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Know Your Enemy?

January 8, 2009

Activist Unmasks Himself as Federal Informant in G.O.P. Convention Case
By COLIN MOYNIHAN

New York Times
January 5, 2009
When the scheduled federal trial begins this month for two Texas men who
were arrested during the Republican National Convention on charges of making
and possessing Molotov cocktails, one of the major witnesses against them
will be a community activist who acted as a government informant.
Brandon Darby, an organizer from Austin, Tex., made the news public himself,
announcing in an open letter posted on Dec. 30 on Indymedia.org that he had
worked as an informant, most recently at last year’s Republican convention
in St. Paul.


“The simple truth is that I have chosen to work with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation,” wrote Mr. Darby, who gained prominence as a member of Common
Ground Relief, a group that helped victims of Hurricane Katrina in New
Orleans.
He added, “I strongly stand behind my choices in this matter.”
Mr. Darby’s revelations caused shock and indignation in the activist
community, with people in various groups and causes accusing him of
betrayal.
“The emerging truth about Darby’s malicious involvement in our communities
is heart-breaking and utterly ground-shattering,” said the Austin Informant
Working Group, a collection of activists from the city who worked with Mr.
Darby. “Through the history of our struggles for a better world,
infiltrators and informants have acted as tools for the forces of misery in
disrupting and derailing our movements.”
Mr. Darby’s letter answered lingering questions in the case of the two Texas
men, David McKay and Bradley Crowder, both also from Austin. They are
scheduled to go on trial in Minnesota on Jan. 26, and if convicted on all
counts, each faces a prison sentence of up to 30 years.
Neither the United States attorney’s office in Minnesota nor the F.B.I.
would comment on Mr. Darby’s announcement.
“As a matter of policy, we’re not going to confirm or deny the identity of
anybody who gives us information confidentially,” said E. K. Wilson, an
F.B.I. spokesman in Minnesota.
But in a telephone interview, Mr. Darby said that he had provided
information leading to the arrest of Mr. Crowder and Mr. McKay, and that he
planned to testify at their trial.
Mr. Darby would not provide details about his undercover activities, but
said he had also worked as an informant in cases not involving the
convention. He defended his decision to work with the F.B.I. as “a good
moral way to use my time,” saying he wanted to prevent violence during the
convention at the Xcel Energy Center.
Documents that activists said were given to defense lawyers by the
prosecution and printed on F.B.I. letterhead indicated that an informant –
now identified as Mr. Darby – carried out a thorough surveillance operation
that dated back to at least 18 months before the Republican gathering. He
first met Mr. Crowder and Mr. McKay in Austin six months before the
convention.
Mr. Darby provided descriptions of meetings with the defendants and dozens
of other people in Austin, Minneapolis and St. Paul. He wore recording
devices at times, including a transmitter embedded in his belt during the
convention. He also went to Minnesota with Mr. Crowder four months before
the Republican gathering and gave detailed narratives to law enforcement
authorities of several meetings they had with activists from New York, San
Francisco, Montana and other places.
One of his last conversations with Mr. McKay ended in an alley in
Minneapolis, according to court documents, with Mr. Darby recording Mr.
McKay talking about plans to use Molotov cocktails.
The F.B.I. reports mentioned dozens of people, most of whom have not been
accused of any crime. In addition to listing biographical and physical
particulars, Mr. Darby frequently offered observations on the motives,
attitudes and states of mind of activists with whom he dealt.
“Part of what intrigues me is not only how he operates but what is the role
of the F.B.I. in how he operates,” said Lisa Fithian, an organizer who is
named in the reports. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”
Some former friends of Mr. Darby have denounced him as a provocateur and
said he might have enabled or encouraged Mr. Crowder and Mr. McKay to break
the law. Mr. Darby denied that.
An F.B.I. agent swore in an affidavit that at one point Mr. McKay
acknowledged that he intended to use firebombs. Such devices were never
used, and both defendants have pleaded not guilty.
“The claim that the case is solely based on the testimony of informants is
simply a wanton and willful untruth,” Mr. Darby said in the interview. “It
omits the physical evidence, the confession and possibly the testimony of
many others.”
In 2005, Mr. Darby went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck,
joining Common Ground Relief as it provided medical attention and helped
repair homes. He became a visible member of the group, sometimes acting as a
spokesman and appearing on “The Tavis Smiley Show” on PBS.
When The St. Paul Pioneer Press published an article in October that cited
an unidentified source who named Mr. Darby as an informant in the case
against Mr. Crowder and Mr. McKay, a co-founder of Common Ground, Scott
Crow, defended Mr. Darby publicly and warned against “rumors, conjecture and
innuendo.”
“I put it all on the line to defend him when accusations first came out,”
Mr. Crow said. “Brandon Darby is somebody I had entrusted with my life in
New Orleans, and now I feel endangered by him.”
Mr. Darby acknowledged that many people he spied on might not accept his
explanation that he was motivated by conscience.
“I am well aware,” he said, “that I’ve stepped outside of accepted behaviors
and that I’ve committed a sin in the eyes of many activists.”

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4 comments on “Know Your Enemy?”

“The giant Antaeus lowers Dante and Virgil into the pit that forms the ninth circle of Hell. (Canto XXXI) Traitors, distinguished from the “merely” fraudulent in that their acts involve betraying one in a special relationship to the betrayer, are frozen in a lake of ice known as Cocytus. Each group of traitors is encased in ice to a different depth, ranging from only the waist down to complete immersion.” (the wiki)
I guess Darby falls into group 2 of Dante’s traitors in the 9th circle.

Im quite concerned about that exactly, “mak(ing) and us(ing) bombs”.
We should talk to Mr. Obama about the potential use of the USA’s incredible arsenal. Like when we trade with Israel, when we take down and prop up regimes all around the world.
And maybe then his minister of propaganda, Shepard Fairey, will make a poster about it.

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