Anti-terrorism bill kills our civil liberties
A Ministry of Truth Exclusive Report
U.S. Department of Injustice!
By Damian Hospital
WASHINGTON, Nov 9 (dailyskew.com) - The U.S. Justice Department's new rule to listen in on conversations between some inmates and their lawyers in an effort to prevent terrorist acts
is unconstitutional and against the precepts of democracy.
Think about it: how could anyone get a fair
trial in this country when the feds are listening in to defendants'
conversations, and monitoring their mail?
Remember, criminals are not different than
you or I. ANYONE could be arrested and held in custody for NUMEROUS
reasons.
Part of living in a democracy includes having
due process, a right to counsel, and a fair trial.
The order, signed off by John Ashcroft took effect immediately.
It also provided for the monitoring of mail and communications with attorneys for as long as a
year.
The defendant and the attorney would get notice of the government's listening, Ashcroft said.
Rachel King, who once attempted to defend an owner of the
DailySkew.com, of the American Civil Liberties Union said the rule set a "terrifying precedent" and was "very scary." She added, "It's nothing short of a police state."
Irwin Schwartz, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said, "The federal government has no business eavesdropping on these conversations, absent a court order."
Robert Hirshon, president of the American Bar Association, said
he was "deeply troubled" by the order, saying it ran "squarely afoul" of the U.S. Constitution and impinged on the right to counsel.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to Ashcroft the new policy raised grave concerns.
The Justice Department reported that 1,182 people were arrested or detained between Sept. 11 and Nov. 5. A department official said the total no longer would be provided, with figures only for those charged with immigration violations or federal criminal charges.
"There is a danger when any nation faces this sort of peril to immediately look for more powers and my own fear and experience is that those powers almost inevitably affect the rights of everybody but the people intended to be put in peril,"
proclaimed Richard Goldstone, a judge from South Africa.
The rule represented one in a series of steps by Ashcroft in what he has described as an aggressive campaign to prevent future terrorist attacks after the Sept. 11 hijackings of planes that hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing thousands.
Ashcroft maintained the constitutional rights of the inmates to a lawyer would be protected.
