JBLM Protection Division Calls Nov 6th 2023 Protesters at Port of Tacoma Terrorists

There was a peaceful and lawful protest at the Port of Tacoma yesterday (Nov. 6th, 2023) where hundreds of protesters called for a cease-fire in Gaza. The Protesters blocked traffic at the Port of Tacoma, where a military supply ship had recently arrived. Protest organizers said that they opposed the Israel-Hamas war and targeted the military ship — Cape Orlando — based on confidential information that it was to be loaded with weapons bound for Israel.

This morning the JBLM DES Protection Division is calling the protesters at the Port of Tacoma "homegrown violent extremists" (domestic terrorists) and claiming that JBLM needs to identify and track everyone involved in these actions. Daniel L. Vessels, Chief of the JBLM DES Protection Division stated that it is essential that anyone protesting military activity or questioning government actions be identified as these individuals pose a threat to "good order and discipline" on JBLM and a "terrorist threat" to military activities at the Port and in the surrounding civilian community.

The JBLM DES Protection Division has a long history of violating the rights of peaceful protesters and of harassing anyone who questions military activities --

In her 2013 book, *Spying on Democracy*, Heidi Boghosian, the former director of the National Lawyers’ Guild, wrote about the JBLM DES Protection Division saying: “In the words of the government agencies involved, they aimed to neutralize PMR [Port Militarization Resistance, a political / activist group that opposed the war in Iraq] through a pattern of false arrests and detentions, attacks on homes and friendships, and attempting to impede members from peacefully assembling and demonstrating anywhere, at any time. Harassment was systematic and pervasive… The case revealed that today’s military has continued to engage in COINTELPRO-type operations and shows the extent to which the lines between the military and civilian law enforcement have blurred. Forces now used against ordinary people engaged in free speech and protest include, increasingly, weapons and tactics used by the U.S. military for combat missions. The drift from passive intelligence gathering to offensive counterintelligence is one manifestation of the difference between civilian law enforcement principles and the military’s exclusive focus on defeating perceived enemies through combat, propaganda, and covert operations... The role of civilian law enforcement, in theory, is to protect the public and the Constitution whereas the role of the military is to identify the enemy and neutralize them... When the military starts identifying peaceful dissenters here as the enemy, God help us all.”

The JBLM DES Protection Division is targeting anyone who opposes the war in Gaza, just like they targeted everyone who opposed the war in Iraq. The following contact information is from the signature block contained of the email sent out by the JBLM DES Protection Division calling the protesters at the Port of Tacoma a threat:

Dan Vessels
Protection Division Chief
Directorate of Emergency Services (DES)
Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington
Building 2007 Room A108
Office: 253-966-7319 [DSN 347-7319]
Cell: 253-278-3121

Contact the JBLM Commander through the installation's ICE Comment system https://ice.disa.mil/index.cfm?fa=card&sp=121425&s=957&dep=*DoD&sc=1 and demand an end to the illegal activities of the JBLM DES Protection Division and that JBLM stops monitoring and harassing people who exercise their First Amendment Rights.


The following links show local media report of the Port of Tacoma protests on November 6th 2023.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/tacoma/israel-hamas-protesters-block-access-cargo-ship-port-tacoma/281-07c6501c-a999-48ef-89f4-780efaaf11ba

https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/pro-palestinian-demonstrators-block-port-tacoma-delay-israel-bound-ship/EV7CEEL2XZG5PCPAFI3N6JH7N4/