{"id":179758,"date":"2021-02-22T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=179758"},"modified":"2021-02-21T10:33:55","modified_gmt":"2021-02-21T10:33:55","slug":"after-pork-giant-was-exposed-for-cruel-killings-the-fbi-pursued-its-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/02\/after-pork-giant-was-exposed-for-cruel-killings-the-fbi-pursued-its-critics\/","title":{"rendered":"After Pork Giant Was Exposed for Cruel Killings, the FBI Pursued Its Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The agency, seeking information on an animal rights group, attempted to recruit a former truck driver as an informant, the truck driver says.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo illustration: Soohee Cho\/The Intercept, Getty Images, Google Map<\/p><\/div>\n

17 Feb 2021 –<\/em>Last June, Noel Williams, the chief operations officer of Iowa Select Farms, a powerful pork company and the largest in Iowa, pulled into the parking lot of an empty housing complex typically used for the firm\u2019s immigrant workforce.<\/p>\n

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He was there to transport Lucas Walker, a former truck driver for Iowa Select, to a meeting with Nick Potratz, an FBI agent from the Des Moines office of the bureau. That\u2019s according to Walker, who had recently tried to report Iowa Select, his former employer, for mistreating animals. After The Intercept published leaked video of pigs being killed off en masse<\/a>, Walker came under scrutiny.<\/p>\n

Now, the FBI had a favor to ask: Would Walker become an informant? More specifically, they wanted him to help in an effort to investigate and undermine an activist group that had become a thorn in Iowa Select\u2019s side. They even asked if he\u2019d be willing to sell drugs.<\/p>\n

The saga that brought him into contact with the FBI began when the 26-year-old grew frustrated with his former employer, Iowa Select, which is headquartered in his hometown of Iowa Falls. Walker thought the company was blatantly disregarding state \u201cdouble stocking\u201d rules, which limit the size and number of pigs that are held in an intensive animal feeding facility, letting overweight pigs crowd into pens far too small to hold them.<\/p>\n

He was tired of what he saw as frequent rule-breaking and disregard for the well-being of the tens of thousands of hogs raised by Iowa Select. The company, in his view, seemed hellbent on expansion and profits, leading to rampant overcrowding and water pollution. That rapid expansion led to the annual production of 1.5 billion pounds of pork a year, a global leader before the pandemic. The novel coronavirus, however, closed regional slaughterhouses, creating a glut of pigs.<\/p>\n

He decided to speak out and called state regulators.<\/p>\n

Walker doesn\u2019t fit the profile of an animal rights activist. The central Iowa-raised truck driver, who jokingly refers to himself as corn-fed with beer running through his veins, is a fervent Trump and NRA supporter who has spent years working in the state\u2019s maze of hog production facilities. He describes himself as independent-minded with libertarian instincts, with a bit of a contrarian side suspicious of organized power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not necessarily animal rights by any means,\u201d said Walker in an interview with The Intercept. \u201cI have a cattle herd \u2014 small calf herd \u2014 and my wife and myself have some free-range pigs ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a moral issue at the heart of it. \u2026 I\u2019m the kind of person who knows right from wrong. It was a principled thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The company, in\u00a0Walker\u2019s view, seemed hellbent on expansion and profits, leading to rampant overcrowding and water pollution.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Iowa\u2019s Department of Natural Resources, the local farm regulator, Walker felt, did not seem to care about his concerns over the phone or show any interest in enforcement on a company like Iowa Select. Iowa,\u00a0followed by\u00a0North Carolina and Minnesota, is the largest pork-producing state in the country and infamously deferential to industry. Iowa officials have faced criticism for failing to regulate concentrated pork facilities for water pollution and poor animal welfare standards.<\/p>\n

Jeff Hansen, the founder of Iowa Select, built the pork powerhouse first as a salesman, helping distribute modern farrowing crates, automatic feeders, and other livestock equipment to other pig farmers in the state. He built two companies at once: a turnkey construction firm known as Modern Hog Concepts, which helped farmers upgrade their barns into modern factory farms, and Iowa Select, which raised pigs for slaughter.<\/p>\n

