FILM: Cointelpro 101 and "Improper" FBI probes

BTC -  Explosive news from WaPo front and center today about "improper" FBI surveillance of non-criminal and legal assembly at political gatherings, according to one Justice.

UPDATE:  PA state homeland security chief goes in hiding

ACLU sues state police over intelligence gathering

Interestingly enough, 'tis the season to review a new film called Cointelpro 101.  Check your local indie film house listings...

The San Francisco Premiere
Sunday, October 10th
4 and 7 pm
Mission Cultural Center of Latino Arts - SF

BIG PICTURE: Placing anti-war in the right side of the light

BTC SOCIAL COMMENTARY - Anti-National ID advocates trip, and sometimes slip on the razors edge of frail terms of agreement between political scientists. We should pan out and look at the national dialogue about the Bush machinery institutionalized and perpetuated by the Obama administration. There is a whole lot of disallowance for the right-side of anti-war. This includes a great deal of Repubican veterans who undertstand what they hate because they lost a leg on Hamburger Hill. The established anti-war cliques on the left don't talk to them.

Well... Houston, tell the ranks. It looks like the anti-war Left is ready to talk.

What to Do With the Anti-War Faction of the Tea Party?

Naomi Wolf who wrote The End of America: Letters to a Young Patriot and Give Me Liberty when Bush was in power thinks the Tea Party is helping America fight fascism. I'm not quite sure that is true especially when considering the media and government structures that bear down upon the people of this nation but I do think this quote from a recent interview is valuable:

JS: Why do you think the sides don't understand each other?

NW: Frankly, liberals are out of the habit of communicating with anyone outside their own in cohort. We have a cultural problem with self-righteousness and elitism. Liberals roll their eyes about going on "Oprah" to reach a mass audience by using language that anyone can understand even if you majored in semiotics at Yale. We look down on people we don't agree with. It doesn't serve us well.

There is also a deliberate building up of two camps that benefits from whipping up home team spirit and demonizing the opposition. With the Internet there is even more fractioning since we are in echo chambers. With so much propaganda it is hard to calm down enough to listen.

Transparency challenges new DHS "Secure Communities" program

BTC- If they can challenge your citizenship, they can challenge your human rights as a U.S. citizen. If they can take away your rights, they can throw you in jail indefinitely without legal representation, counsel or due process or even deport you without contacting your family.

Think this scenario isn't real?

"This program is designed to fail because it relies on information from infamously inaccurate databases. We've already seen an increase in racial profiling, pre-textual arrests and mistaken identity of US citizens," she said, adding, "Combined with the lack of regulation and publicly available information on Secure Communities, ICE will be essentially immune to accountability or transparency. With a budget reaching the billions, taxpayers should be very concerned."

It could be you.

c/o Truthout

A little-known program run by the Department of Homeland Security is using inaccurate databases and functioning "as little more than a dragnet to funnel even more people into the already overburdened" detention and deportation system of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, according to three civil rights organizations that have filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

ICE claims that the program, called "Secure Communities," targets "dangerous criminal aliens."

The "Secure Communities" initiative furthers the ever-worsening trend of involving local and state law enforcement agencies in federal immigration enforcement. The three groups say that since the inception of the program, there has been a marked increase in racial profiling, excessive costs to state and local government and due-process violations.

The groups are the National Day Laborer Organization Network (NDLON), the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the Immigration Justice Clinic of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. They filed their FOIA request in January.

Sunita Patel, a CCR staff attorney, told Truthout, "Our principal concern is that this is a very secretive program about which there is little public information. It is being implemented in communities, but the lack of transparency makes it impossible for community groups to determine whether abuses are being committed. We hope our FOIA suit will shed some light on the issue.

"This program is designed to fail because it relies on information from infamously inaccurate databases. We've already seen an increase in racial profiling, pre-textual arrests and mistaken identity of US citizens," she said, adding, "Combined with the lack of regulation and publicly available information on Secure Communities, ICE will be essentially immune to accountability or transparency. With a budget reaching the billions, taxpayers should be very concerned."

:::MORE HERE:::

Cyber Resistance & conscientious objection

By Dahr Jamail for Truthout

"I told him I had a right to continue. They pulled my computers, tried to limit my access, took me off sniper duty, and put me on guard duty of Iraqis on base. The last two months were lonely and difficult for me. I was afraid I would be court-martialed. In the end, it was determined that nothing I wrote had violated operational security and that I had committed no treason and, since there were no rules prohibiting blogging, I had broken no rules either. But I was continually hazed by my superiors as long as I was there.... They were constantly looking for ways to trap me. I was made to fill sandbags and do other menial jobs. However, I was finally awarded an honorable discharge in May 2005, and gained a lot of respect from most of my fellow soldiers. Many would give me the peace sign as they passed me by," Garett Reppenhagen, IVAW.

