Liberty and Freedom under assault?
The government is created by Americans for the purpose of protecting our liberty. The Constitution was drafted to place the limitations on the Government and to preserve the inalienable rights of Americans. Our young men and women go to war to defend these Liberties protected by the Constitution. Our military swears an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and they bravely fight against the enemies that desire to destroy these liberties and freedoms.
The Constitution of the United States is neither “Democrat” nor “Republican,” it is American. Any attempt to undermine the liberties protected by the US Constitution is most assuredly un-American.
Using the commonly applied legal test of the “Totality of the Circumstances,” which is a test used to determine whether certain Constitutionally protected rights have been violated by looking to all the circumstances attending the alleged violation, rather than to any one particular factor, please review the information below and ask yourself, “is our Constitution is under assault?”
San Francisco Chronicle
Rule by fear or rule by law?
Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.
Sect. 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," gives the executive the power to invoke martial law. For the first time in more than a century, the president is now authorized to use the military in response to "a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or any other condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has occurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order."
The Military Commissions Act of 2006, rammed through Congress just before the 2006 midterm elections, allows for the indefinite imprisonment of anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on a list of "terrorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's policies. The law calls for secret trials for citizens and non-citizens alike.
Also in 2007, the White House quietly issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51), to ensure "continuity of government" in the event of what the document vaguely calls a "catastrophic emergency." Should the president determine that such an emergency has occurred, he and he alone is empowered to do whatever he deems necessary to ensure "continuity of government." This could include everything from canceling elections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack. Congress has yet to hold a single hearing on NSPD-51.
U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County) has come up with a new way to expand the domestic "war on terror." Her Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (HR1955), which passed the House by the lopsided vote of 404-6, would set up a commission to "examine and report upon the facts and causes" of so-called violent radicalism and extremist ideology, then make legislative recommendations on combating it.
According to commentary in the Baltimore Sun, Rep. Harman and her colleagues from both sides of the aisle believe the country faces a native brand of terrorism, and needs a commission with sweeping investigative power to combat it.
A clue as to where Harman's commission might be aiming is the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that labels those who "engage in sit-ins, civil disobedience, trespass, or any other crime in the name of animal rights" as terrorists. Other groups in the crosshairs could be anti-abortion protesters, anti-tax agitators, immigration activists, environmentalists, peace demonstrators, Second Amendment rights supporters ... the list goes on and on. According to author Naomi Wolf, the National Counterterrorism Center holds the names of roughly 775,000 "terror suspects" with the number increasing by 20,000 per month.
What could the government be contemplating that leads it to make contingency plans to detain without recourse millions of its own citizens?
The Constitution does not allow the executive to have unchecked power under any circumstances. The people must not allow the president to use the war on terrorism to rule by fear instead of by law.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/04/ED5OUPQJ7.DTLwashingtonpost.com
325,000 Names on Terrorism List: Rights Groups Say Database May Include Innocent People.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/14/AR2006021402125.htmlFOXNEWS.com
Pentagon to Study Microchip Implant for Battlefield Casualties WASHINGTON — A new Defense Department-funded study is aimed at developing a microchip the size of a grain of rice that would be implanted in soldiers wounded on the battlefield, but the idea raises privacy concerns for at least one major veterans group.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,291587,00.html New York Times
Halliburton Subsidiary Gets Contract to Add Temporary Immigration Detention Centers
WASHINGTON, Feb. 3 — The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a contract worth up to $385 million for building temporary immigration detention centers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/04/national/04halliburton.html?_r=1&oref=loginCNN.com
Why the 'Real ID' Act is a real mess “The Real ID Act's identity cards will be required if one wants to drive, visit a federal government building, collect Social Security, access a federal government service or use the services of a private entity (such as a bank or an airline) that is required under federal law to verify customer identity.”
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/08/12/ramasastry.ids/index.htmlwashingtonpost.com
FBI Prepares Vast Database of Biometrics
$1 Billion Project to Include Images of Irises and Faces. CLARKSBURG, W. Va. -- The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122102544_pf.htmlCNN.com
FBI wants palm prints, eye scans, tattoo mapping
The bureau is expected to announce in coming days the awarding of a $1 billion, 10-year contract to help create the database that will compile an array of biometric information -- from palm prints to eye scans… It's the beginning of the surveillance society where you can be tracked anywhere, any time and all your movements, and eventually all your activities will be tracked and noted and correlated," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Technology and Liberty Project.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/04/fbi.biometrics/USA Today
NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htmwashingtonpost.com
Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity
The Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112600857_pf.html THE HUFFINGTON POST
Are you a Homegrown Terrorist?
The danger is the legislation's vague definitions of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism and the commission's power to label individuals and groups as possible terrorists. Violent radicalization, for example, is defined as "the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." Note that you don't actually have to commit violence to be labeled a violent radical. You just have to adopt or promote a belief system that differs with the government, which is easy enough in these times of economic instability, expansive government powers and endless wars.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-w-whitehead/are-you-a-homegrown-terro_b_82935.htmlUnited States Congressman Jim McDermott, WA
The reason I raise this issue is that I come from a State where in 1941 under executive order by the President, 9661, we rounded up all the Japanese Americans in this country and put them in concentration camps. We have set in place the mechanism to do that again and we must not, we cannot sacrifice the Constitution in this rush to war that we are doing in Iraq.
http://www.house.gov/mcdermott/sp030311.shtmlU.S. News & World Report
Cheney's Guy: He's barely known outside Washington's corridors of power, but David Addington is the most powerful man you've never heard of. Here's why:
Addington is so intensely security minded: "He's absolutely convinced of the threat we face. And he believes that the executive branch is the only part of the government capable of securing the public against external threats."
David Addington was a key advocate of the Brown v. Board and more than 750 other signing statements the administration has issued since taking office--a record that far outstrips that of any other president. The signing statements are just one tool that Addington and a small cadre of ultraconservative lawyers at the heart of the Bush administration are employing to prosecute the war on terrorism…
It wasn't long before Addington became the military's top lawyer. As the Pentagon general counsel, Addington soon alienated the armed forces' judge advocate generals by authoring a memo ordering the proudly independent corps of career military attorneys to report to the general counsel of each service. "He wanted the military services to be not so independent," says a retired Navy JAG, Rear Adm. Don Guter. "It came under the rubric of civilian control of the military. It's centralization. It's control."
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060529/29addington.htmFEMA Camp Footage?
United Stated Army
Civilian Inmate Labor Program
http://www.usapa.army.mil/pdffiles/r210_35.pdf