Pentagon training program claims dissension is a threat
A new version of a computer-based cyber-security training course from the Pentagon still classifies disillusionment with U.S. foreign policy as a "threat indicator" that a federal employee might be a spy.
That training, available online and still being used as recently as last week, has been administered to millions of military and civilian employees throughout the federal government.
Little seems to have changed since HuffPost reported on an earlier version of the same training course last year -- even though a spokesman said then that the training was being "updated."
Back then it was "Hema" who was unhappy with foreign policy -- now it's the anglicized "Helen."
Back then she visited family in India -- now she just travels abroad. Either way, government employees are still dinged with a loss of points in a spy-catching game if they don't identify dissent and foreign travel as her threat "indicators."
Helen "speaks openly of unhappiness with U.S. foreign policy." Combined with her trips abroad and her money troubles, these clues get her labeled as a "high" threat.
The "CyberAwareness Challenge" training echoes many of the concepts in a 2012 "insider threat" policy produced by President Barack Obama's administration that treats people who leak to the press as security threats. The concern over insider threats has only intensified since the leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden began.
One concerned federal employee, who took the training in an agency far removed from the Pentagon, told HuffPost that its goal seems to be "to encourage workers to identify individuals with critical opinions about our government and overtly consider them suspect."
"There is a message of intimidation here. If you express a concern about the government's functioning, you are a suspect," said the federal worker, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from his agency.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/04/pentagon-training-dissent_n_5648187.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
http://privacysos.org/node/1483
Heirloom seed proponents being labeled 'agri-terrorists' by our government:
For those who are not familiar with seed libraries, they permit consumers to walk in and take home Heirloom seeds or non GMO seeds -- for free. The "borrower" plants the seeds and then, when harvest time comes around, he/she saves seeds and then returns them to the library, where they can then be loaned out to others.
But apparently, Luther writes, that practice is in violation of the "Seed Act of 2004." Yes, America, there is actually a law that makes seed lending and replacement illegal.
"Agri-terrorism is a very, very real scenario," she said. "Protecting and maintaining the food sources of America is an overwhelming challenge ... so you've got agri-tourism on one side and agri-terrorism on the other."
In commenting on the ludicrous nature of the law, Luther wrote that, "luckily for the Cumberland County Library System, the state D of A [Department of Agriculture] decided that SWAT was not necessary and instead sent a high-ranking official and a team of lawyers to shut down the seed library."
Alas, another national emergency averted.
Luther noted that Jonelle Darr, the executive director of the library, said that 60 local residents had signed up to participate in the seed library. She added, however, that continuing the project is not possible now, due to the overly restrictive requirements from the state department of agriculture.
According to The Sentinel newspaper, prior to having its seed library shuttered, the library system had spent a great deal of time working in partnership with the Cumberland County Commission for Women and obtaining information from the local Penn State Ag Extension office in order to create the pilot seed library project.
"The effort was a new seed-gardening initiative that would allow for residents to 'borrow' seeds and replace them with new ones harvested at the end of the season," the paper said in its online version.
Mechanicsburg's effort was launched April 26 in conjunction with an Earth Day festival, however, a number of similar efforts had already begun across the state before that local initiative was launched.
http://cumberlink.com/news/local/communities/carlisle/department-of-agriculture-cracks-down-on-seed-libraries/article_8b0323f4-18f6-11e4-b4c1-0019bb2963f4.html
http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/dept-of-agri-shuts-down-cell-of-potential-agri-terrorists-seed-libraries-outlawed-in-pennsylvania-08032014
The US has a Muslim blacklist, ACLU says:
The United States violates its own immigration laws through an under-the-radar "blacklist" that denies citizenship, green cards and political asylum to thousands of people, including innocent people placed a terrorist watch list, longtime legal-resident Muslims claim in Federal Court.
Lead plaintiff Reem Muhanna, et al. claim that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service has consistently denied their applications for citizenship and lawful permanent residence after secretly blacklisting them as "'national security concerns,'" though they pose no threat to the United States.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit on July 31 against the USCIS, the Department of Homeland Security, and a slew of their national and regional officers.
The plaintiffs claim that the Citizenship and Immigration Service uses obscure rules, under a program known as the Controlled Application Review and Resolution Program (CARRP), to delay or deny applications.
"Under this unfair and unconstitutional program, the government has blacklisted their applications without telling them why and barred them from upgrading their immigration status in violation of the immigration laws," ACLU attorney Jennie Pasquarella said in a statement.
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/08/04/70053.htm
Center for constitutional rights takes animal rights "terrorism" law to supreme court
Last night, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review its case challenging the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as a violation of the First Amendment. The law punishes causing lost profits to an animal enterprise, but makes no distinction between loss caused by criminal acts and loss caused by boycotts and other constitutionally-protected activity.
The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act punishes anyone found to have caused the loss of property or profits to a business or other institution that uses or sells animals or animal products, or to a “person or entity having a connection to, relationship with, or transactions with an animal enterprise.” CCR attorneys argued the law was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, and that it cast a chill on legal First Amendment activity by the animal rights activists they represent.
The appellate court ruled that the activists were not permitted to sue because they did not reach the unprecedented threshold that their prosecution under the law was “certainly impending.”
“Courts have never required that a prosecution be imminent before a plaintiff can bring a pre-enforcement challenge to a criminal statute,” said CCR Senior Staff Attorney Shayana Kadidal. “And for good reason—the chilling effect of laws like the AETA causes people to silence themselves out of fear of prosecution. Yet, the First Circuit’s ruling requires that these individuals risk being charged as terrorists for speaking out before they can demonstrate that the law is unconstitutional.”
https://www.ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/center-constitutional-rights-takes-animal-rights-%E2%80%9Cterrorism%E2%80%9D-law-supreme-court
CNN Poll: Trust in government at all-time low:
Just 13% of Americans say the government can be trusted to do what is right always or most of the time, with just over three-quarters saying only some of the time and one in 10 saying they never trust the government, according to the poll.
"The number who trust the government all or most of the time has sunk so low that it is hard to remember that there was ever a time when Americans routinely trusted the government," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said.
Only 17% of Americans believe that big business can be trusted to do what is right always or most of the time.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/08/08/cnn-poll-trust-in-government-at-all-time-low-2/
AMTRAK/DHS's fear mongering video: "Take flight, take cover, take action"