U.S. Dystopian History: The Homeland Security Act

BTC - I feel it necessary to dust off a few old records that have been around only long enough to get ignored. In 2002, Jennifer VanBergen reported for TruthOut on the origins and problems with the Homeland Security Act for civil liberty.

One of particular interest is Title III of this law:

Title III concerns "Science and Technology in Support of Homeland Security." Section 304, according to The National Gulf War Resources Center, Inc., "grants the HHS secretary extraordinary powers to declare a health emergency simply based on a POTENTIAL threat. This means that a hypothetical threat analysis from intelligence agencies that failed to warn of Sept 11th could be used as a reason to suspend civil liberties and start mandatory smallpox vaccinations."

Homeland Security Act: The Rise of the American Police State

Editors Note: This a three-part series on the Homeland Security Act (HSA). Part 1 reviews the origins of the Act in the Hart-Rudman Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations. Part 2 discusses Cheney's plan for global dominance and how that relates to homeland security. Part 3 details some of the HSA provisions themselves and briefly discusses what worries civil libertarians.