Along the way, as he grew his business empire, Hansen built close connections with Iowa\u2019s political elite. In 1994, during a cycle in which Hansen was one of the largest campaign contributors to then-Gov. Terry Branstad<\/a>, he had set aside<\/a> employee money for campaign contributions to local Republicans. The resulting scandal forced lawmakers to return campaign funds to Iowa Select, but the company continued to grow.<\/p>\n

The owners of Iowa Select, Jeff and his wife Debra Hansen, are still among the largest campaign contributors in the state, and close to Gov. Kim Reynolds. A recent donation of $50,000 brought the total the couple has donated to the governor to nearly $300,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The governor has maintained cozy ties to Iowa Select. Shortly after\u00a0her election in 2018, Reynolds\u00a0volunteered<\/a> to auction off her time as a gift to the Hansen family foundation. In the early days of the pandemic, her administration\u00a0arranged<\/a> a Covid-19 testing site at a corporate office used by white-collar Iowa Select employees and foundation employees, raising concerns with one Polk County supervisor of special treatment for the campaign donor.<\/p>\n

And Kayla Lyon, who Reynolds appointed to run the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, which inspects hog farms for compliance with animal welfare and environmental rules, is a former dairy industry official and agribusiness lobbyist. Lyon, in her previous capacity as an influence peddler in Des Moines, had worked to pass<\/a> the 2012 \u201cag gag\u201d law that criminalized recording at farm facilities, according to lobbyist disclosures. Lyon lobbied at a time when Iowa Select\u2019s lobbyists in Des Moines pushed for the bill, records show.<\/p>\n

The impetus for that bill, which was designed to criminally prosecute<\/a> whistleblowers at factory farming operations, also started in part with Iowa Select. The year before the bill was signed into law, an animal rights activist group, Mercy for Animals, released an undercover video<\/a> that showed Iowa Select workers ripping the testicles from conscious piglets, removing tails with dull clippers, and scores of sows in small confinement cages, appearing to suffer from untreated sores and other wounds.<\/p>\n

The law, though later overturned by a federal court, was the first of its kind and rapidly inspired copycat legislation across the country.<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s failed attempts to reach regulators, to report overcrowding in Iowa Select facilities, didn\u2019t surprise him.\u00a0\u201cThe DNR wasn\u2019t very interested in talking about it,\u201d said Walker. \u201cThey\u2019re too big to be regulated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been no recent enforcement actions against Iowa Select Farms. Nor are we aware of any complaints or allegations made to the DNR,\u201d Alex Murphy, a spokesperson for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said in an email to The Intercept.<\/p>\n

Walker, aware that he had few outlets for help, turned to the internet to research whistleblowing resources for factory farms. That\u2019s how he found Direct Action Everywhere, the Berkeley, California-based group that has worked to expose the shocking\u00a0treatment of animals in factory farms.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Related: Hidden Video and Whistleblower Reveal Gruesome Mass-Extermination Method for Iowa Pigs Amid Pandemic<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Soon after he came into contact with DxE, the novel coronavirus reached global pandemic status, shutting down slaughterhouses across the region. The glut of hogs, which suddenly became unprofitable, quickly ran up costs for the company. Iowa Select decided to mass slaughter thousands of pigs in a particularly brutal process called \u201cventilation shutdown,\u201d or VSD. Workers sealed off airways while pumping steam into the barns, intensifying the heat \u2014 over the course of many hours \u2014 to the point at which the pigs died from suffocation and\/or hyperthermia.<\/p>\n

The process further horrified Walker, cementing his belief that Iowa Select had no concern for the animals they raised. The company, he argued, had the resources to mitigate the killing of healthy pigs. Iowa Select could have offered \u201csome pigs to our neighbors to care for and raise.\u201d But instead, the firm opted to gas thousands \u2014 a clear indication that they viewed animal life as disposable.<\/p>\n

Walker decided to expose the VSD process to DxE and the media, leading to an investigation<\/a> by The Intercept, which published a video of the process showing young pigs squealing as they slowly roasted to death.<\/p>\n

The widely<\/a> covered video set off a fury of controversy, bringing international attention<\/a> to the gruesome mass slaughter. Following the news, DxE activists also picketed the home of Iowa Select\u2019s founder and protested outside of company facilities. Several were arrested and charged after chaining themselves to the fence surrounding the Iowa Select facility in Grundy County that had used the VSD method to kill off its hogs.<\/p>\n

