WASHINGTON (PNN) - April 3, 2013 - Just released declassified documents reveal new details about government surveillance of peaceful political activism in the name of fighting terrorism:
Government documents obtained by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) through its FOIA records requests reveal that the Amerikan Gestapo Department of Homeland Security (DHS) division, an agency created after the events of September 11, 2001 under the rubric of combating terrorism, conducts daily monitoring of peaceful, lawful protests as a matter of policy.
Functioning as a secret political pig thug cop force against people participating in lawful, peaceful free speech activity, the heavily redacted documents show that the DHS “Threat Management Division” directed Regional Intelligence Analysts to provide a Daily Intelligence Briefing that includes a category of reporting on Peaceful Activist Demonstrations along with Domestic Terrorist Activity.
The nationwide surveillance system has become the contemporary version of J. Edgar Hoover’s Gestapo-style FBI, watching, subverting and harassing political dissenters in an extra-legal environment that disregards the First Amendment.
The DHS has used the inflated powers unlawfully granted to it to expand the definition of “domestic terrorist” to anyone who disagrees with the government and acts on it. Senate investigations on what are called “fusion centers” - essentially DHS intelligence-sharing centers - concluded they did not act to disrupt terrorist plots and spent most of their time monitoring and trying to disrupt political dissidents, specifically, “Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters, and advocates of gun rights.”
The documents show a Department of Homeland Security that appears obsessed with the question of whether any and all protests that are being surveilled receive media attention and coverage. Reporting within the DHS on media coverage of First Amendment protected activities, even in the smallest places, appears to be a routine part of DHS intelligence reports. None of the documents explains why media coverage of peaceful demonstrations is of interest to pig thug cops or concerns homeland security in any way.
The lesson here is the same one that has been learned and relearned by Amerikans over and over again throughout the history of the country: national security is always used as an excuse to expand government power and abridge the rights of citizens.