If technology has transformed warfare into a spectacle of shock and awe, its contribution to the cause of dissent has been no less remarkable. It has enabled solidarities across borders and facilitated networks and forums dedicated to impartial communication of ground realities beyond the sanitized projection of mainstream news. True, technological advances have not brought an end to either occupation, but it has certainly helped alternative voices and views to be heard.

Many American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been confounded by the wall of censorship they confront, jointly constructed by the military and the corporate media. The Internet offered them a convenient and powerful channel through which to get their stories out to the public. Constrained by slow military mail service from Iraq and Afghanistan, not to mention overt attempts by superiors to curtail their interaction with journalists, soldiers have long since taken to blogging, posting photographs and uploading videos online, all related to their experience of the occupations.

August 22, 2005, titled "Finding Closure," posted by Jeff Englehardt (hEkLe) after exiting Iraq, reads in part:

"There is nothing that I feel can alleviate the guilt for being directly involved with our illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq. I ask myself from time to time, "Why was I so afraid to resist the order to go to war? Why didn't I object to the whole damned thing?" I have been told many times not to be ashamed for my service to this country, but I can't help a genuine intuition that this war is not designed to promote freedom and our beautiful American way of life, but instead only carried out to proliferate Western imperialism and corporate profits every time a bullet is fired. My guilt is synonymous with the sentiment that I was indeed on the wrong side of the wire."

:::CONTINUED HERE:::

ALSO: Attorney Reports Human Rights Abuses of GI Resisters

Worst over for MASS Flu Vax Bill S.2028

Key amendments regarding civil liberty leads up to House approval, vote 113-36

"[House Chairman] Sanchez said the House version of the bill eliminates some of the more contentious parts approved in April by the Senate including sections placing restrictions on the right to public assembly and allowing the arrest of individuals without warrant.

The Senate bill would also allow the government to mandate vaccinations or place into isolation anyone who refused to be vaccinated -- a provision that was eliminated from the House version."

CLG>>c/o Boston.com

BOSTON --Public health officials would have the power to isolate individuals and order quarantines to contain the outbreak of serious contagious diseases under a bill approved by the Massachusetts House on Thursday.

Supporters say that while the bill has been in the works for years, the emergence of swine flu shows the importance of having laws on the books to deal with public health crises. Critics say the bill gives the government too much power.

The bill, approved by a 113-36 vote, is designed to clarify the authority of government and the rights of citizens in the case of a public health crisis. Backers say under existing law there are few checks on the power of government once the governor declares a health emergency.

"The bill strikes that balance between protecting the community in the case of an emergency but also protecting the civil liberties of individuals," said Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez, D-Boston, House chairman of the Committee on Public Health.

Sanchez said the House version of the bill eliminates some of the more contentious parts approved in April by the Senate including sections placing restrictions on the right to public assembly and allowing the arrest of individuals without warrant.

The Senate bill would also allow the government to mandate vaccinations or place into isolation anyone who refused to be vaccinated -- a provision that was eliminated from the House version.

"This bill does not change the law to force people to be vaccinated," Sanchez said.

The bill spells out the authority of the public health commissioner once an emergency is declared -- including the power to force the evacuation of public buildings and order health care facilities to provide services to those sickened.

The bill would also let the commissioner limit public access to contaminated areas, adopt measures to safely dispose of infection waste, and store and distribute antitoxins, serums, vaccines and antibiotics.

One of the most contentious parts of the bill would give public health officials the authority to force individuals or groups into isolation or quarantine when there is "reasonable cause to believe that a disease or condition dangerous to the public health exists or may exist or that there is an immediate risk of an outbreak."

The isolation or quarantine order can be made orally as long as it is followed by a written order. The bill allows those in quarantine to appeal to a Superior Court judge. It also bars employers from firing workers because of a quarantine order.

Rep. Todd Smola, R-Palmer, said he heard from dozens of constituents worried about the Senate version of the bill.

He said there wasn't enough time to study the changes in the House version, which he said still gives too much power to the commissioner of public health.

"People have enough concerns right now relative to government control invading in their personal space and in their personal lives," he said.

Other parts of the bill are designed to send up early warning signs of a potential outbreak, including requiring pharmacists to report increased prescription rates or unusual types of prescriptions.

Public health officials would also be allowed to obtain medical records to try to investigate or monitor an outbreak, provided that the medical records remain confidential.

The public health emergency would end whenever the governor says it is over or 90 days after it was first declared, whichever comes first.

