The FBI is instructing high schools across the country to report students who criticize government policies as potential future terrorists, warning that such “extremists” are in the same category as ISIS.
The FBI’s Preventing Violent Extremism in Schoolsguidelines try to avoid the appearance of specific discrimination against Muslim students by targeting every American teenager who is politically outspoken, as if that somehow makes all this better. The FBI’s goal is to enlist every teacher and every student as informants. The concept is not dissimilar to attempts by the FBI to require tech companies such as Apple to become extensions of the FBI’s power. FYI, the FBI also now has full access to data collected on Americans by the NSA.
You really do need to scan through the FBI’s materials, which are aimed directly at our children; my words cannot describe the chilling 1984-tone purposely adopted.
As author Sarah Lazare points out, the FBI’s justification for such mass teenage surveillance is based on McCarthy-era theories of radicalization, in which authorities monitor thoughts and behaviors that they claim without any proof lead to acts of subversion, even if the people being watched have not committed any wrongdoing. This model is now (again, welcome back to the 1950s) official federal policy.
The FBI guidelines claim “High school students are ideal targets for recruitment by violent extremists seeking support for their radical ideologies, foreign fighter networks, or conducting acts of violence within our borders… youth possess inherent risk factors.” In light of this, the FBI instructs teachers to “incorporate a two-hour block of violent extremism awareness training” into the core curriculum for all youth in grades 9 through 12.
Here are the danger signs the FBI directs teachers keep a sharp eye out for:
- Talking about traveling to places that sound suspicious”;
- Using code words or unusual language”;
- Using several different cell phones and private messaging apps”;
- Studying or taking pictures of potential targets (like a government building)”;
- Some immigrant families may not be sufficiently present in a youth’s life due to work constraints to foster critical thinking”;
- Encryption is often used to facilitate extremism discussions.”
And just to make sure the connection with McCarthyism and the red baiting days of the 1950s is clear enough, the FBI materials warn “Anarchist extremists believe that society should have no government, laws, or police, and they are loosely organized, with no central leadership. Violent anarchist extremists usually target symbols of capitalism they believe to be the cause of all problems in society — such as large corporations, government organizations, and police agencies.”
So, sorry, Bernie Sanders supporters.
Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during Iraqi reconstruction in his first book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. His latest book is Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99 Percent. Reprinted from the his blog with permission.
I was in 8th grade in 2003, during the invasion of Iraq. I was the only outspoken pacifist at a conservative Pennsylvania Catholic School. I was also a self-proclaimed anarchist who refused to stand during the pledge of allegiance. I ended up being accused of plotting the next Columbine (a pacifist?). I thought sh*t was f**ked up back then. Today I probably would have ended up Shanghai’d in Gitmo.
HEY, TEACHERS! LEAVE THOSE KIDS ALONE!!!
The justifications for invading Iraq were all proven as false & fabricated well PRIOR to the invasion…& millions demonstrated against “criminal” Invasion prior to it…..
That’s what I told them but you try talking common sense into adult authority figures at 14, especially when there convinced that god chose there president. Like I said, f**ked up sh*t.
And this on the watch of the ostensibly liberal Obama.
“You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the great struggle for independence.” — Charles Austin Beard (1874-1948)
“The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos.” — H. L. Mencken, 1919
“People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self–sufficient and self–confident. To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief of the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility.” ~Eric Hoffer “The True Believer”
Trump and Clinton supporters should both read that last one.
A quote from a 1924 edition of the American Banker’s Association not intended for the public sums up what is currently happening all around us:
“Capital must protect itself in every possible way, both by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, mortgages foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through the process of law, the common people lose their homes, they will become more docile and more easily governed through the strong arm of government applied by a central power of wealth under leading financiers. These truths are well known among our principal men who are now engaged in forming an imperialism to govern the world.
!!!!! By dividing the voter through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting for questions of no importance. !!!!!
It is thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves that which has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished.”
Yep, that pretty much sums it up. Which ways the border again?
The FBI doesn’t have enough to do if they plan on spying on our children. Congress should significantly reduce their budget.
The FBI guidelines claim “High school students are ideal targets for recruitment by violent extremists seeking support for their radical ideologies, foreign fighter networks, or conducting acts of violence within our borders… youth possess inherent risk factors.”
I guess that’s why the U.S. military is so keen on recruiting in America’s high schools.
A smokescreen to divert attention from their own crimes? Or pure fraud?…..Both?