"Homegrown Terrorism" Bill ~ News and Opinion Round-Up
Yes, the FISA debate is still upon us and I hope you've written like mad to your Senators. But we must not forget about S1959, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. (Too much of a mouthful? Follow ReasonableCitizen's lead and call it the AQ (or Anti-Quaker) Bill.) Below you'll find all the latest news as well as highlights of oppositional outcry from Sacramento to Atlanta.
Remarkably, in an apparent reaction to vast and sustained criticism, the Committee on Homeland Security released this Fact Sheet in December. (The Center for Constitutional Rights has a Fact sheet of its own here. After reading it you can sign the anti- petition if it will make you feel better.)
Some folks seemed to think the bill was dead, but it clearly is not. I do think we have some time before it hits the Senate floor, however. My Senator, who is on the Homeland Security Committee, wasn't familiar with it when we spoke last week. If your Senator is also on that Committee, The Bill of Rights Defense Committee is asking you to meet with his or her aides.
And now, many smart reasons to fight this bill as though our Constitutional rights depended on it (Oh wait... They do...):
What the Homegrown Terrorism bill does is bring back into the equation not just violent actions, and not just violent plots, but the words and ideas that may (or may not) inspire or encourage them somewhere down the road. It moves toward designating people as terrorists based not on what they do, but on what they say and what they think.
Other red flags appear in the bill's initial "findings"—among them, the charge that "the Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens." "If Congress finds the Internet is dangerous, then the ACLU will have to worry about censorship and limitations on First Amendment activities," says the ACLU's Fredrickson. "Why go down that road?"
The Nation tells us that aspects of the bill have been funded despite not having passed in the Senate yet and are already impacting college campuses:
DHS has founded and funded six of its very own "Centers of Excellence," research facilities that span dozens of universities from coast to coast. The latest is a Center of Excellence for the Study of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism, the funding for which cleared the House in October. The center is mandated to assist a national commission in combating those "adopting or promoting an extremist belief system...to advance political, religious or social change."
Opinion from Bob Barr in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:
That a Martin Luther King Jr. easily could have been — indeed almost certainly would have been — swept within the absurdly broad definitions in the homegrown terrorism act apparently matters little to the hundreds of Democrat and Republican House members who blithely voted "aye."David Clark in The Tennessean:
John W. Whitehead of The Rutherford Institute:
In the six years since 9/11, we have seen the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Patriot Act and now the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. It makes me wonder not what the terrorists are doing to us, but what are we doing to ourselves?
The danger is the legislation’s vague definitions of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism and the commission’s power to label individuals and groups as possible terrorists.Sacramento Bee Editorial:
Harman's bill is labeled as an act to "prevent homegrown terrorism," and undefined "other purposes." This makes her bill eerily similar to the bill creating the House Un-American Activities Committee, which began in 1938 as a vehicle for investigating Nazi propaganda "and certain other propaganda activity."
The abuses of that committee, including its harassment of civil rights groups, are well documented. The Senate should kill Harman's bill and give the $22 million to local law enforcement, protecting the nation's citizens without ensnaring political activities as homegrown terrorism.
Hear, hear.
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It is surprising how quickly people in government forget the injustices of the Blacklist era and the House Committee on Un-American Activities. It hasn't even been a century since the Smith Act attempted to regulate our thoughts about Communism.
I agree, Douglas! We have a very short historical memory. I knew about the HUAC but do not know about the Smith Act. Will read about it now!
It's as if the book 1984 was only a few decades off. Judging by the direction this bill would take us.
Hmm an interesting point but I'm not sure if I agree with you.
Jared Lorz
Douglas: I disagree. I think not only they perfectly remember it, but they long for the return of that era.
They simply don't see it as an injustice. For some people out there in the government, M.L. King actually was a terrorist, an enemy of their interest. Don't forget he was killed. Malcolm X too.
History has shown that efforts to forcefully impose civility/law and order do more to encourage combative attitudes and militant organizations than to prevent their rise. (ex. Black Panthers, SDS, The weathermen and others) I think that the more this issue is pressed, the non-violent opponents and supporters of free speech will become more violent, and regular everyday people will be reduced to the clichés and stereotypes that they are trying to fight. Look at Kent State. It is our own government's fear and the fear it is disseminating to us that is driving irrational and tyrannical policy and action. If we fear terrorism, we have already lost. The free and open society that many of the eastern groups are opposing is slowly digressing into a society that is neither free nor open. To continue down this road is to betray all of those that have fought and bleed for freedom. A simple "aye" in response to this matter, coats your own hands in the blood of those whose sacrifices we should be upholding. The government should know that if it continues down this road, it will make enemies of us all, and no power can contend with that of the people, but in this process unnecessary loss of life is great and it is the last thing that we would want to wish upon ourselves.
Vote Ron Paul '08
I can't believe it, the terrorists have succeeded in destorying the American way of life. The catch is the terrorist were able to engineer it so that the government's own paranioa caused the downfall of the American way life, you know like the freedom to express our own views on politics and religion, and not the terrorists themselves.
This legislation looks like it could also be use of outlaw strikes -- union busting -- and create more poverty.
Sadly, the terrorists have won. Our leadership has been outsmarted and outmaneuvered at every turn by the "ignorant terrorists". Now our civil liberties are in shambles, the rule of law is a joke, our economy is on the brink of collapse and the terrorists are laughing openly.
Oh well, I guess this administration HAS managed to bleed the middle class white while funneling BILLIONS into the hands of the ultra-wealthy, so they've succeeded in answering the bidding of their corporate masters. The war on terror has been nothing but a distraction and a cat's paw.
I don't think it's too late for us. So many Americans are heartbroken by this most recent chapter of civil liberties abuses and criminal behavior in the White House. But I have faith that our despair can lead to a renewal of active citizenship. Maybe the Bush administration's extremes are helping many of us truly understand the value of democracy? Really, we have no choice but to fight (nonviolently) for it.
Tis sad to see all the people on this site blaming the terrorists for the state of America. Sadly the terrorists cannot change our Bill of Rights, alter the Constitution or declare martial law (it's coming). Things have been beyond saving since 9/11 happened, we just did not know the extent of the damage. Corruption has riddled the halls of power for way too long for us to just hope it out now. There have been laws passed that state the Commander in Chief, i.e. Bush can declare martial law if there are ANY attacks on the U.S. or ANY of our territories. Laws like this do not get passed so quickly unless they are going to be used. Please, I beg you all to wake up and take action while you can to protect your families for it is far too late to save the country. The enimies of our freedom, of our free speech and thought are already in power, they just need an excuse to make it absoulte.