May 30, 2006 New Wave wire report:
Domestic terrorist weeps at verdict; pol dad flip-flops on security issues
By Billy Winterstar
New Wave Reporter
NEW YORK – Emily Nasinski sobbed as the judge passed down his verdict and sentence.
And as her father moaned and buried his face in grief behind her, the irony of their situation was obvious to those present at the court’s undisclosed location.
Emily Nasinski, the 23-year-old eldest daughter of state Sen. Theodore Nasinski, R-Lostport, was convicted on charges of domestic terrorism Friday before an unidentified state Supreme Court judge in the state’s newly formed counter-terrorism circuit.
The court oversees secret trials of domestic terror suspects arrested under the amended version of the state’s agricultural and markets law protecting legal animal use activities.
The law changed unlawful tampering with animal “research” to animal “activities” and expanded the common definition of terrorism to include unlawful, non-violent politically motivated protests.
It was intended to differentiate between politically motivated and personally motivated acts and declared animal and ecological protest as forms of domestic terrorism. The law also increased penalties for convicted domestic terrorists in an effort to protect those engaging in legal medical, biological and environmental research. Last year, the law was expanded to protect all lawful government and business activities from disruption by domestic terrorists.
The counter-terrorism court was formed after protestors disrupted the trial of Sandy Smith, an Ithaca housewife who was charged as a domestic terrorist after releasing rabbits at a research facility in January 2004.
The identities of judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys are kept secret under provisions of the law when necessary for security reasons.
The term of Ms. Nasinski’s sentence was not released and the site of her incarceration was also not disclosed, as is the case in most domestic terrorism convictions. However, a government source indicated the charges she was convicted of carry maximum sentences of five to 10 years.
The source said Ms. Nasinski’s profile and photograph would be placed on the state’s Domestic Terrorist Registry, accessible to citizens online.
Whether or not she remains an American citizen – a federal provision under secret amendments to the USA Patriot Act – was not reported. If her citizenship were stripped, Ms. Nasinski would lose her Constitutional rights.
The irony of her conviction lies in the fact her father was among the bipartisan sponsors of the bill in the New York State Senate that expanded the definition of terrorism, making it applicable to political activists and investigative journalists, among others.
New York’s secret court has thus far levied about 136 convictions, but Ms. Nasinski’s is the first to gain public attention due to her senator father’s outspoken regret for having introduced the popular and effective new law.
When questioned by skeptics in June 2003 about the wisdom of such a law, Sen. Nasinski said it was necessary to protect private businesses, including the health industry, as well as classified government security operations from undue disturbances.
“Too many whackos are threatening research that will save lives and jeopardize the well-being of citizens in the process,” he said, when defending his sponsorship, adding the law would only be applied in the “most extreme cases.”
Authorities report the amended agriculture and markets law has been effective in thwarting disruptions in business, the flow of capital and the psychic and physical well being of workers and consumers alike.
However, Sen. Nasinki’s views changed Friday and as a result he’s facing possible sanctions from his own party, according to Sen. Malcolm Ruffridge, R-Lambkill, chairman of the Senate’s Preemptive Intelligence Committee, which oversees the state’s domestic terrorism investigations.
“We are weighing our options. Ted’s always been reasonable and cooperative and he’s been one of our most effective legislators. But if he’s lost sight of the big picture because of his personal tragedy, he may be unfit to serve on my committee. We need men with clear judgment and unbiased principles,” he said.
Silent since his daughter’s arrest at MasterGenetic Corp. last October, Sen. Nasinski said he “never dreamed the law would be applied this way.”
A devout Roman Catholic, Sen. Nasinski established a strong law-and-order record with his fellow Republicans in the Senate, and raised Ms. Nasinski to believe human genetic research and modification were wrong.
His views landed him a key position on Ruffridge’s PI committee, but the political climate changed with the weakening of the party’s Christian wing after the nation’s humiliating failures in the Middle East and the fall of a disgraced, scandal-ridden President George W. Bush.
Since that time, corporations have been squeezing the religious right from positions of influence, leaving many Republicans estranged from their former haunts in the corridors of power.
Alienated, Ms. Nasinski took to the streets with her objections since she claimed she couldn’t gain any access to the mass media, blaming MG Corp.’s parent company, New Wave Communications, for not reporting the news or seeking out other opinions.
New Wave is America’s leading communications company, owning 75 percent of all media outlets in New York State, including this wire service.
“My father raised me to stand up for what I believe in, and I believe that what MG Corp. is doing is wrong. They’re fools playing with dynamite,” she said, while being taken away from corporate headquarters on Madison Avenue.
