article_snippet.sent: The National Guard's used highly militarized words such as "enemy forces" and "adversaries" to refer to protesters, according to documents obtained by CNN.
article_snippet.sent: The National Guard's language, contained in internal mission briefings obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, is intensifying the concerns of some who objected to the police officers' actions in putting down riots.
article_snippet.sent: It's disturbing when you have what amounts to American soldiers viewing American citizens somehow as the enemy," said Antonio French, an alderman in St. Louis.
article_snippet.sent: documents obtained by CNN CNN also detail that The National Guard's was concerned about perceptions of The National Guard's deployment, with superiors later telling troops to stop using heavily militarized language to describe protesters.
article_snippet.sent: Additionally, some in The National Guard's seemed worried the language in the mission briefings could be problematic.
article_snippet.sent: Days before the announcement of the grand jury's decision, an email from Boyle warned of potential consequences from using language that could be "construed as potentially inflammatory.
article_snippet.sent: Two days after that, notification was sent to commanding officers stating that "all reference of 'enemy' were changed to state 'criminal elements'.
article_snippet.sent: In further comments emailed to CNN late Friday, after the initial version of this article appeared, Quinn insisted that "while the term 'enemy forces' appears in a handful of early drafts of the operations order it was also clear that as soon as leadership saw the language, the term 'enemy forces' correctly identified the language as being inappropriate for this type of mission" and claimed that the language was changed "well ahead of the grand jury's decision.
article_snippet.sent: But internal communications from as early as Aug. 14 through Nov. 18, when the directive was issued to change the inflammatory language, show numerous uses of the terms that were sent to a large number of National Guard commanders and leadership.
article_snippet.sent: The documents reveal that National Guard was especially concerned that "adversaries" might use phone apps and police scanners to expose operational security.
article_snippet.sent: In addition to analyzing the threat general protesters could pose to soldiers, the National Guard also briefed the National Guard commanders on its commanders intelligence capabilities so its commanders could "deny adversaries the ability to identify Missouri National Guard vulnerabilities upon which threat forces may exploit, causing embarrassment, or harm to the MONG," the mission set states.
article_snippet.sent: But the ways the National Guard the National Guard lists for how this information can be obtained are nothing more than open records, social media, and listening on conversations being carries out in public by civil authorities or law enforcement.
highlights_snippet.sent: The National Guard's language worries those who objected to the tactics used in quelling riots .
  