Teen Targeted as Terrorist for Using Facebook

“Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists,”

—George W. Bush’s address to the American people in preparation for war with Afghanistan, September 20,2001.

Cameron D’Ambrosio, a Massachusetts high school student, apparently is not with “us” since he was arrested on “terror” charges last week. The youth faces up to 20 years in prison for making a reference to the Boston Marathon bombings on his Facebook page. He is currently being held on $1 million bail, according to Alternet.

So were the police heroes? Did they act on good evidence, stop a terrorist act in its infancy, and perhaps save hundreds of lives, or was this just another example of overkill, censorship and thought policing?

According to the WSWS, D’Ambrosio posted the following rap lyrics: “F--- a boston bominb (sic) wait till u see the s--- I do, I’ma be famous rapping, and beat every murder charge that comes across me!” Friends insist that he was just emulating the macho, boastful style of other rappers and that, like other rap singers, he was merely singing about current events, not planning to emulate them—they insist that he never would carry out a bombing. More significantly, the police did not find any weapons or tools for making bombs, nor any plans for acquiring them. There were no victims. No specific threats were made against any person or target and he had no affiliations with any terrorist organizations

The Thought Police and America’s War on Youth

One would hope that parents and teachers are educating young people to be very careful what they say and do, especially online, in this hyperparanoid climate. However, that does not make D’Ambrosio’s actions illegal, let alone evidence of terrorism. Unless the authorities can find a compelling motive, plan, and the means to carry it out, their actions signal a willingness of the government to preemptively take out citizens merely for their feelings, artistic interests, or what they might possibly do in the future.

It should be pointed out that people routinely reference illegal or antisocial activities on their Facebook pages (and in musical lyrics) without legal consequences (e.g., drug use, violence against women, gay bashing). More to the point, “terrorist” speech is still protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution (as long as it doesn’t involve a specific, imminent and likely threat). In 1969, for example, in Brandenburg v. Ohio, the Supreme Court upheld the KKK’s right to call for violence against politicians—though plans or action to actually carry out such an attack would be illegal.

D’Ambrosia is not the only teen being sucked into America’s Kafkaesque anti-terror gulag system. According to the WSWS, Alex David Rosario, a high school student in Michigan, faced terrorism charges in January for threatening to shoot coworkers, something he claimed was only a joke, and two Louisiana high school girls were arrested and charged with “terrorism” in February for emailing threats to students and faculty. There was also Kiera Wilmot, who I wrote about last week, arrested and charged as an adult for weapons possession in response to a science experiment.

None of these cases would have been considered acts of terrorism prior to the September 11 attacks and Bush’s assertion that “you are either with us, or you are with the terrorists.” What they signal is that the war against terror, which has been used to terrify the American public for more than a decade now, is increasingly being turned on the American public itself, including kids, and that the criteria used to identify terrorists has been so broadened that virtually anyone can be targeted. Consider investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill’s observation that the Obama administration is now using drone “signature strikes” to assassinate people based solely on their “profiles” (e.g., age, gender, location and who they might be hanging out with), including U.S. citizens, thus eviscerating their rights to a trial, to confront the evidence against them, and to have the representation of an attorney. A “signature” strike was used to take out Denver-born, 16-year-old, Abdulrahman Al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, who was assassinated by U.S. drones in Yemen in 2011 (see Democracy Now).

The hyperbolic use of the term terrorism—considered comical ten years ago when Bush’s education secretary, Rod Paige, referred to the National Educators Association (NEA) as a terrorist organization—is now being used to arrest, torture and kill innocent civilians and dissidents throughout the world. For example, members of Mexico’s teachers union, (Coordinadora Estatal de Trabajadores de la Educación en Guerrero, CETEG) were recently arrested on trumped up terrorism charges. In June, 2012, 72 members of Turkey’s KESK public sector union were charged with terrorism and imprisoned until April, 2013, according to Labour Start News, while dozens more have been arrested on similar charges over the past few months. And, according to Scahill, dozens of innocent civilians have been killed in “anti-terror” drone signature strikes in Yemen, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Protection for Whom?

One might reasonably wonder who the authorities are trying to protect (and at what cost), when they lock down an entire city (as they did in Boston, and more recently in Valley Springs, CA), conduct warrantless house to house searches, and threaten to arrest anyone who leaves their home. The same might be asked about the Obama administration’s assertion of its right to use drones to assassinate U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.

