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FBI Accused of Abusing Criminal Database
Peace protesters were unable to leave the country to speak in Canada because their names had been added to a database of criminals. There's a serious due-process violation here because a listing in this database is equivalent to an "infamous" conviction. "'The FBI's placing of peace activists on an international criminal database is blatant political intimidation of US citizens opposed to Bush administration policies,' says Colonel Wright, who was also Deputy US Ambassador in four countries. 'The Canadian government should certainly not accept this FBI database as the criteria for entering the country... The list is supposed to be for felony and serious misdemeanor offenses. We don't qualify — it's for sex offenders, foreign fugitives, gang violence and terrorist organizations, people who are on parole...'"
As a sidenote, yes, Canada has recently been getting extremely picky about letting people with criminal records into the country, even petty crimes and decades old DUIs.
From Article:Huh? What? When did we annex Canada? I'm sure there's some Canadians that this statement would piss off - they're quite capable of running their own country, they don't need Bush's help. Besides, why would Bush be working to make it more difficult for US Citizens to enter Canada?IE you're troublemakers, therefore the border agents were quite right to deny you entry.It looks like it's proper for you to be listed:
1. Individuals who have been fingerprinted and whose criminal history
record information has been obtained.
Any arrest is generally for at least a 'serious misdemeanor'. Minor misdemeanors get a ticket and a court date.
I don't read AC A human right
...if they want to have their names removed from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, which appears to be what the Canadian officials pulled. The NCIC "is provided by the FBI, federal, state, local and foreign criminal justice agencies, and authorized courts." Thus, the NCIC is made up of FBI data and data provided to the FBI by other government organizations. To correct a record in this database, "the subject of the requested record shall request the appropriate arresting agency, court, or correctional agency to initiate action necessary to correct any stated inaccuracy in subject's record or provide the information needed to make the record complete." Unfortunately, accessing the record in the first place can be a challenge; it looks like it requires being fingerprinted and making the request through a law enforcement agency that has access to the record. More information is available here.
http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fbi/is/ncic.htmI worked as an Immigration Officer with the Canada Border Services Agency. My duties included evaluating whether individuals were admissible to Canada based on the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The following is my personal opinion and I don't represent the Government of Canada. Also, this is not legal advice and I accept no liability.
Yes, we do have access to NCIC the FBI criminal database and we do use it as supporting evidence when we're determining if someone is inadmissible to Canada based on criminality. However, I never seen anything in the database that is not: (a) an arrest record, (b) a record of court proceedings, or (c) a warrrent/lookout/restraining order.
I can tell you that "listing in this database" is only equivalent to "a conviction" when it says exactly what you were charged and convicted of. For example, it will show you were arrested for Assault on such and such date. The next record will show that you appeared in court on such and such a date. It will then show the judge's opinion, followed by a sentence if you were found guilty.
The only ambiguity arises when the offence is not a serious misdemeanor. The problem occurs because it is up to the individual state court's to file the necessary paperwork with NCIC to have the information put into the database. Sometimes these clerks are busy and backlogged and never get around to inputting the judgement of the court into the database. In that instance, it will show you were arrested for "driving while intoxicated" but will not show if you were found guilty or not guilty. In this case, the onus is on the individual entering Canada to prove that they are not inadmissible based on criminality. The reason is that we officers are making a decision on the balance of probabilities and having evidence of possible criminal activity usually outweighs the individual's word.
I have never had someone's criminal record simply say "Peace Activist" or something equally silly. Unless you were convicted of a criminal offence, or it's reasonable for me to believe you have, then you are not going to be refused entry for criminality.
The above may contain some errors or it may be unclear. I don't have time to proofread it before work.
Yeah, OpEdNews carries regular news stories in addition to OpEd pieces. The news articles are, of course, chosen for by those with a left-leaning bias, but they are still news articles nonetheless.
My blog
It doesn't take a conviction to get into the NCIC. All it takes is an arrest, and let's face it folks, most peace terrorists have been arrested in their lifetimes, usually for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, vandalism, and other misdemeanor crimes.
For those that haven't read TFA, this is CODEPINK we're talking about. Yes, the same CODEPINK chicks that sneak into the house of reps / state of the union / etc and then start going batshit crazy (because that's an effective method of communication). I'm pretty sure that "sneaking" into US government buildings and causing a ruckus would likely be enough to get yourself on certain lists.
It would show where the arrests took place, which police department, and what year. That's about it. I would treat them as anyone else who had a criminal record. I can't make a new finding of facts or guilt right at the border, so I go with what the judge decided. If he thought he/she was guilty for offences committed while protesting, so be it.
