Timeline to Tyranny

The events of September 11, 2001 were the most horrific attacks on American soil in our nation’s history. Our citizens will never know if these terrible events were a planned conspiracy or simply incompetence in our highest levels of government. Either way the fallout has yielded a directed effort by our nation’s rulers to rid the people of cherished rights and liberties and move this great country into a state of corporate fascism and tyranny. The following is a timeline that traces the passage of laws by Congress from the attacks to present day. This list does not include Executive Orders or Judicial Reviews.

Erosion of the Bill of Rights

October 2001 - The USA Patriot Act becomes law. Among other things the law: makes it a crime for anyone to contribute money or material support for any group on the State Department’s Terror Watch List, allows the FBI to monitor and tape conversations between attorneys and clients, allows the FBI to order librarians to turn over information about patron’s reading habits, allows the government to conduct surveillance on internet and email use of US citizens without notice. The act also calls for expanded use of National Security Letters (NSLs), which allow the FBI to search telephone, email and financial records of US citizens without a court order.

November 2002 - Homeland Security Act of 2002 establishes separate Department of Homeland Security. Among other things the department will federally coordinate for the first time all local and state law enforcement nationwide and run a Directorate of Information and Analysis with authority to compile comprehensive data on US citizens using public and commercial records including credit card, phone, bank, and travel. The department also will be exempt form Freedom of Information Act disclosure requirements.

February 2003 - Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 grants the FBI unprecedented power to obtain records from financial institutions without requiring permission from a judge. Under the law, the FBI does not need to seek a court order to access such records, nor does it need to prove just cause. This includes all purchase transaction information.

December 2004 - Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 was a sweeping piece of legislation that covered the following issues; reform of the intelligence community focusing on information sharing, tracking security clearances, no fly list and associated background checks, border protection and immigration issues, federal grants to build local prisons and increase federal/local law enforcement communications capabilities, implementation of some items in 911 commission report.

May 2005 – Real ID Act of 2005 mandates that states adopt a National ID or “internal passport.” The National ID ties you to the massive public/private databases allowing unrestricted access to all your private information by anyone reading the card. Additionally it creates the infrastructure to track and monitor Americans as they move within the United States.

September 2006 - Military Commissions Act authorizes torture and strips non- US citizen detainees suspected of terrorist ties of the right of habeas corpus (which includes formal charges, counsel and hearings). It also empowers US presidents at their discretion to declare US citizens as enemy combatants and subject to detention without charge or due process.

October 2006 - John Warner Defense Authorization Act. The act allows a president to declare a public emergency and station US military troops anywhere in America as well as take control of state based National Guard units without consent of the governor or other local authorities. The law authorizes presidential deployment of US troops to round-up and detain “potential terrorists”, “illegal aliens” and “disorderly” citizenry.

August 2007 - Protect America Act, which is an amendment to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, allows the government to monitor phone calls and e-mails without a warrant or any judicial oversight. This act needs reauthorization in February 2008 due to sunset clause.

November 2007 - Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Act passed the House of Representatives 400 to 6 (to be voted on in the Senate in 2008). The act proposes the establishment of a commission composed of members of the House and Senate, Homeland Security and others, to “examine and report upon the facts and causes of violent radicalization, homegrown terrorism, and ideologically based violence in the United States” and specifically the role of the internet in fostering and disseminating extremism. According to the bill the term `violent radicalization’ means the process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change, while the term ‘ideologically-based violence’ means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual’s political, religious, or social beliefs.”

The attacks of September 11, 2001 were simply an excuse for the ruling elite to strip the citizens of this great county of their constitutionally guaranteed rights. Notice that all of these laws are targeted equally to American citizens as well as "terrorists".