Ala.: Anti-Abortion, Gay Rights "Terror"

(CBS/AP)  A Web site operated by the Alabama Department of Homeland Security identified gay rights organizations, anti-abortion groups, environmentalists and people opposed to genetically-altered foods among those who could be classified as terrorists.

Certain Web pages were removed from the Internet after the agency received complaints about the site.

It had listed different types of terrorists, such as hate groups, anti-government groups and anarchists, and included "single-issue extremists" which it said can be found in groups that rally behind specific causes.

The page had said, "Single issue extremists often focus on issues that are important to all of us. However, they have no problem crossing the line between legal protest and change and illegal acts, to include even murder, to succeed in their goals. In many communities, law enforcement officials feel that these groups offer the greatest organized threat to the community."

The site indicated that these "radical elements" are found in many of the following movements:

• Environmentalists
  
• Anti-Genetics (those opposed to genetically-altered crops)
  
• Animal Rights
  
• Anti-Abortion
  
• Anti-Nuclear
  
• Anti-War
  
• Pro-Gay Rights

The site softened its critique, somewhat, by stating, "Single-issue extremists are not trying to fight a cheap war or overthrow our government. In fact, they feel that what they are doing is necessary for a better world."

The department's director, Jim Walker, says his agency received a number of calls and e-mails from people who said they felt the Web site unfairly targeted certain people just because of their beliefs.

Walker says he plans to put the Web site back on the Internet, but will no longer identify specific types of groups.

Howard Bayliss, board chair for the gay and lesbian advocacy group Equality Alabama, says he doesn't understand why advocates of gay rights would be included on the list.

He says Equality Alabama has only had peaceful demonstrations. He says he's "deeply concerned we've been profiled in this discriminatory matter."

Allison Neal, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, says she has looked at parts of the Web site and is concerned about anything that pinpoints people "exercising their constitutional right to protest" as potential terrorists.

Walker says the Web site, which could be reached by links from the department's main Web page, had been up since spring 2004 and was inspired by a similar Web site in Pennsylvania where, he says, "citizens could go and learn about terrorists."

The department's main Web page is still active.

Walker says over three years the single-issue Web site got a relatively small number of hits and stirred little interest, until recently when it apparently became the subject of Internet blogs.

He says the site got 20,000 hits in one day and the department started getting calls from people who were offended by it.

Walker says he does not have a problem with the site.

"Just because people are listed," he says, "that doesn't make them extremists."

He continues: "But sometimes people will go to extremes." He cited examples of people who have bombed abortion clinics.

But Walker says because the Web site did not list every possible example of single-issue terrorism, he has decided to eliminate the examples.

[supercritic1]

The only thing more shameful than the comments are the village idiots in the Department of Homeland Security who had the unbelievable arrogance to post this kind of web. It is an abuse of their authority and a unbelievable waste of time and money. It is no wonder they could not manage to get ice and water to victims of Katrina. In that instance people died, so I guess we should be grateful. I assume that as we turn over the rocks we will find that the moron who was responsible for this imbecility was Bush's campaign manager in South Pautuckie. My message to him is simple...You pathetic jackass, go back to pumping gas and wiping windshields at Uncle Joe's Gas Station! and stay away from things you don't understand.

[ilovejesus58]

Alabama's state government seems to favor doing good deeds on the one hand and then doing evil deeds on the other hand. On one hand, they favor abortion(bad idea)but on the other hand, they favor the abolition of gay rights(good idea).
HEY, ALABAMA, HAVEN'T YOU EVER READ IN THE BIBLE WHERE IT TELLS YOU THAT YOU CAN'T DO GOOD WHILE YOU'RE DOING BAD?! If you want to do something good for the citizens of Alabama, that's great(i.e., abolition of gay rights)! But please don't turn around and do something bad for the citizens of Alabama(i.e., by allowing abortions of innocent, defenseless lives).
But you are not alone in this, Alabama, because we're all a bunch of sinners also. Mark 7:21 tells us,"....out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts."

[agnim]

Genetic tampering is a means of poisoning people.
If anything it is the scientists engaged in genetic engineers are the real terrorists.

And sissified f@ggots as terrorists? LOL

Those nasty filth-stirring deviants couldn't frighten the intestinal worms they live in; but it is good to see them on the list. Let America knows that the perverted homosexuals should be stifled.

[paulhdavis]

Howard Bayliss and Allison Neal seem to be incredibly, frighteningly naive about the nature of contemporary US government. The Constitution is, for modern government, about as binding or relevant as The Beatitudes are for Christians who murder abortion doctors.

"Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" is the paraphrased quotation of John Philpot Curran in 1790. We and our forebears have been non-vigilant for over a century, and now we are reaping the bitter fruits of a government corrupted beyond the recognition of those who gave us this Republic.

The Founders would, incidentally, now be classified in Alabama as "terrorists" because of the strongly anti-government leanings they exhibited in their inflammatory documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

It is a crime to advocate or seek the VIOLENT overthrow of the government. It is not a crime to seek the non-violent overthrow of the corrupt government. Indeed, the founders of our country instruct us that it is an obligation if we cherish our freedom. They're dead now. Now it's our turn.

[luckygirl042]

Please re-read the article Uncle_James--you said:

"I agree with Alabama about f.a.g.s and abortionists being terrorists!
Posted by Uncle_James"
The article clearly states that ANTI-ABORTIONISTS are terrorists! Therefore, in Alabama, YOU are a terrorist, Uncle_James--LOL!
Join the group.
I try very hard not to buy GM foods, am pro gay rights, pro troops but anti-war etc... so I am a threat. America as we knew it is gone!

[annie_roxx2]

You gotta love the South...

[kpokey]

This is absolutely nuts. Nobody should be classified a terrorist until he/she does something bad. So people aren't free to have strong beliefs and fight for those beliefs in this country anymore without being labeled a terrorist? I guess we're not so free in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[uncle_james-2009]

.

[vinepetal904]

anti-body: someone who physically accosts someone who says something, or because someone said someone should be physically accosted


are are classified as terrorists those who feed the world by investing money in those who make everyone pay for lunch? or those who invest votes in those who tax everyone at gunpoint? or those who invest market share in all but the most vulnerable: toddlers and infants?


if, for example, more millionaires make their fortune dealing in multi thousand dollar real estate than in multi million dollar real estate, does that mean creeps d.a.r.e. where stable people just plain don't war?

[brianbwb-2009]

The definition of terrorism has been co-opted by the right to mean "anyone who resists our subjugation, or annihilation". Look up the word, professional journalists, and please stop using it as it has currently being used, because it destroys your credibility.

Iraqis, Afghanis, and/or Palestinians resisting US and/or Israeli occupation is not terrorism, as and when it is directed against a military force, but cross burning, lynching, assassination of civilian abortion doctors, physical assault on "gay" pepole, police brutality, and the Aryan nations' sending anthrax-laced mail is terrorism.
As for you "red staters" (fixitdamnit)you talk as if you don't use illegal alien labor, to pick your veggies and cotton at slave wages, in order to lubricate your local economies. When this boldface lie is no longer the case, then you can justifiably complain.