[sevnson_71]

Washington (CNN) -- A bipartisan group of legislators on Thursday introduced legislation in Congress to strip citizenship from any American found to be involved in terrorism.

If the Terrorist Expatriation Act passes, an American would lose citizenship if found to have provided material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization -- as designated by the secretary of state -- or participated in actions against the United States.

Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, and Scott Brown, R-Massachusetts, co-sponsored the bill. An identical bill is being introduced in the House by Reps. Jason Altmire, D-Pennsylvania, and Charlie Dent, R-Pennsylvania.

"As the attempted terrorist attack on Times Square showed us again, our enemies today are even more willing than the Nazis or fascists were to kill innocent civilian Americans [in WWII]," Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, told reporters. "Our enemies today are stateless actors who don't wear uniforms and plot against Americans abroad and here in the United States."




FULL STORY

Proposed Bill

Legislation to be changed by the above bill




My take; Do I disagree with stripping a terrorist foreign or domestically born of their citizenry? Not necessarily. But remember our roots. One man's patriot is another's traitor. As it is written now? No way, no how. It is too vague, and there is NO due process whatsoever. We have precedents dating back to the Boston Massacre of people accused of crimes up to and including high treason being afforded due process, in that case by one of our founding fathers and the future 2nd US President. To allow such a decision to be taken out of the hands of the citizenry into the hands of a political appointee is a VERY slippery slope, one that could easily be abused in the wrong hands.

[Terilynn]

It's exactly what the terrorists wanted us to do. Cave into our own fears and turn ourselves into a paranoid bunch of fascists. This plays right into their goal. What "defines" terrorist? What becomes defined can have that definition altered at the will of an administration - therefore giving said administration unrelenting power over the citizenry. The past 8 years have made McCarthyism look like a mere whiff of bad air.

"For the first link of a chain is forged, the first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."

This post has been edited by Terilynn: 11 May 2010 - 04:07 PM

[sevnson_71]

It isn't the law of the land YET TL. If everyone's respective delegations in DC get bombarded enough with correspondence against it it never will be either.

[Terilynn]

sevnson_71, on 11 May 2010 - 05:04 PM, said:

It isn't the law of the land YET TL. If everyone's respective delegations in DC get bombarded enough with correspondence against it it never will be either.

You are correct. I will assure my reps know my opinion.

[Trek Realist]

You know, if people who live in Northern Ireland, Israel, or Lebanon saw the fuss the American's make over possible terrorism in their everyday rhetoric they would laugh their asses off. Compared to those aforementioned areas the current situation in the US is like a trip to Knott's Berry Farm

[sevnson_71]

It isn't so much reaction to a problem that could be handled while small as overreaction after being blissfully ignorant and not taking proper precautions before it became a big problem. Kinda like the idiot that blows by you in a 4wd on the highway doing dry pavement speeds when there is snow on the road that ends up doing an ass-over-teakettle into the median ditch because they found out their brakes don't work on black ice

[JulesLuvsShinzon]

As much as I can sympathise with the sentiment about the outrages so-called "homegrown" terrorists have sought to create in the US and in other countries, this sounds like a massive overreaction to me.

Suspects need to have due process, absolutely.