OP/ED: Homeland Security Abuses And Careless Neighbors

United Press International (UPI) brings us the amazing story of Nancy Swift, an average American working woman in Virginia who was renting a room to an Iranian man. A group of the man's friends came over one weekend while she was away, and an insensitive, racial profiling neighbor picked up the phone and reported the incident without any further checking. Surprisingly, the neighbor is a retired colonel who's comments must be seen to be believed- while Nancy's life may never be the same again. Please read the whole source article!



This story affected me so deeply I just had to report this here at our beloved ATS. This is not the America we once knew. Abusive federal agents, and now disgustingly insensitive neighbors? A retired colonel, no less. Please folks, if you see something you think might be suspect, there is no harm done in doing a little checking before you make a phone call that could ruin someone's life.

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[edit on 18-11-2004 by Banshee]

Yeah, I am expecting this, but on a much wider scale. The muslims and other foreigners are going to be used as a scape goat for the neo-nazi campaign of the government. This incident is reminiscent of the Germans phoning in to report jews in Nazi-Germany.

I simply hate such people that to get brownie points from the government, to secure their own living, would destroy someone elses. That is what happens when you share your country with sheep.

But the Bu#es keep saying this kind of stuff is just liberal exaggerating! That if we have nothing to hide, we have nothing to worry about. Our own government would never use powers like those in the Patriot Acts to harm innocent citizens. That women must have been collaborating with terrorists

All the people asking what rights we have lost in the past 4 years should see this news story and realize Bush & Co can't be so blatant as to revoke civil rights in a documentable, prosecutable way. Our rights are being infringed by events such as this. Even when this "investigation" is done, the woman in question will have a ruined life and no recourse. You don't need to risk riots and impeachment by taking away rights, just declare war against terrorism and call anyone you don't like a terrorist. Our neighbors and coworkers will take care of the rest.

--Saerlaith

sorry, but the retiree was prolly senile and agents of the law have always been less than courteous. this is not an unusual thing. it is not a huge sob story. it is not due to the Patriot Act or homeland security abuses. it is a simple malicious neighbor problem, that is all.

Well fledg, I submitted it because I thought it illustrated a very important point about unchecked suspitions, which was not really brought out that much in the article, and affects us all. Sorry to let ya down there, and I hope you did read the whole article at the source. One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Regards,
TA

This story is a good example of how homeland security and the patriot act can be used on even innocent U.S. citizens. Thanks for the article TrueAmerican. It should serve to remind us of how our civil liberties and rights have changed. I guess if you have paranoid, nosey neighbors you better watch out!

Originally posted by fledgling666
sorry, but the retiree was prolly senile and agents of the law have always been less than courteous. this is not an unusual thing. it is not a huge sob story. it is not due to the Patriot Act or homeland security abuses. it is a simple malicious neighbor problem, that is all.

I had a king of all jerkdom neighbor once. Always calling the cops or county on whatever he could think up. Retired vet who was mad that a couple "kids" bought the house next door. Without the patriot act, this man was very annoying. With the patriot act, I'm sure this guy would have reported us as terrorists, just to muck up our lives.

Naturally I had no proof it was this guy, and my repeated attempts at talking to him about possible concerns were met with innocent denials. So I exercised my free speech right, and stencilled a large obnoxious message in letters 3 feet high, on the front of my house. Got lots of visits from the cops then, tellling me I was within my rights to express myself the way I did, but could I please paint over the message. Got no comment from the neighbor, but his house went on the market pretty quick. I remove the message, the neightbor moved, and the rest of my neighbors then told me of this guy making trouble for the whole street over the years.

My point being that right or wrong, this man used every legal means to harrass my husband & I, and if the patriot act had been available, I'm sure I'd have been turned in as a terrorist too. Now how american is that?!

--Saerlaith

Thanks for posting that TrueAmerican. This kind of government action needs to be exposed to the light of day and broadly disseminated every time it happens. You have to read the full article to get the true flavor of what happened. fledgling666's indifference to the government's trampling upon our civil rights is in keeping with his chosen on-line name. Folks, you'd best read the full article before writing this off as a mere annoyance.