Following the controversy, a group of members of Congress filed a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture criticizing<\/a> the animal agriculture industry for using VSD methods during the pandemic. \u201cThe process is inhumane, distressing, and painful for the\u00a0animals who can take many hours to die,\u201d the letter noted. \u201cUnder no circumstances should producers be utilizing ventilation shutdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

It sparked an ethical debate within the animal agriculture and veterinary community. \u201cThe corporation spent over a month planning this tragedy, retrofitting the barn to close off the ventilation, and preparing workers for this gruesome task \u2014 who may suffer mental health consequences for having to partake in this practice,\u201d charged an open letter<\/a> by prominent veterinarians denouncing the actions of Iowa Select.<\/p>\n

The publicity came as a shock to Iowa Select. Emails obtained through a public records request<\/a>\u00a0show that Iowa Select collaborated with trade groups to manage the fallout. Animal Agriculture Alliance, an industry group that provides crisis communications support<\/a> to factory farming interests under scrutiny, flagged The Intercept story about the VSD mass killing of pigs. In response, alerts\u00a0and\u00a0social media posts about the story were sent to the National Pork Producers Council, a lobby group currently led by Jen Sorenson, the spokesperson for Iowa Select.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we know they have targeted Iowa Select,\u201d noted Dallas Hockman, the vice president of industry relations at the National Pork Producers Council, referring to DxE. \u201cI know they have been doing mass mailing, I have received number\u00a0[sic] of calls from channel partners inquiring about it as well as questions on ventilation shutdown.\u201d Hannah Thompson-Weeman, vice president of strategic engagement at Animal Agriculture Alliance, responded to note that her group was in the process of \u201ccontacting our FBI and DHS contacts to raise our concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also zeroed in on the role of Walker.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Activists offer drinks and vegetarian sandwiches to workers finishing their shift as groups such as LA Animal Save, Slaughter Free Los Angeles, and Direct Action Everywhere demonstrate outside the Farmer John Slaughterhouse\/Packing plant in Vernon, an industrial city five miles south of downtown Los Angeles, on Sept. 14, 2020. Photo: Frederic J. Brown\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In June,<\/u> Walker, who had been terminated following a trucking accident earlier that summer, was asked to return to the company to help fill out paperwork. When he arrived at the meeting, he says, he was asked to take his phone out and place it on the table. A private investigator hired by Iowa Select said that local police had obtained the phones of arrested DxE members, searched through their messages, and found Walker\u2019s number. The investigator called his number, and his phone rang. He had been caught.<\/p>\n

The discussion then went back and forth, Walker recounts, with Walker answering questions about his involvement with DxE. Satisfied with his answers, Walker was left with a few Subway sandwiches and asked if he could attend a meeting in a few days with an FBI agent.<\/p>\n

The following week, Noel Williams, one of the Iowa Select executives who had been in the previous meeting, picked Walker up from his home and drove him to the meeting with the FBI agent, according to Walker.<\/p>\n

The FBI agent, Nick Potratz, then started asking a series of questions about DxE: How are they funded? Do they run drugs or sell guns to finance their animal welfare activism?<\/p>\n

Potratz then turned the conversation again to Walker. \u201cWould you go to a protest and report back on if these are good people or bad people?\u201d Walker remembers the agent asking. \u201cWould you be willing to buy drugs, buy dope for the FBI?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The FBI asked\u00a0a series of questions about DxE: How are they funded? Do they run drugs or sell guns to finance their animal welfare activism?<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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During the conversation, Walker says, the men in the room quizzed Walker over what types of services he could provide to undermine the animal rights group. The FBI agent asked Walker if he would be comfortable engaging in recorded conversations with DxE\u2019s spokesperson, Matt Johnson, who had been arrested and charged with a felony earlier that summer for allegedly trespassing at\u00a0one of Iowa Select\u2019s pork production facilities \u2014 though the trespass charges were abruptly dropped<\/a> last month. They asked Walker how well he could keep secrets, told him what rights he might have as an official FBI informant, and read him the agency\u2019s guidelines for human sources \u2014 what the agent described as the \u201cTen Commandments\u201d for becoming an informant.<\/p>\n

