Who or what you call a terrorist is not the same as what the Dept. of Homeland Security calls a terrorist. When you think of a terrorist you probably have in mind the radical Muslims who attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001. These people are whom the original Patriot Act was designed to go after. But the Patriot Act is simply a tool that provides law enforcement extra special powers, it is up to the government to define who those powers will be used against. It is like a powerful weapon that a good person carries but then it falls into the hands of someone who is not a good person.
You have probably heard about Dept. of Homeland Security’s controversial document that was published last year
(U//FOUO) Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. It is available here: http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/rightwing.pdf Two weeks before this was published, Dept. of Homeland Security published a document called (U//FOUO) Domestic Extremism Lexicon, available here:
https://irp.fas.org/eprint/lexicon.pdf
The DHS document (U//FOUO) Domestic Extremism Lexicon also includes precursors to the ill-fated "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" report, which prompted outrage from legislators and a campaign calling for the resignation of DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano. For example, the lexicon contains virtually the same broad-stroke language the right-wing extremism report used. And all rightwing extremists are considered domestic terrorists
"Rightwing extremism," the lexicon defines as those "who can be broadly divided into those who are primarily hate-oriented, and those who are mainly antigovernment and reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority. This term also may refer to rightwing extremist movements that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."
The leftwing Democrats in Washington want to tie all their plans into a neat bundle. Taking into consideration that DHS has virtually declared that you and I are both “Right Wing Extremists” now consider that Atty Gen. Eric Holder has proposed legislation to prohibit any person considered a domestic terrorist or rightwing extremist from owning a firearm.
Now a few examples of how it has been used:
The Patriot Act: Targeting American Citizens
The party line often heard from Neo-Cons in their attempts to defend the Patriot Act either circulate around the contention that the use of the Patriot Act has never been abused or that it isn't being used against American citizens.
Here is an archive of articles that disproves both of these fallacies.---------------------So far as she knows, Pufferbelly Toys owner Stephanie Cox hasn't been passing any state secrets to sinister foreign governments, or violating obscure clauses in the Patriot Act.The Bush administration is developing a parallel legal system in which terrorism suspects -- U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike -- may be investigated, jailed, interrogated, tried and punished without legal protections guaranteed by the ordinary system, lawyers inside and outside the government say.A federal appeals court today ruled that the government has properly detained an American-born man captured with Taliban forces in Afghanistan without an attorney and has legally declared him an enemy combatant.It appears that they may be using the Patriot Act to circumvent some of the civil rights protections laid down in the 60s. You see, it is illegal for a government agency to go in and demand the list of all the members of a group. And you can't investigate leaks to journalists by going in and grabbing the reporter's computer.Chuck Clark wasn't even home when law enforcement personnel assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force roared up to his rented trailer in tiny Rachel, Nev., the other day. He didn't know about the still-sealed search warrant until he returned from a road trip and found that his files, photos and computer had been seized.Some teachers in Oakland are rallying behind two students who were interrogated by the Secret Service. That followed remarks the teenagers made about the President during a class discussion. The incident has many people angry. It's good to see the real terrorists are being hunted down.A 12-year-old kid at Boys' Latin researches a paper on the Bay Bridge, and suddenly the Joint Terrorist Task Force shows up in the headmaster's office.A Denver photographer was arrested while taking pictures in Denver, during Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to the city. Denver resident Mike Maginnis reports being physically assaulted by Denver police.The FBI used the USA Patriot Act to obtain financial information about key figures in a political corruption probe centered on striptease club owner Michael Galardi, an agent said.Patriot Act increasingly used against common criminals (expired link)In the two years since law enforcement agencies gained fresh powers to help them track down and punish terrorists, police and prosecutors have increasingly turned the force of the new laws not on al-Qaida cells but on people charged with common crimes.Patriot Act available against many types of criminals (expired link)Virtually unmentioned, however, is the fact that the Patriot Act extended the government's powers well beyond the terrorism arena.Overall, the policy now allows evidence to be used for prosecuting common criminals even when obtained under extraordinary anti-terrorism powers and information-sharing between intelligence agencies and the FBI.Patriot Act's reach has gone beyond terrorism (expired link)The Bush administration, which calls the USA Patriot Act perhaps its most essential tool in fighting terrorists, has begun using the law with increasing frequency in many criminal investigations that have little or no connection to terrorism.The Patriot Act has been used to obtain search warrants against doctors and scientists who had been warning about the threat of bioterrorism in the U.S.On May 10 Steven Kurtz went to bed a married art professor. On May 11 he woke up a widower. By the afternoon he was under federal investigation for bioterrorism.The CIA contract employee accused of abusing a prisoner in Afghanistan is being prosecuted under the Patriot Act in what legal experts are calling a surprising and to some, troubling application of the new anti-terrorism law.Where were you these past three years while, amid considerable publicity, our government was imprisoning people without making charges against them, holding them without trials, and not allowing them to talk to attorneys?When writer Elena Lappin flew to LA, she dreamed of a sunkissed, laid-back city. But that was before airport officials decided to detain her as a threat to security.
Quoted from Breitbart.com http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9ANVQ505&show_article=1
The Patriot Act has the authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps.
The provision on business records was long criticized by rights groups as giving the government access to citizens' library records, and a coalition of liberal and conservative groups complained that the Patriot Act gives the government too much authority to snoop into Americans' private lives.
The lone wolf provision was created to conduct surveillance on suspects with no known link to foreign governments or terrorist groups. It has never been used, but the administration says it should still be available for future investigations.
Quoted from WorldNet Daily News
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101608
Richard Thompson, president of the Thomas More Law Center, has told WND that as part of his organization's research for its lawsuit over the DHS "extremism" report, it has discovered additional information that it is withholding now but will include in a pending amended complaint.
Thompson said one of the things that sparked the organization's curiosity was a reference by DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano in the original report to not only government resources but also non-governmental resources.
Thompson said the information he has "creates even more concern that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is unconstitutionally targeting Americans merely because of their conservative beliefs."
On the website of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based activist group that leans strongly left, there are boasts about the organization's effort to "train" a number of "local, state and federal law enforcement officers" about terror suspects, "hate crimes" and similar topics.
* Oppose abortion
* Oppose same-sex marriage
* Oppose restrictions on firearms
* Oppose lax immigration laws
* Oppose the policies of President Obama regarding immigration, citizenship, and the expansion of social programs
* Oppose continuation of free trade agreements
* Are suspect of foreign regimes
* Fear Communist regimes
* Oppose a "one world" government
* Bemoan the decline of U.S. stature in the world
* Are upset with loss of U.S. manufacturing jobs to China and India, and more
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