FREEDOM FORUM: Discussion

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Comment by Ross Wolf
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It was reported the U.S. Justice Department had written most of the Patriot Act prior to 9/11.

If was just reported that PA Homeland Security paid a company $125,000 to spy on and report to natural gas industry interests the names of protesters and groups that lawfully protested gas exploration; then Homeland Security distributed those names to law enforcement nationally. So what did the natural gas industry intend to do with the names of the lawful protesters? What did national law enforcement intend for the lawful protesters whose names were distributed by PA Homeland Security that labeled the protesters a threat to the national infra structure, in effect terrorists?

Despite this spying exposed, will those collected protesters’ names be used by federal government to prevent them from getting a federal job or a government clearance? The Nazis Government used this tactic to intimidate and suppress political opposition. Will U.S. Government use the spied protester names to injure them financially, e.g. prevent protesters receiving credit or loans at banks the Government controls since the financial crisis? The Government used all of the above tactics when it ran COINTELPRO 1964 THROUGH the 1980’s to crush political dissent.

Homeland Security (sanctioned spying) on Americans’ because they exercise constitutionally protected activities is foreseeable to intimidate, coerce and terrify Citizens from speaking out.

U.S. and foreign private security companies now work so closely with U.S. law enforcement agencies in America under federal quasi-government contracts sharing information on U.S. Citizens; assist in tracking individuals and to share with U.S. Government assets they cause to be forfeited from Americans, private security companies appear to have merged with U.S. police agencies. U.S. Government too easily can use its relationship with private security companies to spy on and damage any American deemed a threat. In retrospect, Hitler created the Gestapo a secret “Private police organization that worked closely with German police to spy on, arrest and eliminate anyone that disagreed with the Nazi Government and to seize huge amounts of property from German Citizens.

Currently Homeland Security works for a democracy; however if U.S. Government radically changes, e.g., becomes fascist, Homeland Security could spy on all Americans. The German police before Hitler worked for a democracy; under Hitler German police worked for a fascist government; following World WAR II the German police worked for the East German Stasi, a brutal police force under the USSR.

The FBI recently asked for the power to obtain without warrants, Citizens’ “electronic communication transactional records” including email addresses they used to send communications. If FBI’s request for warrant-less Internet surveillance is granted, Citizens to avoid federal conspiracy charges will have to report to police (every email) they receive that might allude to something illegal. Former East German Citizens to avoid being arrested had to report most every suspicious communication, turning ordinary Citizens into snitches. Citizens were afraid to voice an opinion.

The FBI request for no warrant Internet surveillance can’t be viewed separately: because if pending bills in Congress pass, the FBI can use warrant-less Internet surveillance to arrest and indefinitely detain Americans on mere suspicion not evidence, based on someone’s Internet Activity e.g. emails. Private information FBI derives from warrant-less searches of emails and Internet Activity—could be used by U.S. Government to target anyone through government harassment, blackmail, prosecution or civil asset forfeiture because e.g., he or she questioned or politically opposed a government agency. The Government can now use National Security Letters (NLS) to target’s someone’s clients creating fear, driving off their customers and business associations, making it impossible for someone to make a living.

It is problematic Citizens' lawful Internet Activity may be used by U.S. Government to detain and arrest Americans without probable cause? On March 4, 2010, Sen. McCain introduced The “Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010.” McCain’s bill would eliminate several Constitutional protections allowing Government to arbitrarily pick up Americans on mere suspicion—with no probable cause. Under McCain’s bill, your political opinions and statements made on web postings and in emails against U.S. Government and others could be used by authorities to deem you a “hostile” “Enemy Belligerent” to cause your arrest and indefinite detention. U.S. activists and individuals under McCain’s bill would be extremely vulnerable to detention or prosecution, if (charged with only suspicion) of “intentionally or materially providing support to hostilities or an Act of Terrorism”, for example American activists can’t control what other activists might do illegally—they network by email or phone domestically and overseas. U.S. Government under McCain’s bill would need only allege that an individual kept in military detention, is an Unprivileged Enemy Belligerent, suspected of; having engaged in supporting hostilities against the United States; its coalition partners; or Civilians to indefinitely detained Americans without legal counsel.

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