• Listen to this segment

GUESTS: Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the Washington Legislative Office of the ACLU, Robert Weitzel, freelance writer whose recent essay about the Homegrown Terrorism Act is entitled “A Tutorial in Orwellian Newspeak”

This October the US House of Representatives passed HR 1955, “The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007,” in a 404-6 vote. The act, introduced by Southern California’s Democratic representative Jane Harman, is meant “To prevent homegrown terrorism, and for other purposes,” and will establish a “National Commission on the prevention of violent radicalization and ideologically based violence.” The Commission has 18 months to come up with a report which will then be turned over to a Center of Excellence at a local university. The Senate version of the bill, S 1959, is nearly identical and is currently under consideration. Under these bills, Homegrown Terrorism is defined as: “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 … to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States… in furtherance of political or social objectives.” While the bill does not actually criminalize conduct, activists and civil libertarians worry that it opens the door toward considering acts of non-violent civil disobedience and direct action as homegrown terrorism. In fact, the National Lawyers Guild and the Society of American Law Teachers have come out against the act saying it will “likely lead to the criminalization of beliefs, dissent and protest, and invite more draconian surveillance of Internet communications.”

Read Robert Weitzel’s article here: http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?
SectionID=43&ItemID=14427

Read the entire text of HR 1955 here:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/
billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955