Wednesday, January 30, 2013

A series of unconstitutional events




     I know I have touched on the topic of The Patriot Act in another post, but I wanted to tell you the series of legislation that strips away rights of privacy and being secure in your personal effects. Some think that this series of these unconstitutional bills started back in 1978 under then President Jimmy Carter, but it started a long time before that. In 1798 the alien act and the sedition act were introduced and passed by both the house and senate. These two acts are most normally combined in speech as the Alien and Sedition Act of 1798. The next piece of this puzzle is FISA or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Signed under Jimmy Carter and extended every year since. In 2001 America was the victim of either one of the most heinous acts of terrorism known to our country or the greatest hoax know to world history, only you can make that distinction. In a very swift knee jerk reaction, the congress and then President George W. Bush passed what is now known as the Patriot Act. The following years we were subject to the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA. This is largely an appropriations bill to spend trillions of dollars in wars, but sections 1021 and 1022 were the proposals for the military and Government officials to indefinitely detain any American citizen on mere accusations, and I will go into detail on that in a bit.   With the addition of verbiage in 2013 NDAA the ability to detain “American Citizens” was put into question, some legislators found that the ability to detain Citizens was needed and wanted to combat the new wording. In response to that The Enemy Expatriation Act or EEA was drafted and proposed. What I will do know is give some detail of each of these Acts or Bills and explain in the end how they together can be and are being used to stifle your First and Fourth Amendment protected rights.
     In 1798, just a few short years since the formation and creation of the United States of America through the drafting of our constitution, the Alien and Sedition Acts were penned and passed.
The Sedition Act was drafted and approved to help the federal government curb outspoken dissent against our elected officials.
 SECTION I. Punishes combinations against United States government.
1.       Definition of offense: Unlawfully to combine or conspire together to oppose any measure of the government of the United States
SECTION II. Punishes seditious writings.
    1. Definition of offense: To write, print, utter or publish, or cause it to be done, or assist in it, any false, scandalous, and malicious writing against the government of the United States, or either House of Congress, or the President, with intent to defame, or bring either into contempt or disrepute, or to excite against either the hatred of the people of the United States, or to stir up sedition, or to excite unlawful combinations against the government, or to resist it, or to aid or encourage hostile designs of foreign nations.
The Alien Act went a bit further and gave the President supreme power to determine who would be a direct threat to the safety and security to the United States. This law applied only to Aliens, but since these were the days of constant daily arrivals of new people into our country essentially this law applied to everyone who came in after this law passed.
 SECTION I. Confers power on the President to order aliens to depart.
    1. What aliens.
Such as the President shall judge dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States, or shall have reasonable grounds to suspect of treasonable or secret machinations against the government.
2. How proceeded against.
By the President's order to depart, served by the marshal or other person. But the President may grant a license to remain on proof by the alien, that he is not dangerous; and may require bond and security of such person.
3. Consequences of disobedience.
Imprisonment, on conviction, not exceeding three years, and perpetual disability to become a citizen.
SECTION II. Confers on the President power to remove aliens.
    1. What aliens.
Such as are above described, who are 
            1. In prison, in pursuance of this Act.
            2. Dangerous, and proper to be speedily removed.
  2. Consequences of returning without President's permission.
Imprisonment, on conviction, as long as the President thinks the public safety requires it.

