Are You Next On The Government’s Hit List?
from Off The Grid News
Just for the record, I want to make it clear that I don’t like scumbag terrorists… no matter who they are, which side of the political spectrum they claim to be from, or what voices they hear in their head that tell them to blow buildings and people up. As far as I’m concerned, people who do what Timothy McVeigh did in Oklahoma City or the Beltway Snipers did in Washington D.C. and surrounding areas deserve nothing more than trial, conviction, and execution.
You target innocents in your bloody jihad, then we’re coming after you… sweet and simple.
No one is asserting that anything less is desirable or wanted. However, note the proper order of things…
Trial… conviction… execution.
Constitutional protections are in place not because we try to protect guilty men from the consequences of their actions, but because we must protect the innocent from an over-zealous government. The Founders were quite aware of government abuses in English history when they dedicated fifteen of the twenty-six rights mentioned in the first eight amendments to criminal court procedures.
English kings and secret tribunals had imprisoned, tortured, and killed people for myriad reasons—real and imagined. Everything from disagreeing with the monarchy to choosing a non-state sanctioned religion was cause for retribution. Trumped up charges often precipitated a stay in the Tower of London and then you were at the mercy of the king and his court.
The Founders understood that government existed only at the consent of the governed. That we have allowed our federal government to expand to the monstrosity it has indicates we have no idea the magnitude of the gift we were given when this Republic was formed. We have allowed our federal government to assume powers never delegated to it by the Constitution.
And we only have ourselves to blame for what is happening now.
Everyone is aware that the American-born Muslim cleric, Anwar Al-Awlaki, was executed by drone attack. The man once invited by the staff of the Secretary of the Army to a luncheon at the Pentagon (as a way to ease tensions in the Muslim community after 9/11) and to conduct prayer services in 2002 for Islamic staffers on Capital Hill was also suspected in plotting terrorist attacks against the United States. He was suspected of being the inspiration behind many attempts at terrorism, from the Fort Hood shooter to the Underwear Bomber.
Do I believe that Awlaki was a terrorist who plotted against the United States?
Without a doubt.
Do I believe that he should have been executed for his crimes against this country?
Without a doubt… if the evidence led to that conclusion.
But we’ll never know what evidence was there, will we? Awlaki was denied his constitutional protections when a secret U.S. panel of government officials, a subset of the White House’s National Security Counsel, decided his fate.
We didn’t try him openly in absentia, we didn’t extradite him back to the United States, we didn’t do any of that pesky legal constitutional stuff.
We simply executed him. Many people are fine with that. They have blood in their eyes and anger in their hearts over the deaths of innocents that we’ve suffered through since terrorists began targeting us. I confess to no less anger or bloodlust.
However…
… if a secret panel of White House officials can declare one citizen a terrorist and worthy of assassination, what is to stop them from declaring YOU a threat to the country?
Don’t scoff. If you’re a patriotic American, you’re already on Homeland Security’s threat-assessment list. If you’re returning military, you’re on their list. If you’re anti-tax or anti-abortion, you’re really on their list. If you’re pro-Second Amendment or belong to the NRA, you’re under a microscope.
And if you sport a Ron Paul bumper sticker, all bets are off.
You see, we foolishly believe that all these measures are being taken against “them,” those people who are out of the mainstream of society, who sport some kooky, kinky ideas, and who are generally boneheads and uncivilized anyway.
But again, the Constitution was not written to protect the criminal from the consequences of his actions. If was written to protect us from a government that would send in agents who would kill a woman holding a baby in a remote cabin (Ruby Ridge), or use tanks to attack a group of 7th Day Adventists who were no threat to anyone (Waco), or use their storm-trooper goons to shut down family dairies because the government says you don’t have the right to eat and drink your choice of foods and beverages.
As we have allowed each atrocity to pass without protest or holding government officials accountable, we have emboldened our government to disregard the Constitution altogether. And we fail to learn from so recent a history as Nazi Germany when we allow this.
Pastor Martin Neimöller wrote of that time in the 1930s and 1940s:
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
We’ve passed the point of communists, trade unionists, and Jews. Our government has secret tribunals of amorphous people who decide who lives and who dies. They’ve executed an American citizen without benefit of the constitutional protections of trial by jury, and people are fine with that. We have lost the essence of who we were and who we are supposed to be.
There is nothing left but the winnowing fire of oppressive government to look forward to, in one form or fashion, until we devolve into total dictatorship. Consider these modern-day headlines:
- “44,000 UN Troops Train in U.S. in Operation Agile Provider”
- “Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke Warns of Martial Law if Bailout Not Approved”
- “General Barry McCaffery Confirms Thousands of Foreign Troops Are in the U.S. to Assist with Domestic Emergencies”
- “Federal Government Collecting GPS Data on Every American Household”
- “Homeland Security Report Leaks; Tax Protestors, Abortion Opponents Are Terrorist Suspects”
- Pennsylvania Chapter of NAACP Urges Martial Law
Unfortunately, the framework for martial law has already been put in place by the last two administrations and now only needs a “trigger.” Interestingly enough, this country has a long history of evoking martial law, all of which will make it easier to declare the next one. The problem is that all the previous declarations of martial law will pale in comparison to what our rulers have planned very soon! Here are some previous examples:
- Martial law was declared by General Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812
- President Lincoln declared it again during the War Between the States, arresting anyone who dissented from his war-time policies, including newspaper editors and legislators!
- In 1931, Texas Governor Ross used National Guard troops to enforce limits on the size of private property!
- Much of the Pacific Coast was under martial law after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Even worse, our country already has a history of the domestic use of the armed forces without a declaration of martial law.
- In 1871, President Grant sent troops into South Carolina to confiscate all private guns.
- In 1914, President Wilson ordered the infantry into Colorado to disarm everyone involved in a labor union dispute, including members of law enforcement and the National Guard.
- In 1993, the U.S. Army provided advice, tactical support and military equipment to the FBI and the BATF to raid the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas, resulting in the deaths of 74 men, women and children
In the first 130 years of our country’s history, federal troops were used more than 100 times without a declaration of martial law! The truth is that the unprecedented economic crisis afflicting the nation, along with building resentment over the President’s socialist policies and questionable eligibility for office has the central government looking for a reason—any reason—to pull the trigger.
