The Conscience of Abe’s Turn freedom of speech, defense, and life

Via Fox News, the TSA in Missouri detained, harassed, and almost arrested Steve Bierfeldt, because he was carrying some cash from merchandise sales for a political organization:

Even though I’m not a lawyer, here are a couple thoughts, off the top of my head, based on my research:  read more »

From Rediff.com: “Pakistan frees terrorists due to lack of evidence.” This article describes a crime report that explored how the Pakistani police have been unable to build a case against “a large number” of “dreaded terrorists” from Al-Qaeda and other organizations. Because they didn’t have evidence against them, they had to let them go.

The article goes on to relay that “most of them have vanished into thin air soon after their release and were probably planning or participating in more attacks… [A]s many as ’121 high-profile terrorists were released between 2002 and 2007. In each case, the prosecution’s case was not strong enough.’”  read more »

I have the Cato Institute’s official blog, Cato @ Liberty, listed in the “Conscience of America” links on this site. Most of the blog posts are quick, easy reading, accessible to the average American (or perhaps slightly above average) on the go. I’ve long been a fan of the Cato Institute, however, even in the many years before they had a blog. As a libertarian think-tank, Cato has long provided me with masses of valuable research on both civil rights and economic rights issues.

So for the more in-depth advocate, who wants to be deeply informed about the issues, here are just a few of the informative articles and papers I’ve read recently on civil rights, courtesy of the Cato Institute:  read more »

At first, I didn’t know what to do with this blog post. It’s about the Sea-Smurfs. That is, about CCMRF teams (pronounced “C Smurf”), which stands for “CBRNE Consequence Management Response Force.” And as everyone knows, CBRNE clearly and obviously refers to “Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or high-yield Explosive.” And as you can probably figure out by now, this has something to do with the military.

Benjamin Friedman posted on the Cato Institute’s blog an article asking “Should We Fear Sea-Smurfs?” That’s kind of hard to answer if you don’t know what they are. I’ve read the article, and I’m still not sure I know what they are. Maybe no one knows. Maybe that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

Briefly, a CCMRF is a team of soldiers trained to perform police duties. Just what we need to make our police forces more civil, huh? But will they be unleashed on the unsuspecting American public?

Sea-smurfs can then do tasks short of law enforcement, including cleaning up after attacks. If terrorist attacks qualify as an insurrection, troops could perform law enforcement tasks in their aftermath. That might explain why the Sea-Smurfs received law enforcement training, but the Army denies that the training was related to domestic duties. It is good that the ACLU is trying to figure what exactly is intended.

Even if this mission is legal, however, it does not make it wise. Homeland defense activities like storms and terrorist attacks are the job of local and state authorities, and in extreme cases, the National Guard. Historically, these forces have been sufficient.

-TimK