The compromise version of both bills must now be worked out.

"We Were Arrested for Speaking"

"We moved down the street and the truck came too. But we made a lot more noise. Prisoners in orange from Witness Against Torture chained themselves to the White House fence. So did Cindy Sheehan whose son died in Iraq. Veterans for Peace displayed US, Afghan, and Iraqi coffins and read the names of the dead and shouted: "Mourn the dead! Heal the wounded! End the wars!" The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, the World Can't Wait, and lots of other groups joined in. Many of us donned black shirts, white placards with the names of dead troops or civilians, and white masks: the March of the Dead. We marched on the sidewalk in front of the White House in silence.

:::UPI VIDEO HERE:::

For OpEdNews: David Swanson - AfterDowningStreet.org

U.S. Park Policeman (USPP) who shall remain nameless on Monday, October 5, 2009: Next!

Me: Is that me?

USPP: Whoever. I'm flexible. I'm agreeable. I'm just here to please.

Me: Except for the whole arresting us part, huh? [climbing out of a cramped metal van where I'd been stuck with a dozen other men, our hands cuffed behind our backs so tightly they left marks and my friend's hands went numb]

USPP: What? I thought that was the whole point. You wanted to get arrested.

Me: No, we didn't want to get arrested. We wanted to engage in free speech.

USPP: Oh, I'm not going to get into that. Step over here. [He asks me my name and address.] Charlottesville? It's beautiful down there. Why would you want to come here and do this? [cutting himself off quickly] I mean I know why, you don't need to tell me.

But of course I did need to tell him. He just didn't want to know.

Earlier that day in front of the White House:

Another police officer (APO): You all will have to move off the sidewalk into the street.

Me: Are you sure the First Amendment says that?

APO: Oh you want to play that game? We can shut the whole area down if you want to play that game.

Me: I didn't say anything about a game.

The president was holding a press conference inside the White House fence with a bunch of doctors who oppose serious healthcare reform. Donna Smith, star of Michael Moore's "Sicko", was standing next to me and telling me that every patient who had appeared in that movie had determined that the healthcare bills now under consideration in Washington would not have done anything to help them and won't now.

Hundreds of peace activists made their way to the White House sidewalk. We joined with some doctors and nurses who were not permitted to take part in the events inside because they support single-payer healthcare. We shouted "Healthcare Not Warfare." We shouted "Troops Home Now. End Warfare." We shouted "Single Payer Now. End Warfare." We made a lot of noise, but we were in the street rather than on the forbidden sidewalk. And there was an incredibly noisy truck behind us that had chosen this moment to clean Pennsylvania Avenue with pressurized hoses.

We moved down the street and the truck came too. But we made a lot more noise. Prisoners in orange from Witness Against Torture chained themselves to the White House fence. So did Cindy Sheehan whose son died in Iraq. Veterans for Peace displayed US, Afghan, and Iraqi coffins and read the names of the dead and shouted: "Mourn the dead! Heal the wounded! End the wars!" The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, the World Can't Wait, and lots of other groups joined in. Many of us donned black shirts, white placards with the names of dead troops or civilians, and white masks: the March of the Dead. We marched on the sidewalk in front of the White House in silence.

Then the police horses came at us. The police tried to drive us into the street with their horses, but we lay down on the sidewalk, and they didn't trample us. Instead they put police tape around a huge area, moved everyone else out of it, gave three warnings, and began arresting people. We lay on the sidewalk for approximately two hours, rode with lights and sirens blaring in an escorted caravan of vans and buses to the jail, and were out within an hour with tickets to pay $100 fines or challenge in court.

The crime? Exercising free speech in a group of more than 25 people. Seriously. We're charged with failing to obey a lawful order. And the order was to move farther away from the White House because with more than 25 people you have to have a special permit in order to exercise free speech. At least 50 of us, maybe closer to 100, went to jail, while many more chose to comply with the lawful (if unconstitutional) order.

And what did the Park Police SWAT team do? Nothing but follow orders. They followed orders to the exclusion of all thought. They asked us not to encourage them to think. They didn't want to think about freedom of speech. They didn't want to think about arresting nonviolent people for peacefully demanding peace. They didn't want to think about whether protesting illegal wars actually constitutes something closer to law enforcement than what they themselves were engaged in. And they certainly didn't want to think about the men and women and children in Iraq and Afghanistan and Pakistan who will die because the US Park Police arrested peaceful people assembling and speaking, rather than arresting war criminals like Richard Cheney who confess to felonies on television and lives right across the river.

