Abuses Of Power Always – Always – Expand Beyond Their Original Application

The FBI – Drowning In Counter-Terrorism Money, Power and Other Resources – Will Apply The Term “Terrorism” To Any Group It Dislikes And Wants To Control And Suppress

 The FBI   Drowning In Counter Terrorism Money, Power and Other Resources   Will Apply The Term Terrorism To Any Group It Dislikes And Wants To Control And Suppress
Painting by Anthony Freda: www.AnthonyFreda.com.

 

Constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald writes:

Documents just obtained from the FBI by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund reveal, as the New York Times put it, that “the [FBI] used counterterrorism agents to investigate the Occupy Wall Street movement, including its communications and planning” and in general show “how deeply involved federal law-enforcement authorities were in monitoring the activities of the movement.” The heavily redacted documents, which can be read here, reveal numerous instances of the FBI collaborating with local police forces and private corporations to monitor and anticipate the acts of the protest movement.

As obviously disturbing as it is, none of this should be surprising. Virtually every seized power justified over the last decade in the name of “terrorism” has been applied to a wide range of domestic dissent. The most significant civil liberties trend of the last decade, in my view, is the importation of War on Terror tactics onto US soil, applied to US citizens – from the sprawling Surveillance State and powers of indefinite detention to the para-militarization of domestic police forces and the rapidly emerging fleet of drones now being deployed in countless ways. As I’ve argued previously, the true purpose of this endless expansion of state power in the name of “terrorism” is control over anticipated domestic protest and unrest.

It should be anything but surprising that the FBI – drowning in counter-terrorism money, power and other resources – will apply the term “terrorism” to any group it dislikes and wants to control and suppress (thus ushering in all of the powers institutionalized against “terrorists”). Those who supported (or acquiesced to) this expansion of unaccountable government power because they assumed it would only be used against Those Muslims not only embraced a morally warped premise (I care about injustices only if they directly affect me), but also a factually false one, since abuses of power always – always – expand beyond their original application.

Mr. Greenwald is correct.

The Federal government is throwing walls of money at internal “terrorism-related” funding, even though the threat of terrorism is absurdly over-hyped (although government support for Al Qaeda and Iranian terrorists – and see this isn’t helping. )

On the other hand, the government is using laws to crush dissent, and it’s gotten so bad that even U.S. Supreme Court justices are saying that we are descending into tyranny.

For example, the following actions may get an American citizen living on U.S. soil labeled as a “suspected terrorist” today:

And holding the following beliefs may also be considered grounds for suspected terrorism:

As people learned in Nazi Germany, staying silent when “other” types of people are deprived of their rights only ensures that others will not lift a finger for us when repressive authorities take away our rights.

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