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“In order to stop terrorists from destroying America’s democratic freedoms, we will destroy America’s democratic freedoms ourselves.”
That seems to be the official slogan of Washington’s goofy war on terrorism. Not only has George W attacked the wrong country in his surreal war, but his administration also continues to shut down our Constitutional liberties here at home. They have secretly seized everything from library records to the emails of innocent Americans, suppressed the right to peaceful assembly and free speech, suspended the core legal right of habeas corps, and generally asserted an autocratic authority to rule by executive fiat.
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Now comes another goofy directive from on high – this one to suppress the right to the free expression of religion. In the name of battling terrorist, the Bureau of Prisons (or BOP) has decreed that chaplains in every federal prison must systematically purge their chapel libraries of all religious books, CDs, videos, and other materials that are not on the approved list. Calling this purge the “Standardized Chapel Library Project,” BOP says it relied on “experts” to choose 150 books for each of 20 religions. Who are these experts? BOP won’t say.
Libraries that had thousands of religious texts, have had their shelves decimated. The censorship is necessary, snapped a BOP official, in order to “assure reliable teachings.” Hello… this is government dictating religious teachings – a Constitutional no-no.
Ah, the officials cluck, but we’re protecting you from prisoners who might read some inflammatory Muslims materials and be converted to terrorists. Hmmm… but BOP’s list excludes such writings as “Living Positively” by Pastor Robert Schuller – are they calling that a militant text?
Perhaps the strategy of the Bushites is to show the terrorist that we can be nuttier that they are. Now, that’s really scary.
“Prisons Purge Books on Faith From Libraries,” The New York Times, September 10, 2007