David Swanson is the author of the new book "DAYBREAK: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press. You can order it and find out when tour will be in your town: http://davidswanson.org/book

Waking Up Orwell, debuting this Thursday morning on Blogtalkradio.com, will be featuring a very special interview with David to catch up with him after the release of his book. Within a week, DAYBREAK was a #1 Bestseller which knocked Glen Beck out of Amazon's top slot.

Civil Liberty brush off, results in 4 to the Floor campaign

“The court’s decision effectively means that Americans’ privacy rights will be left to the mercy of the political branches. This is deeply troubling, because the courts have a crucial role to play in ensuring that individual rights are not needlessly infringed upon by statutes enacted in the name of national security."- Jameel Jaffer

Dismissal Of ACLU, NYCLU Challenge To Unconstitutional Spying Law Jeopardizes Americans' Privacy

August 20, 2009 -- A federal court today dismissed an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit challenging an unconstitutional government spying law. The ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed the landmark lawsuit in July 2008 to stop the government from conducting surveillance under the FISA Amendments Act (FAA), which gives the executive branch virtually unchecked power to sweep up Americans' international e-mails and telephone calls.

The ACLU and NYCLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of a broad coalition of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose ability to perform their work – which relies on confidential communications – is greatly compromised by the FAA. ::: MORE HERE:::

It is SO on.

BTC - Yeah, well apparently The Feds don't get it. I encourage every activist who enjoys the right to peacibly assemble and petition their government for injury to their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness to join this activist task force. I jumped on as soon as I could. Do.

Views from DHS Insiders ; 5-11 Campaign Press

Do you see the hidden irony in Jim Toroks artwork? 

*L -I-A-R

Does this sentiment look familiar?  DHS is telling you "Things are okay."  

READERS: What are your thoughts? Please comment on the corresponding forums:

Homeland Security is notorious for adding a "for your security" claus right before they strip you of some element of freedom.  Usually these are freedoms you actually need to go about your natural way of life as an American.  The corresponding sentiments from DHS ring to the tune of, "Things will be more secure - more okay- if we do it this way."

Bad news kids : 48 states went for the Federal Grants for Real IDs.   Part of the conditions for accepting federal monies is that the States are in full submission to the Real ID implementation policies. They accepted the "okay-ness" of Real IDs for your state.  Again - this happened while you were going on with your life.  We have a high maintenance government who is behaving badly.

You can ask your state to reject the federal funding for Real Ids.

Jim Harper, a DHS insider explains his point of view:

"Were there ever any doubt that Real ID was a national {now confirmed International} identity system and a step toward cradle-to-grave, government- mandated biometric tracking, Family Security Matters has helped clear that up."

The blogging friends of the DHS deliver a positive report on the "effectiveness" of carding flyers at airports (6/23):

"We're 48 hours into the new procedure and things have been smooth so far.  Approximately 650 people have shown up to security checkpoints without ID and a total of 20 people have not been allowed to fly. That is .0005 percent of the approximately four million people that flew this weekend. "

Way to go? I'm curious about the 20 people who didn't get to fly.  Were they bad people or did they just insist on invoking their civil rights on not having to show their papers to fly. For those who visit the link here you will see some of the responses people left.  Among the gems (typically from Anonymous posters) :

"If they get a pat-down and bag check, who cares if they're on their way?  This is the point you continually ignore as you lie to us about the "supposed" security this nonsensical policy change provides.  In fact, you know as well as we do that this new policy does nothing more to make anyone safer, and by diverting resources from things that WOULD make us safer, like screening cargo, actively makes us less safe."

Missouri:  A reluctant target for Real ID implementation  

Missouri is the first stop for the Real ID electronic network in America.   Missouri is not so enthusiastic about the $17 million  development of AAMVA's Real ID hub,  but they still get to wear the"guinea pig"name tag for this development.  Whoopee. Yay.

Missouri Rep. Jim Guest, head of Legislators Against Real IDs,  will be speaking on Derry Brownfield's show, July 3rd - 10:00 AM (CST) about what an electronic hub in Missouri means for the rest of the US .  You can catch the show online at GCNlive.com  

DHS also passed out $1.2 million in government cheese to states Florida, Indiana, Nevada, and Wisconsin willing to road test Real ID's.  Nevada and Wisconsin fought against allowing state funding for the implementation of Real IDs.  Florida and Indiana have not filed any resistance whatsoever in the development for Real ID's.   

Other "5-11"end states are Washington and North Carolina.

What does it mean to be "5-11"ened?  Please check out Carol Broulliet's radio program, Questioning War, Organizing Resistance - Hour 1: Katherine Albrecht &  Jim Guest ,  Hour 2 : 5-11 Campaign speaks