MinMon audio: Coleman co-sponsors troubling, under-the-radar domestic terrorism bill
Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 3:26 pm
- 8 Comments
Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman is the Senate co-sponsor of a little-noticed domestic anti-terrorism bill that could carry us several steps closer to the good old days of the House Un-American Activities Committee and Joe McCarthy. The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (S.1959) is currently in committee after passing the House last year with no media scrutiny and no real debate by a 404-6 margin. The primary sponsor of the Senate bill is fellow Republican Susan Collins of Maine.
The purpose of the measure is to create a permanent federal commission to scrutinize radicals and would-be terrorists, and to fund a series of university-based centers devoted to ferreting out and tracking the dangerous subversives among us. The latter would operate under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security. A handful of critics from the blogosphere and the legal world have called out the measure on grounds that it its vague mandate amounts to criminalizing dissent. But even in the civil liberties demi-monde, it seems to be making little impact.
One reason the bill has attracted so little attention: It’s a thoroughly bipartisan push that actually originated in the Democratic party. Though the Senate version is sponsored by two Republicans, the House version that passed last year was introduced by a Democrat, Jane Harman of California, and 10 of her 14 co-sponsors were also Democrats.
I contacted Peter Erlinder, a former president of the National Lawyers Guild and a constitutional criminal law professor at William Mitchell in St. Paul who has spoken up against the bill. “If politically motivated violence is what this war [the 'war on terror'] is about,” he tells Minnesota Monitor, “we can put virtually any definition to it that we choose to. Even, for example, something like a demonstration against the World Trade Organization where there might be some broken windows. Even the Republican National Convention in St. Paul this fall would carry with it the possibility that there might be some acts that are not completely passive. Under this definition, anyone associated with those acts, even if they didn’t intend the result, could conceivably find themselves being investigated by a commission like this.”
Currently S.1959 is before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Asked about the status of the bill at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day appearance in St. Paul, Coleman reportedly told the audience that he had no plans to try to bring it to the floor in this session. Even if true, that suggests it could well be an early item of congressional business during the administration of President Clinton/McCain/Obama.
There are more excerpts of Peter Erlinder’s remarks below the jump.
Listen: Peter Erlinder talks about the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (10:45)
More from Peter Erlinder regarding S.1959:
“We’ve had experience with this sort of thing before,” notes Erlinder. “The legislation not only sets up a study mechanism. It sets up a commission structure that would permit the Congress to organize commissions that would travel around the United States to see who, in any local area, might fit the definition.
“It’s similar to the hearings that the House Un-American Activities Committee had from the ’30s through the ’70s. ‘Un-American activities’ is a term that’s just as broad as ‘homegrown terrorism’ or ‘violent radicalization.’ There is no there there. [HUAC] was set up in order to study Nazi infiltration in the United States. After WWII, however, its character changed as the political climate changed. It then became the committee that was used to investigate alleged communist ties that people had. And because ‘un-Americanism’ is something that’s in the eye of the beholder, the committee would travel around the country having hearings to find out who was un-American in any particular community.
“The problem is that legislative commissions like this have the power of contempt, so that if a person either doesn’t answer questions because they don’t want to expose their friends to liability, or they don’t appear, they can be held in contempt of Congress and be sentenced to prison as a result. Under the HUAC period, that was about two years. So the Hollywood 10, when they refused to name names, were given two years. Under the current state of the law, however, the terrorism enhancements for criminal sentences have been used to extend contempt sentences from two years to 10 years. So people who don’t appear before this commission, or don’t answer questions the way the commission thinks they should, could face up to 10 years in prison for failing to cooperate.”
8 Comments
Comment posted April 16, 2008 @ 6:54 pm
The Thought Crimes bill is scary … Steve,
Thanks for writing about this. I’ve been tracking it at the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter. I’ve done some analysis of this that your readers might find interesting:
The above link will bring anyone to posts I’ve written about this. In particular, the word “force” is so vaguely defined that non-violent protest movements would fit the definition of “using force” to achieve their ends.
The Big E
http://www.mnblue.co…
Comment posted April 16, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
Thanks, Eric Just heard you on the radio after me. (We were both call-in guests on Mark Heaney’s AirAmerica show this afternoon.) Wanted to say thanks to you for the previous coverage at MnBlue.com as well, which I found in the course of Google searches on the subject. I meant to include a link to one of the posts here but forgot. I was impressed that you folks noticed this early on.
Comment posted April 18, 2008 @ 9:44 am
Do we even have a Constitution? Sounds like the gov’t is afraid of the public. Wonder why. Domestic terrorism bill, yet another infringement on our rights by the gov’t. Add it to the ever-growing list of violations:
They violate the 1st Amendment by opening mail, caging demonstrators and banning books like “America Deceived” from Amazon.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov’t.
