Keep track of lost liberties
Published 12:01 am Thursday, September 8, 2011
On Sunday, Herald writer Julie Muhlstein reported on the ongoing side effects from our reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism attacks — the slippery, eroding slope of freedom in the name of national (or “homeland”) securit
y. While security changes at airports are obvious to all, it’s less commonly known that with a court order, the government can look up what you’ve checked out of the library.
In May, President Barack Obama reauthorized the USA Patriot Act., with its controversial surveillance provisions, until 2015.
Some civil rights activists warn the techniques are also being used to track down non-terrorism suspects.
In our quest for safety, it’s imperative to also “watch the watchers.” It’s necessary citizens know what freedoms and privileges have been taken away, whether they agree, or find it egregious. It’s also important to record history accurately, so there isn’t rewriting, or forgetting.
For example, Darnell Baldinelli, the state ferries’ safety systems manager, recalled for Muhlstein that in 2007, two men, (reported at the time as “Middle Eastern looking” and “behaving unusually”) were caught on a ferry surveillance camera. The media widely publicized that the FBI wanted to talk to them.
“In that particular case, they were never seen again,” Baldinelli told Muhlstein.
That’s because they were tourists who returned home. About year after the incident, it was much less widely reported that the two men were not terrorists, but simply visitors curious about vehicle ferries.
Public accusations don’t always bring public clarifications after the fact, but they are necessary for truth.
A recent report by Mother Jones and the Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkeley revealed that the FBI has organized the majority of terrorism plots in the country since 2001. By providing weapons, money and a plan, FBI-directed agents encourage otherwise-unwilling participants to plot out terrorist attacks, only to bust them before any events fully materialize, the investigation found.
The much-publicized arrest of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, in December 2010, on charges of plotting to bomb a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore., is one such example.
On Wednesday, Kevin Harpham, 37, a man with extensive ties to white supremacists, pleaded guilty to charges he made and planted a bomb targeting minorities along the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade route in Spokane this year. That real plot was foiled by alert citizens who noticed the bomb and alerted authorities.
For our safety, and the sake our democracy, the FBI needs to focus on actual, existing threats — whether white supremacists or international terrorists. It hurts us all when the FBI does the plotting.
