An investigation by Defending Rights & Dissent has revealed that the Department of Homeland Security distributed a “situational awareness bulletin” in advance of the release of the film How To Blow Up A Pipeline to law enforcement agencies across the country. The intelligence product was created by the North Texas Fusion Center. Using the Technical Resource for Incident Prevention, or TRIPWire, an online portal for sharing information between federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies, DHS gave the bulletin national distribution.
The 2022 film follows a group of fictional environmental activists who, as the title suggests, plot to blow up a pipeline. The film received overwhelming positive critical reviews. It was loosely adopted by a nonfiction book written by climate scholar Andreas Malm. In the book, Malm argues that the catastrophic stakes of climate change and failures of peaceful protest to avert the crisis justifies an “escalation” of tactics by climate activists. Rolling Stone had previously reported that law enforcement agencies sent 35 warnings about the film.
Defending Rights & Dissent discovered this bulletin as part of an unrelated FOIA request. On May 1, the DHS Office for Bomb Prevention sent an email about recently posted documents on TRIPWire to law enforcement across the country. Defending Rights & Dissent obtained a copy of the email that was received by DC’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency. The email stated, “The book and movie encourage pipeline sabotage and property destruction and property construction and question whether the climate movement would succeed with a stance of absolute nonviolence.” While the email announces the bulletin may be read in the TRIPWire portal, it does not include a copy of it. Defending Rights & Dissent plans to file additional FOIA requests to obtain the bulletin.
The email illustrates the troubling role of the DHS. Although we do not know the contents of the bulletin, a law enforcement or intelligence agency preparing a dossier on a film and political book has troubling First Amendment implications. Instead of being the acts of one rogue agency in North Texas, the DHS made this document available to law enforcement across the country and even proactively advertised its availability. Treating a film as a potential threat to homeland security encourages the monitoring of those who view it.