bomb was thrown in the vicinity of a Portland, ME Occupy encampment. This information was passed along to the FBI bureau in Boston. It’s the only mention of Boston I was able to find.
• pg 61. Threats to kill occupy leaders in Austin, TX via sniper fire.
• pg 64–67. “verbal grandstanding” on an www.ar15.com forum, where “some of the posters appear to be police officers”. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_8_10/465172_hippies_want_to_occupy_datona_beach.html
• pg 69. Threats to kill Occupy leaders in Jacksonville, FL via sniper fire.
• pg 69. A recommendation to establish “tripwires” within the occupy event coordinators. (I’m curious to know what “tripwire” means in this context.)
• pg 72-73. Mentions of prisoner mistreatment in LA Sheriffs Department jails.
• page 86. An informant offers her email and Facebook account passwords to FBI agents. (The informant was advised that “law enforcement would not, and could not acknowledge her consent to access her social sites”)
• pg 88. The DHS has a publication called “Law enforcement guidelines for first amendment protected events”. I should put this on my reading list.
• pg 88. “… any intelligence received regarding criminal behavior that could be a thread to public safety should be reported to the Iowa Fusion Center”.
• pg 89. FBI received word that Occupy Des Monies would be conducting “a gas attack (mustard-sulfur) on the Des Moines airport and other religious centers of corporate greed”. The report goes on to say that “the situation has been resolved without incident”.

by CASEJ

We have just received word that Murtaza Nek, MIT graduate and active participant in 350 Massachusetts and Students for a Just and Stable Future was arrested in a protest against the construction of the southern leg of the Keystone XL pipeline. Readers may recognize him as the young man who has voiced the importance of climate justice at several Occupy Boston events.

The southern leg of the Keystone XL is presently under construction with the intent to bring tar sands crude from Alberta, Canada to Huston ports. Last year, Dr. James Hansen, prominent climate scientist, head of NASSA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and adjunct professor at Columbia University explained the risk in a New York Times Op Ed:

Canada’s tar sands, deposits of sand saturated with bitumen, contain twice the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by global oil use in our entire history. If we were to fully exploit this new oil source, and continue to burn our conventional oil, gas and coal supplies, concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere eventually would reach levels higher than in the Pliocene era, more than 2.5 million years ago, when sea level was at least 50 feet higher than it is now. That level of heat-trapping gases would assure that the disintegration of the ice sheets would accelerate out of control. Sea levels would rise and destroy coastal cities. Global temperatures would become intolerable. Twenty to 50 percent of the planet’s species would be driven to extinction. Civilization would be at risk.

The update on Murtaza comes from climate and social justice advocate Dorian Williams, who writes:

Dear fellow proponents of climate justice,

Many of you may know Murtaza Nek as he has been an active participant of 350 Massachusetts and Students for a Just and Stable Future. Recently he took a trip down to Texas to contribute to the Tar Sands Blockade’s fight against the construction of the southern leg of Keystone XL Pipeline.

As of 11:50am on January 3rd, Murtaza was arrested in Texas while trying to provide direct support to his friends partaking in a particularly vulnerable tree sit for the Tar Sands Blockade.

You can learn more and see the footage of the arrest here: http://tarsandsblockade.org/15th-action.

For those of who have not had a chance to meet Murtaza, he has been an amazingly strong and dedicated ally in this movement. Having accomplished Climate Summer this past year, where he biked from town-to-town across Massachusetts supporting climate action and discussion, Murtaza brought back his organizing and bike power here. Every week, Murtaza would bike from Worcester to Cambridge and back to participate in SJSF and 350MA meetings, helping organize and participate in actions targeting fossil fuels like tar sands and natural gas.

Now he needs our commitment and support in return. Please spread the word and consider donating to the legal fund that would enable his release: https://www.wepay.com/donations/tsbdonate.

In Peace and Solidarity,
Dorian