Nordfjord
17-11-2004, 22:43
43 days after 9/11, America was hit by the Patriot Act. Surprisingly few even cared -as they didn't later when deceit after deceit, scandal after scandal, and lie after lie was unravelled about the Republican party. They did not care.
The Patriot Act, to the people, "allows the cops to fight terrorists in the States". Great, let's go home and have Freedom Fries. Nobody cared about what the Heck the Act was.
The Act violates:
1st amendment: Right to free speech, press, and assembly.
4th amendment: Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
5th amendment: Due process.
6th amendment: Speedy trial by jury, right to be informed of the facts of the accusation, right to confront witnesses, right to have counsel assistance.
8th amendment: No excessive bail or cruel/inhuman punishment.
14th amendment: Equal protection of the law.
Following that,
8,000 Arab, Middle-eastern, South Asian, and Islamic citizens have been interrogated based on their ethnicity/belief alone.
Thousands of men, mostly South Asians, Arabs, and Middle Easteners, have been secretly arrested without warrant and held in an undisclosed location. They get no lawyers or trial; their captors don't even bother to tell them why they are being arrested. They are then held "indefinetly", without the government even telling people their names, even when ordered to do so by the courts.
FBI now spies on political and religious organizations with no evidence of wrongdoing.
The government monitors communications between detainees and their lawyers.
Press and public has been barred from hearings of immigrants detained after 9/11.
The FBI can search your files on finance, medical records, school, etc. without a warrant and then punish whoever tells you that they did -a direct breach of vital laws like the Oath of Confidentiality system.
Summary:
The FBI can arrest you without a warrant and without telling anyone. They can then keep you in jail indefinetly (read: As long as they damn want to) without telling you why, without letting you have a lawyer, and without telling anyone in the outside world, not even judges and courts, who they arrested and where they are held. Why? Because they want to, Joe. All they have to do is say that you "did something terroristic".
Or to put it even shorter: The FBI can do anything they dang please for all you care, as long as they, somewhere along the way, say it's against "terror".
So how can people support the Patriot Act?
Simple: They have no freaking idea of what on Earth it does. They fall for the scare strategies of Rumsfeld and Bush: "Make the people believe that they are in lethal danger and they will agree to anything." The method always works and always has, in all countries in all times. Then, when something is suggested, they answer yes if it only contains the phrase "this is bad for the terrorists". You think anyone would have supported the act before 9/11? Never. And don't say they didn't try to get it enacted -they did.
For years and years before the 9/11 hijackings, government leaders came up with the elements which would become the Patriot Act. Then, on 9/11, they saw their chance. After only 43 days, the desired elements had been gathered and made into the "USA Patriot Act". Ever heard of COINTELPRO? I thought not. Programs of the type were enacted in the 50's, 60's, and 70's by the US state to proscecute thousands of individuals for legitimate political activity.
And then there's the story on how it was passed... nope. It wasn't passed. Most of Congress didn't even read it. It was also developed litterally in the middle of the night and in great secrecy, meaning that the people never got to voice their opinion on it.
Further research shows that the State does not care less about the values they feed the people. "Support our troops"? Troop funds and support for troops and their families is getting cut and troops are kept in Iraq without anyone telling them when they're going home. "Fight terrorists!"? Nope. Iraq has been proven to have nothing to do with Al-Qaida, and US forces sent to Afghanistan were thin to say the least. Actually, right after the 9/11 attack, officials called Intel asking them to frame Iraq for the attack. "Make it look like Iraq did it." "Actually, we're more sure it's Afghanistan." "Screw Afghanistan, we wanna know how you can make it look like it was Iraq". "Support freedom"? Two words: Patriot Act. "Save lives"? Nope. Other death causes are left alone. "Protect us from the terrorists"? Nope.
Safe-Keeper of Nordfjord.
The Patriot Act, to the people, "allows the cops to fight terrorists in the States". Great, let's go home and have Freedom Fries. Nobody cared about what the Heck the Act was.
The Act violates:
1st amendment: Right to free speech, press, and assembly.
4th amendment: Freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
5th amendment: Due process.
6th amendment: Speedy trial by jury, right to be informed of the facts of the accusation, right to confront witnesses, right to have counsel assistance.
8th amendment: No excessive bail or cruel/inhuman punishment.
14th amendment: Equal protection of the law.
Following that,
8,000 Arab, Middle-eastern, South Asian, and Islamic citizens have been interrogated based on their ethnicity/belief alone.
Thousands of men, mostly South Asians, Arabs, and Middle Easteners, have been secretly arrested without warrant and held in an undisclosed location. They get no lawyers or trial; their captors don't even bother to tell them why they are being arrested. They are then held "indefinetly", without the government even telling people their names, even when ordered to do so by the courts.
FBI now spies on political and religious organizations with no evidence of wrongdoing.
The government monitors communications between detainees and their lawyers.
Press and public has been barred from hearings of immigrants detained after 9/11.
The FBI can search your files on finance, medical records, school, etc. without a warrant and then punish whoever tells you that they did -a direct breach of vital laws like the Oath of Confidentiality system.
Summary:
The FBI can arrest you without a warrant and without telling anyone. They can then keep you in jail indefinetly (read: As long as they damn want to) without telling you why, without letting you have a lawyer, and without telling anyone in the outside world, not even judges and courts, who they arrested and where they are held. Why? Because they want to, Joe. All they have to do is say that you "did something terroristic".
Or to put it even shorter: The FBI can do anything they dang please for all you care, as long as they, somewhere along the way, say it's against "terror".
So how can people support the Patriot Act?
Simple: They have no freaking idea of what on Earth it does. They fall for the scare strategies of Rumsfeld and Bush: "Make the people believe that they are in lethal danger and they will agree to anything." The method always works and always has, in all countries in all times. Then, when something is suggested, they answer yes if it only contains the phrase "this is bad for the terrorists". You think anyone would have supported the act before 9/11? Never. And don't say they didn't try to get it enacted -they did.
For years and years before the 9/11 hijackings, government leaders came up with the elements which would become the Patriot Act. Then, on 9/11, they saw their chance. After only 43 days, the desired elements had been gathered and made into the "USA Patriot Act". Ever heard of COINTELPRO? I thought not. Programs of the type were enacted in the 50's, 60's, and 70's by the US state to proscecute thousands of individuals for legitimate political activity.
And then there's the story on how it was passed... nope. It wasn't passed. Most of Congress didn't even read it. It was also developed litterally in the middle of the night and in great secrecy, meaning that the people never got to voice their opinion on it.
Further research shows that the State does not care less about the values they feed the people. "Support our troops"? Troop funds and support for troops and their families is getting cut and troops are kept in Iraq without anyone telling them when they're going home. "Fight terrorists!"? Nope. Iraq has been proven to have nothing to do with Al-Qaida, and US forces sent to Afghanistan were thin to say the least. Actually, right after the 9/11 attack, officials called Intel asking them to frame Iraq for the attack. "Make it look like Iraq did it." "Actually, we're more sure it's Afghanistan." "Screw Afghanistan, we wanna know how you can make it look like it was Iraq". "Support freedom"? Two words: Patriot Act. "Save lives"? Nope. Other death causes are left alone. "Protect us from the terrorists"? Nope.
Safe-Keeper of Nordfjord.