The Guardian: US conducted ‘mass spying campaign’ against leftwing groups and anti-ICE protesters, records reveal
"...Newly disclosed records reveal the US government extensively spied on prominent leftwing organizations and on protesters as part of a vast operation into groups opposing the immigration crackdown in Minnesota earlier this year...."
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/13/us-government-spied-anti-ice-protesters
Per the Guardian: "..One investigative record showed DHS used administrative subpoenas to obtain “wire transfers from various financial institutions to and from” SEIU, one of the largest unions in the US. Investigators also requested that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provide financial data from the Communications Workers of America, an international union, the records showed....DHS further obtained financial records related to the Sunrise Movement, a national non-profit focused on the climate crisis."
#unions #uspol #bigbrother #surveillance #climate #climateemergency
"...At one anti-ICE event at a church, agents documented the license plate information of attendees, the records showed. When two agents were approached by a man who “asked if they were ICE”, the agent responded, falsely, that they were not...." #surveillance #bigbrother #privacy #uspol
***the thought occurred to me recently wondering if they were doing this here, too. Thinking, in terms of operational security,, that parking away from an event and walking or bicycling in would be more discreet.
Aug 14, 2026, 1:54 AM@ai6yr dropping your phone into a Faraday bag before leaving home is something I've done before heading to protests. I will sometimes bring an old phone if I want to take pictures.
@ai6yr Turning off a phone is good. I'm not entirely sure if that's sufficient.
Wear really generic clothes. No logos, except maybe a local sports team.
Big sunglasses and a hat are a good way to obscure your identity that aren't as obvious as wearing a mask.
If you park in the vicinity, somewhere with a plausible reason like a big box store parking lot is good.
If you can take transit anonymously, that's good. Paying a cash fare is best. Or use a burner transit card that you only load with cash.
@ai6yr Welp, as a survivor of forms of surveillance by police and FBI and whatever “agents” available when I attended college starting 1960, we who protested and took part in social justice actions, knew many years ago our own government was doing their best to deter us or somehow stop dissent. We knew there could be and possibly would be infiltrators and informers.
So what’s new? Vast, vast budgets of government agencies to operate same same but also have far more access to digital data that could even more threaten than in the early 70’s. Not one thing “We” have found out about this in articles like this is a surprise in any way. And laws have passed for 20-30 years on criminalizing much if not most forms of dissent to a degree where there really aren’t constitutional protections and rights anymore. Am I right? Fear and Loathing politics worked. Think about it. We 60’s and 70’s activists saw all this coming together as a slow tsunami and now it’s here.
@ai6yr I should note I attended college in 1969- 1973 (NOT 1960!) for undergraduate, and these years coincide with massive student-led protests over the Vietnam War. We prevailed. We also knew there would be photographs and documentation in government hands.
A good friend (college professor) filed and then waited 15 years for the FOIA files on him. He received 200 photocopy pages with many or most words blacked out, especially the names of agents or informants. We know from what he did receive, I’m in his files as well as many mutual friends. Many of the events were ACLU presentations or public meetings.
We also had proof a little old grumpy conservative lady (crank) who wrote a lot of letters to the editor of the local paper was an informant. Her name was accidentally not blacked out on one page and then we could deduce other events where she was the likely informant. “Violet Hamilton” always invokes my memories of the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. Years later we all remarked on notice of her death but had no regrets for her passing.
@MillerTimeGarage
@ai6yr Yes, we saw what the tRumpSSreich pulled in the uber-BS class of poor idealism - they're still murdering people and blaming those who don't approve for the "necessity" of the violence.... classic evil
@ai6yr This is definitely not past tense
@ai6yr You know which political ideology makes it’s mainstay the removal of opposition through accusing anything left of being treasonous to the state itself?
That’s right, fascism does that.
@ai6yr I'm thinking that it is well known police lie to get confessions, at least that is what the hit t.v. series Law & Order taught us. That's okay, says society. But when the state lies elsewhere, i.e. ICE agents, that's not okay.
Double standards often come back to bite you. I am not in favor of ICE or Trump, but I think people who look the other way when lying occurs have some ownership in the problem.
@VogueLaGalere So, it's okay to surveil groups politically opposed to you because police lie? 🤔
@ai6yr of course not. But there was mention that the ICE agents lied suggesting that they should not?
@ai6yr I don't think members act for the government should ever lie; I don't think police should lie. (Trump is the epitome of lying and look where the US is.)
Yet, I think there are judicial approvals of police lying to get confessions. Thus an exception to telling the truth has been condoned. It's a slippery slope, once you allow or condone officers to lie, what limits are there to doing so elsewhere? Just judicial reviews? That's enough.
Aug 14, 2026, 5:03 PMThis is why you don't RSVP to a protest.