The protest did not go off as planned. In February 2023, government recruiters came to the student union at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor, stacking National Security Agency-branded plastic cups and splaying out pamphlets about Navy fringe benefits.
The activists had come to protest the expansion of Camp Grayling, already the largest National Guard training facility in the country. The opposition had arisen a year earlier, when the military had proposed leasing more than 150,000 acres of forest land managed by Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources, doubling the size of the training installation.
The National Guard, though, did not make an appearance at the University of Michigan career fair. The activists proceeded with their plan anyway.
“Want blood on your hands?” read the flyers activists distributed on recruiting tables. “Sign up for a government job.” When the recruiters returned from lunch, two protesters rushed in, dousing the NSA recruiting table and two Navy personnel with fake blood sprayed out of a ketchup container. (The NSA did not respond to a request for comment.) The “Stop Camp Grayling” protesters were subdued, booked, and charged.
“We’ve seen over the years that the FBI opens very aggressive investigations based on a very low criminal predicate in cases against protest groups.”
Everything about the protest had been relatively routine, right down to the arrests, but the local and federal authorities saw something more sinister. According to public records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, the local sheriff’s office in Oakland County, Michigan, documented the incident in a case report as a hate crime against law enforcement. (The sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)
The FBI recorded the incident as part of a terrorism investigation.
“We’ve seen over the years,” said Michael German, a former FBI agent and fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, “that the FBI opens very aggressive investigations based on a very low criminal predicate in cases against protest groups.”
Over the following months, according to the documents obtained by The Intercept and Defending Rights & Dissent, the FBI’s counterterrorism investigation unlocked additional federal resources, deepened coordination with military intelligence, generated sustained counterterrorism attention on minor acts of vandalism, and ultimately culminated in a six-person boots-on-the-ground operation conducting physical surveillance of the Stop Camp Grayling Week of Action.
“The Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMVA) does not participate in civilian law enforcement investigations or surveillance of any group,” said Michigan National Guard public affairs officer David Kennedy, when asked about state police sharing intelligence with the military. “We do occasionally receive law enforcement notification of individuals or groups who are expressing intent to take action or threaten the safety of military members, training events or facilities.”
Photos: Oakland County, Mich., Sheriff’s Office/University of Michigan
Green Scare
Treating the Stop Camp Grayling protesters as terrorists is the latest episode in a worldwide trend of governments smearing climate and environmental activists as terrorists — an ongoing Green Scare. Misapplication of the terrorism label frequently serves as pretext for invasive surveillance and sustained scrutiny.
The FBI has a long history of fixating on environmental protest movements as terrorism suspects. The focus escalated in the 1990s. Most of the movements are engaged in routine First Amendment-protected activity; a few use minor property damage as a protest tactic.
The FBI maintains federal domestic terrorism categories that include “anti-government violent extremism” and “animal rights/environmental violent extremism.” Under pressure to generate investigations, the FBI has launched probes against environmental groups based on thin evidence of criminal activity — or sometimes no evidence at all.
“Since the FBI created ideological categories, they’re incentivized to open cases in those categories,” German said.
“Since the FBI created ideological categories, they’re incentivized to open cases in those categories.”
Because the counterterrorism division does not collect incident data, he said, there is little accountability for the FBI investigations. “If you can’t see how the FBI divides up its domestic terrorism resources between ideological categories where there are a number of homicides and bombings, versus low-level vandalism and other regular protest activities, then you can’t determine whether the FBI is actually investigating true terrorism versus just targeting groups for investigation because they don’t like their political beliefs,” said German.
According to the FBI’s own definition, domestic terrorism comprises acts dangerous to human life or “intended to influence the policy of government by intimidation or coercion.” Yet few of the investigated environmental groups have threatened human life in any meaningful way; not a single homicide can be attributed to the environmental movement. (The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.)
Stop Camp Grayling — like most other movements organized around environmental activism — is not engaged in any type of systematic criminal activity. Movement adherents have never endangered human life.
The protest activities primarily included banner drops, teach-ins, and graffiti on billboards. However, despite these peaceful actions, the FBI escalated the situation by sharing activist materials with military intelligence, involving other government agencies, and initiating physical surveillance operations, all under the guise of investigating domestic terrorism.
In 2022, activists in Michigan gathered to oppose the proposed expansion of Camp Grayling, the largest National Guard base in the country. The expansion plans, which aimed to double the base’s size, were met with resistance due to the base’s poor environmental record, particularly regarding the use of PFAS chemicals in fire suppressant foam.
Protests against the expansion led to the formation of the Stop Camp Grayling movement, which drew inspiration from other anti-militarism movements. The movement gained attention from state and federal authorities after protests turned disruptive, prompting involvement from the FBI and other agencies.
Despite the pushback from activists and public concern, the DNR eventually rejected the expansion plans, opting for limited-use permits instead. However, concerns about the ecological impact of military testing in the Michigan forest lingered among activists and conservation groups. The Stop Camp Grayling demonstrators engaged in a week of activities that included protests, community building, and planning for future actions.
Law enforcement and military officials were already monitoring the protests before they began, as they coincided with the start of Operation Northern Strike on August 4. The U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command was involved, along with the FBI, in overseeing the situation.
The Department of Homeland Security agent assigned to the case traveled to the area to assist with monitoring the protests. The Michigan State Police instructed officers to gather information on the protesters for sharing with military intelligence and federal law enforcement partners.
During the Week of Action, there was heightened scrutiny on the protesters. A peaceful protest led to a flurry of emails, while the vandalism of billboards caused alarm among authorities. Eventually, the FBI decided to conduct in-person surveillance on the Stop Camp Grayling protesters.
Six FBI agents were involved in the surveillance operation, with details of the plan redacted. The Michigan State Police withheld some documents in response to records requests, citing exemptions to freedom of information laws.
The surveillance plan detailed the officers involved and included a section on the deadly force policy. The authorities were closely monitoring the protesters throughout the week, with a focus on ensuring public safety.
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