Martial Law is Now a Real Threat - 325,000 "suspected terrorists"!

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07272007.html

Declaring the US a Battlefield
By DAVE LINDORFF

The looming collapse of the US military in Iraq, of which a number of generals and former generals, including former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, have warned, is happening none too soon, as it my be the best hope for preventing military rule here at home.

From the looks of things, the Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave the way for a declaration of military rule, such that at this point it really lacks only the pretext to trigger a suspension of Constitutional government. They have done this with the active support of Democrats in Congress, though most of the heavy lifting was done by the last, Republican-led Congress.

The first step, or course, was the first Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in September 2001, which the president has subsequently used to claim-improperly, but so what? -that the whole world, including the US, is a battlefield in a so-called "War" on Terror, and that he has extra-Constitutional unitary executive powers to ignore laws passed by Congress. As constitutional scholar and former Reagan-era associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein observes, that one claim, that the US is itself a battlefield, is enough to allow this or some future president to declare martial law, "since you can always declare martial law on a battlefield. All he'd need would be a pretext, like another terrorist attack inside the U.S."

The 2001 AUMF was followed by the PATRIOT Act, passed in October 2001, which undermined much of the Bill of Rights. Around the same time, the president began a campaign of massive spying on Americans by the National Security Agency, conducted without any warrants or other judicial review. It was and remains a program that is clearly aimed at American dissidents and at the administration's political opponents, since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would never have raised no objections to spying on potential terrorists. (And it, and other government spying programs, have resulted in the government's having a list now of some 325,000 "suspected terrorists"!)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. those 'suspects'

probably include everyone here except the trolls and Agent Mike.

[shance]

2. Bush's community based harassment gangs / FBI "informants"

They've been recruiting these folks since 2001.

It's COINTELPRO all over again with its origin stemming from many of the same tactics as enacted by the KKK.

Many of those recruited to harass, isolate, gaslight those who oppose George Bush and the Administration (private corporations are primarily instrumental in the hiring of such organized stalking).

They are invading activists neighborhoods, and are hired/recruited to blend in with neighborhoods so as not to tip other neighbors off, although many of them are in fact neighbors.

For more information:

www.catch.ca

On edit: Many of the individuals have no idea what they are being recruited to do other than walk neighborhoods or 'watch' individuals.

[bonito]

3. Hey ,the link goes to a baseball thing.

[bonito]

4. While those that oppose their ideology are of special interest

It's a proactive network of data mining, illegal spying, NSL's and ? that collects information on every citizen, I imagine a profile directory on everyone who earns or spends a dime including foreign visitors.
The thing to worry about is those in power who have control of that information and using it as a means to their ends.

But I also think when those who oppose their ideology out number them as they do now as it has been a slow process (a long cure is the hardest), their window of opportunity has passed.

I expect a redirection of current events towards what is right.

[blues90]

5. All they need is someone to light the fuse and off we go .