War on Civil Liberties at Home
We are guaranteed certain rights and civil liberties by our Constitution. Our very freedoms and the basis of our democracy are being threatened not by outside terrorists but by our own government whose balance of power has been dangerously tilted in such a way that the executive branch has stolen for themselves unprecedented powers. The Bush administration, the US dept of justice and the us congress have enacted a series of laws, executive orders, and regulations which have blatantly violated the constitution, us laws, and international and humanitarian law.
The war on our civil liberties is being carried out in the name of the "war on terrorism." Our government is trying to scare us with ominous threats of "terrorists" from whom they must protect us at any cost. Those of us who were protesting in New York experienced the police state type lockdown first hand. It was attributed to an "orange alert." The official story the public was fed was that alQaida was planning "dirty bomb" attacks on US cities and that 600-1,000 al-Qaida terrorist cells were identified around the nation. The FBI was forced to admit shortly thereafter that the Orange Alert was really based on inform! ation gained from one captured person who was interrogated in an unidentifiable location and who then "failed the lie detector test." Yet the Orange Alert and public fear campaign continued. The intentions behind the government’s disinformation are not hard to guess. Fear is the best way to gain control of people and distract them from the bigger issues. The Orange Alert came out the same day that the proposed Patriot Act 2 was leaked and shortly before the massive rally in New York was planned.
We must not be distracted. We must not blindly believe the government lies. We must become informed citizens who are aware of our government’s wars both abroad and at home. The Center for Constitutional Rights warns us: "The Executive branch by using executive tools of choice for combating terrorism has deliberately chosen methodologies that are largely outside the purview of both the legislature and the judiciary. As a result the war on terror is largely being conducted by Executive fiat and the constitutional guarantees of both citizens and non-citizens alike have been seriously compromised."
We are living in a land where racial and religious profiling is being practiced. We are living in a land where the government can and has come to peoples houses in the middle of the night and "disappears" them- not needing to provide them with a warrant or an explanation for their arrest, and can hold them for an indefinite amount of time without releasing any information to their families or the public about the nature of the charges or the status of the detainee. Does this sound like freedom?
In the blue triangle network’s January publication they reported the story of Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen born in Brooklyn who was seized by us agents in may after returning from Switzerland. Jose, a convert to Islam disappeared without a trace for five weeks and on june 10 Ashcroft bragged that Padilla’s arrest had stopped a plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb". The next day, Paul Wolfowitz the deputy secretary of defense was forced to admit that there never was an actual plan of bombing, and other authorities admitted Padilla had not chosen a target, made a plan, or possessed materials for a bomb." This is just one of thousands of stories that has come out since 9-11. There are stories of people! seized in the middle of the night, grabbed off buses and tranes, homes raided by fed agents carrying guns, and children who have been terrorized. Does this sound more like our vision of communist Russia, a Latin American dictatorship or our beloved land of the free?
The present administration is waging a war- a war on civil liberties in the name of terrorism, and we must act out now – show our noncompliance and insist alteration, because the alterations that they have put into effect since September 11 are truly terrifying. The patriot act was rushed into place, most members of the House had not read it before they were forced to vote on it, and yet its implications are far reaching. Here are a few of the new powers our government has: Any law enforcement agency can enter your home or business when you aren’t there and collect evidence without informing you, and then use this evidence against you. This is a blatant violation of the 4th amendment. This new power is in section 213 the sneak and peak provision applies to regular criminal as well as terrorist investigation.
If suspected of committing a crime any federal law enforcement agency may monitor all of your internet traffic, read your emails, and monitor your cell phone calls all without a warrant. This infringes on fourth and fifth amendment rights and is in section 202 and 216 of the patriot act.
The FBI or any other fed agents can come to your business and seize any records if they assert that it is in connection with a terrorist investigation- then if you tell any one they were there it is basis for arrest. This is in violation of first and forth amendments of the constitution and is found in title 2 section 501 of this wonderful act.
The CIA who has been spying on American citizens for decades, but has never been able to use their information in court, can now conduct an investigation and introduce it as evidence. They can use materials collected outside the parameters of search and seizure rules. This is blatantly against the exclusionary rule of the 4th amendment and is found in titles 2and 9 of the pat act.
Now perhaps the most frightening point of all is the way that domestic terrorist is defined by this patriot act in section 802 . It is defines domestic terrorism as "activities that involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States… and appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population or to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion" Now the ACLU and myriad other organizations are not up in arms about this for no good reason. This definition is intentionally vague so as to give the government the authority to criminalize acts of protest which are naturally intended to influence government policy. It is clear that this administration is setting up a climate of fe! ar and a repression. We’ve heard Bush say over and over "either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists" the implication being that if you oppose his dictatorial regime you are unpatriotic. We’ve heard Ashcroft say that "to those who scare peace loving people with phantoms of lost rights my message to you is this: your tactics only aid terrorists." Well, these aren’t phantoms of lost rights, they are very real abrogations of our guaranteed civil liberties, and it is our duty to oppose these new measures, and by opposing we will be fighting terror- the terror that our own government is inflicting in this land.
Bush’s Executive order establishing military tribunals basically gives the president the discretion to try someone as a terrorist (keep in mind the broad definition we’ve been provided with) in a military tribunal in which he appoints all of the key roles and whose ultimate sentence can be execution. "The military tribunals staffed and controlled by military officers who work directly at the behest of the president abandon and offend the Constitution’s due process and guarantee of an independent judiciary."
It is truly terrifying to take note of the level to which our rights and civil liberties have been denigrated. However, possibly equally alarming are the future plans of our government. As Jonathon Turley, a professor of constitutional law at George Washington University wrote, "Attorney General John Ashcroft’s announced desire for camps for us citizens he deems to be enemy combatants has moved him from merely being a political embarrassment to being a constitutional menace. Ashcroft’s plan.. would allow him to order the indefinite incarceration of us citizens and summarily strip them of their constitutional rights and access to the courts by declaring them enemy combatants."
The ACLU cites a long list of programs which they deem as part of the "cult of surveillance in the current administration." These incude Total Information Awareness and the Patriot Act 2. Total Information Awareness is a Pentagon funded project whose aim is to create the most expansive electronic surveillance network ever made. It will monitor every American’s reading habits, financial transactions, travel plans, internet surfing, and mental health history in order to predict future behavior.
The Patriot Act 2 is a legislation proposal called the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003" which would basically take away any rights we might have left in the name of protecting us. Some of the provisions allow secret detention of US citizens, and further allowances of searches and wiretaps in our homes without any proof of criminal activity. The worst component would allow Ashcroft to revoke the citizenship of those who he considers as supporters of terrorist organizations (keep in mind the broad definition of terrorist organization).
And again- I ask you, do these measures sound like those that are permissible in a free and democratic country? I’m not here to be an alarmist, nor do I claim to have all the answers. I’m an everyday citizen who’s scared of this administrations blatant abuse of power. I was empowered last week when I stood in New York with half a million other Americans and I knew, that for each of us there were many more back home who are concerned and are ready to take action. We can prevent the Patriot Act II from happening, but we must start voicing our opposition before it is rushed through Congress while we are distracted. The time to speak up is now. We have many important tasks ahead of us. We must prevent US government terrorism both at home and abroad. We must take actions to save our civil liberties. I’ll leave you with the words of Pastor Martin Niemoeller "First they came for the communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, but by that time, no one was left to speak up."
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