Write in Dr. Ron Paul and save this great country.
Last link (unless Google Books caves to the gov’t and drops the title):
America Deceived (book)
Comment posted April 18, 2008 @ 5:41 pm
Wake up everyone When will the sheeple of america finally snap out of their collective delusions that “they are free” and “brave” and “live in a democracy” etc. (when none of the above are true) and retake their country from the israel terrorists (and their over 500 obsequious minions in your traitorous, puppet goverment) who have hijacked and stolen your country and order you who to bomb and terrorize and when and are now slowly extending their freedem and constitution hating claws, with crimes such as s.1959, via their agents such as bush and coleman and harman and all the other vermin and are in the process of turning your land into one gigantic Palestine where americans will suffer the same fate as Palestinians? Don`t think it will happen? One need only look at the long list of dual american-israeli citizenship jewish terrorists that control your goverment and military are only loyal to israel and are in the process of completely redoing your domestic policy to serve their collective psychoses and plans for their “jew (I mean new) world order”.
And you americans just don`t seem to care. You`d rather watch the cartoons that passes for “news” in your country and eat more hamburgers and watch the world go by and pretend that all is lickety split. It`s not. And your rapidly vanshing liberties and freedoms will soon be relegated to the dustbin of history if you don`t start to fight back.
From what I gather you still have a 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms. Now might be a good time to practice that while you can and start purchasing firearms and ammunition and everything else you may need should your fascist government ever come knocking on your door because you had the audacity to speak and act like a true patriot. Your country was founded on the principle of resistance to tyranny, which is what your “goverment” is attempting to criminalize. Start acting like true patriots. Your founding fathers would be proud.
Comment posted April 16, 2008 @ 1:54 pm
The Thought Crimes bill is scary … Steve,
Thanks for writing about this. I've been tracking it at the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter. I've done some analysis of this that your readers might find interesting:
The above link will bring anyone to posts I've written about this. In particular, the word “force” is so vaguely defined that non-violent protest movements would fit the definition of “using force” to achieve their ends.
The Big E
Comment posted April 16, 2008 @ 2:00 pm
Thanks, Eric Just heard you on the radio after me. (We were both call-in guests on Mark Heaney's AirAmerica show this afternoon.) Wanted to say thanks to you for the previous coverage at MnBlue.com as well, which I found in the course of Google searches on the subject. I meant to include a link to one of the posts here but forgot. I was impressed that you folks noticed this early on.
Comment posted April 18, 2008 @ 4:44 am
Do we even have a Constitution? Sounds like the gov't is afraid of the public. Wonder why. Domestic terrorism bill, yet another infringement on our rights by the gov't. Add it to the ever-growing list of violations:
They violate the 1st Amendment by opening mail, caging demonstrators and banning books like “America Deceived” from Amazon.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov't.
Write in Dr. Ron Paul and save this great country.
Last link (unless Google Books caves to the gov't and drops the title):
Comment posted April 18, 2008 @ 12:41 pm
Wake up everyone When will the sheeple of america finally snap out of their collective delusions that “they are free” and “brave” and “live in a democracy” etc. (when none of the above are true) and retake their country from the israel terrorists (and their over 500 obsequious minions in your traitorous, puppet goverment) who have hijacked and stolen your country and order you who to bomb and terrorize and when and are now slowly extending their freedem and constitution hating claws, with crimes such as s.1959, via their agents such as bush and coleman and harman and all the other vermin and are in the process of turning your land into one gigantic Palestine where americans will suffer the same fate as Palestinians? Don`t think it will happen? One need only look at the long list of dual american-israeli citizenship jewish terrorists that control your goverment and military are only loyal to israel and are in the process of completely redoing your domestic policy to serve their collective psychoses and plans for their “jew (I mean new) world order”.
And you americans just don`t seem to care. You`d rather watch the cartoons that passes for “news” in your country and eat more hamburgers and watch the world go by and pretend that all is lickety split. It`s not. And your rapidly vanshing liberties and freedoms will soon be relegated to the dustbin of history if you don`t start to fight back.
From what I gather you still have a 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms. Now might be a good time to practice that while you can and start purchasing firearms and ammunition and everything else you may need should your fascist government ever come knocking on your door because you had the audacity to speak and act like a true patriot. Your country was founded on the principle of resistance to tyranny, which is what your “goverment” is attempting to criminalize. Start acting like true patriots. Your founding fathers would be proud.
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