Are you a Terrorist? Take the Test and See!

[PrisonerOfHope]

Take the Test to See If You Might Be Considered a “Potential Terrorist” By Government Officials
Posted on September 21, 2012 by WashingtonsBlog
Find Out If You Are Doing Things Which Might Be Considered Suspicious

There have been so many anti-terrorism laws passed since 9/11 that it is hard to keep up on what kinds of things might get one on a “list” of suspected bad guys.

We’ve prepared this quick checklist so you can see if you might be doing something which might get hassled.

The following actions may get an American citizen living on U.S. soil labeled as a “suspected terrorist” today:

Speaking out against government policies

Protesting anything

Questioning war (even though war reduces our national security; and see this)

Criticizing the government’s targeting of innocent civilians with drones (although killing innocent civilians with drones is one of the main things which increases terrorism. And see this)

Asking questions about pollution (even at a public Congressional hearing?)

Paying cash at an Internet cafe

Asking questions about Wall Street shenanigans

Holding gold

Creating alternative currencies

Stocking up on more than 7 days of food (even though all Mormons are taught to stockpile food, and most Hawaiians store up on extra food)

Having bumper stickers saying things like “Know Your Rights Or Lose Them”

Investigating factory farming

Infringing a copyright

Taking pictures or videos

Talking to police officers

Wearing a hoodie

Driving a van

Writing on a piece of paper

(Not having a Facebook account may soon be added)

Holding the following beliefs may also be considered grounds for suspected terrorism:

Valuing online privacy

Supporting Ron Paul or being a libertarian

Liking the Founding Fathers

Being a Christian

Being anti-tax, anti-regulation or for the gold standard

Being “reverent of individual liberty”

Being “anti-nuclear”

“Believe in conspiracy theories”

“A belief that one’s personal and/or national “way of life” is under attack”

“Impose strict religious tenets or laws on society (fundamentalists)”

“Insert religion into the political sphere”

“Those who seek to politicize religion”

“Supported political movements for autonomy”

Being “anti-abortion”

Being “anti-Catholic”

Being “anti-global”

“Suspicious of centralized federal authority”

“Fiercely nationalistic (as opposed to universal and international in orientation)”

“A belief in the need to be prepared for an attack either by participating in … survivalism”

Opposing genetically engineered food

Opposing surveillance

Many Americans assume that only “bad people” have to worry about draconian anti-terror laws.

But as the above lists show, this isn’t true.

When even Supreme Court Justices and congressmen worry that we are drifting into dictatorship, we should all be concerned.

(Note, if you go to the link, each point links to the full story for that particular line item.)



www.washingtonsblog.com/2012/09/take-the-test-to-see-if-you-might-be-considered-a-potential-terrorist-by-government-officials.html

[PrisonerOfHope]

State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training Program Teaches Cops Bumper Stickers are Indicator of Terrorism



By Madison Ruppert
theintelhub.com
September 22, 2012

The State and Local Anti-Terrorism Training (SLATT) program, funded by grants from the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Assistance, is likely unknown to most Americans since it is rarely, if ever, talked about it in the media.

However, the SLATT program is very similar to the aggressive fear mongering operations of other government-affiliated entities like the Counterterrorism Education Learning Lab (CELL) in that it is designed to create an absurd fear and hyper-vigilance in police.

In reality, the danger of terrorism is so incredibly low that police and government should really be focusing on more pressing threats like car accidents.

One of the eight presentations recently released by Public Intelligence, entitled, “Terrorism Indicators” (PDF courtesy of Public Intelligence) does a phenomenal job of conflating a wide range of ideologies in a clear attempt to associate certain ideas with violent extremism.

This is hardly surprising given that our government considers most bodily movement an indicator of terrorism along with just about everything else, thus making most Americans into a potential terrorist.

This particular presentation lays out signs of a “general right-wing extremist” beginning first with a swastika flag and codes used by various racist groups then outlining some white power slogans and symbols then to several different tattoos and their meanings.

Then, without any explanation whatsoever, they suddenly jump from symbols used by the Ku Klux Klan along with other racist and fascist groups to bumper stickers with slogans like, “If you love your country, the U.N. is not your friend!”

Other bumper stickers read, “Know your rights or lose them!” and “Get us out of the United Nations.” These are hardly at all congruent with the previous material yet they seem to be included in an attempt to confuse racist and/or fascist groups with people who do not support the United Nations.

Some of the more strange points in the presentation include the instruction to watch for bootlegging schemes including cigarettes, baby formula schemes and grocery store coupons.

They also point out that investigators should look for “charities that do not fit the area,” which is far from clear.

Some items to look for in residential searches which seem far from incriminating are travel documents, trade school or educational information, phone bills with overseas phone calls, cell phones, foreign-language documents, weapons, “extremist religious literature and paraphernalia,” ham-operator guides, and other items which could very likely be completely innocuous.

One thing I find especially troubling is the mention of “extremist religious literature” since it is never defined and thus leaves the designation of such literature to the individual. This opens the door to an incredible amount of personal prejudice to come into the picture.

This is further reinforced by a quite disturbing point on slide 67 of the particular presentation we have been discussing.

“Follow your hunches; they are usually correct,” the slide states. Teaching law enforcement that their baseless assumptions and first impressions are “usually correct” is far from conducive to positive and meaningful police work.

Think someone looks like a terrorist just because they’re Middle Eastern? Well, according to the SLATT program, they probably are!

This clearly flawed notion is drilled into the heads of trainees from earlier on in the presentation, starting from slide 18, where they’re told that general observations which should be taken note of include, “Middle-Eastern males living together, money with no furnishings, disputes among close-knit groups of Middle-Eastern males,” and even “Loud, boisterous behavior in a Middle-Eastern group.”

I guess the SLATT program would teach police that if one sees a group of loud, boisterous Middle Eastern men together, occasionally engaging in disputes or living together for monetary reasons, they’re probably terrorists. After all, if that’s the first thing that jumps to mind or you think it is “a hunch,” it’s probably correct!

It gets even worse when we read some more of the “general observations” on slide 19 which include, “Repeated use of ‘God’ not coupled with profanity, use of foreign terms/phrases not in context, misstatements of common American terminology,” all of which are in no way indicators of terrorism.

Apparently the people who created the SLATT program think you’re suspicious if you don’t blaspheme and believe in God or if you’re an immigrant or non-native English speaker struggling with American idioms.

These may actually be some of the most unbelievably absurd reasons to believe someone might be a terrorist that I have come across so far and that’s saying a lot coming from the United States government.

It is a truly sad to realize that the government has created so many indicators of a potential terrorist that just about anyone could fit at least one of them but unfortunately it is hardly arguable at this point.

Hopefully in bringing these types of training programs to the public’s attention we can show just how insane and paranoid our government has become in dealing with the supposed threat of terrorism and just how much it is warping the minds of law enforcement around the nation.

This article first appeared at endthelie.com.

theintelhub.com/2012/09/22/state-and-local-anti-terrorism-training-program-teaches-cops-bumper-stickers-are-indicator-of-terrorism-2/