It Could Be You Next Time!

Trey Smith

It seems pretty clear by now that the three young “domestic terrorists” arrested by Chicago police in a warrantless house invasion reminiscent of what US military forces are doing on a daily basis in Afghanistan, are the victims of planted evidence -- part of the police-state-style crackdown on anti-NATO protesters in Chicago last week.

The Chicago Police clearly realized that it would be hard to convince a jury that the homemade beer-making equipment in the house was some dreaded bio-terror weapon, so for good measure they apparently dropped off some glass jars with gas in them and tried to make out that the kids were preparing molotov cocktails. That’s the word from National Lawyers Guild attorneys representing the men. They say their clients and others like them coming into Chicago from out of town to join in protests against the NATO summit were “befriended” by police informants and undercover Chicago Police, who then offered to obtain gasoline or explosive materials like toy rocket motors, and who proposed actions like firebombing police stations.

This kind of entrapment and official deceit by police should alarm every American. It’s bad enough when police plant evidence and lie about evidence in order to win convictions, since it means innocent people will be sent to prison or worse. But with the new post 9-11 terrorism laws, like the state terrorism statutes in Illinois being applied in these cases, it becomes far more difficult for a victim of such police and prosecutorial misconduct to challenge the case against her or him. In terror cases, the government can claim “national security” to hide the evidence and even the identity of the witnesses from the defendants and the courts, the jury and the public, and can avoid ever being questioned about it publicly.

In a worst case, the federal government doesn’t even need to bring the case to trial. If the victim is accused of being a terrorist, under the latest National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and various executive orders, that person can be locked away indefinitely without trial -- exactly the kind of abuse that led American colonists to rise up against their British colonial overlords 237 years ago.
~ from Planting Evidence to Sow Fear: Chicago Cops are the Terrorists by Dave Lindorff ~

This is another one of those cases in which most people yawn and then go about their daily business. If the government must employ these kind of tactics, they believe, there must be a good reason. Sometimes we must bend the rules a tad (a tad?) to catch those intent on destroying America.

Most of the time, however, the targets aren't intent on destroying anything; they simply represent a political viewpoint the authorities dislike. Arrests of this nature are done for one primary reason: to scare people. It sends an eerie message to anyone who might want to protest the police state. Do so at your own risk!

Why do you think the Obama administration (just like Dubya) has been so intent on working to shield the government from having to divulge critical information in a court of law? When you are allowed to withhold the most pertinent facts, it means you can get away with just about anything! You can plant evidence to your heart's content and nobody will be the wiser.

In fact, you can out and out lie with abandon without the worry of ANY culpability or accountability. It can soon devolve into a one-sided free-for-all.

That is not the hallmark of a free and open society. Not by a long shot.