Are You Scheduled for Political-Termination?

reply to post by Extralien

APIS is causing a lot of people with "same names" eg "John Smith" delays in processing via personal searches. This is generally irritating to affected travelers. APIS may be intrusive, but there is no stopping the traveler, just delays in searching him or her. I did read HR 1955, and it is fairly short. It can be found at
www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955
The text of the bill appears to be looking for home grown extremists, which is an exercise of police power. The FBI has had dossiers on every known extremist since J. Edgar Hoover took office, and on almost everyone else of interest as well. Can't see any change there anyway.

The relevant protective portion of the bill states:

"`SEC. 899F. PROTECTING CIVIL RIGHTS AND CIVIL LIBERTIES WHILE PREVENTING IDEOLOGICALLY BASED VIOLENCE AND HOMEGROWN TERRORISM.

`(a) In General- The Department of Homeland Security's efforts to prevent ideologically based violence and homegrown terrorism as described herein shall not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights, or civil liberties of United States citizens or lawful permanent residents.

`(b) Commitment to Racial Neutrality- The Secretary shall ensure that the activities and operations of the entities created by this subtitle are in compliance with the Department of Homeland Security's commitment to racial neutrality.

`(c) Auditing Mechanism- The Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Officer of the Department of Homeland Security shall develop and implement an auditing mechanism to ensure that compliance with this subtitle does not violate the constitutional rights, civil rights, or civil liberties of any racial, ethnic, or religious group, and shall include the results of audits under such mechanism in its annual report to Congress required under section 705.'."
If you feel threatened by the Bill, just read it in it's entirety at the posted link, and your fears over this particular piece of legislation should be mollified."

HR 1955 basically appoints a study group to make recommendations that will issue reports in 18 months. There is nothing in the bill granting anyone authority to restrict travel within the US. It is not yet law but probably will become law, as on Oct 23, 2007 This bill passed in the House of Representatives: totals were 404 Ayes, 6 Nays, 22 Present/Not Voting.