NCJ Number
122491
Journal
Social Justice Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1989) Pages: 31-63
Date Published
1989
Length
33 pages
Annotation
The domestic counterterrorist policy of the United States government is a proactive, technocratically-organized, and cohesive program of political repression.
Abstract
Thus, the Reagan administration has developed policies, guidelines, and proposals to provide a variety of government agencies with the authority to respond to and to prevent incidents of political violence by leftist organizations. As a result, almost all of those who have been imprisoned for acts of political violence have longstanding histories of involvement in a small segment of and with an anti-imperialist tendency of the leftist movements. However, the government policies and organizational structures that have developed during the Reagan administration cannot be considered an aberrant program that is responding to aberrant revolutionaries that will disappear when these groups have been incapacitated. Instead, it is significant that the domestic counterterrorist program began as an ideological campaign before most of the terrorists appeared. Moreover, the program continues to expand and is likely to widen its current definition of domestic terrorism to include individuals and groups not yet involved in illegal or violent activities. 100 references.