Police who questioned the terrorist said she could not explain rationally why genetic research was wrong.
“That’s typical of these types,” said one of Ms. Nasinski’s interrogators. “They tend not to think things through. They follow their guts and not their heads and they do crazy things that make the rest of us uncomfortable. My parents always told me if I’m the only one who thinks I’m right, and everyone else thinks I’m wrong, then I should take a look at myself. These folks just won’t do that. They’re undemocratic.”
MG Corp. wants to conduct research into the genetic modification of humans, with an emphasis on accentuating positive traits while deprogramming the negative ones.
Corporate researchers have been successful in modifying the behaviors of chimpanzees and bonobos, two subspecies of troglodyte, and hope to apply their advances to spur humankind’s evolution, said Anu Saab, MG spokesperson.
Saab said MG has been successful in making chimpanzees less aggressive by manipulating gene sequences to mimic those believed responsible for the superior docility of bonobos.
He said bonobos, on the other hand, known for their gentleness, were devolved into ruthless and aggressive apes using the same procedure to mimic certain genetic sequences unique to chimpanzees.
Military experts have suggested that the possible creation of a warrior class genetically programmed for violence at the service of docile civilian authorities would be a boon to national defense.
The experiments have been conducted on adult specimens of the primates, and the expansion to human subjects has been discussed using inmates convicted of deviant and/or violent crimes as control groups, Saab said.
Critics, however, point out the fact MG Corp.’s subsidiary, Social Restitution Inc., is New York’s largest operator of privately run correctional facilities, and worry about a conflict of interest.
“Since the bidding process would be closed, it’s not too much of a stretch of the imagination [that] they would be likely to get the nod to host and facilitate the experiments,” said Dr. Wilbur Scoop, former Surgeon General of the United States.
Scoop said controversy has also arisen over who defines which traits are positive and which negative, with pacifist organizations calling for the eradication of violent traits and conservative groups calling for the negation of immoral deviations from the social norm.
Saab envisions a workable compromise between the two, with social classes being populated by people bred for their societal function, which would allow for greater economic productivity.
“But of course, we’ll be obliged to serve the highest bidders,” he said, adding that those with the most money are successful, so statistically they have “the most virtue and wisdom.”
Sen. Nasinski himself has been an outspoken critic of MG Corp., and his daughter often wrote speeches for him and served several other functions in his office, including chief of staff.
“This law has to be amended. I never intended for it to be applied this way. The definition of terrorist is way too broad, and I was wrong in believing before that it wasn’t. I will be launching an all out investigation into how the law’s being applied first thing tomorrow, and hopefully introduce legislation within a couple of weeks to make the appropriate changes. At that time, I imagine the governor will be making a few pardons,” said the emotionally distraught senator.
However, it is hard to imagine who among Nasinski’s colleagues would co-sponsor or endorse such measures.
New York is not alone in having broadened the definition of terrorism to take advantage of changes in federal law, specifically the USA Patriot Act – 37 other states have passed similar legislation.
Targets of the new laws have included investigative journalists, the best-known being a WZYK-TV news reporter who was looking into unsafe hazardous waste disposal practices at a chemical plant in Ohio.
Marcia Hanover, 37, was convicted in February on domestic terrorism charges for trespassing on the plant’s property with a hidden camera, after frustrated whistleblowers alerted her to being asked by their employers to dump barrels of cyanide and battery acid into a ditch at the far edge of the 200-acre site.
A mobile home park abuts the ditch, which marks the chemical plant’s property line.
When the report was filed at WZYK, station manager Bernard Kolpick killed the story and reported Hanover to the Ohio State Police Counter-Terrorism Task Force.
“I had to report her because that was the law,” said Kolpick, citing the station’s policy of adherence to federal and state regulations.
In Ms. Nasinski’s case, she was picketing alone on the sidewalk in front of MG Corp. headquarters on Madison Avenue, informing passersby that the company was attempting to alter human nature.
“MG Corp. wants to make humans in their image, not God’s,” said a brochure Nasinski was distributing.
“When I read that I was terrified,” said an MG Corp. researcher, who wished to remain anonymous.
Others, who also would not give their names, echoed that thought.
“The idea that you can’t just go to work without having someone accusing you of being immoral is to me a form of terrorism,” said another. “I’m a young, single mother with three kids and a dog to feed. These terrorists are just lazy. They refuse to work and blame everybody else for the tough row they have to hoe.
“I have a right to a clear conscience.”
Polls show the public supports the expanded definitions of terrorism in most states and believe the statutes are keeping them safer by a two-to-one margin.
