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posted by martyb on Monday August 31 2015, @09:48AM   Printer-friendly
from the time-to-start-torrenting-on-a-gigabit-connection dept.

PC World reports on the story of an American teenager who has been sentenced to eleven years in jail and who will have his Internet use monitored by the government for the rest of his life.

His crime was to assume that his Constitutionally-protected Freedom of Speech included posting pro-ISIS messages on Twitter and other social media.

"Today's sentencing demonstrates that those who use social media as a tool to provide support and resources to ISIL will be identified and prosecuted with no less vigilance than those who travel to take up arms with ISIL," said U.S. Attorney Dana Boente...

[Ali Shukri Amin] created the Twitter account @AmreekiWitness in 2014, and used it to provide advice and encouragement to ISIS and its supporters, according to court documents. At one point the account had over 4,000 followers. He also helped other ISIS supporters who sought to travel to Syria to join the group, according to the Justice Department.

The question that Soylentils should ask is, "What groups do I belong to that someone in government might decide are 'terrorist', and am I at risk for speaking out?"

The Canadian government for instance has come within a hair of declaring prominent environmental groups to be terrorists.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday August 31 2015, @03:23PM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Monday August 31 2015, @03:23PM (#230221) Journal

    Please refer me to that part of the Constitution where the President is authorized to declare war. In the absence of such, this sounds like an Executive branch coup.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @04:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @04:27PM (#230252)

    Well, the War Powers act allows him to attack someone, and then send it to Congress for approval. And then if Congress doesn't actively say "no", it's considered fine and legal.

    It's a neat way to avoid needing to ever cast a vote for war again.

    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday August 31 2015, @07:59PM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Monday August 31 2015, @07:59PM (#230411) Journal

      Let us not forget that Obama set the precedent for ignoring the WPA with Libya, which also smells like an Executive branch coup.