Standing Rock: Counterterrorism Tactics Used by Energy Transfer Mercenaries to “Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies”

I really wish that reporters would just call “private security firms”–military-for-hire–what they really are: Mercenaries.

More than 100 internal documents leaked to The Intercept by a TigerSwan contractor, as well as a set of over 1,000 documents obtained via public records requests, reveal that TigerSwan spearheaded a multifaceted private security operation characterized by sweeping and invasive surveillance of protesters.

As policing continues to be militarized and state legislatures around the country pass laws criminalizing protest, the fact that a private security firm retained by a Fortune 500 oil and gas company [Energy Transfer Partners] coordinated its efforts with local, state, and federal law enforcement to undermine the protest movement has profoundly anti-democratic implications.

Source: Leaked Documents Reveal Counterterrorism Tactics Used at Standing Rock to “Defeat Pipeline Insurgencies”