Folks, I almost spilled my coffee reading this one. Federal agents launched a sweeping undercover surveillance operation targeting progressive organizations, labor unions, and other groups protesting the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. The program, dubbed Operation Puppet Master, was aimed at what officials called a network of conspirators helping “violent opportunists and agitators.” I mean, who comes up with these names? It sounds like a bad action movie. Anyway, the documents were filed in a case involving 15 people charged by federal prosecutors in June with impeding the crackdown, accusing them of conspiring against the federal government through a range of actions, from throwing ice chunks to setting up blockades.
The government documents were released Thursday in connection with a motion from a defense lawyer in the case, Kevin Riach, who requested that officials disclose more material collected during the investigations. Bless their hearts, they thought they could just spy on people exercising their constitutional rights and get away with it. The reality, according to government documents revealed in court motions, was Department of Homeland Security officers infiltrating meetings in churches, schools, and parks that were often simply discussions of constitutionally protected protests.
A statement from the department said Homeland Security Investigations doesn’t comment on the existence or status of on-going investigations or investigative methods. Yeah, because that’s not suspicious at all. The statement referred questions to the US attorney’s office in Minnesota, which didn’t immediately respond to an after-hours email from The Associated Press. I’m sure they were just too busy to respond, or maybe they were just trying to avoid answering some tough questions.
Operation Puppet Master, and a later operation called Project Whipple Shield, were a “broad and irrational investigation” driven by politics and not criminal conduct, Riach said in a motion filed Thursday. You can’t make this stuff up, folks. Dozens of pages of documents describe agents secretly infiltrating meetings, monitoring activist chat groups, and using license plate numbers to compile names of people who attended gatherings. It’s like they were trying to create a real-life episode of “The X-Files.”
A slide created by Homeland Security’s investigative branch titled “The Conspiracy” shows 18 organizations, from a small Minneapolis bicycle repair collective to the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor groups in the U.S. I mean, what’s next? Are they going to start investigating book clubs and knitting circles? The government also obtained years of certain financial records for groups ranging from the Sunrise Movement to major unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the Communications Workers of America.
The government is “lashing out desperately in hopes of intimidating people and organizations that have shown the power of communities acting together,” said a statement distributed by Unidos MN, a local human rights group. Ah, now that’s what I call a conspiracy theory. Many people don’t want to live in a world where expressing their beliefs gives federal agencies the right to investigate them, said Ahilan Arulanantham, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. It’s that fear of that creeping police state, he said. Well, I think it’s safe to say that fear is justified.
In conclusion, it seems like the federal government has been getting a little too big for its britches, spying on people who are just trying to exercise their constitutional rights. I mean, come on, folks, this is America, not some kind of dystopian novel. We’re supposed to be the land of the free, not the land of the surveilled. And on that note, I’m going to go refill my coffee cup, because this story has left me shaken, not stirred.
Armchair patriot. Believes in the free market, cold beer, and that there’s always a guy named George behind every CNN segment.
Former remote-throwing champion turned #1 couch commentator on liberal panic in the media. Born in Texas (or so his mug says), he earned a degree in Fake Newsology & Beer Philosophy from YouTube University.
