Dear cj, This article examines the 'Anti-Terrorist Act of 1996', revealing it for what it is: the establishement of a fascist police state. One might wonder how such a Bill got passed in the first place, and why there was virtually no debate. I looked back over my Guardian Weeklys, in the Washington Post section, to see just when it was passed. I found only the following tiny reference in the Aug 18 issue, in the last paragraph of an article: "The House passed an anti-terrorism bill before leaving for its August recess...". I then went back to the July 28 issue, which covered the TWA jet which went down just after leaving Kennedy airport. The headline on the front page of the Guardian says "TWA crash yields bomb evidence". "Well-place sources" said investigators had already found "tell-tale chemicals typically left by the detonation of an explosive device". Soon after that, investigators changed their minds and said they couldn't find any reason at all for the crash. But the so-called Anti-Terrorism Bill had already gotten through the hurdle of House passage. The crash, and the spurious 'evidence', had done its job. Following this article, I've included an old cj posting which summarizes the extensive actual evidence regarding the case, all of which points to a U.S. naval missile as being the probable cause. One plane full of dead people - a small price to pay in order to get such a useful bill passed. rkm ============================================================================ Delivered-To: •••@••.••• Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2001 12:37:31 -0600 From: Andrew Hund <•••@••.•••> Subject: When Do Demonstrators Become--Terrorists? To: •••@••.••• From RadTimes •••@••.••• When Do Demonstrators Become--Terrorists? by Ross Regnart The Anti--Terrorist Act of 1996 appears aimed at public dissent: The ACT contains language which can charge law--abiding citizens of being agents or affording support to terrorist organizations: Broadly written--intent to commit terrorist acts is defined: (Appeared To Be Intended Toward Violence or Activities Which Could Intimidate or Coerce a Civilian Population; or To Influence the Policy of a Government). (18USC Sec. 2331): Any picket line or demonstration, alleged by police to have blocked or obstructed public access, could qualify as "Terrorist Activities" to intimidate or coerce a civilian population: Terrorist charges make it possible for police to forfeit attending demonstrators' homes used for meetings and the vehicles they used for transportation to the event. Concern: Police agencies may selectively charge a person or organization with either a low level offense, or terrorist offense, for the same illegal act: Example: A fist fight between union demonstrators and persons crossing a picket line, can be upgraded by police to charge union members with (Terrorist Activity). The 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act, broadly redefined "Terrorist Acts as involving any violent act or acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or any state." The violent or physical act need not cause bodily harm: The Act can be used by police to target any group of persons that would dare demonstrate for or against any issue. U.S. ANTI--TERRORIST ACT- OR ANTI--FREE SPEECH and ASSEMBLY ACT? The 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act has wide reaching forfeiture provisions. The Act utilizes the broad term (supporting organizations that transcend boundaries). Any organization or group that advocates support for a cause or organization within a U.S. jurisdiction, or across a state line, or in another country, is considered by U.S. Government to be (transcending boundaries). Consequently, any environmental group or organization is vulnerable to being charged with supporting (terrorist activity) should any member of an organization they supported--be charged by the U.S. or other government, with having (intimidated or coerced a civilian population; or influenced the policy of a government). Please see USC18 2991, including additional provisions. U.S. Government can now seize the assets of innocent organizations and/or members alleged to have supported an organization, group, or person(s) committing a terrorist activity. Excessive government property forfeiture provisions are tied to the 1996 Anti-Terrorist act: U.S. Government can forfeit SOURCE ASSETS that supported terrorist activity. So if a person for example uses income from their business or bank account to support an organization or persons the U.S. Government later alleges committed or supported terrorist acts, the U.S. Government may seize the contributor's business or bank account as a SOURCE ASSET. Keep in mind, intimidation may qualify as a terrorist act. So if the press or government has criminalized an organization, the presence of the organization's members at a demonstration or other event may be enough for a police agency to allege the member's or their organization (intimidated a civilian population; or influenced the policy of a government) under 18USC 2991 International Terrorist Activities. Government may now use the 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act to selectively eradicate any group or person which is believed to be objectionable. CONCERN: Police can charge lawful citizens who attend demonstrations and other public events with affording support to demonstrators whose activities may constitute Terrorist Activities under USC18 2991. Innocent attending demonstrators run the risk of being charged as terrorists, then having to prove that their presence at a demonstration did not involve supporting the illegal activities of the alleged terrorist demonstrators. CATCH 22: Lawful demonstrators may be convicted simply because they did not think to leave an event where some demonstrators were committing illegal acts. Broad provisions of the 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act may eventually scare-off citizens from attending lawful demonstrations and/or contributing money to progressive causes. CONCERN: A corrupt government and/or its paid operatives, may too easily cause the arrest of innocent demonstrators and/or cause government forfeiture of their assets. Note: Conviction of an activist or organization is NOT necessary for government to forfeit an owner's property. U.S. Government may civil forfeit a citizen's assets using only a (Preponderance of Evidence) by showing an owner's property was involved in a felony that would make it subject to forfeiture. 