Changes

'''Political profiling''' is an activity certain "watchdog" organizations engage in on various computer bulletin boards, chat rooms and wikis.  A internet user's postings under either their real life identity of pseudonym may be "profiled" for their ideological convictions based upon editing patterns, interests, subject matter, common references, or declared beliefs.  The profile is then pigeon-holed into predetermined character assessments published by the watchdog organizations.  Political profiling has been referred to as the rough equivalent of surveilling all Black males on the grounds that a certain percentage may commit violent crimes. In the sense that targeting minorities for special surveillance is called “racial profiling,” the so called "watchdog organizations" engage in "political profiling."  Some watchdog groups hold law enforcement conferences, seminars,  training  sessions, and publish manuals on this “profiling” behavior.

'''Political profiling''' is an activity certain "watchdog" organizations engage in on various computer bulletin boards, chat rooms and wikis.  A internet user's postings under either their real life identity of pseudonym may be "profiled" for their ideological convictions based upon editing patterns, interests, subject matter, common references, or declared beliefs.  The profile is then pigeon-holed into predetermined character assessments published by the watchdog organizations.  Political profiling has been referred to as the rough equivalent of surveilling all Black males on the grounds that a certain percentage may commit violent crimes. In the sense that targeting minorities for special surveillance is called “racial profiling,” the so called "watchdog organizations" engage in "political profiling."  Some watchdog groups hold law enforcement conferences, seminars,  training  sessions, and publish manuals on this “profiling” behavior.  

==Introduction==

==Introduction==

{{Cquote|Journalists place information in the public domain where they are held accountable for falsehoods, distortions, and libel. And for the most part, journalists don’t share their files with domestic police agencies... many of [the "watchdog" agency] files are not open to public scrutiny, false information collected by ideologically biased researchers cannot be corrected. <ref>Robert J. Friedman, ''The Anti-Defamation League is Spying On You'', The Village Voice, 11 May 1993. </ref>}}

{{Cquote|Journalists place information in the public domain where they are held accountable for falsehoods, distortions, and libel. And for the most part, journalists don’t share their files with domestic police agencies... many of [the "watchdog" agency] files are not open to public scrutiny, false information collected by ideologically biased researchers cannot be corrected. <ref>Robert J. Friedman, ''The Anti-Defamation League is Spying On You'', The Village Voice, 11 May 1993. </ref>}}

Wilcox observes the watchdog's publications are designed to support the ideological agenda of a like minded group, and not provide “news.”  Thier publishing activities are only a small part of its program, most of which is fundraising, lobbying, and maintaining enemies lists. <ref>Laird Wilcox, ''The Watchdogs'', 1999, pgs 54-56.</ref> Wilcox, who is cited by the ''Military Law Review'' as one the "foremost expert analysts of right and left-wing extremism" <ref>MAJ Walter M. Hudson, [http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Military_Law_Review/pdf-files/277C75~1.pdf ''Racial Extremism in the Army''], The Military Law Review, Vol 159 (Mar 99), pg. 7, Department of the Army, Washington, DC. Army Pamphlet No 27-100-159.</ref>, and has published numerous books and articles on various extreme groups in America since the early 1960s including ''American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists and Others'' by Prometheus Books chronicles the excesses of the watchdog industry, and asks, "Who is watching the Watchdogs?"

Wilcox observes the watchdog's publications are designed to support the ideological agenda of a like minded group, and not provide “news.”  Thier publishing activities are only a small part of its program, most of which is fundraising, lobbying, and maintaining enemies lists. <ref>Laird Wilcox, ''The Watchdogs'', 1999, pgs 54-56.</ref> Wilcox, who is cited by the ''Military Law Review'' as one the "foremost expert analysts of right and left-wing extremism" <ref>MAJ Walter M. Hudson, [http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Military_Law_Review/pdf-files/277C75~1.pdf ''Racial Extremism in the Army''], The Military Law Review, Vol 159 (Mar 99), pg. 7, Department of the Army, Washington, DC. Army Pamphlet No 27-100-159.</ref>, and has published numerous books and articles on various extreme groups in America since the early 1960s, including ''American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists and Others'' by Prometheus Books, chronicles the excesses of the watchdog industry, and asks, "Who is watching the Watchdogs?"

{{Cquote|The simple fact is there are money and careers to be made....an entrenched industry exists... that has attracted bullying, moralizing fanatics, whose identity and livelihood depend upon growth and expansion...There is a [[humanist]] anti-racism that focuses on reconciliation and healing, that works to bring people together, that functions openly and honestly without the use of dossiers, spies, specious lawsuits, disinformation, and that recognizes the rights of individuals whether they agree with one another or not. This is the anti-racism of good neighbors, of people helping people, of community goodwill, and of the realization that we are all human beings....

{{Cquote|The simple fact is there are money and careers to be made....an entrenched industry exists... that has attracted bullying, moralizing fanatics, whose identity and livelihood depend upon growth and expansion...There is a [[humanist]] anti-racism that focuses on reconciliation and healing, that works to bring people together, that functions openly and honestly without the use of dossiers, spies, specious lawsuits, disinformation, and that recognizes the rights of individuals whether they agree with one another or not. This is the anti-racism of good neighbors, of people helping people, of community goodwill, and of the realization that we are all human beings....