Keystone activists enraged by report that FBI spied on them

Thousands of activists gather at the National Mall for the "Forward on Climate" rally, in Washington, on Feb. 17, 2013.

Image: Drew Angerer/dapd/SIPA USA/Associated Press

By Colin Daileda and Andrew Freedman20 minutes ago

Jane Kleeb, who runs an political advocacy organization in Nebraska, at first didn't want to call the police about the truck that kept parking just off her family's property.
But when Kleeb, an ardent opponent of the Keystone XL pipeline project, saw the vehicle roll up close to her house where she lives with her children, she felt too threatened to let it go. She phoned police and the truck promptly disappeared.
But that and other strange occurrences have left her feeling exposed.
Kleeb, who thought another truck was following her just the other night, now carries mace wherever she goes. She will keep her husband on the phone if she suspects something is amiss when she's out.

See also: EPA chief says Keystone Pipeline wouldn't be climate 'disaster'

Reading The Guardian's report on Tuesday that seemed to confirm that the FBI spied on environmental activists opposed to the Keystone pipeline, Kleeb and other activists say they feel both validated, enraged and frightened.
"It's a little bit terrifying because you watch movies based on that kind of stuff," Kleeb told Mashable. "I think the FBI has much bigger things to worry about than a mom with a mini-van who is protesting a pipeline."

A barn called the Energy Barn, which was built by anti-pipeline activists directly on the route of the Keystone XL pipeline, stands in a snowy corn field near Bradshaw, Nebraska, on Jan. 16.

Image: Nati Harnik/Associated Press

According to the Guardian's reporting, which was based on a Freedom of Information Act request, the Houston FBI Office reportedly broke agency rules on numerous occasions by spying on anti-pipeline activists between November 2012 and June 2014. Specifically, FBI agents gathered information on protesters without approval.
The Guardian story was done in conjunction with Earth Island Journal, a small environmental magazine.
The pipeline, which would transport tar sands oil from Alberta to the Texas Gulf Coast, has become a symbolic issue in the fight against global warming, with intense pressure being placed on the White House to reject the proposal. Since the pipeline would cross the U.S. border with Canada, the State Department and ultimately the White House have final approval.
Environmental activists say the oil carried by the pipeline would send huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere when it is burned, accelerating global warming, while proponents of the pipeline say it would bolster the country's economy by creating jobs. Kleeb and others also say it would create the risk of devastating oil spills in the nation's heartland.
The FBI likely called its investigations into Keystone activists "assessments," according to The Guardian.
Assessments are investigations of groups or people that the FBI was first allowed to conduct after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, when their monitoring powers were expanded. Though these environmental activists hadn't been found to be dangerous, the report says the FBI linked them with domestic terrorism.

This is a March 25 photo of FBI director James Comey as he gestures during a news conference at FBI headquarters in Washington.

Image: Evan Vucci/Associated Press

And the opponents of these activists have played up the fictional terrorism connection.
The Hot Springs School District in South Dakota went on lockdown in May, 2013 for a drill in which school officials got a fake letter that said "things dear to everyone will be destroyed unless continuation of the Keystone pipeline... is stopped immediately."
"It's very disturbing to know that I, along with great people and communities and grassroots leaders, are being classified in the same categories as terrorists from overseas with distinct goals to harm people," Dallas Goldtooth, an organizer at the Indigenous Environmental Network, told Mashable.

"It sends a signal of fear to those that want to protect our area and have the interest of their communities in mind."

"It sends a signal of fear to those that want to protect our area and have the interest of their communities in mind."

Protesters gathered at Terry Shrunk Plaza in Portland, Oregon, on Jan. 13, to protest against the Keystone XL pipeline.

Image: Alex Milan Tracy/Associated Press

The FBI isn't allowed to get bogged down in the nation's politics, and the pipeline is a hugely contentious political issue. Yet that appears to be exactly what the agency has done in this case. The Guardian cites an FBI document that says the Keystone XL Pipeline is "vital to the security and economy of the United States," which many anti-pipeline activists say clearly shows the FBI has taken sides in a political debate.
The FBI did not respond to a question about whether the agency has taken an official position on the pipeline.
Activists expressed little surprise about this to Mashable, but they were still enraged that the agency would side with the wishes of a foreign oil company that wants to build the pipeline, TransCanada, at the expense of American citizens. The ACLU, a government watchdog group, agrees with that characterization.
"It is disconcerting and disgraceful for the FBI to use its considerable powers to spy on nonviolent political activists," Lee Rowland, an attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, told Mashable. "Labeling peaceful protesters as 'extremists' or even 'terrorists' demonstrates troubling mission creep and fails to justify the use of invasive FBI infiltration and surveillance."
Interestingly, the FBI's apparent position on Keystone put the FBI at odds with analysts at the EPA and some of the President's senior advisors.
President Obama himself has sounded more skeptical of the project in the past year, based on his public statements.
In a major climate address in June 2014, for example, Obama said he would not allow Keystone to be built if it "does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution."
"The net effects of the pipeline’s impact on our climate will be absolutely critical to determining whether this project is allowed to go forward," he said. "It’s relevant."