Land of the fearful, Home of the Banksters

By Burkley Herrmann - Interesting Blogger, October 18, 2013

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

That good ‘ole Star-Spangled Banner, part of the American myth, is incorporated into what is taught in elementary and middle schools. Slave-owner and lawyer Francis Scott Key wrote what would become the Star-Spangled Banner in 1814 as he watched the British ships bomb Fort McHenry in Baltimore: “O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave/O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?…That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion/A home and a country, should leave us no more?…Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just/And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”" While this includes passages from verses past the first, these views have been imbued into the American tradition in the imperialistic policies of the US government and much more. From this is it important to ask a question: is the United States really a home of the free?

In the well-known book Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower, William Blum already wrote about this in a chapter titled ‘A Day in the Life of a Free Country.’ I wanted to give an update to this, and put in a modern update, and answer the question I asked at the end of the first paragraph. This goes beyond laws that have been proposed but rather looks at actions that have been taken by the authorities which include laws at certain points. Here’s some news that will make one question if the US is really the land of the free:

1. Recently, a Dutch travel writer coming into New York from Canada was asked by a custom official, all sorts of questions, then “six customs officers went through [their]…two phones, iPad, laptop and camera,” then he was escorted off the train at the wrong station. After this he was searched by officers, had his bag searched again, they did a intensive questioning of his life including looking through photos on his electronic devices twice, and eventually decided he had ties to too many “unfriendly” countries, so he was sent back to the Canadian border.[1]
2. In May 2013, The FBI detained a passenger just for having a modified pressure cooker in his luggage and did not arrest him but they did  “seize some contents of the man’s luggage in addition to the pressure cooker.”[2]
3. That same month, Gawker wrote that “FBI agents were called to the Michigan home of a Saudi student who was spotted walking around with a pressure cooker — only to learn that he was using it to bring food to his friend’s house.”[3]
4. Over a year earlier, five activists “were targeted by two undercover Chicago cops known as “Mo” and “Gloves”/“Nadiya”/“Nadia” for preemptive, politically motivated arrests prior to the NATO…summit. These cops started infiltrating Occupy Chicago events in the lead up to the summit and quickly ingratiated themselves with the defendants, targeting them because of their perceived politics and political associations.”[4]
5. As noted by the NYC Anarchist Black Cross in their list of political prisoners, Marie Mason, “an avid community gardener, a musician, a writer, an Earth First! Organizer, an IWW member, and a volunteer for a free herbal healthcare collective” was arrested falsely for helping destroy a GMO research facility, Eric McDavid was “imprisoned for what amounts to thought-crime,” and it notes many black liberationists, among many others who were arrested and held basically for political reasons, making them prisoners of conscience. [5]
6. In 2010, the US government basically changed trans* PFC Chelsea Manning as guilty without being innocent, holding her for three years until the trial began in 2013 when she was sentenced to 35 years in prison basically for revealing war crimes and other dirty dealings. In addition, while in confinement, Manning has been held in solitary confinement which was considered as torture by the the UN rapporteur for torture.[6]
7. In March 2012, the US government arrested Jeremy Hammond, “a gifted young computer programmer…[who] leak[ed]…information from the private intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting…which revealed that Stratfor had been spying on human rights activists at the behest of corporations and the U.S. government…[for which he was] charged with violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act…[in addition] Jeremy has been denied bail, cut off from his family, and held in solitary confinement– treatment normally reserved for the most egregious offenses.”[7]
8. As noted by the site advocating for him, journalist and author Barrett Brown, was raised by the FBI in March 2012, and arrested in September “while he was online participating in a Tinychat session [and] he was subsequently denied bail and detained without charge and adequate medical treatment for over two weeks…[then] in the first week of October 2012, he was finally indicted on three counts…On December 4, 2012 Barrett was indicted by a federal grand jury on twelve additional counts…simply for allegedly pasting a hyperlink online. On January 23rd, 2013 he was indicted a third time…Barrett has pleaded not guilty in all three cases. He is currently incarcerated while awaiting trial in Mansfield, TX.”[8]
