CA: State Releases Anti-Terrorism Intelligence Reports

SACRAMENTO — State intelligence reports released Thursday by the Schwarzenegger administration include material suggesting that the governor's anti-terrorism operation was interested in the actions of the Minuteman volunteer border patrol group.

The reports also include a cryptic reference to "suspicious conversations at a mosque" in San Diego.

State officials released more than 80 intelligence reports prepared for the state Office of Homeland Security, in response to The Times' disclosure that two reports carried information about domestic political protests ranging from antiwar gatherings to protect-the-seals rallies.

Large sections of the reports shown to reporters had been removed. The homeland security office said the blocked material was "law-enforcement sensitive."

Time for reviewing the documents was limited, but the material visible to reporters contained no other information on political protests.

One report, dated Feb. 23, carried two references to a Los Angeles Times article about the Minuteman Project on a cover sheet, with a reprint of the article inside. It detailed the Minuteman attempt to take part in a Patriots Day parade in Laguna Beach.

After the mention of the Minuteman Project, members of a state anti-terrorism partnership apparently wrote in comments. Those remarks were removed from the report that was made public.

In an interview on a radio talk show last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the Minuteman volunteers, commending the group for performing a public service at a time when federal border patrols have been lacking.

"I think they've done a terrific job," Schwarzenegger said in the interview. "They've cut down the crossing of illegal immigrants a huge percentage."

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...include material suggesting that the governor's anti-terrorism operation was interested in the actions of the Minuteman volunteer border patrol group.
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What does it say when a State finds that some group intent on remaining true either to the general principles or a specific provision of the Constitution allocates surveillance resources against that group?

I think it demonstrates that the real Constitution has been exiled and that States are clearly operating so far afield from it that they rationally fear being exposed.

In the case of immigration, we have seen the words, ideas, and principles of the Real Constitution deconstructed and disassembled into little pieces, and then we see those little pieces being assembled into something different than the original.

We have seen immigration deconstructed and reconstructed into economic migration: people who pay a person to smuggle them across the border are only trying to make their lives better. They just want to pay our taxes instead of Mexican taxes. They just want to be law-abiding citizens. (We really hope they will remember which politicians pried the door open so more of them could sneak in here.)

The Constitution in Exile was based on a definitive border- a clear line of demarcation of sovereignty. On one side, US law and rights were in effect. On the other side, they did not. This is just too black and white for those who have exiled the Constitution. This is just too racist, to oppressive, to harsh.

Their solution? Enforce the border or exile the Constitution? Who is treated as rational and who is treated as an "extremist threat", worthy of the surveillance resources being devoted to them?

The answer is clear. No nation can exist when it refuses to be careful who it allows in to visit, to work or to set up housekeeping.

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