Toward the end of the meeting, Williams said he had to leave, ironically to deal with an electrical malfunction that killed 1,500 sows. Without a ride, Walker took a lift home from the FBI agent at the meeting, who continued talking to him about how he could help the agency. He asked if Walker knew about any illegal bribes by farming interests to safety inspectors or other issues like that. The FBI agent also asked if Walker could attend a follow-up meeting with another agent who was in training. Walker agreed.<\/p>\n

Mike German, a former FBI special agent who now serves as a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice\u2019s liberty and national security program, noted that the FBI may have been hoping to use a drug prosecution to build a network of more informants.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat may be more in line with the assessment type of activity where they\u2019re not trying to solve a drug distribution problem, but rather trying to find something they can use to coerce the next person to become an informant,\u201d said German. \u201cA buy-bust for some small amount of drugs to justify a local prosecution that can be used to leverage their participation in a bigger operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe FBI Omaha field office declines to comment,\u201d wrote Amy Adams, an FBI spokesperson, in an email to The Intercept. Iowa Select spokesperson Jen Sorenson responded to multiple requests for comment with a statement that the company \u201cwill not be engaging in this story.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams, the Iowa Select executive who brought Walker to the meeting with the FBI, declined over the phone to comment. Potratz, the FBI agent, referred questions to the FBI\u2019s media office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe federal government knows that criminalizing peaceful speech activity is a sham, and that the general public is on our side,\u201d said Matt Johnson, DxE\u2019s spokesperson. \u201cBut they\u2019re also beholden to the undue influence of companies like Iowa Select Farms. It\u2019s telling to see the roundabout lengths they\u2019ll resort to in trying to undermine our work \u2014 and keep the public from knowing the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The follow-up meeting, in an unmarked van at the local Hy-Vee grocery store, was another opportunity for the FBI to make a pitch.\u00a0Walker described being brought to an FBI van in the Hy-Vee\u00a0parking lot for another discussion over whether he would help surveil and engage DxE. Potraz was now joined by a colleague, and the two FBI agents went over the same set of questions, asking Walker if he was comfortable keeping his involvement secret and spying on DxE. Would he be willing to testify if an investigation came to that? He was again read the Department of Justice\u2019s guidelines for informants.<\/p>\n

Walker was not offered money, and the FBI did not explicitly coerce him, but the tenor of the meetings left him rattled.<\/p>\n

During one phone call with an FBI agent from the meeting, Walker recalled asking whether he was under investigation or some other law enforcement inquiry. \u201cHe said he couldn\u2019t confirm or deny,\u201d Walker later said. It may have been a perfunctory response, but that uncertainty loomed over him like a dark shadow.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Direct Action Everywhere activists outside Iowa Select Farm\u2019s rural Aplington, Iowa, facility on March 31, 2020. Photo: Direct Action Everywhere<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The FBI has<\/u> long considered<\/a> animal rights and environmental groups among the agency\u2019s \u201chighest domestic terrorism priorities,\u201d a focus that has been shaped<\/a> by industry pressure. In the past, FBI informants have been involved in campaigns to goad<\/a> environmental activists into acts of terror and violence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Related: How a Movement That Never Killed Anyone Became the FBI\u2019s No. 1 Domestic Terrorism Threat<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s part of a longer history of the FBI targeting nonviolent activist groups, including protesters affiliated with the anti-war movement and left-wing individuals who were planning to demonstrate<\/a> the 2004 presidential conventions. In more recent years, the FBI, including agents from the Des Moines field office, worked closely<\/a> with TigerSwan, a private security firm retained by Energy Transfer Partners, which sought to undermine support for demonstrators opposed to the Dakota Access pipeline.<\/p>\n

DxE was already on the FBI\u2019s radar. In 2017, agents from the FBI took extraordinary steps<\/a> to pursue DxE over an action in which dying pigs were taken from a Smithfield Foods-owned facility and brought to an animal shelter. A six-car fleet of FBI agents in bulletproof vests obtained a warrant to raid animal sanctuaries in Utah and Colorado in search of piglets allegedly liberated by DxE\u2019s volunteer activists.<\/p>\n