9. Also as noted by NYC Anarchist Black Cross, it lists Walter Bond, Steve Murphy, Rebecca Rubin, Justin Solondz, Brian Vaillancourt, Tyler Lang & Kevin Olliff, all of whom were arrested as activists for either animal or earth liberation. This list also talks about three activists advocating for Puerto Rican Independence being held as prisoners; the Cuban Five (“five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison…after being wrongly convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami [for] committing espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related charges;” national liberation activists David Gilbert, Alvaro Luna Hernandez, Hugo Pinell, Tsutomu Shirosaki, and Lynne Stewart; Jaan Laaman and Thomas Manning of the United Freedom Front; war resisters  Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar, Rafil A. Dhafir, Shakir Hamoodi, and Norman Edgar Lowry Jr.; the Holy Land Five or five activists who were “accused of providing money to organizations linked to Hamas” when they were really just helping Palestinian refugees; CeCe McDonald; three anti-police activists Andrew Mickel, Christopher John Monfort, and Reverend Joy Powell; and the “Virgin Island Five” who are a “group of activists accused of murdering eight people in the U.S. Virgin Islands.”[5]
10. In April 2012, “four Occupy Cleveland activists, Brandon, Connor, Doug and Joshua “Skelly.”…were arrested…[and] accused of plotting a series of bombings, including that of an area bridge [but in reality]…the FBI, working with an informant, created the scheme, produced the explosives, and coerced these four into participating.”[9]
11. As noted by David Swanson in February, “between 911 and August, 2011, the U.S. government prosecuted 508 people for terrorism in the United States. 243 had been targeted using an FBI informant. 158 had been caught in an FBI terrorism sting. 49…had encountered an agent provocateur. Most of the rest charged with “terrorism” had little or nothing to do with terrorism at all…Three or four people out of the whole list appear to be men whom one would reasonably call terrorists in the commonly accepted sense of the word.”[10] Basically, this is a clear case of manufactured terrorism, which sounds like conspiracy theory but it’s really just the reality.
12. Then there’s the Tinley Park Five who were “arrested in regards to an altercation between white supremacists and antifascists in the Chicago suburb of Tinley Park that left ten injured fascists, three of which needed hospitalization. Two white supremacists were also arrested….Despite this and the fact that the meeting was organized by violent white supremacist organizations…the State showed their cozy relationship with white supremacy by refusing the accused antifascist activist bail or a plea deal comparable to any other criminal defendant in Cook County. In January 2013 the Tinley Park Five accepted a non-cooperating plea deal.”[11]
13. In September 2010, to the surprise of many, “FBI agents raided the homes of six activists in Minneapolis and two in Chicago on September 24, seizing computers, cell phones, CDs, files and papers…[supposedly] seeking evidence of ties to “FTOs,” or foreign terrorist organizations, including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)… William Mitchell Law Professor Peter Erlinder…said that the raids today were…the result, he said, of a recent Supreme Court ruling, Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project…[which] makes providing “material support” to terrorist organizations a felony even if that support was peaceful.”[12]
14. As the documents clearly show, the crackdown in October and November 2011 on the Occupy Movement was the work of corporate, local police and federal entities, which shows why it was so organized, but also says to how the US government doesn’t like political dissent.[13]
15. As noted in an article by Jonathan Turley in the Washington Post in January 2012: “terrorism suspects are to be held by the military; the president also has the authority to indefinitely detain citizens accused of terrorism…The president now decides whether a person will receive a trial in the federal courts or in a military tribunal…The president may now order warrantless surveillance, including a new capability to force companies and organizations to turn over information on citizens’ finances, communications and associations…The government now routinely uses secret evidence to detain individuals and employs secret evidence in federal and military courts. The world clamored for prosecutions of those responsible for waterboarding terrorism suspects during the Bush administration, but the Obama administration said in 2009 that it would not allow CIA employees to be investigated or prosecuted for such actions…The government has increased its use of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court…the Obama administration has successfully pushed for immunity for companies that assist in warrantless surveillance of citizens, blocking the ability of citizens to challenge the violation of privacy…The government now has the ability to transfer both citizens and noncitizens to another country under a system known as extraordinary rendition.” [14]
16. In March 2013, Attorney Eric Holder made a sweeping announcement that the size of banking institutions has “made it difficult for us to prosecute [and]… it has an inhibiting impact on our ability to bring resolutions that I think would be more appropriate.”[15] This has been rightly criticized as support ‘too big to fail’ banks, which some say are now ‘too big to jail.’ At the same time, Americans are tried for petty crimes, and as Bob Dylan sang in Sweetheart Like You: “Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you King.”
17. There’s that TSA unit called the Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response team or VIPR, which has scanned passengers on an Indianapolis bus, and at Savannah Amtrak Station basically in violation of rights to privacy.[16] The unit itself is an expansion of the already unconstitutional TSA.