In this context, being labeled a terrorist becomes all the more significant. If the government can arrest musically-inclined teens on terrorism charges simply for expressing anger and hostility devoid of a credible or imminent threat, will the terror jacket placed on the NEA by Rod Paige one day be used to arrest its members, as occurred in Mexico and Turkey?

Not likely—not unless they actually start to strike in significant numbers and pose a credible and imminent threat to the status quo, something they show no indication of doing. Likewise, if the labor movement were to engage in protracted multiple work stoppages, it seems inevitable that the government would accuse them of being economic terrorists. But this, too, seems remote. Unlike actual terrorists, the labor movement’s response to harassment, abuse and discontent tends toward a retraction from combativeness and collaboration with its persecutors.

Today in Labor History—March 2

Whipping an Enslaved Male, Serro Frio, Brazil, ca. 1770s

March 2, 1807 - Congress abolished the African slave trade. The first American slave ship, Desire, sailed from Marblehead, Massachussetts, in 1637. Since then, nearly 15 million blacks had been transported as slaves to the Americas. Overall, the African continent had lost 50 million people to slavery and the deaths associated with it. Another 250,000 slaves were continued to be imported illegally up to the Civil War. (From Workday Minnesota and the Daily Bleed)

March 2, 1937 - John L. Lewis, president of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and U.S. Steel President Myron Taylor signed an agreement recognizing the Steel Workers Organizing Committee as the sole representative for its workforce. The contract also included a 40-hour work week and pay for overtime. (From Workday Minnesota)

Judi Bari Portrait from the Lucha Continua mural, 3260 23rd St., Mission District, San Francisco (Image by Gary Soup)

March 2, 1997 – Earth First! activist and IWW organizer Judi Bari (b.1949) died on this date from cancer. Bari and her comrade Darryl Cherney survived a terrorist bomb in Oakland, CA, in 1990. The police and FBI immediately blamed her for the bombing, claiming that she was the terrorist and that the bomb was intended for the logging companies. She was arrested and handcuffed to her hospital bed. Bari and Cherney were eventually exonerated and won a hefty settlement for the FBI’s role in violating their civil liberties. (From the Daily Bleed)

Teachers are Terrorists and Corporate Shills

Politicians are notorious for saying stupid, embarrassing and downright insulting and hurtful things in the quest to promote their political agendas. Michael Bloomberg’s recent comparison of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to the National Rifle Association (NRA) ranks right up there with some of the stupidest—but here are a few other ditties (just in case you missed them):

Teachers Unions are Terrorist Organizations

In 2004, Education Secretary Rod Paige called the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association (NEA), a "terrorist organization" during a White House meeting with state governors.

Schools and Universities Should Be Blown Up

Since the teachers are a bunch of terrorists, it is justifiable to blow up the places where they hang. In line with this sort of thinking, right-wing education privatization cheerleader and Fordham Foundation President Chester E. Finn Jr. said that the best way to reform public education is to “Blow it up and start over,” while his counterpart, Reid Lyon, former Chief of Child Development and Behavior Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, suggested we blow up the teachers’ colleges.

Deadly Disasters are Great for Capitalism (Er, Children)

Current Education Secretary Arne Duncan said that Katrina was the best thing that could have happened to the New Orleans schools. What he meant was that disasters are fantastic ways to rally popular support for otherwise unpopular ideas, in this case, a massive scheme to convert the entire district to charter schools and destroy the unions.71% of New Orleans children are now attending charter schools, the highest rate in the nation. All employees, including teachers and custodians, were fired and forced to reapply, and all union contracts were canceled. Many of the unionized teachers were replaced by Teach For America interns.

Michael Bloomberg: Teachers Unions are Like the NRA

“It’s typical of Congress, it’s typical of unions, it’s typical of companies, I guess, where a small group is really carrying the ball and the others aren’t necessarily in agreement. . . The N.R.A. is another place where the membership, if you do the polling, doesn’t agree with the leadership.” (NY Times)

The comparison is grotesque and offensive because it likens teachers—who see themselves as defenders of childhood innocence and purity (e.g., Sandy Hook) to gun nuts and corporate shills—who are seen by many as the defenders of psychotic, murderous rampages (e.g., Sandy Hook). Yet if we ignore the offensiveness of Bloomberg’s statement, perhaps substitute AMA or Bar Association for NRA, one can see that there is some truth to Bloomberg’s comments. Most unions are like these organizations in that they invest heavily in lobbying, buying politicians and attempting to buy legislation. It is true that rank and file union members are often alienated from and disagree with their leadership. And it is true that the leadership of unions often put their own needs, interests and agenda above those of their members.

