Lucy In Disguise
There really is nothing new under the sun. This morning's Los Angeles Times details an operation by Maryland State Police to infiltrate activist groups in order to get the goods on these obviously dangerous and anti-American fools. One of the infiltrators used was an attractive young woman named "Lucy":
...The woman was an undercover Maryland State Police trooper who between 2005 and 2007 infiltrated more than two dozen rallies and meetings of nonviolent groups.
Maryland officials now concede that, based on information gathered by "Lucy" and others, state police wrongly listed at least 53 Americans as terrorists in a criminal intelligence database -- and shared some information about them with half a dozen state and federal agencies, including the National Security Agency.
Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist. One suspect's file warned that she was "involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings."
Nice, eh?
I mean, we can't have puppet makers wandering loose on the streets of this nation. That's clearly not what our founders had in mind when they inserted freedom of speech and freedom of assembly into the Constitution, right?
Actually, all snark aside, this really is not funny, especially for those 53 people. If their names have been turned over to all those agencies, including the National Security Agency, they can't fly anywhere, and if they drive over either of our borders they might not be able to return to the US. They can't get government jobs. They can't get hired at a lot of companies or businesses that run security checks, including colleges and universities.
And getting their names off all of those lists is a mountain few people have managed to scale successfully. Fortunately, in these cases, the ACLU has stepped up and filed a law suit. It remains to be seen whether the suit can successfully restore these patriots' good names.
This is getting out of hand, people. Way out of hand.
...The woman was an undercover Maryland State Police trooper who between 2005 and 2007 infiltrated more than two dozen rallies and meetings of nonviolent groups.
Maryland officials now concede that, based on information gathered by "Lucy" and others, state police wrongly listed at least 53 Americans as terrorists in a criminal intelligence database -- and shared some information about them with half a dozen state and federal agencies, including the National Security Agency.
Among those labeled as terrorists: two Catholic nuns, a former Democratic congressional candidate, a lifelong pacifist and a registered lobbyist. One suspect's file warned that she was "involved in puppet making and allows anarchists to utilize her property for meetings."
Nice, eh?
I mean, we can't have puppet makers wandering loose on the streets of this nation. That's clearly not what our founders had in mind when they inserted freedom of speech and freedom of assembly into the Constitution, right?
Actually, all snark aside, this really is not funny, especially for those 53 people. If their names have been turned over to all those agencies, including the National Security Agency, they can't fly anywhere, and if they drive over either of our borders they might not be able to return to the US. They can't get government jobs. They can't get hired at a lot of companies or businesses that run security checks, including colleges and universities.
And getting their names off all of those lists is a mountain few people have managed to scale successfully. Fortunately, in these cases, the ACLU has stepped up and filed a law suit. It remains to be seen whether the suit can successfully restore these patriots' good names.
This is getting out of hand, people. Way out of hand.
Labels: First Amendment, Terra Terra Terra
posted by Diane at 3:00 PM
1 Comments:
If they do manage to leave the nation upon return they can look forward to "Maher Arar" treatment. A free six month stay in a Syrian hellhole, complete with regular beatings, food and sleep deprivation, isolation from legal redress and meek apologies (sans $$$ compensation) upon release. Ain't America great!
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