18. The US Border control has expanded checkpoints throughout the US, some that are 100 miles from the Canadian border, deep inside the US![17]
19. Then there’s “Project Hostile Intent [which] aims to detect and model the behavioral cues that indicate an individual’s intent to do harm and/or deceive” which sounds damn scary.”[18] This is now called the Future Attribute Screening Technology or FAST.[18]
20. Biometrics was used abroad by US soldiers[19] and now is coming back the US. According to immihelp.com, “under the US-VISIT program, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) collects the 10 fingerprints and digital photographs of most non-U.S. citizens while getting the U.S. visa and also while entering the U.S….All data obtained from the visitor is securely stored as a part of the visitor’s travel record [oh boy]. This information is made available only to authorized officials and selected law enforcement agencies on a need-to-know basis in their efforts to help protect the nation against those who intend to harm Americans or visitors to the United States.”[20] So basically it can be used in whatever way we want.
21. Let us not forget mass surveillance itself which has been detailed by Glenn Greenwald and others since June 5th, 2013 when Glenn Greenwald published his first article on this massive spying. This is all noted by The Guardian’s NSA files.[21]
22. As I wrote in my article titled ‘Is the American President a dictator?’: “The powers given to the President [are enshrined in]…the Alien Enemies Act…which allows him in the event of declared war or invasion against the United States to “apprehend…restrain…secure…and remove….all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government” over 14 years old…the Insurrection Act of 1807…gave the President additional powers while limiting them: he can only use the powers if a disturbance deprives people of any constitutional rights, privileges, or immunities…He gained the power to federalize the National Guard of a state to stop a state rebellion upon the request of the state legislature or governor. In addition, if certain circumstances defined the law makes it impossible to enforce national laws, he is allowed to federalize National Guard of any state and use American armed forces “to enforce those laws or to suppress the rebellion” and take necessary measures to “suppress…any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”…the Force Bill of 1833…of which one provision is still in place, section one[,] which allows the President to protect customs officers and prevent removal of untaxed vessels by using American armed forces…under the National Defense Act of 1916 [the president gained the power] to federalize the National Guard in wartime or in a “national emergency.” Thus created the idea the chief executive could declare such an “emergency” on a national level.///the power Section 606 of the Communications Act of 1934 gave to the president [includes] power to…make certain communications a national security priority and use armed forces to stop obstruction of communication whenever he thinks it is in the interest of the public; amend all rules and regulations put in place by the Federal Communications Commission if there is a threat of war, war, public peril, natural disaster, or national emergency. ..he gained new powers under the Defense Production Act of 1950: the ability to make businesses sign contracts or complete orders in a manner that will support national defense. In addition, the President gained the power to allocate facilities, services and materials to help in national defense and in certain instances to control the civilian economy, take property, control the levers of production, put wage and price controls in place, control credit, settle labor disputes, and allocating certain raw materials to aid national defense…the President gained the ability to allow warrantless surveillance for up to fifteen days after the beginning of a war and with the permission of the Attorney General, the electronic surveillance of foreign intelligence under the Foreign Surveillance Act of 1978…The USA Patriot Act passed in haste in 2001 gives almost dictatorial powers to parts of the government and definitely extends the power of the chief executive. Under the law, the president was given more authority to stop, investigate or control all financial transactions in American jurisdiction and the power to impound assets of any “foreign person, foreign organization, or foreign country” who he said “planned, authorized, aided, or engaged in such hostilities or attacks against the United States.”…The 2001 Authorization of Military Force (Against Terrorists) bill, allows the president to“use all necessary and appropriate force” against the people who he determines planned, authorized and caused 9/11, and those who harbored such perpetrators…Also it allows him to take any action to stop future “acts of international terrorism” against America by such perpetrators….the Authorization of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, which authorized a war in Iraq, asserted that the 2001 law was constitutional and expanded it by saying the president could deter and “prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States.”…In 2006, the President once again gained the ability to create military commissions, after basing the idea on AUMF, which was reinforced by part of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010, the Military Commissions Act of 2009…a 1974 law, the National Emergencies Act, which had been used seldom by Presidents…[allows a] President [after they] declare…a national emergency [to possibly] he/she can seize property, organize and control the economy including private enterprise, “seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication…restrict travel, and, control the lives of United States citizens.”