Today in Labor History—October 8

October 8, 1889 - The Printing & Graphic Communications Union was created. (From Workday Minnesota)

Tom Mooney

 October 8, 1919 –A General Strike was called to demand the release of Tom Mooney and amnesty for all political prisoners.  Mooney was a labor organizer who was falsely convicted of the fatal Preparedness Day bombing. He was not released until 1939. (From the Daily Bleed)

Preparedness Day Bombing

 October 8, 1965 – The Indonesian military began massacring thousands of "suspected" Communists. The U.S. embassy provided death squads with the names of 5,000 “communists.” Overall, the reign of terror led to 500,000 civilian deaths. (From the Daily Bleed)

October 8, 1967 - Ernesto “Che” Guevara was executed in Bolivia.  (FromWorkday Minnesota)

October 8, 1969 – SDS Weathermen launched their "Days of Rage" in Chicago, during which they blew up a statue commemorating the police involved in the 1886 Haymarket tragedy bombing which resulted in the execution of innocent anarchists. The statue was replaced and blown up again in 1970. (From the Daily Bleed)

October 8, 1969 -- Disguised as a funeral procession, the Uruguayan Tupamaro urban guerrilla organization occupied the town of Pando, robbing three banks of over 40 million pesos. (From the Daily Bleed)

Today in Labor History—September 11

September 11, 1916 – The trial of labor activist Warren Billings began in San Francisco on trumped up charges stemming from the Preparedness Day parade bombing. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 11, 1925 – Thee IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) marine strike began. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 11, 1973 – The CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Allende, ending nearly 150 years of democratic rule. Also killed in the coup were folk singer Victor Jara, and American IWW journalist Frank Teruggi. Jara courageously continued singing Venceremos (We Shall Win) while he lay on the ground, hands broken by his torturers, as they slaughtered hundreds in the national stadium. 16 years of military terror followed underPinochet. (From the Daily Bleed)

September 11, 2001 - The World Trade Center was attacked in New York City, killing hundreds of workers and setting into motion a decade of U.S. initiated terror on civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and domestic repression within the U.S.

Bird Flu Paper Going To Press

In December I wrote about how two different research groups had stitched together new varieties of the deadly H5N1 Bird Flu that were easily transmissible between ferrets through droplets in the air. Many were worried that if their results were published, terrorists could use the data to create a devastating biological weapon. As a result, publication of both papers was put on hold. However, the paper by Yoshihiro Kawaoka and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Tokyo, is now set to be published in Nature (see “One H5N1 Paper Finally Goes to Press,” in Science, May 4, 2012). The second paper, by Ron Fouchier and colleagues at Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands, has been delayed by bureaucratic red tape, but is slated to be published by Science.

Wild avian influenza strains are currently not easily transmissible from person to person and are overwhelmingly contracted only through direct contact with infected birds. Yet for those who do contract the virus, the mortality rate has been terrifyingly high (around 60%). Virologists have been predicting for years that this or another highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) strain could mutate and develop person-to-person transmissibility (like seasonal flus), leading to a deadly pandemic like the one in 1918, which killed between 50 and 100 million people worldwide.

Scientists argue that research like that conducted by the Fouchier and Kawaoka teams is essential for understanding how influenza viruses mutate and develop phenotypes that are dangerous to humans. This information would be helpful in terms of assessing pandemic risks and in terms of veterinary monitoring. For example, birds that are discovered carrying viruses with the necessary mutations could be immediately culled and monitoring increased in areas where they are discovered.

Kawaoka et al discovered that four mutations on the Hemaglutanin (the “H” in H5N1) protein would allow respiratory transmission of the virus in ferrets, which are one of the closest animals models to humans. Most influenza strains that are easily transmissible between ferrets are also easily transmissible between people. The same is not always true for bird strains.

While these new strains can spread easily through the air between ferrets, they were far less deadly than wild H5N1 and even though ferrets tend to be a good approximation for the effect in humans, scientists do not know if these new strains will in fact spread between people. Furthermore, it is not trivial to make virulent strains of influenza. The equipment, facilities and expertise necessary to produce virulent new strains of influenza are not easy to come by and it is unlikely that any terrorists would have the skill and access to the necessary materials.