"Terrorist" nuns

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http://www.islamonline.net/servlet/Sate ... /NWELayout

CAIRO — Joining protests against US President George W. Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, two American nuns finally found themselves on the country's terrorist watch list.

"This term terrorist is a really serious accusation," Sister Ardeth Platte told The Washington Times on Friday, October 10.

Ardeth and Sister Carol Gilbert received letters from the Maryland State Police that they are placed on the terrorist watch list.

"There is no way that we ever want to be identified as terrorists," said Ardeth, a nun for 54 years.

"We are nonviolent. We are faith-based."

The two nuns are known for anti-war activities.

In 2002, they were jailed after breaking into an unmanned missile site in northeastern Colorado in protest over the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"We're Dominicans; our mission is 'veritas,' which is truth," said Sister Carol.

The Bush administration calls its watch list one of the most effective tools in its "war against terrorism."

The list was initially limited to criminals and drug traffickers, but an executive order by President George W. Bush after the 9/11 attacks expanded it to include terror suspects.

The record, compiled and overseen by the FBI, can be used by a wide range of government agencies in security screening.

The names are put on "no-fly" or "selectee" lists in US airports that subject them to travel bans, arrest or additional screening.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the US watch list has ballooned to one million records.

Muzzling

The nuns were among 53 anti-war activists on the watch list, which activists believe is a broader effort to control Maryland's protest community.

"It is clear to us that the full extent of the MSP's improper activities have yet to be fully disclosed," said David Rocah, a staff attorney for ACLU, which represented the nuns in the effort to obtain information on the spying.

E-mails released by ACLU show that Baltimore police were coordinating with the National Security Agency in 2003 and 2004 to spy on the protest group Quakers, who routinely protested outside the security agency's headquarters.

A police spokesman declined to answer questions whether the spying was more expansive or involved many other groups, saying he was unsure why the nuns and other activists were on the list.

"The fact there was a record with their name is the reason we're in this situation that were in," said spokesman Greg Shipley.

The two nuns said that the O'Malley administration is brushing off questions about broader police surveillance.

"Think they just want to kind of pooh-pooh it away and say it's no big thing," said Sister Carol, a nun for 43 years.

The nuns said that the government wants to muzzle the anti-war activists.

"Democracy is built on these elements on being able to speak out to speak what we believe is truth," Sister Carol said.

Wow, this is insanity. everyone is getting on the terrorist watchlists.

Ha! Good! Nuns creep me out; and I hate bench-sitters who try and think protesting is a fun, quick "democratic" event! These two think they had a valid opinion; but they broke into a missile silo!! Gods, that list may be extreme, but some peoples behaviour has a justifiable place on such a list! Everybody remembers almost every incidence of a "peaceful" protest.

In some cases, it is kind of a stretch to figure out why people were put on the watch list, and one fears government power. But I would say that this is fairly justified.

I'm probably already on the list for the stuff I've said against various gov't and non-profit organizations here, but if so they haven't gotten around to telling me. Guess I'll find out next time I fly. I've actually been singled out for a slightly more extensive search before when I was in line at the gate (the lady wanted to see what was in my huge camera bag that I carry my stuff in on vacation) but I have no idea whether it was a random search or pre-determined by my security status.

Denny Crane!

It is crazy to think that the government is afraid of two Nuns, have you ever heard of a nun committing a violent crime? I mean this is so insane I mean first little babies and toddlers were not allowed on a plane because they had the same name as someone on the list. People have gone from having acceptable fear of terrorism to being extremely paranoid to the point innocent people are being target as suspects for no good reason.

I find everyone's reactions in this thread, barring Ishmael's, rather puzzling. I realize this is a standard reaction to stories about people being put on the watchlist, but did any of you actually read the article? To requote:

Unmanned.

Excactly. If you think about it; it's worse. Nobody to stop them if they accidentally/decided to do something really stupid. Their behaviour fits the legal definition of terrorism; just because they are nuns, doesn't mean they can get away with it.
What if I hijacked a plane - not with intent to crash it, but to "protest".
What would that make me?

They didn't do anything, besides trespass I mean its not like they went over to fire a few Missiles at Washington, it was a protest nothing more. People are idiots a lot and this is a case where idiots are in power.

If they were to just stand on a street with signs they sure wouldn't have made the news.

Is it worse to trespass or to kill millions of people?

They made a statement.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wJsovPRTEM[/youtube]

They legally fit terrorists!
Who knows what kind of security measures they could have set off - and who knows what behaviour they might have decided were rational?
Breaking into any sort of weapons facility is no "protest" or minor transgression!
I think, by that logic, just to "protest" - I may as well steal an F/A-18 and go on a tank hunting rampage - y'know, as an anti-war "protest".
Breaking into an armed facility is an aggresive act; not exactly anti-war by any realistic description.

C'mon...Lets be reasonable. I'd hardly say that running around with machine guns can be compared to what they did. Answer me this:

If you were living in Germany when the Jews were in the concentration camps and millions of people were being slaughtered for the Fatherland,
would you have done anything?

Do you think that if those nuns would have committed the same crime to make a political statement against the Nazis that it would have been an ethical move, or just an illegal action?

http://www.afghanistanafterdemocracy.com/page10.html

Yeah exactly right!
Running around with a couple of machine guns is GOOD CLEAN FUN
compared to breaking into and messing with a nuclear weapon!

Last edited by ValMikeSmith on 13 Oct 2008, 12:07 am, edited 2 times in total.

Oh, come on! You cannot possibly compare the Nazi regime to the American government! To do so is an insult to the survivors, and pissing on the bravery of those who defied the Nazis!
These women are not heroes! They are uninvolved, uninformed, unpredictable people!
"Protesting" in close vicinity to control mechanisms or security devices to deadly weaponry, no less! What, specifically, were these idealogical infants protesting? Are they directly involved enough to have full knowledge? Did they have any right to break into a facility such as they did?
How are they any different to machine gun waving terrorists?
They used aggression to make their opinion known, and were an unkown, unpredictable and unbalanced factor around powerful machinery!
It's not the machine guns that make somebody a terrorist!! That's a common media misconception! It's ideology! Psychology!
Just because they are nuns, they cannot get away with having performed a possibly deadly act!