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+--- Thread: Department of Defense teach personnel that public protests be regarded as 'low level terrorism' (/thread-1638.html)
Department of Defense teach personnel that public protests be regarded as 'low level terrorism' - Magda Hassan - 16-06-2009
Well, it's in writing now. ACLU Challenges Defense Department Personnel Policy To Regard Lawful Protests As “Low-Level Terrorism” (6/10/2009)
Anti-terrorism training materials currently being used by the Department of Defense (DoD) teach its personnel that free expression in the form of public protests should be regarded as “low level terrorism.” ACLU attorneys are calling the approach “an egregious insult to constitutional values” and have sent a letter to the Department of Defense demanding that the offending materials be changed and that the DoD send corrective information to all DoD employees who received the erroneous training.
“DoD employees cannot fully protect our nation and its values unless they understand that a core American value is the constitutional right to criticize our government through protest activities,” said ACLU of Northern California attorney Ann Brick. “It is fundamentally wrong to equate activism with terrorism.”
Among the multiple-choice questions included in its Level 1 Antiterrorism Awareness training course, the DoD asks the following: “Which of the following is an example of low-level terrorist activity?” To answer correctly, the examinee must select “protests.”
The ACLU sent a letter today to Gail McGinn, Acting Under-Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, asking that the materials be corrected immediately. The ACLU points out that the misinterpretation of First Amendment freedoms is particularly disturbing when viewed in the context of a larger, long-term pattern of domestic security initiatives by the government that have attempted to treat lawful dissent as terrorism. Examples of this shameful pattern can be seen in the Pentagon’s monitoring of at least 186 anti-military protests, the FBI’s surveillance of potential protesters at the Republican National Convention, the Fresno County Sheriff Anti-Terrorism Unit’s infiltration and surveillance of Peace Fresno, a community peace and social justice organization and the covert surveillance by the Maryland State Police of local peace and anti-death penalty groups.
“Teaching employees that dissent on issues of public concern is something to be feared, rather than respected, is a dangerously counterproductive use of scarce security resources, making us less safe and less democratic,” said Michael German, ACLU National Security Policy Counsel and former FBI Special Agent, who co-signed the letter with Brick.
The Level 1 Antiterrorism Awareness training course is an annual training requirement for all DoD personnel that is fulfilled through web-based instruction.
To read the ACLU’s letter to the DoD, go to: http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/39820leg20090610.html
Department of Defense teach personnel that public protests be regarded as 'low level terrorism' - Peter Lemkin - 16-06-2009
Why does this sadly not surprise me?! And why do I think it will sadly not be changed. The police also think like this. In NYC any group of 50 or more must apply for a permit to have a parade or demonstration - this includes funerals, groups watching sports events, watching someone preforming, group bike-ride, etc. I guess they could find a crowded beach and arrest everyone - or claim that a crowded city street or store is a deceptive protest and do the same. What once were, at least nominally, our Rights are now illegal or subject to the whim of the authorities. This is what 9/11 and the Bush Admin. were all about....knocking the last legs of Democracy out from under the rotting structure that had been slowly eroding from 11/22/63 and before, even. 'They hate us for our freedoms.' Ha! What freedoms are left, except to go shopping and watch TV? This has all long been planned - but I think even the planners never imagined it would go so quickly and smoothly thus far. Time to resist a bit American sheeple!!...or go like lambs to the slaughter. It is no longer when America might become a policestate, but when we will start to undo it!
How 'un'American can you get - protesting!.....If there had been no protests, only rich white landholding non-working Christian men would have any right to do anything.....
Department of Defense teach personnel that public protests be regarded as 'low level terrorism' - David Guyatt - 16-06-2009
What happens in America happens here later. Ditto Oz. And Canada. And NZ. And Europe. And elsewhere throughout the world.
It's like a foul reeking fog rolling across the Atlantic to dampen out civilization.
Wait awhile longer and Egastulum's will become commonplace again...