FEEL SAFE, AMERICA! THE PENTAGON & THE DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY ARE PROTECTING US FROM DANGEROUS CELLS OF PEACE ACTIVISTS!
A year ago, an NBC News investigation revealed the existence of a secret Pentagon database that included information on antiwar protests and American peace activists.
Now, newly disclosed documents reveal new details on who was targeted and which other governmental agencies may have helped monitor Americans. At universities across the country, an antiwar group called Veterans for Peace has staged protests by setting up crosses for soldiers killed in Iraq. In New Mexico last year, the local paper described the event as a display of honor.
But a previously secret Pentagon intelligence report labeled that same event a "threat to military installations"…
"No, we are not a threat to military installations," says Michael McPhearson, the leader of Veterans for Peace and a former Army captain whose son recently returned from Iraq. "We're not trying to blow up anything or anything of that nature.
"It angers me that the rights I'm supposed to be protecting I can't exercise without the government looking at me and calling me the enemy," McPhearson says.
Pentagon documents…provide new details on how even Quakers and churches came to be labeled "threats" worthy of attention of the military…The documents also suggest…that agents of the Dept. of Homeland Security played a role in monitoring antiwar activities.
--"Democrats want to See Citizen-Monitoring Databases," Lisa Myers, NBC News, November 22, 2006
You know, we've seen this before, guys.
Remember how Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover salted all the antiwar movements with FBI agents because they were soooo sure that the movement was not run by angry students who faced the draft and eventual deployment to an unwinnable war, and peace activist clergy, but by Communists determined to take over our country?
Documents released years later showed an appalling amount of not just spying on American citizens suspected of antiwar activities, but outright harassment. There is an extensive file on John Lennon, alone, because of his antiwar activities.
This is the very reason that reasonable people want to see judicial oversight on governmental wiretapping of so-called "terrorists." Under this administration's paranoia, ANYBODY can be classified "terrorist."
Even veterans and Quakers.
IT HAS HAPPENED TO ME.
A friend who was traveling overseas accessed "Blue Inkblots" on a computer available at a military base in Germany. He printed up a couple of posts to read later, and the next day, he returned to the base to use the computer.
But "Blue Inkblots" had been BLOCKED by the State Department!
Later, I read that this is routine for any online sentiments that are expressed against the war on computers available at government facilities of all kinds. However, those commentators and bloggers who support administration policies ARE NOT BLOCKED on the same computers!
This is not what freedom and democracy is.
But I'll let someone else speak to the issue. I believe he should have the final word:
Different men often see the same subject in different lights…For my own part I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly Kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past…
Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusion of phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, and the brave.
--"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" Patrick Henry, (excerpts from) Speech delivered March 23, 1775, at historic St. John's Church, Richmond, Virginia before the Virginia Convention of 1775
Now, newly disclosed documents reveal new details on who was targeted and which other governmental agencies may have helped monitor Americans. At universities across the country, an antiwar group called Veterans for Peace has staged protests by setting up crosses for soldiers killed in Iraq. In New Mexico last year, the local paper described the event as a display of honor.
But a previously secret Pentagon intelligence report labeled that same event a "threat to military installations"…
"No, we are not a threat to military installations," says Michael McPhearson, the leader of Veterans for Peace and a former Army captain whose son recently returned from Iraq. "We're not trying to blow up anything or anything of that nature.
"It angers me that the rights I'm supposed to be protecting I can't exercise without the government looking at me and calling me the enemy," McPhearson says.
Pentagon documents…provide new details on how even Quakers and churches came to be labeled "threats" worthy of attention of the military…The documents also suggest…that agents of the Dept. of Homeland Security played a role in monitoring antiwar activities.
--"Democrats want to See Citizen-Monitoring Databases," Lisa Myers, NBC News, November 22, 2006
You know, we've seen this before, guys.
Remember how Nixon and J. Edgar Hoover salted all the antiwar movements with FBI agents because they were soooo sure that the movement was not run by angry students who faced the draft and eventual deployment to an unwinnable war, and peace activist clergy, but by Communists determined to take over our country?
Documents released years later showed an appalling amount of not just spying on American citizens suspected of antiwar activities, but outright harassment. There is an extensive file on John Lennon, alone, because of his antiwar activities.
This is the very reason that reasonable people want to see judicial oversight on governmental wiretapping of so-called "terrorists." Under this administration's paranoia, ANYBODY can be classified "terrorist."
Even veterans and Quakers.
IT HAS HAPPENED TO ME.
A friend who was traveling overseas accessed "Blue Inkblots" on a computer available at a military base in Germany. He printed up a couple of posts to read later, and the next day, he returned to the base to use the computer.
But "Blue Inkblots" had been BLOCKED by the State Department!
Later, I read that this is routine for any online sentiments that are expressed against the war on computers available at government facilities of all kinds. However, those commentators and bloggers who support administration policies ARE NOT BLOCKED on the same computers!
This is not what freedom and democracy is.
But I'll let someone else speak to the issue. I believe he should have the final word:
Different men often see the same subject in different lights…For my own part I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly Kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth and listen to the song of that siren, till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past…
Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusion of phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?
The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, and the brave.
--"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!" Patrick Henry, (excerpts from) Speech delivered March 23, 1775, at historic St. John's Church, Richmond, Virginia before the Virginia Convention of 1775
posted by Deanie Mills at 9:22 AM
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