Sunday, January 4
Rate Hike Dissidents, Bike Lane Advocates, Amesty International "Terrorists" in Maryland
Another sordid account of the state of American post-9/11 civil rights: Is a visit to Cuba in your immediate future, you terrorist*?
This following story of "fascism-gone-wild" appeared Sunday in the 4 January 2009 edition of the Washington Post. Has what "started in 2005 with routine preparations for the scheduled executions of two men on death row" now mushroomed in Maryland into witch hunts for those who pose pointedly intelligent questions to business leaders and their lapdog government officials?
In October 2006, veteran journalist Robert Parry, a former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter who linked many of the mid-1980s Iran-Contra drugs-for-arms connections to the Reagan and Bush White Houses, warned us that passage of the Military Commission Act of 2006--"a travesty...of kangaroo courts"--ensures that an official designation of "terrorist" will result in banishment of all civil rights--an end to habeous corpus, denied access to an attorney, indefinite incarcertation for the duration of Bush's bogus "war on terror":
After some initial posturing, the 110th "Dem-controlled" congress chose not to rescind that egregious piece of last-gasp fascist legislation a GOP-controlled congress passed before 2006 midterm elections banished them from congressional majority control.
(So tell me again how the 110th Congress differed from its 109th predecessor?)
But, hey: Uncle Obama and the flea-bitten Demo-nags in charge of the 111th Congress will save the day and reverse all the Bushita Brown-shirted civil justice...right? (thickly sarcastic cynicism...)
===
*See this touristy t-shirt "insurgency": "Guantanamo Bay
come for the beaches ... stay for the waterboarding."
"Yes, it's true. No more 11 hour trips to Cuba via Canada. Now you can get a direct flight on the taxpayer's dime! Just yelling something like "Down with the Infidel!" in a local airport should do the trick.
(Consult your attorney before purchase [of your Gitmo t-shirt])."
This following story of "fascism-gone-wild" appeared Sunday in the 4 January 2009 edition of the Washington Post. Has what "started in 2005 with routine preparations for the scheduled executions of two men on death row" now mushroomed in Maryland into witch hunts for those who pose pointedly intelligent questions to business leaders and their lapdog government officials?
More Groups Than Thought Monitored in Police SpyingIt gets worse.
New Documents Reveal Md. Program's Reach
By Lisa Rein and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 4, 2009; A01
The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more
extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that
troopers monitored -- and labeled as terrorists -- activists devoted
to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing
bike lanes.
Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a
"security threat" because of concerns that members would disrupt the
circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate
increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes
the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without
explanation.
One of the possible "crimes" in the file police opened on Amnesty
International, a world-renowned human rights group: "civil rights."... (read more)
In October 2006, veteran journalist Robert Parry, a former Associated Press and Newsweek reporter who linked many of the mid-1980s Iran-Contra drugs-for-arms connections to the Reagan and Bush White Houses, warned us that passage of the Military Commission Act of 2006--"a travesty...of kangaroo courts"--ensures that an official designation of "terrorist" will result in banishment of all civil rights--an end to habeous corpus, denied access to an attorney, indefinite incarcertation for the duration of Bush's bogus "war on terror":
At a crimped ceremony in the East Room of the White House, President George W. Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 while sitting behind a sign reading “Protecting America.”When MSNBC's Countdown host Keith Obermanm concluded an interview with George Washington University constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley about MCA's draconian assault on constitutional liberties, Olbermann half-jokingly told his guest "I'll see you at Gitmo,*" a reference to Amerikka's post-9/11 detention facility for "terrorists" at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba notorious for incarcerating and torturing the innocent.
On the surface, the law sets standards for harsh interrogations, prosecutions and executions of supposed terrorists and other “unlawful combatants,” including al-Qaeda members who allegedly conspired to murder nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
“It is a rare occasion when a President can sign a bill he knows will save American lives,” Bush said. “I have that privilege this morning.”
But the new law does much more. In effect, it creates a parallel “star chamber” system of criminal justice for anyone, including an American citizen, who is suspected of engaging in, contributing to or acting in support of violent acts directed against the U.S. government or its allies anywhere on earth.
The law strips “unlawful combatants” and their alleged fellow-travelers of the fundamental right of habeas corpus, meaning that they can’t challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, at least not until after they are brought before a military tribunal, tried under special secrecy rules and then sentenced....(read more)
After some initial posturing, the 110th "Dem-controlled" congress chose not to rescind that egregious piece of last-gasp fascist legislation a GOP-controlled congress passed before 2006 midterm elections banished them from congressional majority control.
(So tell me again how the 110th Congress differed from its 109th predecessor?)
But, hey: Uncle Obama and the flea-bitten Demo-nags in charge of the 111th Congress will save the day and reverse all the Bushita Brown-shirted civil justice...right? (thickly sarcastic cynicism...)
===
*See this touristy t-shirt "insurgency": "Guantanamo Bay
come for the beaches ... stay for the waterboarding."
"Yes, it's true. No more 11 hour trips to Cuba via Canada. Now you can get a direct flight on the taxpayer's dime! Just yelling something like "Down with the Infidel!" in a local airport should do the trick.
(Consult your attorney before purchase [of your Gitmo t-shirt])."
Labels: American fascism, Maryland Gestapo, post-9/11 Amerikkka, uncivil rights
