There are terrorists, but give us a break! Reading cases like these where it is easy to see who is not a “terrorist ” makes you wonder why the authorities charge and prosecute them. Certainly no one investigating, interrogating, arresting, processing, and arraigning these people really believes that they are “terrorists”. So, why then the abuses in prosecution? Is this just hype to show us that they are “catching terrorists”?
FBI raids and the criminalization of dissent
from http://www.thesouthern.com
FBI goes after long-time left-wing anti-war activists, when anyone who has worked for social change in the past 30 years knows that the only real domestic “terrorists” have been right-wing extremists.
“…The raids happened just days after the U.S. Department of Justice’s inspector general released a report, “A Review of the FBI’s Investigations of Certain Domestic Advocacy Groups.” The IG looked at FBI surveillance and investigation of, among others, the environmental group Greenpeace, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Pittsburgh-based Thomas Merton Center.
Founded in 1972 to support opposition to the war in Vietnam, the Merton Center continues to be a hub of anti-war activism in Pittsburgh. In 2002, the FBI spied on a Merton-organized rally, claiming “persons with links to international terrorism would be present.” As the IG reports, this claim was a fabrication, which was then relayed to FBI Director Robert Mueller, who repeated it, under oath, to the Senate Judiciary Committee…”
Bakke: Man who ‘lost it’ with AT&T in jail on terrorism charge
from http://www.sj-r.com
Bob Simonson is blind, but he could be you or I on a bad day. Worst, he could be one of our elderly parents unable to deal with the complexities of “call centers” and “hold buttons”. Bob got caught in phone technology, but I know that my parents lose patience with all these rules and changes too and would easily be unable to cope with the situation he found himself in. Increasingly, in order to avoid trouble, I have to run interference for my parents in their business interactions so they will not act out.
Bob Simonson should not be in jail, but the way our system works, if you are arrested and the prosecutor is not reasonable, the court merely stamps the case at arraignment and you are stuck in the system until you can hire a good attorney to try to talk some sense into someone.
Act One. The First Rule of the Apple Store: Don’t Talk About the Apple Store.
from http://www.thisamericanlife.org
And, of course, there are always the goofs, like Joe; those who are no threat to anyone except themselves. They are always easy to spot because they can’t contain their goofiness.
Act Two. Is That a Tape Recorder in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Unhappy to See Me?,
from http://www.thisamericanlife.org
Then, there are the instances when law enforcement power is taken to the extreme and abused to stifle criticism, particularly when the truth is involved.
RichardWanke.Com 