Conservative Libertarian Outpost

From the very beginning in 2006, the federal government began to develop and is now using a secret blacklist to label citizens as terrorists. The year 2006 marks the year collectivists/progressives took control of the two houses of Congress, with supermajorities in both. Then, in 2008 the progressive cabal sealed the fate of freedom and the citizens who wish to preserve it by getting their man elected to the presidency.

While it is true that the groundwork for the blacklist was laid during the administration of George W. Bush in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the current administration has taken the notion of a blacklist to a whole new level. In 2001 the objective was to develop a no fly list that would prevent suspected terrorists from flying in commercial aircraft. But when Congress changed hands in 2006 and Barack Obama was elected in 2008, the concept of the no fly list was vastly expanded. Not only does the government have a no fly list but a secret blacklist as well that supposedly contains the names of known terrorists and potential terrorists who reside in the United States.

Many conservatives and libertarians sounded the alarm when the government began spying on American citizens. The warning was clear. When government begins to engage in this behavior it bodes ill for freedom and points to malevolent intent. Apparently the alarm was no fantasy land tale conjured up by paranoid minds. Instead, the dire warnings identified something all too real — the march toward tyranny within our own government.

Even worse is the fact that the blacklist contains the names of people who have never engaged in terrorist activity, never belonged to any identified terrorist group, and never had the slightest inclination to do so. Not only are known or suspected terrorists blacklisted but so are all of their family members and friends, regardless. The guilt is by association. If you are unfortunate enough to have a relative who joins a terrorist group, then you, yourself, must be a terrorist as well. After all, your third cousin twice removed is a terrorist.

But the most chilling fact of all concerning this blacklist is that a citizen’s political views can easily get them labeled as a terrorist. If you oppose the Obama administration, join a Tea Party group to express your disdain, or merely belong to a gun rights group, you could easily find yourself on the blacklist. After all, the administration has already targeted conservative and Tea Party groups using the IRS.

Is there concrete proof that the blacklist exists? Indeed, there is. Not only is it 100 percent true that the blacklist exists, but investigators at The Intercept has a copy of it. The Intercept is a special section of the publication known as “First Look,” and the blacklist handbook has been republished in full in that section.

According to The Intercept, the federal government developed the handbook in consultation with every law enforcement agency in America, including the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the Pentagon. The handbook is titled, “March 2013 Watchlisting Guidance.” A key paragraph describing how the handbook is to be used is as follows:

“Instead of a watchlist limited to actual, known terrorists, the government has built a vast system based on the unproven and flawed premise that it can predict if a person will commit a terrorist act in the future,” says Hina Shamsi, the head of the ACLU’s National Security Project. “On that dangerous theory, the government is secretly blacklisting people as suspected terrorists and giving them the impossible task of proving themselves innocent of a threat they haven’t carried out.” Shamsi, who reviewed the document, added, “These criteria should never have been kept secret.”

Further, the behaviors that can get a citizen added to the blacklist include nothing more than doing damage to government computers. Tampering with computers used by financial corporations can get you labeled as a terrorist. Attempting to influence government policy using “intimidation” is another criterion. But the handbook fails to define the word “intimidation.” This means that the agencies who use the handbook get to define the word — not exactly what the Framers had in mind when they insisted that no citizen be considered guilty until they are proved to be guilty in a court of law.

A former FBI senior special agent described the process this way:

“If reasonable suspicion is the only standard you need to label somebody, then it’s a slippery slope we’re sliding down here, because then you can label anybody anything,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent with experience running high-profile terrorism investigations. “Because you appear on a telephone list of somebody doesn’t make you a terrorist. That’s the kind of information that gets put in there.”

And once you are labeled as a terrorist or a potential terrorist, whether it is actually true or not, you will likely carry that designation with you to the grave. This would amount to a devastating impact on your ability to find a job, open a bank account, or even get a license to drive a car. Once you get added to the blacklist, it is extremely difficult if not impossible to get your name off the list.

The specific details of the program are spelled out in the document linked above. Since all Americans, no matter who they are, are vulnerable to this type of program, it is imperative to thoroughly pour over this document that blows the whistle on what the federal government has been up to, right under our noses.

(Hat tip to WRSA).

You may also be interested in the following:

My personal blog, The Liberty Sphere.

My popular series titled, Musings After Midnight.

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