Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, September 21, 2023

The U.S. government has designated Sept. 25 as National “If You See Something, Say Something” Awareness Day.

The phrase was coined by New York advertising executive Allan Kay after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 and was trademarked by the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But the focus in 2023 is much different than 22 years earlier.

If the aftermath of Jan. 6, 2021 is any indication, the targets of suspicion could well be be Americans with a MAGA state of mind. And the template for the program, some observers note, appears to the the Chinese Communist Party.

The 2024 DHS Homeland Threat Assessment noted that:

“In 2021, 2022, and 2023 DHS designated domestic violent extremism as a ‘National Priority Area’ within its Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP), enabling our partners to access critical funds that help prevent, prepare for, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from related threats.”

See something suspicious? says the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), then say something about it to the police, call it in to a government hotline, or report it using a convenient app on your smart phone.

The DHS has spared no expense to raise awareness of its “See Something, Say Something” campaign, plastering the walls of subway stations, putting its propaganda on billboards, on coffee cup sleeves, at the Super Bowl, even on television monitors in the Statue of Liberty.

“This DHS slogan is nothing more than the government’s way of indoctrinating ‘we the people’ into the mindset that we’re an extension of the government and, as such, have a patriotic duty to be suspicious of, spy on, and turn in our fellow citizens,” John & Nisha Whitehead wrote in a Sept. 19 analysis for The Rutherford Institute.

That’s right, DHS is grooming a nation of snitches.

“We are now the unwitting victims of an interconnected, tightly woven, technologically evolving web of real-time, warrantless, wall-to-wall, widening mass surveillance dragnet comprised of fusion centers, red flag laws, behavioral threat assessments, terror watch lists, facial recognition, snitch tip lines, biometric scanners, pre-crime programs, DNA databases, data mining, precognitive technology and contact tracing apps, to name just a few,” the analysis noted.

“This is how the government keeps us under control and in its crosshairs.”

In China, under the state-backed snitching initiative, an informer can receive as much as 100,000 yuan (US$14,945) per snitch. How long until DHS changes its slogan to “See Something, Say Something, and get paid?”

So, what kind of information is the DHS looking to get out of its army of informants?

The Rutherford analysis warned:

“Are you among the 41% of Americans who regularly attend church or some other religious service?

“Do you believe the economy is about to collapse and the government will soon declare martial law?

“Do you display an unusual number of political and/or ideological bumper stickers on your car?

“Are you among the 44% of Americans who live in a household with a gun? If so, are you concerned that the government may be plotting to confiscate your firearms?

“If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you may be an anti-government extremist (a.k.a. domestic terrorist) in the eyes of the government and flagged for heightened surveillance and pre-emptive intervention.”

John Whitehead continued: “If you believe in and exercise your rights under the Constitution (namely, your right to speak freely, worship freely, associate with like-minded individuals who share your political views, criticize the government, own a weapon, demand a warrant before being questioned or searched, or any other activity viewed as potentially anti-government, racist, bigoted, anarchic or sovereign), you have just been promoted to the top of the government’s terrorism watch list.”

According to journalist Leo Hohmann, the feds are handing out $20 million in grants to police, mental health networks, universities, churches and school districts to enlist their help in identifying Americans who might be political dissidents or potential “extremists.”

As Hohmann explains, “Whether it’s Covid and vaccines, the war in Ukraine, immigration, the Second Amendment, LGBTQ ideology and child-gender confusion, the integrity of our elections, or the issue of protecting life in the womb, you are no longer allowed to hold dissenting opinions and voice them publicly in America. If you do, your own government will take note and consider you a potential ‘violent extremist’ and terrorist.”

In 2009, DHS released two reports, one on “Rightwing Extremism,” which broadly defines rightwing extremists as individuals and groups “that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely,” and one on “Leftwing Extremism,” which labeled environmental and animal rights activist groups as extremists.

Fast forward a few years and now the government has in place the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which allows the military to take Americans seen as “extremists” out of their homes and lock them up with no access to friends, family or the courts.

“Now connect the dots, from the 2009 Extremism reports to the NDAA and the far-reaching data crime fusion centers that collect and share surveillance data between local, state and federal police agencies,” the Rutherford analysis noted.

“Add in tens of thousands of armed, surveillance drones that will soon blanket American skies, facial recognition technology that identifies and tracks you wherever you go and whatever you do. And then to complete the circle, toss in the real-time crime centers which are attempting to ‘predict’ crimes and identify criminals before they happen based on widespread surveillance, complex mathematical algorithms and prognostication programs.

“If you can’t read the writing on the wall, you need to pay better attention.”

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  ‘See something, anti-government extremist, DHS, say something’: DHS recruits Americans to inform on Americans, WorldTribune.com