A Brooklyn resident has been acting as a snitch on the activities of the protesters at Occupy Wall Street, passing along information from OWS emails and message boards to the NYPD and the FBI, in a story picked up first by Gawker and then by Metro New York. Thomas Ryan, a private security consultant, is convinced that the protests are a danger to New Yorkers and has been forwarding emails about plans and ideas put forth by OWS supporters, such as crashing a press conference by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, to friends of his at the FBI and NYPD.
The FBI wouldn’t comment on Ryan specifically but said that the information he had provided was all “publicly available.” As for Ryan, he’s been blasted by OWS spokespeople and has received death threats since his work was posted on conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart’s website earlier this week.
Exactly what Ryan’s relationship with the NYPD and FBI is remains unclear. Ryan told Gawker that he was not asked by either party to spy on OWS, and that any emails he sent along were of his own volition. He also claims to be unsure of exactly how many emails he sent to the FBI and NYPD.
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