June 20, 2013
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Corporations are trying to use the PATRIOT Act in ways that have
nothing to do with Osama Bin Laden because the PATRIOT Act gives
transnational corporations the power to snuff out the activism of all
those who oppose them.
Terrorism, as it is commonly considered, is
the use of violence against civilians to achieve any number of
political ends: the destruction of the federal government, the
overturning of
Roe V. Wade, the restoration of a Caliphate. If
you try to kill people – or succeed in killing people for a political
purpose - you’re a terrorist. If you blow up the Alfred P. Murrow
Federal Building and kill 168 civilians, like Timothy McVeigh, you’ve
committed an act of terrorism.
Seems pretty self-explanatory –
right? Not according to TransCanada Corp., the Canadian owned energy
conglomerate that is the backer of the Keystone XL pipeline extension. A
new set of documents obtained by the group Bold Nebraska shows that
this foreign corporation is encouraging American law enforcement
agencies to treat anti-pipeline protestors like terrorists. Yes,
terrorists.
The documents, which Bold Nebraska got a hold of
through a FOIA request, were part of a briefing given to Nebraska law
enforcement agents about the “emerging threat” of groups like Tar Sands
Blockade and Rainforest Action.
And what are the “terrorist”
activities that TransCanada is so concerned about? They include things
like monkey-wrenching, tree-sitting, and tying yourself to a
construction vehicle with a device called a “dragon-lock.”
If this
seems familiar, it should, because what groups like Tar Sands Blockade
are engaging in is classic civil disobedience. This is not terrorism,
but this foreign corporation TransCanada wants American law enforcement
agents to start looking at it like it is. By far the most damning
document obtained by Bold Nebraska urges Nebraska authorities to
consider using “State or Federal Anti-Terrorism laws prohibiting
sabotage or terroristic acts against critical infrastructures.” In other
words, TransCanada thinks American police should treat the blocking of
construction vehicles just like the blowing up of a bus in downtown
Washington, D.C.
If a group of Tar Sands Blockade activists were,
in fact, planning to bomb TransCanada’s Calgary, Alberta headquarters or
to assassinate its CEO, then they would absolutely be terrorists. But
right now, they’re just protestors or vandals and should not be treated
as terrorists.
So what makes TransCanada think it can get the
American police to treat people sitting in trees like Mohammad Atta? The
PATRIOT Act. The U.S. Legal Code definition of terrorism was expanded
to include a new meaning of “domestic terrorism” by Congress in 2001.
This new definition considers domestic terrorism as:
“…activities
that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the
criminal laws of the United States or of any State; appear to be
intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the
policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the
conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or
kidnapping; and occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of
the United States"
According to the ACLU, “this definition is
broad enough to encompass the activities of…prominent activists,
campaigns and organizations.” Given the right lawyer, TransCanada could
convince a federal judge that monkey-wrenching and tying oneself to a
construction vehicle is “dangerous to human life” or intended to
“intimidate a civilian population.”
We already know, thanks to
Edward Snowden, that our government has used the broad powers of the
PATRIOT Act to amass a large collection of American citizens’ telephone
records, something even one of its authors, Republican Congressman Jim
Sensenbrenner, has said goes beyond what he thinks was its original
intent .
Do we really want to give corporations this sort of power
to misuse our criminal justice system? Our Founders envisioned a
society in which all were held accountable to and by the law, not a
society in which vague and overly broad statutes empowered foreign
private corporations to persecute activists. Let’s repeal the PATRIOT
Act not only to preserve our civil liberties, but to protect our
democratic republic from the predations of transnational corporations.
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