Evergreen in the National Security Radar

In July, a local discovery made national news when “John Jacob,” a participant in Olympia and Tacoma activists groups, was revealed to be John J. Towery II, an infiltrator employed by the US Army. Brendan Dunn, a former member of Olympia’s Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), had made a public records request to the City of Olympia for communications concerning SDS, anarchists, and the IWW. The resultant records, coupled with investigative work, led to Towery’s outing, which in turn raised issues about a likely violaton of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits the US military from engaging in civilian law enforcement actions. What has been less publicized, however, are the portions of the records that deal with The Evergreen State College.

From Tesccrier to the Olympia and Thurston Police

The public records produced by Dunn’s request uncovered some emails originally sent to the Evergreen email announcement list, “Tesc­crier,” which were then forwarded by Evergreen Police Director Ed Sorger to commanders and chiefs in the Olympia Police Department (OPD) and the Thurston County Sherriffs Office (TCSO).
Since none of the forwarded emails mentioned anything illegal, I asked Sorger how he determined whether a Tesccrier posting was worthy of forwarding to outside police agencies.

According to Sorger, “The only thing I would share with local jurisdictions [from Tesccrier] is if there’s going to be a concern over a gathering in a particular place that could cause some traffic concerns or things of that nature where, as a law enforcement agency, we would share that.” Sorger indicated that such information sharing was reciprocal. “It’s not really intelligence. It’s public information. It’s just a head’s up, so they’re prepared to deal with a group of people in a particular location. Not riot stuff, not protest, so much as having enough officers available to detour traffic or whatever needs to be done. Those are the only kinds of things I have shared at all with local law enforcement.”

I asked Sorger about one email to Tesccrier that he had forwarded to outside police. It was an email invitation to an SDS meeting in the third floor pit of the Campus Activities Building. The email, originally sent by then-student Brendan Dunn on November 1, 2007, stated that SDS was “having an emergency meeting tonight to discuss responses that the community can have to the further militarization of our port.”

Sorger forwarded the post to various commanders and chiefs of OPD and TCSO with the preface: “Just FYI for now­—I will keep you posted on other information as I receive it.”

When asked why he forwarded an email about a student group meeting on campus, he replied, “It would be to apprise Olympia police that there’s an organization meeting that is going to discuss protest possibilities in Olympia. It’s simply a heads-up to let them know that there’s some coordination going on in regards to a military shipment coming into the Port. But nobody from my office would have attended it. And I don’t know of anybody from any other jurisdiction that would come in because of it. So all it is is a head’s up that they’re meeting to discuss how they’re going to respond to this military shipment. That’s all it is. It’s nothing any deeper than that.”

Sorger added, “Keep in mind that Tesctalk/Tesccrier is public. And in fact, people from other jurisdictions have access to that, too. It’s not an in-house/in-campus type of communication. It also goes way outside our boundaries here at the college, so it’s accessible by anybody in the public. I want to make that clear.”

In fact, both Tesctalk and Tesccrier are campus-only lists that require an Evergreen email address to subscribe. They are also accessible through the web to subscribers only (Although this is easy to circumvent, it would still require deliberate circumvention). In response to this, Sorger stated, “Keep in mind that several police officers are students here, and they see these things as I do. So there’s a very good chance that if they see something that would be of importance to local law enforcement, they would forward information. If I did [forward Tesccrier messages], it would only be information pertaining to the law enforcement network for an awareness issue, which I have a duty to do as a law enforcement officer. I’m just doing my job.

“I don’t see anything that I’ve ever emailed as being anything extremely sensitive that would cause any issues with any of our students, as far as impacting their ability to have expression of freedom and the right to free speech — that kind of issue.

“I don’t know of any obvious concerns on my part.”

However, Dunn disagrees. “When Sorger forwards informaton to the police about political organizing and students on campus that aren’t posing any threat, it’s clearly targeting us for political reasons and an obvious infringement on free speech. We shouldn’t have to fear having anything about us being sent to the police.

“Ed Sorger is a case in point that our rights are not being protected.”

From Art Costantino’s hallway to the Army

In spring 2008, SDS’s status as an Evergreen student group was revoked, which the administration claimed stemmed from a violation of the campus’s newly instituted policies. SDS protested this move by establishing a sit-in outside of Vice President Art Costantino’s office. Although the sit-in did make some local news outside of Evergreen, it was nevertheless surprising to find that the Army was apprised of the sit-in as well. A threat assessment report prepared by Fort Lewis Force Protector Thomas Rudd from July 30, 2008 stated that several activists protesting the 4/2 Stryker Brigade equipment movement at the Port of Tacoma were “linked to the recent sit in at Evergreen State College.” Rudd does not explain how the Army would know who had been involved in the sit-in or even why the Army would care about the sit-in outside Costantino’s office.

A “Threat Assessment Update” by Rudd from November 2007 also referenced a die-in “at Evergreen State College,” to occur “either at the Campus Activities Building or Red Square” in response to the movement of 3/2 Stryker Brigade materiel from the Port of Olympia.

In late October 2008, equipment from the 4/25 Brigade was being shipped from the Port of Tacoma to the US Army National Training Center in southern California, in preparation for eventual deployment to Afghanistan. The matériel movement occurred under the radar of PMR activists. Nevertheless, Army personnel kept track of the northwest activist community in case they got involved. Daily reports from the Army included an Oct. 18, 2008 “threat update” that the “Peace Works conference continues at Evergreen College today and tomorrow.” The Peace Works conference is a conference sponsored by the Rachel Corrie Foundation.

