On October 26, 2001, President George Bush signed into law the "Uniting and Strengthening America" by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act (H.R. 3162, the USA PATRIOT Act).
Rushed through Congress with little debate and even less public input, the USA PATRIOT Act seriously erodes any last constitutional protections we might have left, particularly for immigrants, while giving the government new power to label dissent as "terrorist activity".
The new Patriot Act is a clear example on how the U.S GOVT attempts to justify it's actions through continuous repression. By using the words "anti-terrorism", and "national security", YOU become the target. Not the terrorists. The real terrorists are the politricks, FBI and CIA, who build their nucular 'hit list' to enforce their policies, target activists, and people of color to further wage their blood-thirsty war.
With the swift stroke of pen, our so-called rights become disinigrated. Anyone who disagree's with the brutal, unjust policies of the U.S is now rendered a "terrorist" in the eyes of "national security". Fascism couldn't make it's self more obvious. Bush said it himself, it's a very black-and-white situation, "you're either for me, or against me". Remind you of Nazi Germany?
Thousands of Arab people, South Asian people and Muslims have been violently attacked inside the United States. Homes, mosques and stores have been defaced. People of Arab and South Asian descent have been put off airplanes. Main media outlets, like the Wall Street Journal, have called for legitimizing racial profiling. This is racism pure and simple. After Timothy McVeigh blew up the Oklahoma City Federal building in 1995, killing 168 people, there was no campaign to take white males off of airplanes because people felt "uncomfortable" in their presence. White men were not rounded up and held without charges. Since September 11, however, more than 1,000 people, mostly of Middle East origin, have been detained, many since Sept. 11 and many without charges. But that's not all, activists have also been the target, with the most recent attack on the founder of Raise the Fist, where heavily armed FBI agents raided the home and shut down the web site, he was then arrested in NY at the WEF demonstrations after being targeted by secret service. After 30 hours in jail and being interogated by U.S political police, RTF founder was turned over to the feds and incarcerated in 'high-security' MCC federal prison for 13 days before charges were dropped, "pending further investigation".
When will the oppression end?
.. NOW!
STOP THE ATTACK ON FREE SPEECH!
CONDEMN THE ATTACK ON RAISE THE FIST!
STOP THE ATTACK ON ARABS AND PEOPLE OF COLOR!
STOP THE INVASION OF PRIVACY!
STOP OPERATION COINTELPRO!
STOP STATE REPRESSION!
STOP AMERICA'S NEW DECEPTIVE "WAR ON TERRORISM"!
To find/start an event in your area on April 6th, go to
www.RaisetheFist.com/nopatriot/
To endorse, please email
NoPatriot-AT-raisethefist.com
www.raisethefist.com/nopatriot/