Do you want to strip this domestic terrorist of his citizenship, Joe?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Jed Lewison reports at Daily Kos that Sen. Joe Lieberman has introduced a new proposal which would give the U.S. government the power to automatically revoke the citizenship of any American it accuses of having ties with terrorists. Joe Lieberman's un-American plan:

It isn't hard to figure out why it would be a bad idea to automatically deprive American citizens of their citizenship at the time of arrest. Indeed, any fourth grader could explain to you why Lieberman's idea is fundamentally un-American.

It would be one thing if Lieberman were proposing to strip the citizenship of American terrorists who have been convicted by a jury of their peers. But that's not what he says he's proposing. Lieberman wants to "automatically" revoke citizenship of suspected terrorists "when they are apprehended and charged with a terrorist act."

Obviously, the key word here is "automatically," because contrary to Lieberman's claim, current law on revoking citizenship does not need to be amended to cover terrorists.

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Lieberman's problem with current law isn't that it can't be applied to terrorists, it's that it places the burden of proof on the government to prove that citizenship should be revoked. If he merely wanted to revoke the citizenship of convicted terrorists, he would urge government to follow current law. Instead, he is proposing a new law because he believes the government should have the power to automatically revoke citizenship at the time of arrest without any sort of due process.

Lieberman's proposal stands in direct opposition to a cherished ideal of the American justice system: that you are innocent until proven guilty. It opposes every notion of justice enshrined in our Constitution. This stuff isn't hard to understand. We all learned it grade school. And while there's no question that Osama bin Laden would support the legal and political theory undergirding Lieberman's idea, this is not what our nation is all about. Lieberman's idea is rotten to the core: it's fundamentally and deeply un-American.

What has driven Joe Lieberman insane is the Times Square attempted bomber, Faisal Shazad. The suspect is a naturalized American citizen originally from Pakistan, a Muslim country. Joe seeks attention and runs to the cameras every time something occurs in the Muslim world, or even tangentially, in the case of Faisal Shazad.

While Joe Lieberman and the national news media are focused on Faisal Shazad, no one has reported another domestic terrorist act. 'Oath Keeper' under arrest after driving to Tennessee to take over courtouse, conduct 'citizens arrests' of public officials.

[N]o one is reporting much on the arrest earlier this week by the FBI of Darren Huff, an Oath Keeper from Georgia who was upset by the arrest a few weeks ago of another "Patriot" believer who tried to conduct a "sovereign citizens" style arrest in Tennessee:

A Georgia man has been arrested in Tennessee–authorities say he headed to Madisonville, armed and prepared to take over the courthouse.

Darren Huff stands charged of traveling in interstate commerce with intent to incite a riot and transporting in commerce a firearm in furtherance of a civil disorder.

The FBI says Huff traveled to Tennessee armed with a pistol on his hip and an assault rifle in his truck, intent on carrying out citizen's arrests of 24 federal, state, and local officials, and on seeing that another man did not face trial for trying to do the same.

In the video above, you can see what happened on April 1: A Freeman-style "sovereign citizen" named Walter Francis Fitzpatrick — after drafting "citizen's arrest warrants" for state, local, and federal officials — had entered the Madison County Courthouse and attempted to make a citizen's arrest of Grand Jury Foreman Gary Pettway. (Fitzpatrick, as the WBIR story noted, "had previously tried to get the grand jury to indict President Barack Obama on charges of treason, with no success.") Instead, deputies wound up arresting Fitzpatrick, and he was charged with disorderly conduct, inciting to riot, disrupting a meeting, and resisting arrest.

This outraged Huff, a loud and proud member of the Oath Keeperswho posted the video of Fitzpatrick's arrest with a rant demanding that his fellow Patriots leap into action to defend him. So on April 20, Huff headed to Madisonville with his big black pickup truck emblazoned with the "Oath Keepers" logo. In the back, he had ammo and several weapons, including a semiautomatic "assault" rifle.

Huff was pulled over in Sweetwater and detained, as you can see on the video, and later released on his recognizance. As the story explains:

The FBI interviewed a bank manager who said Huff told him on April 15 that Fitzpatrick had been falsely arrested, that Huff was in the Georgia militia, and that 8 or 9 other militia groups were headed to Madisonville on April 20 to "take over the city." The bank manager said Huff told him he'd see Huff's actions on the noon news.

FBI agents interviewed Huff at his home on April 19, and Huff said he would be traveling to Tennessee to help Fitzpatrick get the charges against him dropped. Huff told agents there would be no violence unless they were provoked into violence.

Still, he told agents he planned to travel with his Colt .45 handgun and AK-47 rifle.

Then, on April 20, officers in Madisonville reported numerous individuals in possession of openly displayed and concealed firearms, in the area around the courthouse.

FBI agents had observed Huff leaving his home around 6:15 that morning. Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers pulled him over in Sweetwater for traffic violations of traffic control device, registration law, and following too closely.

The troopers said Huff volunteered that he planned to travel to Madisonville to take over the courthouse, to arrest the people on Fitzpatrick's warrants–who he termed "domestic enemies of the United States engaged in treason"–and to turn those arrested over to state police to place in jail.

The troopers said Huff told them if they didn't have enough people on April 20 to do all they planned on that day, they'd be back in 1-2 weeks.

The troopers said Huff also told them he was ready to die for his rights and what he believed in, and that he would not consent to a search of his truck.

Then on April 21, Huff recorded a radio broadcast, talking about his traffic stop and saying he did have weapons and ammunition with him.

As a result, the FBI believes Huff had both the intent and means to carry out threats of violence.

Unbelievably, Huff is now out on bond.

Do you want to strip this domestic terrorist of his citizenship, Joe? Where exactly would you expatriate an American citizen from this country who engages in insurrection or treason against the United States? Is your abuse of the Constitution limited to foreign-born naturalized citizens? Particularly from Muslim countries? Tell us how far you want to go with this bad idea, Joe.