john towery

If you were gone over the summer or if you’re new to Evergreen, you may not have heard about the biggest scandal to hit the activist community this year: a military spy was discovered to have infiltrated Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (PMR) as well as other organizations that are comprised largely of Evergreen students. News outlets have already covered this story, but this article will attempt to catch up the folks who haven’t heard, and also place our spy in the broader context of the burgeoning Surveillance-Industrial Complex.

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.