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I want to talk to you about homeland security.
The single most important thing you need to know, is that for Amerika today, there is no such thing. Ward Churchill's most grievous offense, the one most objectionable to his employers and the Amerikan people, was pointing out that citizens of this country -- you, me, and the CIA functionaries who worked in an office in the World Trade Center -- are collectively responsible for our government's war crimes.
Until we take up that responsibility and stop the genocide in Iraq, make reparations for the rubble our military has made of Afghanistan, cease all aid to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, remove the u.$. military bases that violate Philippine sovereignty, and end the other terrorist campaigns Amerikan armed forces conduct, to preserve our car-driving, TV-watching, fast-food-eating lifestyle, none of us will sleep safely. And none of us will have earned the right to sleep safely.
Those who spend their lives in opposing imperialism can at least avoid the shame of those who have never lifted a finger for world peace. But we too are guilty of our government's crimes against humanity -- not only because our privileged lifestyles are propped up by imperialism, but more importantly because we have not yet succeeded in overturning it.
Here's another one to think about: the very meaning of homeland security in this country is made hollow by the crackdown on all sorts of liberties since Sept. 11, 2001. The USA/Patriot Act, and similar legislation passed since 9/11, include all sorts of freshly legalized surveillance methods. Law enforcement is now using enhanced spying authority to dodge the Bill of Rights in routine criminal investigations. U.$. Attorney General Gonzalez has even admitted that the greatest success of the Patriot Act so far was in a murder investigation not related to "terrorism." And that's the case he picked to brag about, not the ones he's keeping mum on.
So-called roving wiretaps, sneak-and-peak search warrants, and the FBI's authority to subpoena email transmissions can all now be used to target both legal immigrants and communist groups like MIM, whose activities are deemed harmful to the government. The American Civil Liberties Union pointed out that these provisions bestow a dangerous amount of power on the executive branch, completely unchecked by judicial review. This bypassing of the courts and consolidation of power with the police is a step towards domestic fascism.
Some of these so-called "sunset provisions" of the USA/Patriot Act are up for renewal or expiration at the end of this year. You've no doubt heard that Bush and Gonzalez are campaigning hard to see these snooping powers renewed. We must not let that happen.
Amerikan founding father Ben Franklin chided: "those who would sacrifice essential liberties for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security." And as they have asked for the sacrifice of liberty upon liberty, not one government official has pointed to a single instance of these excessive spy tactics being used to stop terrorism. Their lies about security have been revealed. The only way we can earn the right to security is by getting right with the world's people, and it is time to stand up for the liberty to be a revolutionary activist in this country so we can get on with the rest of our work.
The same laws that have curtailed Amerikans' freedoms since 2001 overstep u.$. borders too. As in the case of Jose Maria Sison, the Amerikan government has granted itself authority to target "suspected terrorists'" funds, including those funds held in other countries' banks. A new law also makes it a deportable offense -- even for people living here legally -- to have participated in an armed liberation struggle outside the u.$. -- even if the u.$. government only declares that liberation struggle to be "terrorist" after the fact. Targeting immigrants in particular, it is now illegal to "knowingly harbor a terrorist" -- a dangerous provision when the State Department has branded several lawful Islamic charities as terrorist organizations.
This same new law also provides for 10,000 new border guards, and 40,000 new immigration detention beds -- all to be added in the next 5 years. All the while, the populist pigs in the Minuteman Project are doing their part to make Amerika unsafe for immigrants -- conducting vigilante raids along the Mexico-Arizona border. The only Amerikans who complain about the vigilantes' activity are the kops who want the job of repressing immigrants for themselves, and the liberals who say we should really just hire more border guards and get this job done right.
No amount of bank-account freezing, border closing or war mongering can secure the Amerikan people's safety. Imperialism not only saps the humyn and natural resources of the majority of the world's countries, it has made the earth a much smaller place. This is not a recipe for stability.
You cannot bring people here to work for cheap, go to their countries to suck out resources, and then shut down the flow of commerce when it's convenient. If you don't think that puts your country on a permanent war footing, ask any I$raeli. The Europeans worked this system pretty well in colonial times when international travel could take days or weeks. And you can ask a French persyn the fate of their possessions in Haiti if you think that worked out well. As much as the advanced capitalism we know today has made warfare more bloody, it has made bringing the war to the u.$. homeland that much easier -- for every last enemy Amerika has made overseas.
Amerika: you can't have it both ways. You can live self-sufficiently, and make reparations and peace with the rest of the world, or you can wait for the rest of the world to take its reparations by force.
Let's do what we can to shut down the u.$. war machine, before more Third World people have to give their lives doing our job for us.
White Amerika, you can't hide We charge you with genocide!