You write: "It is ironic - and the height of hypocrisy - that this same man who speaks with such reverence for Mr. Mandela and recalls his own support for the struggle against apartheid now allows the Justice Department under his command to criminalize similar First Amendment advocacy against Israeli apartheid and repressive foreign governments."
It is now clear to everyone, except a few Democratic groupies, that we should never have taken anything Obama said seriously. The man a complete fraud who will work for whoever pays the most and can fund his next campaign. He was pushed into the political forefront much the same way Reagan and George W. Bush were suddenly pushed ahead of the rest by corporate interests. Politicians are just tools, after all. Of course, Obama's sponsors love the power that the 1996 legislation gives him, and they will make him use that power to further their interests.
It seems as though we are re-entering the 1920s, that period in which corporate power was strengthened after the 1917 Espionage Act was used to kill the IWW and most other counterweights to corporate power. This will not end up well, but the corporations don't care.

Continue shopping, report suspicious activity, and don't ask questions:

[The Secretary of State has determined that both the PLFP and the FARC "threaten US national security, foreign policy or economic interests," a finding not reviewable by the courts, ]

Astonishing that Obama, as smart as he is, did not re-open the bogus 9/11 Commission and find out what really went on that day. That was one reason he was elected. Another was closing Gitmo. Another was undoing the PATRIOT Act, and the Unitary Presidency. Another was to end the illegal wars in the Mideast. Another was DADT--which really should be labelled "Don't Care, Doesn't Matter".

And now we have, along with tax breaks for the wealthiest, this foolishness by Holder. Get with the program boys. Do what you were elected to do.

in nothing less than latin code script,amicus briefs is that french for "anti corpotzoo freedom fighters postdated in the past tense on a spreedsheet no less,,,to be filled in latter as ya fish yer temporary perception of direction on down the vainity of yer locally nearest fraud of a ,oo, cowardly drain,(NPT),please translate,,,=we need your BLooD or history would never live"it VVV down,the diff between horrorist and horrist is subtle indeed

This law is a violation of free speech!!
This is pathedic!!

I thought we were a free country!!

Next your neighbor will turn you in for saying something about how absolutly stupid war is!!
Oops.

Well, there's another way to support your causes, and Madoff is the ultimate prototype. "Embezzle" investment money from your "clients" that will deposit it directly into the foreign state bank(s,) delivering to your cause:

"... any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including currency or monetary instruments or financial services, lodging, training, expert advice or assistance, safe houses, false documentation or identification, communications equipment, facilities, weapons, lethal substances, explosives, personnel and transportation except medicine or religious materials."

Just make sure you have tacit US gov't approval vis-a-vis regulatory shut-out from other higher up gov't agencies, like the Fed, who also supports said cause. And in this case, $60B of support goes a long way to funding a lot of extra "projects" for railways, subways, defense initiatives, and medical centers of said cause, even with your "clients" names prominently displayed in dedication to their "losses" to the Madoff ponzi scheme.

Who needs Republicans with Holder and Obama in charge?

You people who keep looking to Daddy Obama to bring democracy to this country--get over it, would you? He's part of the fascist regime. You can't vote fascists out of power. They have to be removed by force. Voting is a democratic mechanism. Fascists don't do democracy. They do what they want until they're stopped by force.

What they're trying to do is make it so ANY organization you support that has a political bent TPTB doesn't agree with may expose you to prison time.

This, coming from the government that refuses to investigate war crimes and the biggest financial scandal in the history of the world.

The scales have tipped way too far in the fascist state direction.

IMVHO we're an inch away from anarchy. Maybe that's the only path to equilibrium.

Free Julian Assange!
Hail Bernie Sanders!

It also appears that anyone who contributes to either the Democratic or Republican Party could be charged as a Terrorist.

No more Obama. Won't vote for him. No more Republicans either. Both parties are corporate puppets.
Hail Bernie Sanders.

1. President Eisenhower's Farewell Speech says it all; warning against the increasing military power and influence in government.

2. George Washington warned against standing armies. The USA has had standing armies since WW II.

3. Since dropping the A-bomb on Hiroshima & Nagasaki, the USA has grown to become the leading state-operated terrorist power in the world.

I'll tell you what, I'll believe Ahmadinejad before I believe the liars in Washington. They're just looking for an excuse for another war.

Now I know why Obama never does what he was elected for.

He gets his instructions from TelAviv.

Fascist Laws like this is the reason for the second amendment.

A person is accused of terrorism, their defence attorney attempts to prove the invalidity of the accusations and is promptly arrested and convicted for providing material support to terrorism.
The basis of this law is to be able to turn any act of protest against government action into an accusation of material support of terrorism simply by the government making a supposition of connection of that protest to any terrorist organisation no matter how indirect that connection is.

“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.” Martin Niemoller

The circle is closing.

Since the 'Patriot' Act went into effect, any group or person the govt. didn't like (or became afraid of) automatically became a 'Terrorist'.

Clearly, the govt. (i.e., the corporate oligarchs that now clearly own and run the govt.) do not like, or are afraid of, the great mass of the citizens of the U.S.

Ergo, We The People are 'Terrorists, to their way of thinking.

Perhaps We The People should get about our designated 'business'.....

More and more people are finding it complimentary to be placed on an NSA watch list. When I mentioned my status as a "POI" to retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern he said, "You must be doing something right."

Impeach the chief justice, scalia, and thomas. Not only are they clearly against our constitution, they can't even write decent rulings. They just phone it in.

When will our military leaders be charged under this new law for their aid and assistance to the Taliban, which is well-documented and widely reported?

The great thing about these kinds of laws is that they allow the President to preside over the American people like a King. He (and ONLY he) gets to decide who is "allowed" to speak with groups deemed to be "terrorists" (deemed by HIM, no less). He, and only he, gets to decide who to prosecute and when and for what activities. The law is not applied consistently, it is applied at the whim of one man who, in my humble opinion, holds WAY too much individual power.

It is sad that the Supreme Court is so quick to crown our leader and instill him as a monarch. So much for the separation of powers, or checks and balances.

Maybe the Supreme Court was worried that a secret cartel, acting behind closed doors on the President's whim, would deem THEM to be a terrorist group?

Please, all you Republican trolls - who pretend you voted for Obama in 2008 and are now going to throw your little hissy-fits and make 100% sure we get stuck with Romney in 2012 - leave TruthOut alone; go bask in Hedges hectoring if you want. I can't believe you even get driver's licenses with your inability to retain the thought that the Executive Branch can diddle in Justice matters. America was sunk once Roberts became Chief Justice, so stop trying to deflect your "buyer's angst" onto Obama. Holder is the only individual Black Man who can restart the 9-11 Commission (which the CIA will never allow) or even think of prosecuting the Torturers (Cheney, Yoo, Addington), and someone's got a gun to his head plus he's wishy-washy. No, the criminals extorting Obama are much more powerful and creepy than the (cough) Loyal Opposition in Congress. They have a gun to OUR heads and if Obama doesn't do their will, we're toast. If you're still standing upright and breathing and stuff, there's still hope; but you gotta get biz-ay!