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<H1>Judge: FBI Explain Withholding Records Of Occupy Houston Assassination
Plot</H1>
<P>A federal judge has ordered the FBI to explain why it withheld some
information requested by a graduate student for his research on a plot to
assassinate Occupy Houston protest leaders.</P>
<P>Ryan Noah Shapiro, a doctoral student at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge, Mass., filed a lawsuit April 29, 2013, against the U.S.
Department of Justice in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.</P>
<P>U.S. District Judge Rosemary M. Collyer issued her order, with an
accompanying memo, on March 12.</P>
<P>The FBI, as part of the Department of Justice, controls the records Shapiro
wanted for his study of “conflicts at the nexus of American national security,
law enforcement and political dissent,” the plaintiff’s complaint stated.</P>
<P>Houston was among hundreds of U.S. cities where protesters occupied outdoor
spaces as part of the Occupy Movement that started in New York’s Zucotti Park on
Sept. 17, 2011.</P>
<P>“The movement has sought to expose how the wealthiest 1 percent of society
promulgates an unfair global economy that harms people and destroys communities
worldwide,” the complaint stated.</P>
<P>Shapiro said in his complaint that the existence of an assassination plot
against Occupy Houston’s leaders became known through the FBI’s earlier release
of information in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.</P>
<P>“According to one of the released records, … [REDACTED] planned to gather
intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs,
then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles…,”
Shapiro stated in his complaint.</P>
<P>Shapiro requested additional information from the FBI in January 2013.</P>
<P>“There is presently a vigorous and extraordinarily important debate in the
United States about the authority of the government to conduct extrajudicial
killings on American soil,” the complaint stated.</P>
<P>“The records sought by plaintiff would likely be an invaluable contribution
to the public discourse on this issue,” Shapiro’s complaint said. “It would also
be a significant controversy if it was revealed that the FBI deliberately failed
to act to prevent a plot to assassinate American protest leaders.”</P>
<P>In response to Shapiro’s request, the FBI identified 17 pages of records and
turned over five partial pages while entirely withholding 12 pages, according to
court records.</P>
<P>Shapiro filed the suit because, his complaint stated, the FBI’s search was
inadequate and failed to produce relevant records, and the agency improperly
invoked certain exemptions as reasons not to disclose information.</P>
<P>In July, the FBI filed a motion to either dismiss the suit or request summary
judgment. The judge granted the motion in part and denied it in part.</P>
<P>In its motion to dismiss, the FBI stated that it maintained its records
pursuant to its “general investigative authority” and its “lead role in
investigating terrorism and in the collection of terrorism threat
information.”</P>
<P>But the agency failed to supply facts supporting its belief that the Occupy
protesters might have been engaged in terroristic or other criminal activity,
the judge’s memo stated.</P>
<P>The judge ordered the FBI to explain its basis for withholding information
under Exemption 7, which protects records compiled for law enforcement
purposes.</P>
<P>“To the extent that FBI believes it cannot be more specific without revealing
the very information it wishes to protect, it may request an <EM>in
camera</EM> (in judge’s chambers) review of the documents,” Collyer
said.</P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>