ACLU Renews Push For Secret Terrorist Watch Lists

Posted on March 22, 2006

Collaborative Post by Jay and Gribbit.

The American Civil Liberties Union is renewing its efforts to pry loose secret data about individuals and organizations that local governments consider potential terrorist threats.

After litigating the issue for nearly two years, the group’s New Jersey chapter is filing requests under the state’s Open Public Records Act, seeking information contained on applications for federal anti-terror funding. The applications list up to 15 “potential threat elements” _ individuals or groups that could be considered potential terrorist threats.

The ACLU is seeking the disclosure of the names of the individuals or groups, or failing that, the criteria used to select them for inclusion on the list.

“Sadly, we know that the federal government has recently spied on or targeted organizations, such as the Quakers and pro-peace groups, not because they pose a threat but rather due to their political beliefs,” said Edward Barocas, the ACLU’s legal director. “We want to make sure that our own New Jersey government officials are not doing likewise.”

It’s not the first time the group has sought the information. It filed an initial request with 50 New Jersey municipalities in April 2004.

Most responded that they had not filed such documents, but some claimed the records were exempt from disclosure on security grounds, or that the state Attorney General’s Office had ordered them not to make the data public.

After the ACLU sued the Attorney General’s Office, it said it had not instructed anyone to withhold the information.

That led the ACLU to send new requests for the information to nine municipalities: Edison, Linden, Middletown, Mount Laurel, Newark, Parsippany, Trenton, Wayne and West New York.

“Our answer is no: unambiguously, absolutely no,” said Middletown business administrator Robert Czech. “We’re not the terrorists here. I think the ACLU is overreaching. I am very personally opposed to releasing information that could put our residents, our law enforcement community and the general public at risk. Source

Why does the ACLU think they have any right to secret information that might put the general public at risk? A little advice for the ACLU on the lists….One shouldn’t look too deeply into the mirror. Or are they looking for potential clients? I wouldn’t doubt this at all. We all know what they would do with the information if they were to get it…they would release it. They would irresponsibly release all of it, without any care in the world that it could compromise national security, and jeapordize ongoing investigations. They claim to fear that the lists may contain innocent groups and individuals. Of course these are wild allegations without any evidence to back them up. Spying on can mean merely visiting their websites and reading their pamphlets. Or watching them as they demonstrate against their own country in a time of war. If they are innocent then they have nothing to worry about. Once you do this stuff in public, you can’t really expect it to be protected as a private matter.

It is my belief, that they knowingly do things that are against the law and harmful to the American way of life. This is what they fear the government will find out. It is this that they wish to prevent.

Even if the FBI were spying on a Conservative group protesting som imaginary Hillary like President, once you go out into the public and demonstrate, you have waved your right not to be observed and documented. If you aren’t breaking the law, you have nothing to fear. What would the ACLU do with this information if the government did attempt to prosecute these so called peaceful groups? You can bet that they would try to get them off the hook by claiming that the information was obtained without a warrant.

Have you ever noticed, the ACLU demands full exposure and transparency at all levels of our government, but yet they protect their membership rolls, income sources, and policy guide from the same public exposure?… What do they have to hide?

In the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb ” the Russian Ambassidor is asked how his government got information that the United States was working on the “Doomsday Device” which led to fears that the Soviet Union would fall into a “Doomsday Gap” he said that their source was the New York Times. This isn’t far from the truth. If something like this fictional device was being worked on by our government, it would be the New York Times working with that other leading liberal institution the ACLU which would be leading the charge to inform our enemies under the guise of the People’s Right To Know.

These morons who actually have a belief that the government is out to deceive the people of the United States for the sake of deceiving them worry me. You know the type, the kind who parade around their homes with aluminum foil and wet towels wrapped around their heads because they believe agents of our government is trying to use a secret device which taps into their brain waves because only they have been enlightened to the government’s diabolical plan.

The enemies of this nation don’t really require individuals within our government to do their spying for them, they have the ACLU. Whenever those tin foil hat wearing imbeciles catch a rumor in the air, they file Freedom of Information Act documents to convince some chowder-headed judge that the people’s right to know trumps national security.

The ACLU, acting as the communist movement’s champion in this country, does what they can to exploit the Freedom of Information Act in an attempt to make enemies of this nation equal to us. By blowing the lid off the next best weapon in our arsenal to combat our enemies, the ACLU with the help of the ladies and gentlemen of the press have this uncontrollable need to know what they shouldn’t and then inform the world. And who does this really harm? You and me.

Yes, we are a transparent nation, but we also have a long tradition of keeping our national security issues secret from our enemies. The ACLU morons won’t be happy until troop movements and national security secrets are kitchen conversation thoughout the muslim world.

» Filed Under ACLU, News, War On Terror

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Comments

5 Responses to “ACLU Renews Push For Secret Terrorist Watch Lists”

gitardood on March 22nd, 2006 10:18 am

Excellent post guys. I ask the question again… When does treason get enforced? We are at war and the ACLU could care less how much “aid and comfort” they give to the enemy.

I realize it doesn’t seem like there’s a threat while we live our lives day to day, come home, watch the 6:00 news and let the Dan Rather’s of the world tell us that we are the bad guys and deserve to lose this war, there’s nothing good about the liberation of millions of people, and not a peep about the treasonous actions of the ACLU and others on a daily basis during wartime.

I just wish the ACLU would’ve acted this way during WW2. There would be no ACLU right now.
Gribbit on March 22nd, 2006 11:04 am

gitardood,

Treason is extremely difficult to prove in court. The United States government hasn’t had a successful prosecution of Treason since 1951. Even the spy cases since, the government only charged espionage which is less difficult to prove. Sedition is another charge that the government may want to consider.
safeandfree on March 22nd, 2006 11:17 am

Unfortunately, recent documents disclosed through Freedom of Information Act requests show that the local police, the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force have over the last few years engaged in domestic spying of the Quakers, Catholics, vegans and groups excercising their constitutional right to free speech. Is it not a form of disrespect to the memories of the hundreds who so tragically perished on 9/11 to squander tax dollars to spy on these kinds of groups — rather than dedicate resources to preventing real threats to our country?
Jay on March 22nd, 2006 11:30 am

If they are doing something that draws the attention of the FBI, like public protests against the government, etc…I don’t really care. It isn’t spying to observe and document such behavior when it is done in public. Gribbit is Catholic, and he’ll tell you he could care less. If you are not doing anything illegal then why worry about it? I’d rather spend the tax spying on a Catholic organization because of a tip that one of their members had ties to terrorism, and perhaps stop a terror attack than to pay the ACLU through taxes to sue the government over those efforts.
Gribbit on March 22nd, 2006 12:31 pm

Not only don’t I mind if the FBI and other government agencies are looking at me because I’m Catholic, but because of what I do here and on the other sites I write for. I have no doubt that they do pay attention to us. And I still don’t care. Why? Because We not doing anything that is considered a crime in this nation. So let them look. If some other site is doing something that is a crime, I’d be comforted to know that the FBI, NSA, DHS and others are paying attention. Especially if it prevents the deaths of more Americans or foils plots to sell us out to foreign governments and terrorists which is exactly what the ACLU and the liberal media do on a daily basis.