Part of the Series
The Whole World Is Watching: NATO in Chicago
Today, on the morning of the pre-trial hearing of the “ NATO 3,” — who are being charged with “conspiracy to commit terrorism,” “terrorism” and “possession of incendiary devices”– another explosive (excuse the pun) revelation has been made by Occupy Chicago.
In an article I published yesterday on TruthOut, a picture of only one of the two police informants, “Mo,” was published in the press for the first time.
Now, the other informant, “Gloves,” has in some ways been outed, with two pictures of her up online for the world to see for the first time thanks to Occupy Chicago activists. The pictures can be seen below:
“We do have pictures of ‘Gloves,’ but they’re not clear enough to make a positive identification,” NLG legal worker Kris Hermes told me in an interview in the TruthOutarticle. “We understand they’re both in their 30s, but we’re not sure of their age.”
“Mo” and “Gloves” have been described as the informant “threads” that bind the five NATO Summit activists charged with “terrorism.”
“The thread between all five was the informants that we believe were provoking criminal activity,” said to me in the Truthout article. “We believe it was the same two informants, which has been ascertained from the arrestees.”
Stay tuned for more coverage from the front lines. Much more to come.
Update: In a press release obtained by Antiwar.com, Occupy Chicago stated,
Occupy Chicago has obtained photographs of suspected police informants, who according to witnesses and arrestees were part of a law enforcement operation, which has resulted in the prosecution of 5 NATO protesters on terrorism-related charges. The city has yet to admit to using infiltrators in the Wednesday night raid on a Bridgeport home of activists, but both suspected police informants who go by the names of “Mo” and “Gloves” (aka “Nadiya”) were arrested with 9 others but then mysteriously disappeared. Mo and Gloves have not been seen since.
According to Occupy Chicago activists, Mo and Gloves took part in various organizing efforts over the past few weeks. Mo was arrested during an action on April 17th at 63rd & Woodlawn to protest the closure of a mental health clinic. The so-called NATO 3 (Jared Chase, Brent Betterly, and Brian Jacob Church), who came to Chicago from Florida, were befriended by Mo and Gloves and were likely sought out by the informants because of the out-of-town activists’ unfamiliarity with local Occupy Chicago organizers.
Although the State’s Attorney has not made any connections between the NATO 3 and two additional protesters with terrorism-related charges, the common thread between all of the cases is the involvement of Mo and Gloves.
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.