The Fifth Amendment to our Constitution is no more, as of July 17, 2007. The Department of the Treasury can now seize anyone's property if they are determined -- in secret by the Sec. of the Treasury -- to have aided, in ANY way, the destabilization of Iraq (I.E. protesters). The language is broad, and it specifically applies to persons residing or claiming citizenship in the United States of America. Details are
here and
here.
I think this order is much more severe than just clamping down on people who vocally speak and act out against the war. There is another motive for this sort of craziness by the Administration.
I think this executive order also has to do with a trial that is about to begin in Dallas. Have you heard of
the Holy Land Foundation?
(Note:
the Wikipedia entry about HLF is about the most atrocious thing I've ever seen.)
This group was the nation's largest Islamic charitable organization. It gave millions of dollars for humanitarian relief all over the world, including within the United States. In December 2001, its funds and assets were frozen by the Secretary of the Treasury and they were accused of providing material support to the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
In summary, the evidence that the feds will present against HLF draws a jagged line connecting the two organizations. The allegation is that when HLF donated funds to humanitarian organizations to groups within Palestine that were sanctioned by Israel as legitimate, relatives of
those who directed the application of the funds were able to funnel off money to the militants. The feds also allege that by supporting hospitals and schools in Palestine, Hamas was then freed up to concentrate its assets on further acts of violence.
Under the language of this new executive order, your assets could be frozen and your property confiscated if you give support to an organization that gave support to an organization that has some sort of proximity to an organization which may be conducting terrorist activities. It is guilt by association, and this new order applies in a variety of manors.
Because this trial is in Dallas, and it is starting THIS COMING MONDAY, I think we should hold our event at the federal building.
Our fellow dissenters with
Hungry for Justice, a group of Dallas Muslims, will be gathering at the federal building in Dallas on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this coming week, from 12 p.m. to 1. They are intently focused on winning this trial, because if HLF were to be blocked by this sort of stacked evidence (some of which was obtained through the use of warrantless wiretapping, which produced transcripts that had to be translated by FBI linguists, who, HLF alleges, made egregious translation errors during this process), we could be looking at the end of all humanitarian aid to Palestine.
We're looking at what could possibly be the first application of this monstrous executive order, right here in Dallas.
And if they can do it to the peaceful Muslim community here, they can do it to you too.
Hungry for Justice is rallying around this trial. I'll be blogging from the courtroom once it gets underway, probably two times a week, with other writers filling in the remaining gaps. I'll keep you updated as best I can, but please note that Monday through Thursday, from noon to 1 p.m., there will be protests in front of the federal building.
If you're interested in a show of defiance against this new executive order, I say we protest its possibly application against American protesters AND the ongoing, direct application against our neighbors in the Dallas Muslim community. If you can't make it out in the middle of the day, perhaps we could gather toward the end of business hours for a rally in support? (For more, join the newsgroup at
DallasRally.com.)
Fast action is needed. If a large crowd swamps the federal building at the start of this trial, it is more likely to be widely publicized.
They're going to test this order on a small minority group first. And if we do not speak up for them, who will speak up for us when we're all that remain?
Labels: dictatorship
