Ridiculously Broad and Dangerous
The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 will be coming to vote in the Senate shortly, after overwhelmingly passing in the House. Sounds good, right? Who wants terrorism, especially homegrown terrorism and violence?
The only problem is, the bill is so vaguely written that according to “Philip Giraldi at The Huffington Post”:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-giraldi/the-violent-radicalizatio_b_74091.html?view=screen :
bq. the act could easily be abused to define any group that is pressuring the political system as “terrorist,” ranging from polygamists, to second amendment rights supporters, anti-abortion protesters, anti-tax agitators, immigration activists, and peace demonstrators.
A 10-person, appointed congressional commission will define who and what is a terrorist or extremist and be able to individually wield these powers, included holding hearings, obtaining testimony and administering oaths – rather than the traditional collective actions of most congressional commissions.
I’m sure Congress has good intentions, but unfortunately, passing hastily and vaguely written bills (like this one, the Patriot Act and probably dozens of other post-9/11 “homeland protection”-related bills) only sets us up for failure in the future. And by failure, I mean the loss of democracy as we progress toward a fascist state.
Giraldi ends his article with this:
bq. The view that 9/11 has “changed everything” is unfortunately all too true. It has unleashed American paranoia, institutionalized mistrust of foreigners, and created a fantasy universe in which a US beset by enemies must do anything and everything to counter the alien threat.
Very true. Destroying our democracy and everything the country was founded on is not going to make us safer. In reality, law enforcement and intelligence operations will do more to stop terrorism than these horrible bills and laws passed by our government.
*More*
“House Bill”:http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-1955&tab=summary
“Senate Bill”:http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1959
