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Is Briana Waters a terrorist?
In an alarming case, U.S. attorneys exploited post-9/11 counterterrorism policies to pursue and prosecute an environmental activist.
By Tracy Tullis [2008-03-27]

  • Did the terror logic start with "hate crimes"?

    It's interesting to read so many wealthy liberals argue that routine property crimes are terrorism if they are committed with environmental intent. That's a big opening for right wingers.

    So many of the right's ideas seem to have come from the left. I wonder if the pedigree for the terror logic isn't the hate crimes legislation from the 80s and 90s. In those cases, political or other intent repugnant to liberals resulted in sentence enhancements.

    We seem to be sliding down the slippery slope very quickly to thought crimes. At least the hate crimes laws still required that the underlying crime be proven using standard investigative techniques. Now we have categories of crimes where constitutional methods of evidence procurement no longer have to be followed.

    And we now have yet another expansive field of sentence enhancement based on mental states or intent that cannot ultimately be known. We are punishing not just criminal acts, but criminal thoughts.

    -- JackSparx
    [Read JackSparx's other letters]
    Friday, March 28, 2008 05:41 AM
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