Get ready for the gulags...

Remember the incendiary Department of Homeland Security report on "Rightwing Extremism" which was leaked in early April? Recall that the report suggested people who care about and are vocal about religion, the sanctity of marriage, oppose abortion, support the Second Amendment, are concerned about illegal immigration, increasingly higher taxes and the sovereignty of the United States were dangerous? And that military veterans were prime candidates to be indoctrinated to commit acts of terrorism?
Read the report on "Rightwing Extremism"
There is an article in today's New York Times which reports that Obama met with human rights activists in consideration of a "Preventive Detention" plan "that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried."
This meeting, intended to be kept off the record, raised many concerns for human rights activists in attendance who are still seething that Obama has reversed his position on releasing Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse photos and continuing military tribunals for terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, both of which are the right call. Releasing the photos can only inflame anti-American violence against our soldiers, and detainees at Gitmo are not American citizens, nor ought they be afforded the rights of American citizenship such as the right to trial in U.S. criminal courts on U.S. soil.
I do, however, agree with the human rights activists in this instance in light of the recent DHS report on "Rightwing Extremism" and domestic terrorism.
The intention or this meeting and these discussions, it seems, is to formulate a legal precedent for detaining individuals who otherwise could not be charged and detained, simply on the suspicion of potential to commit acts of terrorism or on the suspicion of the possibility of posing a threat to national security at some point in the future. Further, they may not necessarily be captured on a foreign battlefield. According to the Times article, "Mr. Obama did not seem to be thinking about preventive detention for terrorism suspects now held at Guantanamo Bay, but rather for those captured in the future, in settings other than a legitimate battlefield like Afghanistan." Try your local Walmart or even your own front yard!
But that could never happen to an American citizen, could it? Recall the aforementioned Department of Homeland Security report. The report intimates that those who oppose abortion, are concerned about taxes, the declining economy and job losses are "rightwing extremists" and potential domestic terrorists. Can a prominent Pro-Life religious leader, then, be considered dangerous and a threat to national security and be imprisoned? Could a citizen, concerned about increasingly higher taxation and increasingly reckless government spending be jailed for expressing his or her opinions at a Tea Party? Or on a weblog? Might an unemployed worker be incarcerated for bemoaning the precipitous job loss in the construction and manufacturing sectors? What about someone who simply writes a letter to the editor in their local newspaper to express their concern for a government policy with which they do not agree? What about a highly decorated veteran who speaks out about his concerns regarding current foreign policy?
Conspiracy theory or not, these are legitimate concerns. Joseph Stalin was a very popular leader who cultivated a powerful cult of personality, and was responsible for throwing hundreds of thousands of people into prisons, the Soviet gulags, and for the deaths of untold millions. Adolf Hitler began his reign as an immensely popular transformative democratic leader, and history speaks of his atrocities.
If ever there were a time to remain vigilant in protecting and upholding our freedoms and the exceptionalism of the United States of America, the time is now.