We are all "terrorists" now

Never give to your friend power that your enemy might one day inherit.

We were warned. We were warned by all the whacko conspirists, the Ron Pauls, the traitors who didn't want our government to have the power to protect us. They told us, and we laughed at them, we attacked them, we humiliated them. We dismissed their warnings. We threw our hands at them. This is America; we don't violate the rights of the people. Our government has better things to do than to spy on and oppress its own people. I remember this well. I was once one of those people, who supported the Patriot Act, supported warrantless wiretapping, supported indefinitely detaining prisoners. These were terrorists, I thought. If you hadn't done anything wrong, you had nothing to worry about.

These arguments were a fantasy, a nightmare scenario, that had not yet manifested itself. Today they are not fantasy, they are not conspiracy theory; they are reality. How could we be so stupid, so naive? We are now all terrorists in the eyes of our government, with no more rights than the "terrorists" being held in our numerous concentration camps. Liberals must stick to principle: if they opposed these violations under Bush, they must oppose them under Obama. And Obama's fascist police state programs make Bush look like Mickey Mouse. Conservatives must find their principles, not because it's a democrat doing the oppressing, but because they stand on the side of liberty and oppose tyranny, no matter what letter the tyrant has next to his name.

Many today are still blissfully ignorant of the fact that their government has turned the homeland security police state, created with the intent to protect us from foreign terrorists, on themselves, right under their noses. Follow the bouncing ball. Section 802 of the Patriot Act defines any crime an act of domestic terrorism. In 2002, the Bush administration implemented a parellel legal system for terrorists in which those designated terrorists lose constitutional and civil liberties. Under this system, the administration can order a clandestine search of a U.S. citizen's home and, based on the information gathered, secretly declare the citizen an enemy combatant, to be held indefinitely at a U.S. military base. Courts would have very limited authority to second-guess the detention, to the extent that they were even aware of it. In September, 2005, the 4th Circuit Court of appeals ruled that US citizens could be held as unlawful combatants and be stripped of constitutional rights and held indefinitely without being charged. How Americans could be so naive to believe these "anti-terror" initiatives don't target them is a testimony to how dumbed-down we are as a society. But it gets worse.

Currently there are 1.1 million Americans on the TSA no-fly list, who have never been charged with a crime. Their right to travel has been severely restricted, for God knows what reason; certainly not all of them are terrorists. Perhaps they mouthed off to some TSA goon, or refused to take their shoes off, or refused to consent to their daughter being felt up by some TSA pervert, or refused to be "virtually strip searched" in the TSA's millimeter wave machine. Perhaps they looked at one of them crossly. Remember, the government, under the Patriot Act, does not need to charge you with a crime. You can be labeled a terrorist and stripped of all rights, without due process.

There are numerous state law enforcement and DHS memo leaks that essentially labeled everyone in the country a potential terrorist, or, as Rahm Emanuel called those on the no-fly list, maybe potential terrorists (you can't make this stuff up). The Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) Report on the Modern Militia Movement lumped together opponents of the New World Order (NWO), opponents of the North American Union (NAU), anti-Semites, Americans angry over Ruby Ridge and Waco (the modern day Boston Massacre), anti-gay and lesbian hate groups, pro-second amendment groups, Constitutionalists, anti-abortion activists, Y2K conspirists, racist white supremacists angry over a black man being elected president, anti-Federal Reserve activists, Christian fundamentalists, and supporters of alternative political parties, naming supporters of Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party) and Bob Barr (Libertarian Party) specifically, as well as documenting "extremist" symbols such as the Gadsden flag ("Don't Tread on Me").

Numerous DHS memo leaks expanded the "terrorist" lexicon, which included "disgruntled military veterans" and illegal immigration opposition. Our government especially views veterans as a threat because they have sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, and they are highly trained and motivated, as well as well armed. The DHS Domestic Extremism Lexicon "provides definitions for key terms and phrases that often appear in DHS analysis that addresses the nature and scope of the threat that domestic, non-Islamic extremism poses to the United States." The key part of this sentence is phrases that often appear. These phrases include alternative media, animal rights groups, anti-abortion groups, anti-immigrant groups, whites, blacks, Christians, Jews, Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, environmentalists, right-wing extremists, left-wing extremists, neo-Nazis, militias, patriots, anti-tax movements, and racial Nordic mysticism. Did they leave anyone out?

Refer back to the TSA no-fly list and watch then-congressman Rahm Emanuel state that those "maybe potential terrorists" on the no-fly list are "no longer a part of the American family" and are undeserving of constitutional rights. Gun grabber Caroline McCarthy has introduced the HR 2401 No Fly, No Buy Act which puts Emanuel's agenda into law. Representative Peter King, a republican, introduced HR 2159 Denying Firearms and Explosives to Dangerous Terrorists Act, which enables the Attorney General to, at his own whim and without any due process, label anyone a terrorist and strip them of constitutional rights. Do not be comforted by the fact that these bills have not yet become law; they are part of the fascist agenda of our government and, with democrats' overwhelming majority in Congress, a foregone conclusion.

We must wake up. We must examine the facts of what our government is doing, and not be afraid to see what we see. We should never have consented to stripping the civil rights of "terrorists" in the first place, trampling on 800 years of civilized jurisprudence, but we can no longer comfort ourselves with the idea that if you're not a terrorist you needn't fear your government; we are all terrorists now. The actions documented here only scratch the surface of what they have done and what they have planned. Tyranny cannot foment itself without first disarming the citizenry. "Terrorism" is the vehicle through which the government will attempt to disarm us and implement other oppressive violations of our natural and constitutional rights. We either resist them, or become their slaves. Decide.