Anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists, peace, animal and political activists who hold different views than the government.
It was recently revealed that a counter-terrorism firm spied on individuals who attended film screenings of the documentary Gasland. The film focuses on the practice of natural gas fracking and what impact it has on the environment and in the communities where it is used.
The FBI and other government agencies are cracking down on those who are not willing to say in line with the status quo.
In Pennsylvania, activists have faced terrorism charges for writing slogans in chalk on sidewalks. In California, 27 individuals are set to go on trial stemming for protest actions. Elsewhere 23 anti-war, pro-labor and international solidarity activists may face a grand jury on trumped up charged.
The FBI boasts 164,000 suspicious activity reports that are made up of activists who do not follow the governments view on matters.
The US government is using taxpayer money to squash the competition as opposed to protecting the American people from true terrorist threats, all while stomping on freedom of speech rights.
Carlos Montes, a co-founder of the Brown Berets Chicano Movement explained there is a marked rise of the US government using tools at their disposal designed to fight terrorism to impose oppression on political activists.
"The protest movements are directly exposing and challenging the lines that the US government puts out," he said, yet law enforcement authorities continue to crack down without just cause. "It's a war against dissent."
The government is working to stop the movement which is merely seeking to exercise its right to free speech and the right to protest.
"They're trying to stop us but we're not going to let them do it," Montes added.
Reader Comments
Suppressing dissent is just one goal
We must recognize that suppression of dissent is just one purpose of the political elite's hysterical 'war on terror'. They're all for keeping the serfs cowed, of course, but they also have other reasons for directing the FBI and other agencies of the US police surveillance state to harass ordinary people.
The majority of FBI manpower used to be allocated to investigating white collar crime - financial fraud and political corruption. That was changed right after 9/11, when about two-thirds of FBI agents were reassigned to pursue 'terrorists'. That has meant that the resources have not been available to investigate mortgage fraud, Wall Street fraud, foreclosure fraud and rampant political corruption ever since.
That's a very convenient thing to do if you and your closest friends are stealing the middle class blind, defrauding foreign banks, paying off politicians left and right, stealing billions with massive no-bid war contracts and generally looting the nation and indeed the entire world.
The likely actual reason the FBI is going after environmentalists and animal rights activists, and so on, is that there aren't any terrorists in the US, not really, so they have to make some up to seem effective. For years they've been concocting 'terrorist' plots, just making them up, recruiting slow-witted people of the right color and religious faith, leading them and entrapping them, then arresting them to look busy.
We must recognize that suppression of dissent is just one purpose of the political elite's hysterical 'war on terror'. They're all for keeping the serfs cowed, of course, but they also have other reasons for directing the FBI and other agencies of the US police surveillance state to harass ordinary people.
The majority of FBI manpower used to be allocated to investigating white collar crime - financial fraud and political corruption. That was changed right after 9/11, when about two-thirds of FBI agents were reassigned to pursue 'terrorists'. That has meant that the resources have not been available to investigate mortgage fraud, Wall Street fraud, foreclosure fraud and rampant political corruption ever since.
That's a very convenient thing to do if you and your closest friends are stealing the middle class blind, defrauding foreign banks, paying off politicians left and right, stealing billions with massive no-bid war contracts and generally looting the nation and indeed the entire world.
The likely actual reason the FBI is going after environmentalists and animal rights activists, and so on, is that there aren't any terrorists in the US, not really, so they have to make some up to seem effective. For years they've been concocting 'terrorist' plots, just making them up, recruiting slow-witted people of the right color and religious faith, leading them and entrapping them, then arresting them to look busy.
I quite agree Griffin and want to add...
That they have always targeted "intellectuals and dissenters" not quite first, but pretty close to. Very first, they put pressure on "problem people" to solidify alliances to right-wing law-and-order groups. Then they (always) go for those who have the courage to act on their personal convictions. It tells the sheeple that they are correct in sleeping harder and deeper. It also reduces the numbers of participants at demonstrations, leaving the truly courageous more and more exposed and isolated. This is exactly the point; the isolation and identification of the few willing to fight for human liberty. The rest can be chased and scattered, and then, having run, ever lacking the conviction, now also any leadership, too ashamed and embarrassed to not point guilty fingers at the other pretenders, so democracies die.
That they have always targeted "intellectuals and dissenters" not quite first, but pretty close to. Very first, they put pressure on "problem people" to solidify alliances to right-wing law-and-order groups. Then they (always) go for those who have the courage to act on their personal convictions. It tells the sheeple that they are correct in sleeping harder and deeper. It also reduces the numbers of participants at demonstrations, leaving the truly courageous more and more exposed and isolated. This is exactly the point; the isolation and identification of the few willing to fight for human liberty. The rest can be chased and scattered, and then, having run, ever lacking the conviction, now also any leadership, too ashamed and embarrassed to not point guilty fingers at the other pretenders, so democracies die.
Time to wake up people
Other dictators have tried this same routine and failed miserably. Hitler ring a bell. We are already in a police state, this is just one example of what is possible when you give so much power to the law. Time to wake up people it will get bumpy..
Other dictators have tried this same routine and failed miserably. Hitler ring a bell. We are already in a police state, this is just one example of what is possible when you give so much power to the law. Time to wake up people it will get bumpy..
....seems this is perhaps the smoking gun, targeting essentially "free speech" or the first amendment, us bill of rights.
This means that anyone that has supported alternative energy, embraced the bottle return law, recycling etc, etc...is compliant in domestic terrorism.
If I refuse to buy anything plastic, because it is made from petroleum and petroleum is the cause of most, if not all of the environmental problems, IMO, will I be on their list as well? Or even just for having that thought?