COMMENT: Will the feds try to criminalize ‘extreme’ speech in contradiction to the 1st Amendment? What is the agenda concerning domestic terrorism? Why is this lightning rod church being promoted so heavily by the media and intelligence community? What will it mean for peaceful demonstrators in the U.S.?
NPR
Posted July 9, 2011
The Westboro Baptist Church is infamous for picketing soldiers’ funerals with signs like “Thank God for Dead Soldiers” and “God Hates the USA.”
Yet the FBI recently invited leaders of the fundamentalist church to the Quantico Marine base in Virginia to talk to FBI agents as part of the bureau’s counterterrorism training program. But after four sessions this spring, the FBI canceled the arrangement amid criticism from inside the bureau, while church leaders claimed that they had been misled.
The FBI first invited the church group to address the FBI’s law enforcement training classes back in 2008. And initially, there were no apparent problems. But the most recent sessions, including three at Quantico and one in Manassass, Va., stirred up controversy.
[…]
Law enforcement officials who attended the session said it was focused on domestic terrorism. They were told that the FBI invited Westboro members to the class so police officers and agents could see extremists up close and understand what makes them tick.
See also: FBI Invites Virulent Westboro Baptist Church to Assist in Counterterrorism Training Program
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