Terrorism charges were lodged against Ms. Nasinski after MG reported a drop in productivity during the time of her terrorist activities.
“Things have really calmed down since the new law’s taken effect,” said Gov. Rudolf Guliani, citing the fact that protesting is now largely a solo act.
“You just don’t get as many people interested in disrupting things when they understand the ramifications of their counter-productive behavior,” he said.
However, Guliani could not be reached to comment on Ms. Nasinski’s conviction, though a high-ranking aide, who wished to remain anonymous, said the governor was unlikely to make any changes in the law or issue any pardons.
“He likes the law the way it is because he believes it enhances the lives of every day New Yorkers,” the aide said.
Billy Winterstar is New Wave’s domestic terrorism correspondent and the author of the best selling “Redefining Freedom,” available at all Barnes & Noble and Walden Books locations.
Today’s Nightmare
“Is this for real?” asked a friend of mine, a person who considers himself well informed.
“Look at the date,” I said.
“May 30. So what? When did Rudy become governor? What happened to Puh-tacky? Who’s this Nasinski guy? He’s our state senator?”
“What’s the year?”
“2003.”
“On the article.”
“Oh, it’s 2006. What are you trying to say?” asked my Bush-supporting buddy.
“I’m trying to say you think you’re informed, but you don’t know how to read. You want a beer?”
We’ve been friends more than 30 years, growing up across the street from each other, so we’re more like brothers than pals. We can say anything to each other any way we want to, and we like it that way.
I got him another beer and told him my point was two-fold. The first, being most obvious, was to dramatize the potential ramifications of New York Senate bill 2996, and how it could come back to haunt those who say they’re for it. The second, an intention conveyed in the style of the piece, were the ramifications of the FCC’s loosening the regulations on media ownership, and how within a very short time, the most fascist activities imaginable, short of genocide, would be normalized and acceptable. Most people would not only come to accept the authoritarian control of society by the meta-fascist corporate state, but believe it’s a good thing and support it.
“We’re very close to slipping from acceptance at the loss of our civil liberties as a necessary evil to the loss of our freedom as a good thing for the health of the economy. Maybe we’re already there. It happens when brainwashed people think they’re well informed and want their opinions respected. But they can’t read. Why should a neurosurgeon respect my theories on the brain? Why should an architect respect my designs? Yet you want me to respect your political views and your efforts to encourage others of your ilk to vote. That’s bullshit,” I said.
“Yeah, you may know more than me, but is it true? The one thing I know is there’s a lot of room for love in the world, and you’re filled with hate. You don’t love God and you don’t like your country. Nobody knows what the truth is. Maybe your right and I’m wrong. But I think if everybody has the freedom to do what comes naturally to them things will work themselves out,” he said.
“You’re right, but we’re losing the freedom to do what comes naturally. We’re losing the ability to change our communities because other people control them from elsewhere. We don’t see the problem because the problem’s not presented to us in the corporate-run media. The solution to the problem would not be profitable for them, so alternatives are not offered. Transparency gets fogged. Unnamed sources report vague facts about unclear situations. Situations are clarified, then, by a corporate voice. The public consumes this form of news and gets brainwashed. They are also kept busy enough, well-fed enough and sufficiently entertained to keep them from digging for the truth or having their quiet desperation boil over into outright dissent.”
“You’re a fat and desperate paranoid rebel with a cause, that’s for sure. Can I bum a smoke?”
“Which kind?”
We smoked one and got into a heated argument as to whether or not Bob Dylan and Lou Reed are assholes in real life or not.
Then I went home and finished this.
Chuck Richardson is a free-lance writer from Western New York whose articles, columns and essays are archived on the editorial page at www.corporations-suck.com. He can be reached at
chucklit1@aol.com.
Note: If you think this fictional news story is far-fetched, please go to
http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi, punch in S2996, and the bill reported on above will pop up. Also check out the USA Patriot Act at
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/usa.act.final.102401.html. Remember, truth is stranger than fiction. If this law is passed in today’s legal climate, the above story may be tame in comparison to what really happens in the future.
Terrorism is a politically motivated act of physical violence against innocent victims. To say a certain act was terrorism, in other words, requires its motivation to be political and the victims of the bloody attack to be innocent of the politics that instigated the mayhem.
A terrorist can only be defined as such if that person has a history of physically hurting or killing innocent people for political gain.
Any expansion of this definition diminishes the seriousness of terrorism as a means to an end while simultaneously creating a greater need for it as a method of political expression. It is also used to suffocate opposing viewpoints and secure power over those who hold such positions.
Please contact your state legislators before you find yourself a person of interest for merely pursuing your inalienable rights as a human being.