Editorial: Harman's 'terrorism' bill casts too wide a net

It's not often that we agree with Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach. But he was right on target in voting against an inflammatory bill by Rep. Jane Harman, D-El Segundo, on "violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism." This bill (HR1955/S1959) whizzed through the House 404-6 and awaits action in the Senate.

Harman's bill would create a new national commission and yet another university-based Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence for $22 million. Rohrabacher believes that money would be better spent on existing law enforcement efforts to counter terrorism.

He's absolutely right, but his objections don't go far enough.

The definitions in the bill are so vague as to sweep up all sorts of activities that Americans would not associate with terrorism. That's why the bill has drawn the opposition of the National Lawyers Guild, the Center for Constitutional Rights and civil liberties groups.

According to the bill, "violent radicalization" is promoting an undefined "extremist belief system." It is using "force or violence" to advance "political, religious or social change."

Of course, force need not involve physical violence. Examples of nonviolent force abound: Blacks in the 1950s staging sit-ins at whites-only restaurants; suffragettes chaining themselves to the White House fence in the 1910s to win the vote; workers striking to win better labor conditions in the 1930s.

And what constitutes homegrown terrorism? According to Harman's bill, it includes planning to "intimidate or coerce" the government or people of the United States to further "political or social objectives." In short, Harman's bill would make civil disobedience in the name of political change "homegrown terrorism."

Even worse, the national commission that would ferret out such activity would have sweeping subpoena and investigative powers to haul individuals and groups in for examination.

Certainly, the United States must be vigilant against violent extremism. For example, police and the FBI recently thwarted a black Muslim gang based at the California state prison in Folsom that plotted anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli attacks. The Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project has shown that white supremacist, neo-Nazi, black separatist and militia groups are increasing.

But experts have noted that we are dealing with very small conspiracies and individuals – like Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. We're better off enhancing intelligence gathering capabilities of local police than raising unwarranted fears among Americans of homegrown jihadists.

Harman's bill is labeled as an act to "prevent homegrown terrorism," and undefined "other purposes." This makes her bill eerily similar to the bill creating the House Un-American Activities Committee, which began in 1938 as a vehicle for investigating Nazi propaganda "and certain other propaganda activity."

The abuses of that committee, including its harassment of civil rights groups, are well documented. The Senate should kill Harman's bill and give the $22 million to local law enforcement, protecting the nation's citizens without ensnaring political activities as homegrown terrorism.