Insofar as King, the memo regarding COINTELPRO against blacks said "The Counterintelligence Program is now being expanded to include 41 offices... For maximum effectiveness of the Counterintelligence Program, and to prevent wasted effort, long range goals are being set...Prevent the rise of a 'messiah' who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement...King could be a very real contender for this position should he abandon his supposed 'obedience' to 'white, liberal doctrines'". This is simply a secret police, a political police, trying to undermine the democratic process in this country. I know old-timer activists from the 1960s who found out due to FOIAs that the FBI had tried to get them fired from their jobs by sending anonymous letters to their employers.
Then on Fox News they whine how the liberals shackled the CIA and FBI in the 1970s - they neglect to mention how Nixon's White House staff, including old CIA hands like Hunt, were doing things like breaking into the Democratic Party campaign headquarters at the Watergate hotel however. The CIA was undermining democratic governments not only in places like Chile, but in Australia (Whitlam affair) and Italy (P2, Gladio). Even after the FBI was supposedly cleaned up in the 1970s, Reagan had them trying to seduce nuns (who were unhappy about nuns being raped and hacked up in El Salvador, as well as the archbishop being assassinated) involved in CISPES. Now with the Patriot Act etc., all of the constraints and watchdog functions over these organizations have disappeared.
Hell, even Henry Rollins ran into trouble in Australia. Some guy saw him reading the book Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam In Central Asia on a plane and turned him in as a terrorist. And you think AMERICANS are touchy.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Speaking as someone who has used NCIC extensively (See this thread http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=344011&cid=21169011 further down) ...
There are many people on the NCIC just because they have a single misdemeanor arrest. However, a record of an arrest usually won't make you inadmissible to Canada on it's own, though it certainly doesn't help. See the other thread for way more information.
I absolutely agree that Canada has a right to administer its borders as it sees fit. Importantly, the US (be it the US government or US citizens) should not be able to change Canadian policy.
That having been said, it would seem that in this current situation, Canada is being misled. They are using an FBI-published database, under the assumption that the names on the list are "criminals of significant danger." Thus, Canada is, in good faith, using this list as a filter for entry into the country.
If the list contains a significant number of people arrested for peaceful protest, this is absolutely something that the Canadian border agency wants to know about, as it may affect their entrance policies. In particular, it may cause them to value less significantly that particular database. After all, the Canadian border policy is not to deny temporary entrance to peaceful protesters, only to deny entrance to credible threats.
The Canadian border agency should absolutely look into this matter, since they are being duped just as much as the US citizens who have been illegitimately added to this list. In short, the FBI is misrepresenting the facts to US citizens, but also to the Canadian government.
(Disclosure: Not that it matters, but I am a Canadian living temporarily in the US.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest organized armed uprising in American labor history and led almost directly to the labor laws currently in effect in the United States of America. For nearly a week in late August and early September 1921, in Logan County, West Virginia, between 10,000 and 15,000 coal miners confronted state and federal troops in an effort to unionize the southwestern West Virginia mine counties. Unionization had succeeded elsewhere as part of a demographic boom that was triggered by the extension of the railroad and was characterized by unprecedented immigrant hiring and exploitation in the region. The battle was the final act in a series of violent clashes that have also been termed the Redneck War, from the color of bandannas worn by the miners around their necks for friend-or-foe identification, and the likely impetus of the common usage of the original Scottish term redneck in the vernacular of the United States.
Yeah, I guess in your twisted racist world, people who fight for their rights and the rights of their fellow man are "Under-achieving White Trash".
I hope you feel like an asshole, you certainly act like one.
I only go to buffets for the unlimited soft serve.
But my point is, the NCIC isn't some secretive blacklist like the infamous no-fly list. The NCIC is detailed, you can view your record and correct it, if it's incorrect.
Here's what I find when I look further, unvarnished outrage:
The NCIC may not be as bad as no-fly lists but that makes it's abuse more shocking. The three arrests were for protesting and it is clear than the activists are not the violent felons the laws were designed to keep out of Canada. This is an evil political abuse that will keep these protesters legally out of Canada for five years.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Without changes in Canadian law, it will be five years before they can apply for entry.
Thanks for the link, it shows they never should have been on this list which is supposed to be for:
"Peace Protester" and "political adversary" don't seem to belong there. Use of this list for anything but it's purposes is a violation of law. The particular violation represents a violation of the victim's right to due process and a challenge to Canada's sovereignty.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
The thing is, not everyone who gets arrested normally gets put on that list.
Wanna bet, do ya huh, not only is everyone who is arrested of a felony or a serious misdemeanor on the list, but even being fingerprinted gets you on the list, being kidnapped or even sometimes being missing gets you on the list; go check the website they list what's in the database and what isn't. These ladies are habitual, career criminals, of course they are on the list, I admire those ladies, they at least put their asses on the line for a cause they believe in, but that doesn't make them not what they are.
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds