[News] House Passes Thought Crime Prevention Bill

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955


House Passes Thought Crime Prevention Bill
Published on Thursday, October 25, 2007.
http://www.blacklistednews.com/view.asp?ID=4596

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed 
<http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955>HR 1955 
titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention 
Act of 2007. This bill is one of the most blatant attacks against the 
Constitution yet and actually defines thought crimes as homegrown 
terrorism. If passed into law, it will also establish a commission 
and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called thought 
criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill 
specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and 
uses vague language to define homegrown terrorism. 
<http://www.govtrack.us/congress/vote.xpd?vote=h2007-993>Amazingly, 
404 of our elected representatives from both the Democrat and 
Republican parties voted in favor of this bill. There is little doubt 
that this bill is specifically targeting the growing patriot 
community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.

First let's take a look at the definitions of violent radicalization 
and homegrown terrorism as defined in Section 899A of the bill.

The definition of violent radicalization uses vague language to 
define this term of promoting any belief system that the government 
considers to be an extremist agenda. Since the bill doesn't 
specifically define what an extremist belief system is, it is 
entirely up to the interpretation of the government. Considering how 
much the government has done to destroy the Constitution they could 
even define Ron Paul supporters as promoting an extremist belief 
system. Literally, the government according to this definition can 
define whatever they want as an extremist belief system. Essentially 
they have defined violent radicalization as thought crime. The 
definition as defined in the bill is shown below.

`(2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION- The term `violent radicalization' means 
the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for 
the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance 
political, religious, or social change.

The definition of homegrown terrorism uses equally vague language to 
further define thought crime. The bill includes the planned use of 
force or violence as homegrown terrorism which could be interpreted 
as thinking about using force or violence. Not only that but the 
definition is so vaguely defined, that petty crimes could even fall 
into the category of homegrown terrorism. The definition as defined 
in the bill is shown below.

`(3) HOMEGROWN TERRORISM- The term `homegrown terrorism' means the 
use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group 
or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within 
the United States or any possession of the United States to 
intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian 
population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in 
furtherance of political or social objectives.

Section 899B of the bill goes over the findings of Congress as it 
pertains to homegrown terrorism. Particularly alarming is that the 
bill mentions the Internet as a main source for terrorist propaganda. 
The bill even mentions streams in obvious reference to many of the 
patriot and pro-constitution Internet radio networks that have been 
formed. It also mentions that homegrown terrorists span all ages and 
races indicating that the Congress is stating that everyone is a 
potential terrorist. Even worse is that Congress states in their 
findings that they should look at draconian police states like 
Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom as models to defeat 
homegrown terrorists. Literally, these findings of Congress fall 
right in line with the growing patriot community.

The biggest joke of all is that this section also says that any 
measure to prevent violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism 
should not violate the constitutional rights of citizens. However, 
the definition of violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism as 
they are defined in section 899A are themselves unconstitutional. The 
Constitution does not allow the government to arrest people for 
thought crimes, so any promises not to violate the constitutional 
rights of citizens is already broken by their own definitions.

`SEC. 899B. FINDINGS.

`The Congress finds the following:

`(1) The development and implementation of methods and processes that 
can be utilized to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown 
terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States is 
critical to combating domestic terrorism.

`(2) The promotion of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, 
and ideologically based violence exists in the United States and 
poses a threat to homeland security.

`(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, 
ideologically based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in 
the United States by providing access to broad and constant streams 
of terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens.

`(4) While the United States must continue its vigilant efforts to 
combat international terrorism, it must also strengthen efforts to 
combat the threat posed by homegrown terrorists based and operating 
within the United States.

`(5) Understanding the motivational factors that lead to violent 
radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence 
is a vital step toward eradicating these threats in the United States.

`(6) The potential rise of self radicalized, unaffiliated terrorists 
domestically cannot be easily prevented through traditional Federal 
intelligence or law enforcement efforts, and requires the 
incorporation of State and local solutions.

`(7) Individuals prone to violent radicalization, homegrown 
terrorism, and ideologically based violence span all races, 
ethnicities, and religious beliefs, and individuals should not be 
targeted based solely on race, ethnicity, or religion.

`(8) Any measure taken to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown 
terrorism, and ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism 
in the United States should not violate the constitutional rights, 
civil rights and civil liberties of United States citizens and lawful 
permanent residents.

