Recently, Black Autonomy Federation representatives [JoNina and Lorenzo Ervin] concluded a 21 day speaking tour of the United Kingdom for Black History Month UK. We gave 25 speeches in 9 cities and 10 universities, and spoke to students, youth, Black community activists, anti-racists/anti-fascists and many more about police terror, mass imprisonment of Blacks/POC, and the rise of fascism. During this time we were spied upon by the Special Branch Extremist Unit of Scotland Yard, and GCHQ, the British NSA. After spying on us in the UK, British authorities then sent a report to American officials, and when we arrived at the Detroit airport on our return flight, Border Patrol cops stopped and searched us, and questioned us about our trip, the content of our speeches and whether we criticized the government, even if our books agitated the British people against the US govt. All of this is bad and we are asking for support in our behalf to prevent even further harassment, even preventing us from future airline travel. But more important for us is to expose the secret govt program that allowed them to do this, called the Automated Targeting System. What is the “Automated Targeting System” (ATS)? The “Automated Targeting System” (ATS) is an illegal and initially secret system of records about everyone — including U.S. citizens, regardless of whether they are suspected of any crime — who travels internationally to, from, or via the U.S. CBP and its predecessor, the U.S. Customs Service, have been operating this system under various names since at least the mid to late 1990s. From the start, this system of records was entirely illegal. Until 2006, its operation was a criminal violation of the Privacy Act on the part of the responsible agency employees because no proper notice of its existence had been published in the Federal Register. The inclusion of records of activities protected by the First Amendment — such as acts of assembly — also violated and continues to violate the Privacy Act. The use of this system to restrict freedom of movement, without due process or judicial review, violates U.S. international human rights treaty obligations under Article 12 (Freedom of Movement) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This program maintains databases on all travelers and is used to prevent U.S. citizens from traveling, spying on their political activities and convictions, and setting them up for other law enforcement and intelligence agencies. It is a dangerous fascist program, and that is what we all should fight. More later, including what you can do to help.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 14:54:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015