Population: One

Glenn Reynolds wrote about this case as an example of Homeland Security out of control. I figured I’d take a look at it and condemn it; from his description it looked pretty open and shut. In fact, from the article, it looked pretty open and shut. Sure, the guy’s a right winger, but that’s no excuse for persecuting him.

On the other hand, if he’s really taking a job at a gun store in order to collect names and home addresses of police in preparation for violent activity, that’s kind of the sort of thing you’d expect the cops to be worried about. So is Wynn telling the truth?

He claims that he’s never advocated violence. From the Militia of Georgia January 2003 newsletter, which he wrote:

“For years, I’ve given that analogy about a man who does not have a legal right to take away your money but, should he pull a gun and demand your money, he has the power to do so. For years, when I’ve made that analogy, many of you have let your testosterone and macho attitude take over and say, ‘Oh yeah, he may pull a gun but, I’m prepared and he’ll have to eat a few bullets….. blah, blah, blah…’ Well, friends, here it is, put up or shut up time…”

When Jimmy Wynn says he doesn’t advocate violence against police, he means he doesn’t advocate violence against “lawful” police. It’s a cute out. He doesn’t consider the current government to be lawful.

Also from the Patrioteer, by a different author: “If someone wants to know if the militia is ‘kind of skinhead hate group’ you will spend a great deal of time trying to prove that the bulk of the militia movement is not promoting racism.” Here’s the Forsythe Covenant, which was adopted by Wynn’s group in 1987. “The burgeoning non-white population explosion within our borders must be brought under control.” Yeah, they don’t promote racism.

So that’s Jimmy Wynn. He’s advocated violent revolution and he’s a racist. What does that mean about the news story?

Not much, actually. Either the GBI had evidence that he was collecting data illegally or they didn’t. Tipping off the store owner is way out of line. If there’s an issue, the GBI has plenty of power to investigate. Suspicion, even when it’s a guy like Jimmy Wynn, is not a very good reason to get someone fired. Do this kind of thing without due process, and all you’ve got is another martyr with another talking point that he can use to draw more people into the militia movement.

And, um, that’s exactly the position the GBI took on the matter. The agent who made the mistake was reprimanded and transferred. The GBI legal director said “more than likely contributed to, if not caused, the termination of a subject’s job because of his association with a particular group with no evidence of a crime being planned or committed…”

So in answer to Glenn’s question, “Who will speak out against this resurgence of McCarthyism?” I would have to say “The officer’s superiors are doing a pretty good job of that.” Tempest in a teapot.

Mindboggling. The first debate of the election and there’s no way I can find to watch or listen to it live. There’s not even an Internet feed. If I lived in South Carolina I’d have gone and bootlegged a feed somehow.

So, what’s up in the world this fine morning? Stratfor kindly converted my US/Iraq war subscription into a general subscription, so I have a wealth of material to speak of.

India and Russia are conducting joint naval exercises, which are pretty much symbolic — they want to remind the world that they’re allies. It’s a good thing to remember, considering that India fully intends to become a world power over the next twenty years. Bruce Sterling wrote a great article about the India/China space race, which echoed this Guardian article from January. It might be somewhat disturbing to consider the fact that China, India, and Russia are all cheesed off about Gulf War II. Or not, if you think we’ve reached the end of history and no other nation will ever rise in prominence.

On a more cheerful note, India and Pakistan have resumed diplomatic relations. Breathe a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, the military just observed that the secular nature of Turkey’s government should be “carefully protected.” Erdogan is not someone the Turkish military wants to see in power, and his party is the direct descendant of the government which fell in 1997. By “fell,” I mean “was pressured to step down by the military.” We could see another coup in the relatively near future; certainly tensions are high.

Also of note: Kurds in Turkey are protesting violently in the aftermath of the recent quake. More Kurdish/Turkish friction can’t be good.

Not terribly surprisingly, some Democrats are more than willing to jump on the terror bandwagon. Want to push your domestic agenda? Bring up the war on terror! Bah. The proposals, not unlike much of what Bush has been pushing, assume that terrorists are inept idiots. In this case, you’d have to assume terrorists are incapable of stockpiling weapons. Seems an unlikely assumption to me.

Via Light of Reason, and while you’re there read Silber’s quietly painful memories of growing up gay in the 60s.

The SF Chronicle has an interesting article, which claims the most watched station in post-war Iraq is Iranian national television. The New York Times backs this up. I’m a wee bit skeptical, considering how long Iran and Iraq were at war, but even if I discount the reports by 50% it’s still more reason to think that the Shia, Iran-influenced majority will be fairly hostile to American influence.

I was listening to NPR the other night and some guy called in to bitch about the ingratitude of the Iraqis. He’d paid thousands of dollars in taxes to help free ‘em and they weren’t properly grateful. All I can say is that the ingratitude was predicted — but I guess since it was the left predicting it, he figured it was just more meaningless fiskable noise.