Broadening the War
What is it about Presidents that makes it so difficult for them to extricate themselves from disastrous security policies? Nixon bombed Cambodia, Carter was caught in the hostage crisis, and now it appears that under George W. Bush, Homeland Security officials have been busy spying on...vegans. Yes, you read that correctly. According to an ACLU report, the FBI and Homeland Security officials have been spying on a group of vegans in Atlanta, GA. The vegans, who appeared to have been outnumbered by the undercover officials, apparently were 'suspected of posing threats' to homeland security. According to the local news report,
"more than two dozen government surveillance photographs show 22-year-old Caitlin Childs of Atlanta, a strict vegetarian, and othe rvegans picketing against meat eating, in December 2003. They staged their protest outside a HoneyBaked Ham store on Buford Highway in DeKalb County.
An undercover DeKalb County Homeland Security detective was assigned to conduct surveillance of the protest and the protestors, and take the photographs. The detective arrested Childs and another protester after he saw Childs approach him and write down, on a piece of paper, the license plate number of hus unmarked government car."
To our knowledge, persecuting vegans has opened an entirely new front of the war on terror. While skeptics might suggest that lobbying by honeybaked ham interests may have a role in the targeting of these radical vegetarians, we suspect an altogether different dynamic is at work. When you create an untransparent, unaccountable, secret security force with nothing to do, the security officials will eventually find something to secure. While the struggles to drum up terrorists or other threats to the homeland are occasionally amusing, the underlying dynamic is serious enough.
"more than two dozen government surveillance photographs show 22-year-old Caitlin Childs of Atlanta, a strict vegetarian, and othe rvegans picketing against meat eating, in December 2003. They staged their protest outside a HoneyBaked Ham store on Buford Highway in DeKalb County.
An undercover DeKalb County Homeland Security detective was assigned to conduct surveillance of the protest and the protestors, and take the photographs. The detective arrested Childs and another protester after he saw Childs approach him and write down, on a piece of paper, the license plate number of hus unmarked government car."
To our knowledge, persecuting vegans has opened an entirely new front of the war on terror. While skeptics might suggest that lobbying by honeybaked ham interests may have a role in the targeting of these radical vegetarians, we suspect an altogether different dynamic is at work. When you create an untransparent, unaccountable, secret security force with nothing to do, the security officials will eventually find something to secure. While the struggles to drum up terrorists or other threats to the homeland are occasionally amusing, the underlying dynamic is serious enough.
2 Comments:
When I've spoken to people who are in support of this Domestic Spying program about the fact that it's drastically overstepped it's bounds and gone into spying on people such as members of PETA, they usually respond with "Those people are annoying, and they commit terrorist acts by dousing people in furs with fake blood." Are we so skewed in this country that we can't seperate a simple act of vandalism from terror? How Long will it take for any illegal act (civil disobedience included) that has a political undertone to be classified as Terrorism? Granted, handing out stuffed dead and bloody cows to children in a McDonalds Playground may be a nusiance to some people (who don't want to respect the rights of free protest)but its hardly a threat to the national government, and if it is we're in alot worse shape then I thought.
Good insight by the way about the untransparent, unaccountable, secret security force with nothing to do, like they say "If you build it..."
I have been looking for sites like this for a long time. Thank you!
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