Enemies List - Nixon had one....and now we have a new list????

Verbatim from Wikipedia:

Nixon’s Enemies List is the informal name of what started as a list of President Richard Nixon’s major political opponents compiled by Charles Colson, written by George T. Bell[1] (assistant to Colson, special counsel to the White House), and sent in memorandum form to John Dean on September 9, 1971. The list was part of a campaign officially known as “Opponents List” and “Political Enemies Project.” The official purpose, as described by the White House Counsel’s Office, was to “screw” Nixon’s political enemies, by means of tax audits from the IRS, and by manipulating “grant availability, federal contracts, litigation, prosecution, etc.”


In a memorandum from John Dean to Lawrence Higby (August 16, 1971), Dean explained the purpose of the list succinctly:

“ This memorandum addresses the matter of how we can maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration; stated a bit more bluntly—how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies. ”

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Comment:

There were twenty names on the initial list but eventually the list grew to over 30,000 names. We all know what happened to President Nixon's term in office - he was forced out of office.

Historical Note:

Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (ASA) was a criminal offence in the Soviet Union. The term was interchangeably used with counterrevolutionary agitation.


Article 58.10 of RSFSR Penal Code -"propaganda and agitation that called to overturn or undermining of the Soviet power" - punishable with at least 6 months of imprisonment and up to the death sentence in the periods of war or unrest.

Article 58.10 was "updated" by a new

Article 70, Anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.

It was defined as
1.  Propaganda or agitation with the purpose of undermining or weakening of the Soviet power or with the purpose of committing or incitement to commit particularly grave crimes against the Soviet state (as defined in the law);

2.  The spreading with the same purposes of slanderous fabrications that target the Soviet political and social system;

3. Production, dissemination or storage, for the same purposes, of literature with anti-Soviet content.
 
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The communist leaders of the USSR used this tool, through the 'courts', to prosecute Soviet dissidents - among them countless advocates for human rights sentenced to labor camps, internal exile, etc...in the Gulag.
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Comment:
 
So if the 'government' has an internal (i.e. list of Americans) "enemies list" does that mean that they're looking to pass laws or use 'tactics' abridging Freedom of Speech (except when it praises 'the government')???

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