200 felonies can now cause government forfeiture of property: Republican Congressman Henry Hyde got passed in Congress (The Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000) HR 1658. The statue of limitations, the time period police have to civilly forfeit property, begins five years from the time police claim to have learned an asset was made subject to forfeiture. Concern: Police can claim that anytime in the future. CONCERN: Corporate security and private intelligence companies now work so closely with U.S. police agencies, they appear to merge. Private security corporations by working closely with U.S. police agencies are in a position to influence local and federal police as to which political/environmental opponents should be arrested, or have their assets forfeited. Note: Neither charged defendants, nor anyone else, can use the Freedom of Information Act to penetrate corporate information banks to learn if a corporation illegally obtained or provided information to a police agency. Increasingly, corporate informants work both sides of the street when they get paid for providing police the same information about, e.g., a political or environmental group. It is a dangerous trend in the United States when police agencies merge with corporate security forces, become perhaps an illegal enterprise, to violate a person's Constitutional and civil rights. Secret Witnesses, Secret Jurors, Secret Testimony, Hidden Evidence: Once U.S. Government or police charge a person or organization under 18USC 2991, (International Terrorist Activity) the U.S. Government may use secret witnesses, secret jurors, secret testimony, and other hidden evidence to convict a defendant and/or forfeit their assets. All this secrecy can be invoked by U.S. Government to protect alleged national security, an ongoing investigation, undisclosed witnesses and jurors. The same police agencies involved in the investigation may get to share in the citizen's assets after they are forfeited by the government. This is especially dangerous since police routinely purchase testimony. Persons charged under the 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act may have difficulty defending themselves even against the death penalty when they may not be allowed to know the secret evidence against them, or cross examine government's secret witnesses. Such Star Chamber Courts do not serve the interests of a free society. Had the 1996 Anti-Terrorist Act been in effect during the days of COINTELPRO, 1960 through the 1980's, many foundations and citizens to avoid risks such as being charged as terrorists or losing their assets to forfeiture, would have given contributions only to organizations that the U.S. Government approved of, not to progressive organizations or persons who would dare question or confront government policies or attempt to legally stop corporate polluters. GOVERNMENT COINTELPRO RED SQUADS appear to be back. This time the squads have in their arsenal the 1996 Ant--Terrorist Act and new property forfeiture laws which they may use to eradicate their political, environmental and human rights opponents. Note: The history of COINTELPRO may be quickly obtained on the Internet. ------------------------------------------------------- "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ------------------------------------------------------- "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ------------------------------------------------------- "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ============================================================================ Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 00:00:34 -0800 From: •••@••.••• (Richard K. Moore) To: "Multiple recipients of list •••@••.•••" <•••@••.•••> Subject: cj#757> Update on TWA 800 Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 Sender: Charles <•••@••.•••> Subject: Hack on 800 This just appeared in Col. David Hackworth's newsletter which usually spends its time fulminating about military unreadiness, the folly of admitting women to the combat forces and other issues of interest to grunts. But Hack doesn't like liars or coverups either. - Charles - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 10:53:33 -0700 From: •••@••.••• Subject: Defending America Newsletter 14 Jan 98 DEFENDING AMERICA THE DOWNING OF TWA FLIGHT 800 I barely noticed a small article at the bottom of an inside page of the January 9th edition of "USA Today". It reported that retired Admiral Thomas Moorer, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs and an expert on missile weaponry, had investigated the crash of TWA 800 with a veteran TWA pilot and several retired naval aviators, including Commander William Donaldson, who flew 89 combat missions over Vietnam and was the Navy's senior accident investigator for five years. They concluded that all evidence points to a missile as causing the crash of TWA Flight 800 in July of 1996. This story was not covered by any television news networks, nor by most newspapers. Civilian airliners crash every year, but no investigation has been as bizarre as that of TWA 800. The mainstream media has decided not to cover this issue, and ridicules anyone who questions the FBI's conclusion that a mysterious spark caused an internal explosion. DEBUNKING EYEWITNESSES Imagine that 150 people saw someone rob a bank, but a subsequent FBI investigation found no evidence of criminal activity because no bank robber was found. This is exactly what happened in the case of TWA 800. Over 150 individuals reported seeing a streak of light heading toward TWA 800, 34 of these witnesses were deemed highly credible by the FBI, including two airline pilots and two Air National Guard pilots who were flying nearby. One pilot, Major Fredrick Meyer, is a lawyer with combat experience in Vietnam where he had seen missiles fired at aircraft. After his first FBI interview, he was ordered not to talk to the press. However, once the FBI closed the investigation, they could no longer justify the gag order. Major Meyer stated, "I saw, what I swear to God, was military ordnance explode." (see "Navy Times" 1-19-98; www.navytimes.com) However, the FBI concluded that there is no evidence that a missile shot down TWA 800. THE ODD "INVESTIGATION" For the first time in its history, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) was not allowed to control the investigation of the crash of a domestic airliner. The FBI claimed jurisdiction because of possible criminal activity. Other odd things followed: 1) President Clinton issued an Executive Order denying Navy divers legal protection provided by the Whistle Blowers Protection Act. 2) The FBI had soldiers wash all recovered debris with high pressure water hoses before testing for explosive residue. The FBI later justified this by saying that salt water was causing instant corrosion. 