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July 25, 2007
Kristen French
When Kinder Morgan called on Project SeaHawk to
investigate what it called “an unknown subject taking photos of the ship at the
Kinder Morgan Plant” last week, it abused the offices of this local pilot project of Homeland Security coordination. This assertion is based on the fact that Ken
Bonerigo (the “unknown subject”) has been taking pictures and video of the
Kinder Morgan Shipyard Creek Terminal for months, and this is well known to
personnel at Kinder Morgan. Like others
at the Cooper River Marina, Ken has repeatedly called Kinder Morgan to complain
when coal and/or cement dust has drifted to the Marina
from the Terminal, and he has been quite open about his video
documentation. For Kinder Morgan to
assert that they were worried about the security of their facility based on
these activities is disingenuous at best and at worst, a blatant attempt at
intimidation.
Further evidence that Kinder Morgan knew that Ken was the
person taking photographs the morning they reported the activity is that two
employees from the Terminal (one of whom has spoken with Ken on a number of
occasions) visited Ken at the Marina
less than half an hour before Dep. Adcock and Sgt. Pfefferkorn arrived to
investigate the incident report. Ken
maintains that Adcock and Pfefferkorn treated him with a professional manner
and were prepared to release him without citation when they received a call
from Project SeaHawk asking that Ken be held until more law enforcement
officials could arrive. Although Adcock
and Pfefferkorn appeared to be satisfied with Ken’s revelation that his
intentions in videotaping were related to the ongoing dispute between the
affected community and Kinder Morgan, the late comers to the scene insisted on
boarding Ken’s sailboat (his home) and searching both the boat and Ken’s
person. This was done without warrant or
court order. Later Ken was told by Lt.
Connelly of Project SeaHawk that no warrant or permission was necessary to
search Ken’s boat. If this is the case,
perhaps the laws protecting boat owners need to be reexamined, especially in
cases where the vessel is also the home of the individual under suspicion.
Who holds Project SeaHawk accountable?
While Ken was given an incident report number by the law
enforcement officials when they came to search his boat, he has been unable to
obtain any documentation of the actual incident report filed by Kinder
Morgan. In addition, the Sheriff’s
report that Ken has obtained is inconsistent with what Ken experienced at the
time. These inconsistencies and the
inability to obtain a record of Project SeaHawk’s direct involvement, as well
as the incident report are quite troubling.
Ken put it this way:
“I think SeaHawk may not even give
me a report of any kind. I hope this is not the case as we as a country are in
serious trouble if an American citizen’s home can be searched and they can be threatened
with arrest by a secret police force who are not required to show probable
cause or even explain the rationale behind their actions. A secret police force
not held accountable is a recipe for disaster. [Project SeaHawk] is a pilot
project and is being considered for nationwide implementation. I for one am very concerned; if it can happen to me it
can happen to you.”
Project SeaHawk is a highly secretive operation with offices
in an undisclosed location, and it includes FBI, the SPA
police force dispatch center, customs officials, SLED
officers, Coast Guard and Navy officials, and police forces from Charleston,
Mt. Pleasant, and North Charleston as well as
personnel from the Charleston County Sheriff’s office. It is considered to be a premier pilot project of law enforcement coordination for port related security. While a certain level of secrecy may be
required to protect the facilities of this homeland security operation, public
accountability is necessary to maintain responsible law enforcement and protect
civil rights. Whenever the search of a
home or person is required, reports should be filed that are made available to
the public and to the individual(s) involved.
In this particular case, full disclosure of these documents has not been
forthcoming, and this is very disturbing.
For more information about Project SeaHawk, visit these links:
2005 Post and Courier article, republished on the Charleston
Regional Development Alliance: http://www.crda.org/news_article.shtml?id=447
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) is the
prime contractor for Seahawk and is involved in gathering information through
data mining. SAIC is a public company, but it appears that the government uses
these companies in an attempt to avoid oversight, such as FISA: http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703
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