Progressive Dissent Is in the FBI's Crosshairs

[Joanne98]

By Lydia Howell, Catalyst
Posted on October 6, 2010, Printed on October 7, 2010
http://www.alternet.org/story/148428/

Is free speech worth the constitutional paper it’s written on?

After the September 26 FBI raids on peace activists’ homes in Minneapolis, Chicago and North Carolina, it appears to depend on who’s speaking and what they’re saying.

The pretext for the raids was investigating “material aide to terrorists”, resulting in grand jury subpoenas and confiscation of computers, books, music CDs and from one home, a Martin Luther King poster. The targeted Minneapolis activists have openly protested US military policy since the 1980s. The FBI certainly knows they have nothing to do with terrorism. These activists simply have the audacity to challenge bi-partisan US invasions, occupations and support for dictatorships and human rights abusers. Dissent on the left has long been seen as ‘criminal behavior’. Where once “the communist threat" was the argument for such repression, now, “terrorism” is.

When it comes to war, US government sees three roles for the American people: 1. Pay hundreds of billions for the largest military on Earth 2. Kill and possibly die or be maimed for US military and corporate dominance of other countries 3. Cheerlead war. The US government -- bought and paid for by weapons-makers and mercenaries (‘contractors’) -- does not think that We The People have the right to even question, much less challenge and resist permanent war, which is bankrupting our country and civilian deaths ignite more violence.

Just days before the raids, the Department of Justice Inspector General released a report about FBI abuses of peace groups under the Bush Administration -- abuses that President Obama continues. Republicans and Democrats rubberstamp domestic spying on peace organizations, Quakers, and solidarity groups visiting countries that the US bombs or subsidizes death squads in.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled 5-to-4 in Holder v. Humanitarian Law Center that peace groups who talked about non-violent, democratic practices and international human rights law -- that is, alternatives to terrorism -- with organizations on the State Department’s “Terrorist Watch List” may be charged with ‘material aid to terrorists’. If ending terrorism is actually the goal, then, why make working to end violence a crime? In his dissent, SCOTUS Justice Stephen Breyer warned that political speech -- the most protected speech under the First Amendment -- was being criminalized.

http://www.alternet.org/news/148428/progressive_dissent_is_in_the_fbi%27s_crosshairs

There's too much conservative filth in the FBI!

[fasttense]

1. There is no left in America today.

It is all right wing, corporate control.

[Cal33]

3. There's a post in DU called "The left right paradigmn is over: It's all "Corporations vs. you."

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2010/09/you-vs-corporation...

[Doctor_J]

6. That's a lie

the left v right paradigm is very much alive

[Mnpaul]

2. The FBI even went after wiki

for posting a picture of their logo. Don't they have better things to do?

[bvar22]

4. When the Working Class & The Poor...

...realize we have more in common with each other than we have in common with the RICH/Corporate Overlords controlling BOTH Political Parties, "CHANGE" will be possible.

As long as "they" can keep us divided over wedge issues and marketing gimmicks, it will be the Same Old Shit raining down from above.

[pmorlan1]

5. You Nailed It

It's so obvious that it's amazing that people still fall for it.

[Tutankhamun]

8. Exactly. We're divided and conquered and we don't even realize it.

[Doctor_J]

7. Some of it we brought upon ourselves

it's been ongoing for 20 years, and there has not been a single casualty among the purveyors of lies, hate, and fascism. Our DU 2nd Amendment fans, who love to spout off about how 2A protects the other 25, haven't fired a single shot while this fascism has taken hold. Some of them express deep love for this SCOTUS because of the DC gun ban ruling, but run and hide when Holder v. HLC is brought up.

We're being overrun because we refuse to fight back.

[Tutankhamun]

9. It's brilliant, the way we've been conditioned to think about fighting back.

The left, the ones with the real grievances, the ones with the ideas worth standing up for, the ones who know who is really responsible for the decline of the republic, are conditioned to speak of peace and non-violence, even a sort of passivity. Meanwhile, the right, those who foolishly support the oppressors, the corporations, wave their guns around. Meanwhile, the left condemns them for it. The left and right bicker in a never ending contest to see who can claim ownership of the most righteous rhetoric. The corporations and their MSM egg us on.

[Raksha]

10. You are so right! That's why I have an unapologetic "Us vs. Them" mindset.

I am not interested in "dialogue" with the right, not interested in "communicating" with them. Not the hardcore righties anyway--I'm not sure what to do about the dupes would have bought into the marketing gimmicks like anti-immigration. I'm not sure if there is any way of reaching them or not. I approve of non-violent resistence purely from a tactical POV, not an ideological one. I'm not an unconditional pacifist and have never claimed to be.

[Just One Woman]

11. Don't give up so easily

It has changed but it will never die. We still have the power to think, speak, spend our dollar, and vote. We have lost many privacy freedoms, but not our sanity. The bigger they are, the harder they fall. And fall they will. Anyone for chess?