It seems that the FBI feels too constrained by current policies regulating who they can and can not investigate. Currently they need such things as evidence, or allegations that wrong doing has been committed.
The gist is this:
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.
Law enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do exactly what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: root out terrorists before they strike.
Preemptive investigations hmm? More below jump/with action.
Why is this so dangerous? It essentially is racial profiling. As the Center for Constitutional Rights reminds us, racial profiling has a long ugly history...
There is a long history of the use of racial profiling not only by the FBI, but by police departments and security agencies throughout the United States. From the mass detention of Japanese Americans during World War II in internment camps, to the creation of COINTELPRO, a domestic intelligence, surveillance and infiltration program that targeted, particularly, Black, Latino, Native American and other oppressed communities and communities of color for spying and disruption, to the mass roundups of Arab, Muslim and South Asian men following September 11, 2001, the FBI’s use of racial profiling has devastated communities and damaged lives. On a daily basis, the use of racial profiling by police agencies has taken numerous lives and wreaked havoc on communities of color.
It just amazes me how the Neocons don't stop. PATRIOT ACT. GITMO. Military Commissions Act. FISA. Now investigating Americans this.
Lets connect the dots. With FISA Bush can listen to anyone's calls with no warrant. With the Patriot Act Bush can deem anyone an enemy combatant and throw you in GITMO. In GITMO he can hold you indefinitely and with the MCA can torture you. And if these changes above are made, he can set the FBI on you on top of everything else.
Action Item: Help the Center for Constitutional Rights fight this latest attack on our rights. Sign their petition to General Mukasey.
(Scroll to bottom to find he signing line).