From: "Macdonald Stainsby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [R-G] What is "terrorism"? LA Times Defining Terrorism Stirs Words of Dispute By DAVID G. SAVAGE and GREG MILLER Times Staff Writers October 1 2001 - LA Times WASHINGTON -- One of the hardest issues facing lawmakers who are writing new antiterrorism legislation is the one that many might see as the easiest: What is "terrorism"? All agree that a politically motivated attack that kills innocent civilians, such as the destruction of the World Trade Center, is terrorism at its worst. But the Justice Department has proposed to define "terrorism" so broadly that some lawmakers fear it would include a teenage computer hacker or a protester who tosses a rock through the window of a federal building. And because the government wants to prosecute all those who "harbor" or "conspire" with terrorists, a loose definition could brand thousands of protesters as conspirators in a terrorist plot. Senate aides and administration lawyers negotiated over the weekend on the details of the law, and some progress was reported. "We want to limit it [terrorist offenses] to situations where death or serious bodily injured is involved. The administration people said they see merit in that suggestion," a Senate aide involved in the negotiations said Sunday. The two sides hope to reach agreement on the legislation early this week. Because terrorism is not one crime but many, Justice Department lawyers opted for an open-ended definition. Their draft bill defines a "federal terrorism offense" by referring to 35 other crimes. They range from destroying an aircraft or assassinating the president, to offenses such as "injury to government property" or "computer trespass." This set off alarms among civil libertarians. <SNIP> The full article is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-100101legal.story ------------------------------------------- Macdonald Stainsby Rad-Green List: Radical anti-capitalist environmental discussion. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/rad-green ---- Leninist-International: Building bridges in the tradition of V.I. Lenin. http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/leninist-international ---- In the contradiction lies the hope. --Bertholt Brecht _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
