House Passes Thought Crime Prevention Bill

2007-11-29

Richard Moore

Original source URL:
http://www.truthnews.us/?p=470

House Passes Thought Crime Prevention Bill
Lee Rogers
Rogue Government
October 25, 2007

The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed HR 1955 titled the Violent 
Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. This bill is one 
of the most blatant attacks against the Constitution yet and actually defines 
thought crimes as homegrown terrorism. If passed into law, it will also 
establish a commission and a Center of Excellence to study and defeat so called 
thought criminals. Unlike previous anti-terror legislation, this bill 
specifically targets the civilian population of the United States and uses vague
language to define homegrown terrorism. Amazingly, 404 of our elected 
representatives from both the Democrat and Republican parties voted in favor of 
this bill. There is little doubt that this bill is specifically targeting the 
growing patriot community that is demanding the restoration of the Constitution.
First let¹s take a look at the definitions of violent radicalization and 
homegrown terrorism as defined in Section 899A of the bill.

The definition of violent radicalization uses vague language to define this term
of promoting any belief system that the government considers to be an extremist 
agenda. Since the bill doesn¹t specifically define what an extremist belief 
system is, it is entirely up to the interpretation of the government. 
Considering how much the government has done to destroy the Constitution they 
could even define Ron Paul supporters as promoting an extremist belief system. 
Literally, the government according to this definition can define whatever they 
want as an extremist belief system. Essentially they have defined violent 
radicalization as thought crime. The definition as defined in the bill is shown 
below.

(2) VIOLENT RADICALIZATION- The term violent radicalization¹ means the process 
of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of 
facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or 
social change.

The definition of homegrown terrorism uses equally vague language to further 
define thought crime. The bill includes the planned use of force or violence as 
homegrown terrorism which could be interpreted as thinking about using force or 
violence. Not only that but the definition is so vaguely defined, that petty 
crimes could even fall into the category of homegrown terrorism. The definition 
as defined in the bill is shown below.

(3) HOMEGROWN TERRORISM- The term homegrown terrorism¹ means the use, planned 
use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, 
raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any 
possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States 
government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment 
thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

Section 899B of the bill goes over the findings of Congress as it pertains to 
homegrown terrorism. Particularly alarming is that the bill mentions the 
Internet as a main source for terrorist propaganda. The bill even mentions 
streams in obvious reference to many of the patriot and pro-constitution 
Internet radio networks that have been formed. It also mentions that homegrown 
terrorists span all ages and races indicating that the Congress is stating that 
everyone is a potential terrorist. Even worse is that Congress states in their 
findings that they should look at draconian police states like Canada, Australia
and the United Kingdom as models to defeat homegrown terrorists. Literally, 
these findings of Congress fall right in line with the growing patriot 
community.

The biggest joke of all is that this section also says that any measure to 
prevent violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism should not violate the 
constitutional rights of citizens. However, the definition of violent 
radicalization and homegrown terrorism as they are defined in section 899A are 
themselves unconstitutional. The Constitution does not allow the government to 
arrest people for thought crimes, so any promises not to violate the 
constitutional rights of citizens are already broken by their own definitions.

SEC. 899B. FINDINGS.

The Congress finds the following:

(1) The development and implementation of methods and processes that can be 
utilized to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and 
ideologically based violence in the United States is critical to combating 
domestic terrorism.

(2) The promotion of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and 
ideologically based violence exists in the United States and poses a threat to 
homeland security.

(3) The Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization, ideologically
based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the United States by 
providing access to broad and constant streams of terrorist-related propaganda 
to United States citizens.

(4) While the United States must continue its vigilant efforts to combat 
international terrorism, it must also strengthen efforts to combat the threat 
posed by homegrown terrorists based and operating within the United States.

(5) Understanding the motivational factors that lead to violent radicalization, 
homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence is a vital step toward 
eradicating these threats in the United States.

(6) The potential rise of self radicalized, unaffiliated terrorists domestically
cannot be easily prevented through traditional Federal intelligence or law 
enforcement efforts, and requires the incorporation of State and local 
solutions.

(7) Individuals prone to violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and 
ideologically based violence span all races, ethnicities, and religious beliefs,
and individuals should not be targeted based solely on race, ethnicity, or 
religion.

