Nowhere was this dynamic more obvious than with the Octopassage of the USA PATRIOT Act, which endowed the government with unprecedented powers of surveillance, search and seizure, and suppression of dissent (see Best and Black and Black in this volume). While flags waved everywhere, the Bush administration was gutting freedoms and shredding the Constitution, movingAmericaever closer to tyranny. The “war on terrorism“ quickly became an attack on civil liberties, free speech, and domestic dissent. Without question, there were real enemies outside our continent to be wary of, but the government exaggerated the threat as it began to identify imaginary enemies within. Activist groups like the Sierra Club announced that they were indefinitely suspending all criticism against Bush’s pro-corporate agenda as the nation tried to pull together. Instantaneously, it became unpatriotic to criticize President Bush, the government, or US policy on any front. On September 11, 2001, the political landscape changed dramatically. “But if you have no relationship with the living things on this earth, you may lose whatever relationship you have with humanity.” Krishnamurti “The world only goes forward because of those who oppose it.” Goethe (Introduction to Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals***) Behind the Mask: Uncovering the Animal Liberation Front
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