…He also retains the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus…Also, this along with revocation of right to a grand jury for National Guard members and many provisions of law….if “at the end of any fiscal year there is in effect a war or national emergency, the President may waive any statutory end strength with respect to that fiscal year. Any such waiver may be issued only for a statutory end strength that is prescribed by law before the waiver is issued”…The International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA)…enacted October 28, 1977, is a United States federal law authorizing the President  to regulate commerce after declaring a national emergency in response to any unusual and extraordinary threat to the United States which has a foreign source.”[22] Regardless if all of the powers are used, still this is a lot of power going to the President.
23. The Constitution itself gives the President the power to convene both houses of Congress on extraordinary occasions and means that Theany President can use this power in a “case of disagreement” between the two houses of Congress, o allow them to adjourn both houses “to such time he shall think proper.” Basically he could become a dictator like nobody’s business. Maybe that’s overstating it.
24. Also there is an interesting point on the wikipedia page of the Non-Detention Act: “The Supreme Court of the United States originally took the case of Rumsfeld v. Padilla to decide the question of whether Congress’s Authorization for Use of Military Force authorized the President to detain a U.S. citizen, but did not give an answer, instead ruling that the case had been improperly filed.” [23] So, he still has that power. How wonderful. At the same time, let us recognize the indefinite detention allowed under NDAA 2012 AND NDAA 2013
25. “The Terrorist Screening Database or TSDB is the central terrorist watchlist consolidated by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center and used by multiple agencies to compile their specific watchlists and for screening. The list consists of 400,000 unique names and over 1,000,000 records…In 2013, the Terrorist Watch List had increased to 875,000 names…The Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General has criticized the list for frequent errors and slow response to complaints.”[24]
26. “The police may take DNA samples from people arrested in connection with serious crimes, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday in a 5-to-4 decision. The federal government and 28 states authorize the practice, and law enforcement officials say it is a valuable tool for investigating unsolved crimes. But the court said the testing was justified by a different reason: to identify the suspect in custody.”[25]
27. “The Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) is a national automated fingerprint identification and criminal history system maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). IAFIS provides automated fingerprint search capabilities, latent searching capability, electronic image storage, and electronic exchange of fingerprints and responses. IAFIS is the largest biometric database in the world, housing the fingerprints and criminal histories of 70 million subjects in the criminal master file, 31 million civil prints and fingerprints from 73,000 known and suspected terrorists processed by the U.S. or by international law enforcement agencies.”[26]
28. What the fuck: “The National Child Victim Identification Program (NCVIP) is the world’s largest database of child pornography, maintained by the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the United States Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for the purpose of identifying victims of child abuse” [27] which seems highly illegal under US law but actually isn’t The Supreme Court ruled that “virtual child pornography was protected free speech, provided that the virtual depictions are not obscene. Obscenity, including obscene depictions of children, either virtual or real, is unprotected speech.”[28] Wha?
29. “The CODIS database originally was primarily used to collect DNA of convicted sex offenders. Over time, this has expanded. Currently all fifty states have mandatory DNA collection from certain felony offenses such as sexual assault and homicide. Other states have gone further in collecting DNA samples from juveniles and all suspects arrested…Currently, the ACLU is concerned with the increased use of collecting DNA from arrested suspects rather than DNA testing for convicted felons. Along with the ACLU, civil libertarians oppose the use of a DNA database for privacy concerns as well as possible institutionalized discrimination policies in collection.”[29] The expansion of the CODIS Database was in part because of the Debbie-Smith Act.[30]
30. “The Investigative Data Warehouse (IDW), is a searchable database operated by the FBI. It was created in 2004. Much of the nature and scope of the database is classified. The database is a centralization of multiple federal and state databases, including criminal records from various law enforcement agencies, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and public records databases.”[31] The records can be used in whatever way possible! Yay! (Oh no!)
31. “Joint Advertising Marketing Research & Studies (JAMRS) is the organization formed by The Pentagon to oversee the development of a database of United States 16- to 25-year-olds, including name, address, email addresses, cell phone numbers, ethnicity, social security numbers and area of study.”[32]
