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Big Government has posted two articles on some of the people involved in the Occupy Wall Street protests. The first article is here. It summarizes some of the emails that reporters from Big Government have obtained. These emails show who the people and groups are that are behind Occupy Wall Street, what these groups are planning, and what their goals are.

One highlight of the article:

The true purpose of the Occupy movement appears to be further economic and governmental destabilization, at a time when the world is already facing major financial and political challenges. By embracing the Occupy movement, President Barack Obama, the Democrat Party, and their union allies may be supporting an effort to harm both the domestic and global economies; to create social unrest throughout the democratic world; and to embrace other radical causes, including the anti-Israel movement. Ironically, the emails suggest that the President and the Democrat Party may soon find their friends in the Occupy movement to be a political burden. The email below calls for the Occupy movement to begin “executing higher-risk actions, civil disobedience and arrests,” and suggests: “We must draw a line, disavow the Democrats explicitly, make our messaging a little uncomfortable.” 

The second article at Big Government explains what caused Big Government to investigate the people behind Occupy Wall Street.

The article reports some disturbing connections:

Then, at the end of August, we were alerted by a fellow researcher that information about USDoR (U.S. Day of Rage, to which Occupy Wall Street is connected) had been posted on Shamuk and Al-Jahad, two Al-Qaeda recruitment sites. We began to take the “Occupy” protest more seriously, and dedicated more time to research and monitoring.

Days later, Anonymous announced that it would be releasing its new DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) tool. Because of the Al-Qaeda posting, we contacted the New York Field Office of the FBI so they could investigate the potential threat. From that point on, we decided we needed to include the Human Element of Intelligence (HUMINT), and to infiltrate the protestors to map their ties to Anonymous, and to the postings on Shamuk and Al-Jahad.

Admittedly, a protest movement cannot truly control who shows up to protest, but I do think recruiting on Al-Qaeda websites is a bit much.

The second article contains links to emails relating to specific plans of the protesters. So far, the attempts at violence and financial disruption have failed. Hopefully, that will be the case in the future.

I will admit to being a child of the sixties. I have protested. I was a peaceful protester. I never destroyed property or was rude to police or protesters on the opposite side of the issue. Protests are valid in a free society. Destruction of property and violence are not valid. As Occupy Wall Street continues, we need to take a very close look at who is behind the protest and exactly what they are doing and what they intend to do.