Dear Reader: Are you one of those people who never objected to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism-motivated infringement of personal liberties saying, "That won't affect me; why should I worry? I'm not a criminal/terrorist." Well read on, my naive friend:
The Baltimore Sun reported last week that undercover Maryland State Police officers repeatedly spied on peace activists and anti-death penalty groups in recent years and entered their names in a law-enforcement database of people thought to be terrorists or drug traffickers.
The files depict a pattern of infiltration of the activists' organizations in 2005 and 2006. The activists contend that the authorities were trying to determine whether they posed a security threat to the United States. But none of the 43 pages of summaries and computer logs mention criminal or even potentially criminal acts, the legal standard for initiating such surveillance.
So basically, the Bushies have set up the mechanisms for our constitutional liberties to be violated-- and since there are little or no safeguards in place, we have to rely on the judgment of 25-year-old police officers or right-wing bureaucrats to make sure that innocent people are not targeted or victimized unnecessarily.
In the Baltimore case, state police officials say that no harm was done-- since they did not curtail the protesters' freedoms. Right . . . but now that these folks' names are on "terrorist watch lists" they'll forever have problems flying on airplanes or crossing borders. And if you'll remember, there still is no official procedure for anyone to protest their name being on a watch list or requesting that it being removed.
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