32. “Main Core is the code name of a database maintained since the 1980s by the federal government of the United States. Main Core contains personal and financial data of millions of U.S. citizens believed to be threats to national security.”[33]
33. “DCSNet, an abbreviation for Digital Collection System Network, is the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)’s point-and-click surveillance system that can perform instant wiretaps on almost any telecommunications device in the US.”[34]
34. In July 2013: “The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued certificates for two types of unmanned aircraft for civilian use. The move is expected to lead to the first approved commercial drone operation later this summer.”[35]
35. As noted by Time Magazine in September: “Thursday the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz released an interim report on the use of drones in the U.S. by DOJ, and it turns out the threat is very limited. Of DOJ’s agencies, only the FBI has used drones and none are armed or carry releasable projectiles, Horowitz reported. But the IG did find that other law enforcement agencies, like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, plan to deploy the platforms, that DOJ has funded local use of drones, and that the Department has a grab bag of policies that need to be coordinated across agencies. In other words, the problems of domestic drone use are just what many expected: there is expanding domestic use of drones largely for surveillance, and our rules are catching up to emerging technology.”[36]
36. “The National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive (National Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/Homeland Security Presidential Directive HSPD-20, sometimes called simply “Executive Directive 51″ for short), created and signed by United States President George W. Bush on May 4, 2007, is a Presidential Directive which claims power to execute procedures for continuity of the federal government in the event of a “catastrophic emergency”. Such an emergency is construed as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”[37]
37. “The Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative (NSI) is a program of the United States Government used to collect and share reports of suspicious activity by people in the United States…The Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI) builds on what law enforcement and other agencies have been doing for years — gathering information regarding behaviors and incidents associated with criminal activity — but without the customary restrictions on collecting data on individuals in the absence of reasonable suspicion or probable cause…Reports of suspicious behavior noticed by local law enforcement or by private citizens are forwarded to state and major urban area fusion centers as well as DHS and the FBI for analysis. Sometimes this information is combined with other information to evaluate the suspicious activity in greater context. The program is primarily under the direction of the US Department of Justice.”[38]
38. As I wrote in June: “the DOJ was wiretapping the cloakroom of the House of Representatives…the NSA tried to wiretap an unknown member of Congress…Maybe this is why intelligence officials talked about the leaker of the information to The Guardian and The Washington Post, saying they “disappeared” and some are saying this person will be treated harsher than Bradley Manning! The scary thing is with such wide NSA surveillance, as David Seaman noted it “allows for govt to blackmail, shame, or discredit any activist or journalist who threatens status quo.”…As historycommons.org notes, the NSA repeatedly from 1999 to 2007 kept trying to access the data of private companies with only Qwest refusing access. That act still includes (the provisions that weren’t struck down or reauthorized): roving wiretaps, the issuing of National Security Letters which allows the US to get data on certain individuals, searches of business records and surveillance of “lone wolves” or those not part of terrorist groups…The Pike Committee, headed by Otis G. Pike, whose whole report is almost non-existent from the internet…notes that telcom companies have worked with the Feds since World War I! The Rockefeller Commission…noted that the CIA kept biographical listings on Americans as part of an “operations directorate”, how the CIA was involved in Watergate (and other scandals) and interception of mail by the CIA since the 1950s…As Thomas Drake, an NSA whistleblower has said we are all “persons of interest”…This is on top of the fact which many occupiers knew: if you engage in a protest your data will be tracked and stored as a “routine practice!”…At the same time, we cannot forget the mass government surveillance of the Occupy Movement by the DHS, FBI, Federal Reserve and local police departments, among others who worked as the de facto police force for the power elite…There are additional reports of corporate entities spying on environmental groups, spying on anti-war acitivsts…and PETA and Greenpeace. There have also been an investigation [sic] by NBC News into Pentagon surveillance of Americans, EPIC suing the DHS over covert surveillance, spying of Maryland anti-war protesters and opponents of the death penalty….the DHS was monitoring social networking sites…[it was revealed because they] had to release a list of keywords of what they were monitoring….Combat Zones that See which the Village Voice calls Big Brother, the Information Processing Technology Office, Intellipedia…the Synthetic Environment for Analysis and Simulations and the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange.”[39]