(8) Any measure taken to prevent violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, 
and ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism in the United States 
should not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights and civil liberties 
of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents.

(9) Certain governments, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia 
have significant experience with homegrown terrorism and the United States can 
benefit from lessons learned by those nations.

Section 899C calls for a commission on the prevention of violent radicalization 
and ideologically based violence. The commission will consist of ten members 
appointed by various individuals that hold different positions in government. 
Essentially, this is a commission that will examine and report on how they are 
going to deal with violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism. So basically,
the commission is being formed specifically on how to deal with thought 
criminals in the United States. The bill requires that the commission submit 
their final report 18 months following the commission¹s first meeting as well as
submit interim reports every 6 months leading up to the final report. Below is 
the bill¹s defined purpose of the commission. Amazingly they even define one of 
the purposes of the commission to determine the causes of lone wolf violent 
radicalization.

(b) Purpose- The purposes of the Commission are the following:

(1) Examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, 
homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States, 
including United States connections to non-United States persons and networks, 
violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in
prison, individual or lone wolf¹ violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, 
and ideologically based violence, and other faces of the phenomena of violent 
radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence that the 
Commission considers important.

(2) Build upon and bring together the work of other entities and avoid 
unnecessary duplication, by reviewing the findings, conclusions, and 
recommendations of­

(A) the Center of Excellence established or designated under section 899D, and 
other academic work, as appropriate;

(B) Federal, State, local, or tribal studies of, reviews of, and experiences 
with violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based 
violence; and

(C) foreign government studies of, reviews of, and experiences with violent 
radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence.

Section 899D of the bill establishes a Center of Excellence for the Study of 
Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism in the United States. 
Essentially, this will be a Department of Homeland Security affiliated 
institution that will study and determine how to defeat thought criminals.

Section 899E of the bill discusses how the government is going to defeat violent
radicalization and homegrown terrorism through international cooperation. As 
stated in the findings section earlier in the legislation, they will 
unquestionably seek the advice of countries with draconian police states like 
the United Kingdom to determine how to deal with this growing threat of thought 
crime.

Possibly the most ridiculous section of the bill is Section 899F which states 
how they plan on protecting civil rights and civil liberties while preventing 
ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism. Here is what the section 
says.

SEC. 899F. PROTECTING CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES WHILE PREVENTING 
IDEOLOGICALLY-BASED VIOLENCE AND HOMEGROWN TERRORISM.

(a) In General- The Department of Homeland Security¹s efforts to prevent 
ideologically-based violence and homegrown terrorism as described herein shall 
not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights, and civil liberties of 
United States citizens and lawful permanent residents.

(b) Commitment to Racial Neutrality- The Secretary shall ensure that the 
activities and operations of the entities created by this subtitle are in 
compliance with the Department of Homeland Security¹s commitment to racial 
neutrality.

(c) Auditing Mechanism- The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer of the 
Department of Homeland Security will develop and implement an auditing mechanism
to ensure that compliance with this subtitle does not result in a 
disproportionate impact, without a rational basis, on any particular race, 
ethnicity, or religion and include the results of its audit in its annual report
to Congress required under section 705.¹.

(b) Clerical Amendment- The table of contents in section 1(b) of such Act is 
amended by inserting at the end of the items relating to title VIII the 
following:

It states in the first subsection that in general the efforts to defeat thought 
crime shall not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights and civil 
liberties of the United States citizens and lawful permanent residents. How does
this protect constitutional rights if they use vague language such as in general
that prefaces the statement? This means that the Department of Homeland Security
does not have to abide by the Constitution in their attempts to prevent so 
called homegrown terrorism.

This bill is completely insane. It literally allows the government to define any
and all crimes including thought crime as violent radicalization and homegrown 
terrorism. Obviously, this legislation is unconstitutional on a number of levels
and it is clear that all 404 representatives who voted in favor of this bill are
traitors and should be removed from office immediately. The treason spans both 
political parties and it shows us all that there is no difference between them. 
The bill will go on to the Senate and will likely be passed and signed into the 
law by George W. Bush. Considering that draconian legislation like the Patriot 
Act and the Military Commissions Act have already been passed, there seems 
little question that this one will get passed as well. This is more proof that 
our country has been completely sold out by a group of traitors at all levels of
government.

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