     In 1978 FISA was introduced in an effort to intercept information from all people, citizen or not, criminal or not. Their reach was far but it was in the best sense regulated. They at the time had the ability to intercept all telephone traffic, intercept all fax information; they could divert your mail from the postmaster to any Federal Law Enforcement agency, they could seize your refuse and rifle through it at will. You were now a suspect of a crime you never even thought of. The reach was nationwide and had no foreign relations to it. Now you may say that it is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but if you read the last line of the bill it states that this act shall not be used outside of the United States border. The Act was amended in 2001 by the USA PATRIOT Act, primarily to include terrorism on behalf of groups that are not specifically backed by a foreign government. It allowed surveillance, without court order, within the United States for up to one year unless the "surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party". If a United States person is involved, judicial authorization was required within 72 hours after surveillance begins. The Act came into public prominence in December 2005 following publication by the New York Times of an article that described a program of warrant-less domestic wiretapping ordered by the Bush administration and carried out by the National Security Agency since 2002; a subsequent Bloomberg article suggested that this may have already begun by June 2000.
      The Original Patriot Act was written in response to the attacks of September 11th 2001. The title of the act is a ten letter backronym (USA PATRIOT) that stands for Uniting (and) Strengthening America (by) Providing Appropriate Tools Required (to) Intercept (and) Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. Opponents of the law have criticized its authorization of indefinite detentions of immigrants; searches through which law enforcement officers search a home or business without the owner’s or the occupant’s permission or knowledge; the expanded use of National Security Letters, which allows the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to search telephone, e-mail, and financial records without a court order, and the expanded access of law enforcement agencies to business records, including library and financial records. Since its passage, several legal challenges have been brought against the act, and Federal courts have ruled that a number of provisions are unconstitutional. In July 2005, the U.S. Senate passed a re-authorization bill with substantial changes to several sections of the act, while the House re-authorization bill kept most of the act's original language. The two bills were then reconciled in a conference committee that was criticized by Senators from both the Republican and Democratic parties for ignoring civil liberty concerns
     NDAA or National Defense Authorization Act is a very complicated piece of legislation and worth the time spent to read it. It is largely an appropriations bill for expanding our hefty military industrial complex. In this bill is the setting aside of billions of dollars that we do not have, it gives the military the OK to sell our unmanned drone aircraft to South Korea to spy on North Korea, they got the ability to sell an entire squadron of F-16 aircraft to Egypt. Sections 1021 and 1022 of the NDAA are two of the most controversial sections in this bill and rightfully so. These two sections enable the government to essentially seize any citizen under the mere accusation of ties to terrorism and or threats to the safety or security of the nation. What does that mean for you, it means the Witch Hunts are back! It means that if you offend the right person and they complain about it you can be arrested under statutes within the NDAA and held indefinitely without trial or charges filed. Two well-known cases are the case against Bradley Manning who is being held on accusations on trying to pass information of wrong doings by our United States military in war zones in the Middle East. The other story was of Brandon Raub from Virginia, he was arrested in his home by the local authorities along with FBI agents. This was done on the premise that he was posting harmful material on his personal Facebook page. Here is the story from Huff Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/21/brandon-j-raub-marine-detained_n_1817484.html
     The EEA was first drafted by Senators Joe Lieberman and Scott Brown along with Representatives Charlie Dent and Jason Altmire. This bill would allow the United States government to strip away any legal citizen or Natural Born Citizen of the citizenship. In early 2012, the proposal was compared to the recently passed National Defense Authorization Act, and some writers have suggested that the two laws could be used together to take away citizens' civil liberties. If passed, the bill would add to the circumstances under which US citizenship can be lost. Now that Senator Lieberman is no longer serving you would think this idea would have died out but it has been adopted by his successor and also the other framers. This is a bill that would literally make it easy for the state to classify you as an enemy and strip away your legally obtained or natural born citizenship away from you. Being a person without a country you can be detained by any federal law enforcement agency and held against your will, you can be subject to any act the government wants to inflict upon you.
     Now you can see how all these acts, and these are just the basics, tied together have made it not only easy and possible but also acceptable for the state to label anyone an enemy based on outspoken dissent or even subdued accusations. They have ensured there is no way to fight for your freedom, they have stripped away your right to express your disapproval of your government, they have stripped away your right to a trial by jury, knowing the charges you are faced with or even your right to a fair and speedy trail. These are just the basics needed for the state to return to the atrocities of Nazi controlled Germany. 
These are some other acts of legislation that are enacted and in place

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