I would go farther, but I see no point. Some say we are at fascism, and you can definitely ague that. There is one thing that is clear: the United States of America is the land of the fearful and the home of the bankers who don’t give a shit about the American People.

P.S. If you have anything to add to this list, please post below, or send me a tweet @burkelyh. Yeah.

Notes:

[1] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/niels-gerson-lohman/us-border-crossing_b_4098130.html

[2] http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/20130509_FBI_questions_man_after_suspicious_item_found_in_luggage_at_Hilo_Airport.html

[3] http://gawker.com/saudi-student-visited-by-fbi-after-using-pressure-cooke-504443418

[4] http://nato5support.wordpress.com/about/

[5] http://nycabc.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/nycabc_polprisonerlisting_8-7sep2013.pdf

[6] http://bradleymanning.org/

[7] http://freejeremy.net/who-is-jeremy-hammond/

[8] http://freebarrettbrown.org/

[9] http://www.cleveland4solidarity.org/

[10] http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/02/23/290438/fbi-sponsoring-terrorism-across-the-us/

[11] http://tinleyparkfive.wordpress.com/about/

[12] http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2010/09/24/fbi-raids-activist-homes-minneapolis-chicago

[13] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/18/occupy-wall-street-crackdowns_n_1101685.html , http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/dhs-releases-more-documents.html?print=t, http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/10/doj-occupy-crackdown/,http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/05/14/did-the-white-house-direct-the-police-crackdown-on-occupy/, http://blackagendareport.com/content/did-white-house-direct-police-crackdown-occupy, and http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/15/1036711/-Updated-Homeland-Security-FBI-Others-Advise-US-Conf-Mayors-Coordinated-Occupy-Crackdowns

[14] http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-01-13/opinions/35440628_1_individual-rights-indefinite-detention-citizens, and http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-01-13/opinions/35440628_1_individual-rights-indefinite-detention-citizens/2,

[15] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-06/too-big-to-fail-banks-limit-prosecutor-options-holder-testifies.html

[16] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visible_Intermodal_Prevention_and_Response_team#Criticism

[17] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Border_Patrol_Interior_Checkpoints

[18] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Hostile_Intent and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Attribute_Screening_Technology

[19] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/world/asia/14identity.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[20] http://www.immihelp.com/visas/usvisit.html

[21] http://www.theguardian.com/world/the-nsa-files

[22] http://interestingblogger.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/is-the-american-president-a-dictator/

[23] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Detention_Act

[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorist_Screening_Database

[25] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/04/us/supreme-court-says-police-can-take-dna-samples.html

[26] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Automated_Fingerprint_Identification_System

[27] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Child_Victim_Identification_Program

[28] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_Act_of_2003#Overview

[29] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_DNA_Index_System

[30] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debbie_Smith_Act

[31] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Data_Warehouse

[32] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JAMRS

[33] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Core

[34] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DCSNet

[35] http://rt.com/usa/us-drones-civilian-use-685/

[36] http://swampland.time.com/2013/09/27/feds-detail-justice-departments-drone-use-call-for-more-rules/

[37] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_and_Homeland_Security_Presidential_Directive

[38] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationwide_Suspicious_Activity_Reporting_Initiative

[39] http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-nsas-greatest-hits-were-the-only-ones-not-spying-on-the-american-people/5338393