The bureau has faced criticism over the years for lax oversight of its network of more than 15,000 informants, a figure that outnumbers agents in the field. Although FBI agents require probable cause before directly infiltrating organizations, those rules do not apply to informants<\/a>. This loophole effectively incentivizes the FBI to use informants to infiltrate political or activist groups.<\/p>\n

Ramzi Kassem, a professor at CUNY School of Law, where he directs CLEAR, a clinic that focuses on issues arising from the U.S. security state, also raised concerns about attempted recruitment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one thing for the FBI to seed informants within suspected criminal organizations like the Mafia to act as the FBI\u2019s eyes and ear,\u201d said Kassem. \u201cIt\u2019s an altogether different matter for the FBI to treat activist groups as though they were crime syndicates and to send in informants to not only be the FBI\u2019s eyes and ears, but also its hands and wallet, too, instigating crimes that probably would not have taken place without FBI involvement. That is a highly questionable use of public funds.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s an altogether different matter for the FBI to treat activist groups as though they were crime syndicates.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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For the most part, the FBI has targeted left-leaning activism<\/a>, including the infamous COINTELPRO initiative that involved the harassment of anti-Vietnam War leaders, civil rights organizers, and other supposedly subversive political organizations. But the agency has also, at times, targeted conservative-leaning groups, including efforts to use informants<\/a> to infiltrate libertarian activist circles. The FBI also took the unusual step of planting an informant<\/a> with then-candidate Donald Trump\u2019s presidential campaign in 2016 to investigate accusations of collusion with the Russian government.<\/p>\n

Despite bipartisan criticism of the agency\u2019s conduct, Congress has done little to impose new rules limiting the FBI\u2019s power or its use of informants.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they\u2019ve recruited somebody, they can, with minimal oversight, deploy people in pretty dangerous situations,\u201d said Diala Shamas, a staff attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. \u201cThe recruitment process is a big black hole with little information and so much coercion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many informants, said Shamas, face the threat of prosecution or are immigrants living in fear of deportation<\/a>. The FBI uses legal vulnerabilities as leverage to coerce participation<\/a> in the informant program.<\/p>\n

But they had no such luck with Walker.<\/p>\n

Walker eventually declined<\/u> their offer. He found it odd that his former employer drove him to the meeting with the FBI, and that the FBI had sought to use its vast resources to go after a band of nonviolent activists.<\/p>\n

The FBI agent, Walker said, seemed to have a chummy relationship with Iowa Select\u2019s private investigator, who identified himself as a former law enforcement official. The entire arrangement appeared to be a show of deference to Iowa Select, a company that already had far too much power in Walker\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

Walker had gone to\u00a0state regulators about other animal safety violations he believed Iowa Select had committed. He knew the company\u2019s founders were among the biggest campaign contributors in the state. Now it seemed to Walker that even federal law enforcement officials were effectively in their pocket.<\/p>\n

Months passed and Walker, after discussions with his wife, decided that he wanted to talk to the press a second time, this time using his name. The fact that Iowa Select could wield this power not only over its animals but also the political process and law enforcement agencies was too much.<\/p>\n

Shortly after The Intercept reached out to the FBI for comment, Walker says, he suddenly received a call from one of the agents he had met. The call came from an unlisted number. The bureau no longer needed him as an informant, the agent said. Then the\u00a0person hung up.<\/p>\n

Correction: February 17, 2021 – <\/em>Matt\u00a0Johnson, a DxE activist, was arrested inside the Iowa Select facility, not outside, as originally stated. The piece has been corrected.<\/em><\/p>\n

____________________________________________________<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Lee Fang – <\/a>lee.fang@\u200btheintercept.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Go to Original – theintercept.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

17 Feb 2021 – The agency, seeking information on an animal rights group, attempted to recruit a former truck driver as an informant, the truck driver says. The FBI asked a series of questions about DxE: How are they funded? Do they run drugs or sell guns to finance their animal welfare activism?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":179759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[1208,786,619,570,840,2000,2109,1737,1766,846,831,991],"class_list":["post-179758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activism","tag-animal-cruelty","tag-animal-justice","tag-animal-rights","tag-animals","tag-cruelty","tag-entertainment","tag-fashion-industry","tag-lab-animals","tag-leather","tag-meat-industry","tag-veganism","tag-vegetarianism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}