From an Evergreen conference to the US Senate Capitol Police

In February 9, 2009 Olympia SDS organized a one-day conference to prepare for protests at the Democratic and Republican national conventions. The conference, entitled the Northwest DNC/RNC Resistance Conference, was held at Evergreen. Three weeks before the conference, Andrew Pecher of the US Senate Capitol Police--Intelligence Investigations Section contacted the Olympia Police Department and the Washington State Patrol and requested, “If you can provide me with any additional information before or after the event I would greatly appreciate it. I have been designated the lead for all Intel matters for the Democratic National Convention for US Capitol Police.”

OPD Lt. Jim Pryde responded, “I don’t have any intel on this event for you at this time,” but referred Pecher to Ed Sorger. When I asked Sorger about his interactions with Pecher, Sorger responded, “I vaguely remember that, but I didn’t have anything to contribute.” However, a later email by Pecher confirmed that Sorger and Pecher did have a discussion. Two weeks after the Evergreen conference, Pecher emailed Sorger to follow up: “I am just droppjng [sic] in to see if you had a [sic] problems with the below action that we had talked about a few weeks ago. Any information that you have would be helpful.”

When asked if he replied to Pecher’s later email, Sorger said, “I could have. I don’t recall. I don’t know if I even replied that I didn’t have any information.”

According to Brendan Dunn, Evergreen Police actually approached staff at Student Activities to inquire about SDS’s involvement in DNC/RNC demonstrations. This occurred around the time that Pecher would have made initial contact with Sorger.

The Northwest DNC/RNC Resistance Conference was also referenced in a report by Highway Watch, a now-defunct “anti-terrorism” program that was funded by the Dept. of Homeland Security and privately managed by the American Trucking Associations. The Highway Watch report, which was exposed by Wikileaks, referenced the conference in the context of an anarchist network whose decentralization made it comparable to “most terror networks” and thus “more difficult to disrupt.” The report also expressed amazement that childcare was available at the Evergreen conference.

From Evergreen Graduation to potential riot situation

The day before the June 2008 Evergreen graduation, Sorger emailed OPD, TCSO, and WSP with a “heads up.” Sorger reported, “There is a slight possibility that we could have a problem at Graduation because issues are still not resolved with the student group, SDS and they may want to make some sort of a statement. We will not be engaging them unless their demonstration interferes with graduation processes. I have forwarded maps to your agencies indicating Command Post Areas. Please review them just in case we have an incident.”

Although WSP and TCSO’s responses are unknown, OPD Commander Tor Bjornstad told his sergeants to “Be sure your folks have their helmets on board,” indicating a possibility of a riot situation.

SDS did not disrupt graduation, and in fact the conflict between SDS and the Evergreen administration was resolved the night before graduation. Sorger now states that he didn’t have any specific information regarding a potential SDS disruption of graduation, but he felt it was prudent to be cautious. “It seemed that some sort of a statement — common sense to me as the Police Services director would be, ‘You know what? Why not make a statement during a time on the heels of a sit-in, on the heels of the riot thing that happened, you know? So why not be prepared and try to keep your ducks all in a row, so to speak, in case something unknown occurred...I was really nervous, and I was very much on guard because we sort of had a bad year. We had a police car tipped over and some people angry about different things going on.” (No connections were ever made between the 2008 Valentine’s Day “riot” and SDS.)

Fuse intelligence, and then everything becomes a threat to national security

It must be emphasized that the public records procured by Dunn are not comprehensive. They pertain only to communications possessed by the City of Olympia that reference SDS, anarchists, and the IWW. As Dunn has commented, “This is just the tip of the iceberg.” Much more has not surfaced, and what has been released is severely redacted. Through other methods, activists have learned of other emails forwarded by Evergreen Police from Tesccrier. They are also aware that the City of Olympia possesses a list of names of people who lawfully participated in antiwar protests. Fort Lewis has its own list that it uses to bar activists from army grounds, even barring immediate relatives of Fort Lewis employees if those relatives have engaged in prominent antiwar actions. Many names on the lists are people who have not engaged in illegal activity, or who might have only dabbled in antiwar protests temporarily.

Homeland Security meetings in Tacoma apprise attendees of threats ranging from white supremacist groups to Latin American drug gangs to Women in Black. And as much as the Evergreen community should be aware that it is being watched, Tacoma Homeland Security meetings are more often occupied with suspicious “Middle Eastern-looking” males -- which is presumably a tautology in national security matters -- or, in one instance, an individual described as “a Middle Eastern male (Ethiopian).”

The intelligence reports produced by governmental agencies are not always intelligent, nor are they much to report. One last illustrative instance:

In early March 2007, the 4/2 Stryker Brigade moved its equipment out through the Port of Tacoma for eventual deployment to Iraq as part of George Bush’s troop “surge.” Concurrently, Manuel Williams, Homeland Security advisor for the Port of Tacoma’s Maritime Intelligence Support Team (MIST), issued regular intelligence updates on antiwar activity.
One such intel update was sent to various personnel of Fort Lewis, Dept. of Homeland Security, Tacoma Police, and the Coast Guard, and also sent to John Towery and to a mysterious spy known as “jaamt004@gmail.com.” The intel consisted of a single sentence: “Drew Hendrix’ [sic] partner in crime, Phan Nguyen of the Evergreen crowd, has just issued a request for transportation to the POT.” As ominous as the intel report sounded, it was a starchy way to indicate that on March 3, 2007, I was looking for a ride to Tacoma.