Trust US! When the Last Terrorist is Dead, You can have Your Freedom Back!

[20score]

The only reason we, (we who are in power, and a few defense/security companies) are watching everything you do, everywhere you go, everything you read, say, buy, type, watch and all the people you contact, is to catch the terrorists. Once that job is done, you can trust that we will give you back your freedom, your Constitution and your privacy... Should be any day now.

Some people point out that one is more likely to be struck by lightning than to be killed by a terrorist within the last ten years. (True.) And that our country has faced far more dangerous threats in the past without tapping everybody’s phones and opening everyone’s mail.

Well, maybe they didn’t think of doing those things.

The point is to talk about something else, anything else, so we can go back to catching those last few terrorists. Thanks for your patriotic support!

(And Thom Rumpus from Akron, you’re watching too much porn!)

[Fire Walk With Me]

1. The only problem is, Americans are terorrists:

TransCanada Caught Training Police to Treat Peaceful Anti-Keystone XL Activists as 'Terrorists'
https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/06/12-1


"We had terrorist in the Texas State Senate opposing SB 5" ~Bill Zedler, (R) Texas
http://twitpic.com/cz83k7/full

[Pholus]

5. Thanks for the additional uses of "Terrorist"

I've been keeping a list. It is a common epithet to hurl these days.

[Fire Walk With Me]

8. There's an article somewhere about DHS or FBI or all of them considering Occupy to be

terrorists or potential terrorists, if you want to add another/haven't yet seen that. Here's another bit along those lines:

Cop strongly implies Occupy presence means increased terrorism threat; Federal agents at parade
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022137604

You know that eventually someone is going to try to use those "guidelines" against protesters, journalists, whistle-blowers etc., just as Bank of America this week attempted to jail a man 13 years for anti-bank messages written in =water-soluble children's sidewalk chalk=. They're champing at the bit to eliminate anyone who stands against them, it seems.

[Pholus]

9. Got that one. 800,000+ names on the initial level of Terrorism screening lists.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/03/us-usa-security-database-idUSBRE94200720130503

At this point I find examples of "Terrorists" watch list entries who were:

Quaker anti-war protestors
Anti Iraq war protestors
Occupy Protestors
Anti Death-penalty protestors
Road ragers -- seriously. "Making Terroristic Threats"
Keystone XL pipeline protestors
Greenpeace
PETA

Here are two examples of "jokes" about branding people terrorists that may or may not be associated with their addition to the list

People complaining about their water quality
People filibustering on the Texas legislature's floor and in the gallery above them.

[Fire Walk With Me]

11. WOW...the Quakers too?

Thanks for the list, please keep up the good work..

[Pholus]

13. Yup. Under Bush. But nothing to stop it from happening again...

http://www.justice.gov/oig/special/s1009r.pdf

The main point being that the Terrorism label is used by LEO's as a cudgel -- exactly what practical effect this has on people who are not ACTUAL terrorists but get labeled as such is unclear.

[HardTimes99]

18. Means Nixon was a . . . GASP! Oh wait, Nixon WAS a terrorist if you

were Chilean, Vietnamese or Cambodian.

Funny and doubly ironic, I suppose.

[20score]

31. Chile, and on and on

[20score]

14. So damned twisted.

[indepat]

33. Big brother making of mockery of our constitutional rights to assembly and dissent

actions perceived to be illegal, unconstitutional, or otherwise not in the public interest by labeling lawful citizens as suspected heinous criminals. Such as this constitutes a loathsome malfeasance of office and abuse of power imo, one that strikes at the heart and soul of justice and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness and: it ain't a bit pretty.

[woo me with science]

12. Yes, that magical word, "Terror,"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2730165

with its magical, slippery meaning that shifts so easily with the situation. Surely only a real terrorist could ever be considered a person of interest. I believe the criteria are at least as stringent as for after-the-fact labeling of any young male as a "military combatant" after he has been slaughtered by a drone...


Surely a person would have to do something EGREGIOUS and TERRORISTIC before the government would EVER consider him worthy of any sort of scrutiny along those lines...




The NSA is building a massive data center in Utah to read every email you'll ever send.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002656593

Ridiculous FBI list: You might be a domestic terrorist if...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1790765

Doctors asked to identify potential terrorists under government plans
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1261120&mesg_id=1261120

Homeland Security Kept Tabs on Occupy Wall Street
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002466099

Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002257966

Top US counterterrorism official: drone critics are Al Qaeda enablers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002279862

"Arrogant complaining about airport security is one indicator Transportation Security Administration officers consider when looking for possible criminals and terrorists"
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/04/15/tsa.screeners.complain/

etc., etc., etc...

[Pholus]

17. Thanks for the list!

Quite a few new ones in there...

[Fire Walk With Me]

19. Damn. Thank you!

[20score]

23. Thanks

[20score]

30. I'll never understand how they think.

[BOG PERSON]

2. i dont really have much use for my "freedoms"

i wish we could trade them in for things we really wanted

where did that thread go about trading your privacy for a $50000 raise

i want to volunteer for that program

[The Straight Story]

3. I wish we would stop making terrorists

Undercover FBI: "Hey, here's some bombs and 10,000 in cash if you and some friends will blow up this building"

perp: "no, I really don't think I could"

U-FBI: Keep after them until they agree. Arrest them and claim you stopped a terror attack and the patriot act is working. Meanwhile things like the Boston Bombing happen....

[truedelphi]

16. FBI is smart enough to have moved on from us normal" peole to people with mental illnesses and

Bi polar ailments. Those folks are easier to convince. Of course, the FBI agents still ave to drive them to the stores to pick up the needed goodies for the bombs, and what not. And then pick them u to drive them to the place where the bomb is to go off.

[punkin87]

4. I knew it! Hope they get him soon.

k&r!

[leftstreet]

6. Why doesn't the US just invade the country of Terror?

and like, where is it on the map?

[20score]

25. Good idea.

[kenny blankenship]

7. Uh, thanks, I guess. At this rate...

it might make better sense to just move.

[progressoid]

10. It's a good thing we have terrorists.

Since the end of the cold war, the military industrial complex has needed a foe.

[20score]

32. Just in time!

[russspeakeasy]

15. And when all the world's wealth is in the hands of 10 people.

[gtar100]

20. I especially trust all the executives with the private security companies.

They must have signed a pledge to stop doing their profitable work the moment our safety goals have been met. Because I just know they have our best interests central to their mission. The sacrifices they endure must be tremendous.

[20score]

21. Brings tears to my eyes, also.

[Jack Rabbit]

22. But by then, Freedom isn't Free will have a new meaning

. . . because freedom will be privatized.

[whatchamacallit]

24. I wish that was satire :/ n/t

[20score]

27. Me too.

[railsback]

26. Sounds like the Libertarians poured something into the drinking water

Got all kinds of people talking gibberish.

[20score]

28. ?

[suede1]

29. Kick

[20score]

34. Thanks for helping.

[suede1]

35. Another kick!

[Logical]

36. KR