Suzanimal
06-19-2016, 03:41 PM
The first time Will Potter encountered the FBI was on his very own doorstep. He says a pair of agents knocked on his door and pressed him for information on his animal-activist friends — and threatened to put him on the domestic terrorism list if he didn’t cooperate. Potter says he didn’t snitch on his animal-activist friends. Ever since then, he adds, he’s felt something creepy, intangible and possibly imagined: a sense of being followed and watched.
The FBI did not respond to our request for comment or verify Potter’s version of the doorstep encounter. But today, Potter is an award-winning investigative journalist known for his reporting on government surveillance and secret prisons, right here in America. These “Communications Management Units” — an appropriately Orwellian name — sequester inmates within existing prison facilities. They’re intended to severely restrict and monitor inmates’ communication, from letters and phone calls to emails, with the outside world. Potter, a TED and Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow, says he’s the first journalist ever to venture inside one of these “Little Guantanamos.” Partly because of that, he’s “one of the most influential journalists in the field of surveillance,” says Charles Eisendrath, director of the Knight-Wallace Fellowship program at the University of Michigan. Potter will be a professor there this fall.
He watches the government and it watches him — classic countersurveillance.
In his TED talk, above, Potter describes how environmental activists, whistle blowers and other so-called domestic terrorists are jailed in these for their actions and, sometimes, their words. The first CMU was established in 2006, at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the confinement of prisoners of “inspirational significance,” not necessarily the worst terrorists or scariest bad guys. Potter was drawn in as he was covering the case of Daniel McGowan, a member of the Earth Liberation Front who in 2007 was convicted of arson, in part for burning down a lumber company, and sentenced to seven years. When McGowan was transferred to a CMU, Potter petitioned for a visit — as a friend and not a journalist, he says — and jumped down the rabbit hole. “We as Americans have these blinders on, thinking things like this either happen in other countries or in other periods of history in this country,” he says.
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Potter is intertwined in his work. He watches the government and it watches him — classic countersurveillance. According to memos Potter has received via FOIA requests, FBI agents read his books, follow his work and show up at his talks at prestigious universities like UC Berkeley and Georgetown. The never-ending ambiguity between the personal and the professional has made his work resonate with others, but it also pains him. Potter has suffered anxiety and “the D-word,” finding distraction in learning how to fix up vintage Honda motorcycles, doing CrossFit or jamming out at punk-rock shows. There’s this idea in journalism that depression isn’t something you should be worried about unless you’re a war photographer, Potter says. Yet he finds a way to make dark jokes and brings levity to the gravity of this “spooky” field, Eisendrath says.
To be sure, the seriousness is warranted. After all, he’s operating as an independent journalist without the backing of a major news organization and its legal department. It’s risky, Eisendrath says. But for Potter, his work confirms the power of education; when he writes and talks about his investigations, “the fear subsides,” he says. Even the FBI agrees that his work is “well-written” and “compelling.” Really. They said as much in the memos Potter acquired through his FOIA requests. Now when FBI agents show up to case his speaking events, he can crack a joke that maybe, just maybe, the agents aren’t free-speech spies at all — they’re fanboys.
http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/going-inside-americas-secret-prisons-with-will-potter/69793?utm_source=NWSR&utm_medium=pp&utm_campaign=pp
The FBI did not respond to our request for comment or verify Potter’s version of the doorstep encounter. But today, Potter is an award-winning investigative journalist known for his reporting on government surveillance and secret prisons, right here in America. These “Communications Management Units” — an appropriately Orwellian name — sequester inmates within existing prison facilities. They’re intended to severely restrict and monitor inmates’ communication, from letters and phone calls to emails, with the outside world. Potter, a TED and Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellow, says he’s the first journalist ever to venture inside one of these “Little Guantanamos.” Partly because of that, he’s “one of the most influential journalists in the field of surveillance,” says Charles Eisendrath, director of the Knight-Wallace Fellowship program at the University of Michigan. Potter will be a professor there this fall.
He watches the government and it watches him — classic countersurveillance.
In his TED talk, above, Potter describes how environmental activists, whistle blowers and other so-called domestic terrorists are jailed in these for their actions and, sometimes, their words. The first CMU was established in 2006, at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, for the confinement of prisoners of “inspirational significance,” not necessarily the worst terrorists or scariest bad guys. Potter was drawn in as he was covering the case of Daniel McGowan, a member of the Earth Liberation Front who in 2007 was convicted of arson, in part for burning down a lumber company, and sentenced to seven years. When McGowan was transferred to a CMU, Potter petitioned for a visit — as a friend and not a journalist, he says — and jumped down the rabbit hole. “We as Americans have these blinders on, thinking things like this either happen in other countries or in other periods of history in this country,” he says.
...
Potter is intertwined in his work. He watches the government and it watches him — classic countersurveillance. According to memos Potter has received via FOIA requests, FBI agents read his books, follow his work and show up at his talks at prestigious universities like UC Berkeley and Georgetown. The never-ending ambiguity between the personal and the professional has made his work resonate with others, but it also pains him. Potter has suffered anxiety and “the D-word,” finding distraction in learning how to fix up vintage Honda motorcycles, doing CrossFit or jamming out at punk-rock shows. There’s this idea in journalism that depression isn’t something you should be worried about unless you’re a war photographer, Potter says. Yet he finds a way to make dark jokes and brings levity to the gravity of this “spooky” field, Eisendrath says.
To be sure, the seriousness is warranted. After all, he’s operating as an independent journalist without the backing of a major news organization and its legal department. It’s risky, Eisendrath says. But for Potter, his work confirms the power of education; when he writes and talks about his investigations, “the fear subsides,” he says. Even the FBI agrees that his work is “well-written” and “compelling.” Really. They said as much in the memos Potter acquired through his FOIA requests. Now when FBI agents show up to case his speaking events, he can crack a joke that maybe, just maybe, the agents aren’t free-speech spies at all — they’re fanboys.
http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/going-inside-americas-secret-prisons-with-will-potter/69793?utm_source=NWSR&utm_medium=pp&utm_campaign=pp