`(9) Certain governments, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and 
Australia have significant experience with homegrown terrorism and 
the United States can benefit from lessons learned by those nations.

Section 899C calls for a commission on the prevention of violent 
radicalization and ideologically based violence. The commission will 
consist of ten members appointed by various individuals that hold 
different positions in government. Essentially, this is a commission 
that will examine and report on how they are going to deal with 
violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism. So basically, the 
commission is being formed specifically on how to deal with thought 
criminals in the United States. The bill requires that the commission 
submit their final report 18 months following the commission's first 
meeting as well as submit interim reports every 6 months leading up 
to the final report. Below is the bill's defined purpose of the 
commission. Amazingly they even define one of the purposes of the 
commission to determine the causes of lone wolf violent radicalization.

(b) Purpose- The purposes of the Commission are the following:

`(1) Examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent 
radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence 
in the United States, including United States connections to 
non-United States persons and networks, violent radicalization, 
homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in prison, 
individual or `lone wolf' violent radicalization, homegrown 
terrorism, and ideologically based violence, and other faces of the 
phenomena of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and 
ideologically based violence that the Commission considers important.

`(2) Build upon and bring together the work of other entities and 
avoid unnecessary duplication, by reviewing the findings, 
conclusions, and recommendations of--

`(A) the Center of Excellence established or designated under section 
899D, and other academic work, as appropriate;

`(B) Federal, State, local, or tribal studies of, reviews of, and 
experiences with violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and 
ideologically based violence; and

`(C) foreign government studies of, reviews of, and experiences with 
violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence.

Section 899D of the bill establishes a Center of Excellence for the 
Study of Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United 
States. Essentially, this will be a Department of Homeland Security 
affiliated institution that will study and determine how to defeat 
thought criminals.

Section 899E of the bill discusses how the government is going to 
defeat violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism through 
international cooperation. As stated in the findings section earlier 
in the legislation, they will unquestionably seek the advice of 
countries with draconian police states like the United Kingdom to 
determine how to deal with this growing threat of thought crime.

Possibly the most ridiculous section of the bill is Section 899F 
which states how they plan on protecting civil rights and civil 
liberties while preventing ideologically based violence and homegrown 
terrorism. Here is what the section says.

`SEC. 899F. PROTECTING CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES WHILE 
PREVENTING IDEOLOGICALLY-BASED VIOLENCE AND HOMEGROWN TERRORISM.

`(a) In General- The Department of Homeland Security's efforts to 
prevent ideologically-based violence and homegrown terrorism as 
described herein shall not violate the constitutional rights, civil 
rights, and civil liberties of United States citizens and lawful 
permanent residents.

`(b) Commitment to Racial Neutrality- The Secretary shall ensure that 
the activities and operations of the entities created by this 
subtitle are in compliance with the Department of Homeland Security's 
commitment to racial neutrality.

`(c) Auditing Mechanism- The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer 
of the Department of Homeland Security will develop and implement an 
auditing mechanism to ensure that compliance with this subtitle does 
not result in a disproportionate impact, without a rational basis, on 
any particular race, ethnicity, or religion and include the results 
of its audit in its annual report to Congress required under section 705.'.

(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of contents in section 1(b) of such 
Act is amended by inserting at the end of the items relating to title 
VIII the following:

It states in the first subsection that in general the efforts to 
defeat thought crime shall not violate the constitutional rights, 
civil rights and civil liberties of the United States citizens and 
lawful permanent residents. How does this protect constitutional 
rights if they use vague language such as in general that prefaces 
the statement? This means that the Department of Homeland Security 
does not have to abide by the Constitution in their attempts to 
prevent so called homegrown terrorism.

This bill is completely insane. It literally allows the government to 
define any and all crimes including thought crime as violent 
radicalization and homegrown terrorism. Obviously, this legislation 
is unconstitutional on a number of levels and it is clear that all 
404 representatives who voted in favor of this bill are traitors and 
should be removed from office immediately. The treason spans both 
political parties and it shows us all that there is no difference 
between them. The bill will go on to the Senate and will likely be 
passed and signed into the law by George W. Bush. Considering that 
draconian legislation like the Patriot Act and the Military 
Commissions Act have already been passed, there seems little question 
that this one will get passed as well. This is more proof that our 
country has been completely sold out by a group of traitors at all 
levels of government.




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