Does Posting Jihadist Material Make Tarek Mehanna a Terrorist?

Does Posting Jihadist Material Make Tarek Mehanna a Terrorist? | Mother Jones

Excellent article about freedom of speech issues involved in some terrorism cases.

"This case is being used by the government to really narrow First Amendment activity in dangerous new ways," says Nancy Murray of the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. "It might be speech that horrifies people, but it's the nature of the First Amendment to protect that speech, unless it's leading to imminent lawless action."
Civil liberties advocates say the case represents a slippery slope. 

In the 2010 case Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, which decided whether or not providing nonviolent aid (such as legal advice) to terrorist groups constitutes material support for terrorism, the Supreme Court ruled that even protected speech can be a criminal act if it occurs at the direction of a terrorist organization. Based on that ruling, you could be convicted of materially supporting terrorism merely for translating a document or putting an extremist video online, depending on your intentions.

 How ironic that this attack on the freedom of speech is taking place under the stewardship of a President who was a constitutional law professor.

Rick Perry: We Need a Constitutional Amendment to Allow Prayer in Schools

Little Green Footballs - Rick Perry: We Need a Constitutional Amendment to Allow Prayer in Schools:

But fear those Muslims and their creeping Sharia... smh.

The real creeping is being done by nutty Evangelicals who want to shove their faith down every other Americans throat.

Study Reveals the Obvious: "Muslim Homegrown Terrorism Not a Serious Threat"

Prof. Risa A. Brooks's Study Reveals the Obvious: "Muslim Homegrown Terrorism Not a Serious Threat" | loonwatch.com

I'll highlight this relevant passage:

Studies of Muslim communities provide little evidence of changes or trends that suggest they are becoming any less resilient against the threat of militancy in their midst. 

For example, one major effort funded by the Department of Justice, in which researchers resided for periods of two to three months in four midsized Muslim American communities, found that several features of these communities rendered them intrinsically resistant to militancy, including, in particular, the strength of their communal organizations and social networks. In addition, there were efforts expressly geared toward preventing and exposing any signs of militancy, including both outreach programs and a variety of internal monitoring, or self-policing, practices. 

Despite the concerns expressed by many analysts and public officials, the evidence does not support the conclusion that Americans face a growing threat of deadly attacks plotted by Muslims in the United States. 

Seen in light of the threats posed by other segments of the population, the one posed by Muslim Americans appears neither especially novel, nor severe.

But the Islamophobes won't listen to this, of course. 

Muslim Americans are taking care of militancy within their own communities. There's no reason to worry America. Muslims are not out to kill you. Sure, there are some nuts out there, but the statistics demonstrate that this is not anywhere near any sort of large percentage of Muslims engaged in terrorism. Far from it. It's minuscule.

Wikileaks founder says all smartphones can be hacked with ease

Think Carrier IQ is bad? Wikileaks founder says all smartphones can be hacked with ease

The common response to this problem is "I don't have anything to hide."

Oh yes you do.

We all have skeletons in our closets. We all have things we hope people won't find out about.

The people who are using these powers may eventually abuse this power. It's a very scary thing to imagine.

Law enforcement and government can use these powers to hack into your email or texts or documents to find out your secrets and use them against you.

Don't think it can happen to you? Don't think you have anything to hide?

You'll be sorry if you think that way.

This is a very complacent way of thinking. We as citizens need to ensure that our governments are not out there spying on us, finding out our darkest secrets in order to possibly use them against us.

A free society does not operate this way. In a free society we should not have to fear that our government is spying on us.

Sadly though, I feel most people will just shrug this off. Just look at the comments section of this article. People don't think it's a big deal or that they have anything to hide.

Free people shouldn't give up their rights so easily. Once they're gone they're much harder to get back.

Evangelical Threat?

Salon.com » Are evangelicals a national security threat?

"Earlier this year, a Gallup poll illustrated just how apocryphal this story really is. It found that Muslim Americans are one of the most —if not the single most —loyal religious group to the United States."

Hmph!