A Network of Groups Organizing against Surveillance Abuse and Political Witch Hunts;
and for expanding Civil Liberties, Free Speech, and the Right to Dissent
 
 

 
   
 

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The material linked on this page provides accurate, reliable research that assists activists in developing effective analyses, strategies, and tactics to defend and expand civil liberties.

Senate Committee Reports
Homegrown Terrorism Legislation
Articles - Theory - Home

Civil liberties groups question thesis of Senate Report:

"Violent Islamist Extremism, The Internet,
and the Homegrown Terrorist Threat"

Over the past year the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, led by Joe Lieberman, (ID-CT) and Susan Collins, (R-ME), has been holding hearings into the “threat of Islamic radicalization inside the United States and the initiatives the U.S. government is taking to identify and combat homegrown terrorism.”

The first Senate committee report,
"Violent Islamist Extremism, The Internet, and the
Homegrown Terrorist Threat," (PDF)
was published 8 May 2008.

Broad civil liberties coalition letter of protest.

ACLU press release:
ACLU Skeptical of Senate Report on 'Homegrown' Terrorism."

Based on a report from the Department of Homeland Security’s Advisory Council on the future of terrorism and its effect on the United States, DHS has been “developing ways to prevent radical beliefs from crossing the line into violent acts of terrorism.” DHS has already “launched an initiative to reach out to state and local fusion centers to address radicalization,” and reports that “intelligence and law enforcement personnel” are already meeting at these centers “to discuss and analyze what is taking place in their communities.”

 

The Senate hearings were used to help provide justification for the proposed passage of the “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act.” Although this bill appears to have been blocked by public criticism, the bipartisan Senate Committee is preparing a public report on homegrown domestic Muslim radicalization.

 

It is possible that the report, no matter how carefully crafted, will be used to push the adoption of this or similar reperssive legislation.