The UPI article states:

"Complaints and allegations of heavy-handed actions by terror investigators are on the rise, according to data compiled by the inspector general at the Department of Justice. The office has received nearly 5,200 such complaints with increasing frequency since Sept. 11, 2001, ranging from allegations of excessive force and illegal detention to "illegal searches of personal residences and property by FBI agents," according to reports from the office to Congress. "
****
"Swift said that Poole, the ATF agent, did ask her to use a regular telephone line as opposed to a cell phone when she called his office. "
****
"They said I could not take any notes," Horan said. "They said they wanted to interview us separately. They said, 'You are not a lawyer, are you?' And I said, 'No, I am a school teacher.'" "

5200 such complaints! That's more than 100 per state. That's a fairly widespread problem. And 666 writes it off as a mere annoyance.

The article says that the JTTF agent threatened and intimidated her with a grand jury subpoena saying is she doesn't cooperate she'll have to soend a day in front of a grand jury. He never showed her a subpoena and probably did not have one as there was no basis for him to get one in the first place. He lied to her. Martha Stewart was convicted and sentenced to priison for lying to a federal agent. This a**hole JTTF agent should be prosecuted and sent to prison for lying to a US Citizen for the purpose of intimidating her into consenting to allow him to do what would otherwise be a violation of her constitutionally protected civil rights. His supervisors should be censured and sanctioned for training him to use such tactics against US Citizens. Being a citizen used to mean something. It carried a certain level of protection against government misconduct. This slope becomes more and more slippery when this kind of governmental misconduct action goes unnoticed and unpunished.

Why does the ATF agent want his target to call him on a regular phone line ? Because every time you make a cell phone call whether local or long distance there is a record of it on your monthly bill. You have no obligation to use a regular phone line.

Why does the ATF agent tell his target she cannot take notes? Is there a federal statute that prohibits citizens from keeping notes of visits by government brown shirts, I mean JTTF agents? Of course not. Secrecy. Secrecy. Secrecy . . . . = more and more government misconduct and destruction of civil rights.

dubiousone,
Thanks. I suppose I should have stressed in my intro paragraph, that READING THE WHOLE ARTICLE is important to get the points that you are bringing out....In fact...

There.

Regards,
TA

We have a neighbor that is Iranian his daughter is in middle school, the poor man is so afraid of any type of retaliation that after the 9/11 eleven he had about 4 American flags in his from yard to show how Pro American he is, at first I thought it was funny now I see how pitiful it is.

That's right marge.
Pitiful that due to our own government's deciet, we should end up having to resort to racial profiling to split and divde the masses. It sucks.

Originally posted by Indigo_Child
This incident is reminiscent of the Germans phoning in to report jews in Nazi-Germany.

Yea Indigo Child.

This is exactly how things started in Nazi Germany. ...Ridiculing people who think or act differently, calling them inferior, bullying them - then calling in the storm troopers. Backed up by a government that encourages intolerant behavior, rewards slime and helps sleaze.

And it's just the old 'divide and conquer' play. Not even a complicated move.

...Thanks for the post True American.


.

Originally posted by fledgling666
sorry, but the retiree was prolly senile and agents of the law have always been less than courteous. this is not an unusual thing. it is not a huge sob story. it is not due to the Patriot Act or homeland security abuses. it is a simple malicious neighbor problem, that is all.

The sort of climate that PERMITS such defamatory and degrading treatment of an individual's person and reputation is most definitely due to the powers afforded the New Gestapo. The Patriot Act was borne into passing out of fear. Pure and simple. Regardless that it was likely committed by an oligarchical, compartmentalized network in the govt. and military-industrial marketeers, 911 is a pretty long time ago. Long enough that we can all get our heads out of our mother's bosoms and start to think critically of our precious governors (read: minders) and their legislative super-machinations.