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Tulsi Gabbard Slams ‘Dangerous’ Domestic Terrorism Bill

gabbard, libertades civiles

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Tulsi Gabbard, former Democratic Congresswoman from Hawaii, has expressed serious concerns about a domestic terrorism bill proposed in the wake of the attacks on Capitol Hill on January 6th where at least five people were killed.

The former Hawaii representative appeared on Fox News Primetime to explain to host Brian Kilmeade how this bill wcould undermine Americans’ civil liberties.

When asked if she is surprised by the determined efforts to pass this bill, which would give more surveillance power to U.S. intelligence agencies, Gabbard responded that it is “too dangerous.”

For Gabbard, this particular bill should be a topic over which ideological differences should not matter. “It’s an issue that all Democrats, Republicans, independents and libertarians should be extremely concerned about, especially since we don’t have to guess where this is going or how this ends up,” he said.

She highlighted statements by former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Brennan, who said that from conversations he has had with those already in the Biden Administration, he knows that they are investigating movements similar to the insurgencies they have seen in other countries.

In Brennan’s words, Biden’s intelligence community “is moving like a laser to try to find out everything they can about the pro-Trump “insurgency” that harbors “religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists, even libertarians.”

“What characteristics are we looking for as we build this profile of a potential extremist, what are we talking about?” posited Gabbard. “Religious extremists, we’re talking about Christians, evangelical Christians, what is a religious extremist, is it someone who is pro-life, where do you take this?”

“You’d start looking and, obviously, it has to be a white person, probably male, libertarians, anyone who loves freedom; maybe they have an American flag outside their house, or people who, you know, attended a Trump rally,” she continued.

Gabbard argued the only logical answer to these questions is that the bill is “a very dangerous undermining of our civil liberties, our freedoms in our Constitution, and an attack on almost half the country.”

What does the law propose?

Gabbard’s suspicions and concerns are not unfounded. According to Congressman Brad Schneider’s (D-IL) website, support for the bill is bipartisan. Republicans and Democrats speak of “white supremacy” and “racial extremism” as real threats to national security. The strange thing is that, despite the bill going against civil liberties, they did not proposed it during the Black Lives Matter and Antifa-led riots.

“Homegrown violent domestic terrorism by white supremacists and other racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists remains a serious ongoing threat that demands the full coordination and efforts of our federal law enforcement agencies,” asserts Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA).

Gabbard - Domestic terrorism - El American

For her part, Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) stated, “We recently witnessed hate groups, white power movements, and violent conspiracy networks coming together to terrorize Washington, D. C. We must now focus national resources on preventing and investigating acts of domestic terrorism from the grassroots level up.

This Domestic Terrorism Prevention bill, according to Schneider, would strengthen the Biden Administration’s interests in preventing, reporting, and investigating acts of domestic terrorism by authorizing offices to work on this issue. State and local law enforcement agencies could also be trained and funded to carry out these tasks as well.

The legislation requires the Department of Justice, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to train and fund these institutional requirements in order to investigate “acts of domestic terrorism and white supremacism”.

With the passage of this legislation, a Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee would be established that would work hand-in-hand with state prosecutors and other public safety officials to share information and enhance their investigations.

Rafael Valera, Venezuelan, student of Political Science, political exile in São Paulo, Brazil since 2017 // Rafael Valera, venezolano, es estudiante de Ciencias Políticas y exiliado político en São Paulo, Brasil desde 2017

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