3) An FAA air traffic controller who reviewed the radar tapes and told the press that a missile was visible, changed his mind the next day. 4) A few days later, a retired United airlines pilot told the press that he had an air traffic control video which showed something streaking toward the 747. The FBI had said all missile theories were hoaxes, but seized his tape anyway. 5) Although the FBI allowed the NTSB to reconstruct the debris, FBI agents often entered the hanger and removed debris without logging it out. The FBI kept some debris in a nearby hanger which was off-limits to crash investigators. 6) The NTSB has been unable to explain why some of the debris shows holes and damage that was obviously caused by forces from outside the aircraft, and could not have been caused by an internal explosion. 7) FBI agents who investigated the missile theory refused to consider that newer anti-missile warheads do not attempt to hit a target, but are designed to blow up in front of the target and throw ball bearings in its path. 8) The FBI finally turned over TWA 800's flight data recorder information to the NTSB last month, which made it public. The retired Navy officers noticed a handwritten note "end of data", and that the last five seconds were lined out. They managed to read this deleted flight data, and concluded that an explosive force struck the left forward part of the cockpit and caused the plane to break up. THE NTSB LIMITS Once the FBI ended it investigation last November after finding no criminal evidence, the NTSB could finally conduct an open investigation into the cause of the crash, but certain ground rules were set by the Clinton administration. The NTSB could not interview any witnesses to the crash, and the possibility that a missile caused the crash could not be discussed. The FBI also refused to release many details of its investigation to the NTSB, including information on the Navy P-3 which was flying directly over TWA 800 when it exploded, and is the type of aircraft used to monitor missile tests. RETRIBUTION A former police officer and husband of a senior TWA stewardess was asked by TWA employees to dig into this mess. He wrote an excellent book "The Downing of TWA Flight 800", which provides very credible evidence that a Navy missile fired over the horizon as part of a new "Cooperative Engagement" tactics hit TWA 800. His key piece of evidence was a small fabric sample from a seat which a TWA investigator obtained for him. He sent the seat cushion to a respected laboratory for testing, which confirmed that missile residue was present. He forwarded the sample to CBS News for further testing which was to be used in a planned report on "60 Minutes". However, when the FBI learned of the report, it seized the sample from CBS news and the "60 minutes" story never appeared. It then arrested a career TWA captain who was head of TWA's investigative team for providing the sample, and arrested the author of the book. REWARD? In the brilliant, yet politically incorrect Oliver Stone movie, "Year of the Dragon", a Chinese mafia "triad" boss attempts to bribe New York City police captain Mickey Rourke to look the other way. He suggested that his corporation could find him an extremely profitable position as a security consultant after he retired from the police force. This scene came to mind when the lead investigator for the TWA 800 crash announced his retirement. James Kallestrom had spent a hundred million taxpayer dollars and could not find the cause of the crash of TWA 800, yet he is certain that it was not caused by a missile. His failure to determine a cause somehow caught the attention of a powerful organization. According to Mr. Kallestrom, someone made him an offer (during the investigation) which he could not refuse, so he retired early from the FBI after closing the TWA investigation to accept a position as a "security consultant". The politicians keep saying, "My God, 230 people were killed, do you really think our government would cover something like this up?" Our Navy accidentally shot down an Iranian airline a few years ago and lied about what happened for several years; and those were Iranians who were killed, not Americans. Billions of future dollars for defense contractors are at stake, not to mention civil lawsuits, and possible criminal charges of mass manslaughter. Our military and the Clinton administration cover-up most blunders, why should this be different? Admiral Moorer has demanded a congressional investigation, but all the publicity hounds on Capitol Hill seem afraid to step into this spotlight. If you want to understand the press in this country, send a copy of this to your local newspaper and ask them why they refuse to report on this story. -- Carlton Meyer ============================================================================ Richard K Moore Wexford, Ireland Citizens for a Democratic Renaissance email: •••@••.••• CDR website & list archives: http://cyberjournal.org content-searchable archive: http://members.xoom.com/centrexnews/ Please take a look at "A Guidebook: How the world works and how we can change it" http://cyberjournal.org/cj/guide/ A community will evolve only when the people control their means of communication. -- Frantz Fanon Capitalism is the relentless accumulation of capital for the acquisition of profit. Capitalism is a carnivore. It cannot be made over into a herbivore without gutting it, i.e., abolishing it. - Warren Wagar, Professor of History, State University of New York at Binghamton Permission for non-commercial republishing hereby granted - BUT include and observe all restrictions, copyrights, credits, and notices - including this one. ============================================================================ .
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