Domestic Terrorism

More CAPPS II

This entry was posted in CAPPS II Constitution Domestic Terrorism Law Enforcement Libertarianism Patriot Act War on Terrorism on by

Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU’s Program on Technology and Liberty, summed up CAPPs II thusly:

CAPPS II would for the first time put the government in the business of conducting regular background checks on everyday citizens. Not only would the government conduct searches and evaluations of individuals’ past history and records, but it would generate a “risk score” for each person. The social and political consequences of this new role for government are far-reaching and truly frightening.

Read the transcript of the Washington Post online forum he participated in here.
Via beSpacific.

Patriot Act II or?

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Domestic Terrorism Drug Laws Law Libertarianism Patriot Act War on Terrorism on by

Whatever it is going to be called bush is stumping for it. At Quanitco today, he made a pitch for increased use of administrative supoenas, elimination of bail for terrorist suspects and additional death penalty provisions. Part of his rationale being something like if we can have these things for certain other crimes why not terrorism. For instance, with regard to administrative supoenas:

They’re used in a wide range of criminal and civil matters, including health care fraud and child abuse cases.

Perhaps they shouldn’t be used in any situation. It strikes me that probably cause approved by a judge ought to be the minimum standard.
I don’t think anyone outside bush’s cabal has seen what they plan to send to congress. Expect things to go less well for whatever it is then the roll over and play dead act that congress did for Patriot Act 1.
Talkleft (and I’m sure others) has been working this heavily. See here (the most recent as of this writing) and previous posts.

Should YouTrust Big Brother

This entry was posted in ashcroft bush Constitution Domestic Terrorism Libertarianism Privacy War on Terrorism on by

Jeralyn Merrit wonders:

We don’t know why people aren’t screaming bloody murder about this.

The this is CAPPS II, the new airline passenger screening system currently under development.
Yes, why aren’t we up in arms about this? Go read Jeralyn’s post and the related links. CAPPS II looks like Total Information Awareness is alive and well not something 5 years away as Fox News argues:

Any real development of TIA technology is more than five years away, so concerns that the technology will be abused are speculative, at best.

Well, since Fox’s 5 year forecast is clearly speculative why would we expect it not to be abused.
Gosh, just imagine, you are headed to New York next summer to provide peaceful input to the GOP convention but, oops, your color is red and you don’t get to go. What set of data in the fed files might cause this to happen?
Even though the absence of information may be as problematic as the information the feds have you just might want to start making yourself a little less visible by learning how to use cash again.

Aiding and Abetting?

This entry was posted in ashcroft bush Constitution Domestic Terrorism Libertarianism War on Terrorism on by

rumsfeld tells the world:

… opposition to the U.S. President was encouraging Washington’s enemies and hindering his ‘war against terrorism’.

Is he accusing the opposition of aiding and abetting the enemy? And will this prompt another round of talk show blathering about critics of bush policy being treasonous?
According to that great upholder of civil liberties ashcroft:

Peaceful political discourse and dissent is one of America�s most cherished freedoms, and is not subject to investigation as domestic terrorism. Under the Patriot Act, the definition of �domestic terrorism� is limited to conduct that (1) violates federal or state criminal law and (2) is dangerous to human life. Therefore, peaceful political organizations engaging in political advocacy will obviously not come under this definition. (Patriot Act, Section 802)

Just how big a step is it from rummies words to the FBI knocking on your door.
It must be time to step up the dissent even more.
Via a Scott at The Gamer’s Nook.

Future Leaders?

This entry was posted in Domestic Terrorism on by

This story does not tell us how many perps are involved or whether charges were filed in these cases and without seeing the questions we can’t evaluate bias within the survery itself. Nevertheless this is not good:

the questionnaire administered this year showed that 109 of the 579 female cadets surveyed, or 18.8 percent, said they had been sexually assaulted in their time at the academy. Sexual assault was defined as anything from unwanted touching to rape.
In 89 percent of the cases, the alleged assailant was identified as another cadet.
The survey also said that 11 percent of senior female cadets and 3 percent of freshman female cadets reported having been the victim of rape or attempted rape since enrolling at the academy.

Shouldn’t the selection process filter out most of the perp types? But perhaps it does just the opposite. How many past perps are still in uniform and does that make you feel more or less secure?
Just to show how easily riffing on a single article can lead you far astray I’m going to leave my original words (above) about the Acadamy selection process just as I wrote them. Here is how I would have written it if I had the information from Dave Cullen’s work at Conclusive Evidence (linked below):

Things could be much worse at the Acadamy but their selection process has apparently weeded out some of the potential perps. If this were a public university the Department of Justice believes the incidence of rape would be as high as 20%.

For more see Talkleft and Conclusive Evidence.
Via South Knox Bubba.