The FBI's "Violent Extremist Students Program"

I totally missed this March article at Alternet. The VES Program just hit L.A.

There's a community meeting on this program taking place at LACAN (Los Angeles Community Action Network) so I may have a local update later.

Just what we need. Further militarization of high school campuses.

Under new guidelines, Muslim students will be disproportionately targeted – but all young people will be suspect.

Naturally, the FBI is just trying to keep us safe from radical Islam.

The FBI’s justification for such surveillance is based on McCarthy-era theories of radicalization, in which authorities monitor thoughts and behaviors that they claim to lead to acts of violent subversion, even if those people being watched have not committed any wrongdoing. This model has been widely discredited as a violence prevention method, including by the U.S. government, but it is now being imported to schools nationwide as official federal policy.

Thanks Obama! Because they hate our freedoms?

The document aims to encourage schools to monitor their students more carefully for signs of radicalization but its definition of radicalization is vague,” said Arun Kundnani, author of The Muslims are Coming! Islamophobia, extremism, and the domestic War on Terror and an adjunct professor at New York University. “Drawing on the junk science of radicalization models, the document dangerously blurs the distinction between legitimate ideological expression and violent criminal actions.”

Free speech is such a quaint, archaic luxury. Here are the existential threats we should be on the lookout for:

If the FBI’s criteria are to be believed, children who exhibit “development delay or disorders, resulting from low quality supportive environments” are at greater risk. So too are the “disenfranchised – student feeling lost, lonely, hopeless, or abandoned.” The FBI calls for greater scrutiny of students with mental health disorders and identifies neighborhoods families, and socio-economic status as factors to watch out for.

I can't continue with this. Go read the full, sad story: http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/fbi-has-new-plan-spy-high-schoo...

I gotta take a sanity break.
Peace Out.

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Sandino's picture

in place for when they need to entrap some more mental deficients to generate terror bust headlines. If they were trying to stop real terrorists, they'd have to go to the White House.

Remember, guns don't kill people, former high school students do.

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leonamarie's picture

If my biological son Matt and his best friend David who is my informally adopted son were in school today they would both be on the list. Low income, fractured family structure, developmental disabilities, refusal to quietly follow SOP, questioning everything, and both had (and still have) an encyclopedic interest in guns. Neither are religious, but both investigated different forms of "thinking" on the internet - at SCHOOL.

Neither have ever had any interest in doing any harm to any person or creature. Both have been and are responsible for pets. They are both living quiet adult lives.

But they were both asocial and odd as children and teens. They would have been perfect targets for this kind of f'''''ed up "protection of society." After the last few days, I didn't think I could become more disheartened and angry at the incredibly stupidity of what passes for government and justice in this country, this week. I guess I was wrong! Time for more tears.

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I no longer believe in the religion of progress

finally being set into motion
against those who thought
gov't over-reach would
never touch them.

"First they came for . . ."

Edit: Reply to leonamarie at
12:48am.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

elenacarlena's picture

Thanks for the hope and change, Obama.

Will anyone stick up for the disenfranchised? Will anyone protest the waste of money?

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Please check out Pet Vet Help, consider joining us to help pets, and follow me @ElenaCarlena on Twitter! Thank you.

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Only connect. - E.M. Forster

Meteor Man's picture

The meeting went late so I only had a chance to verify the details in the Alternet article and find out that the VES Program had already been fully implemented in Minneapolis and San Francisco. Those are the two we know about.

Jesus fucking Christ on a crutch. I guess we're lucky Obama is so dedicated to civil liberties.

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"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

tapu dali's picture

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There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

Damnit Janet's picture

not spying and desinfranchising them.

What was Obama trying to creaate? A School of Americas College style?

Portland Xmas Tree attempted Bomber was also coerced.

With all the actual bad guys, why are these "agents" trying to create bad guys??

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"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison

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Orwell was an optimist