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Recent
Stories
April
9, 2003
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
David Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
April
8, 2003
David
Lindorff
Killing the Messengers: It Doesn't
Matter If It's Deliberate or Accidental
Richard
Lichtman
Dr. Phil in the Trenches
John
Brown
Why Uncle Ben Hasn't Sold Uncle Sam:
a Former Foreign Service Staffer on Bush's Policy Failures
Ben
Terrall
Report from the Oakland Docks: "The
Cops Had No Reason to Open Up on Them"
Jason Leopold
FERC and Wall Street: Conversations
May Have Violated Federal Law
Anthony
Gancarski
Conyers Heeds the Call on Perle
Linda Heard
Journalists Die, the Networks Lie, Iraqis Ask "Why?"
Ahmad
Faruqui
Wallowing in Hypocrisy
Wallace
Gagne
Baghdad Babble
Harry
Browne
Report from the Protests at the Bush/Blair
Summit
Larry Kearney
I Understand There's a Boy in
a Baghdad Hospital
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/8
M. Shahid
Alam
The Israelization of America
April
7, 2003
Todd
Chretien
Wooden Bullets & Grenades: Oakland
Cops Attack Peace Protesters and Dock Workers
David
N. Gibbs
Spying, Secrecy and the University:
The CIA is Back on Campus
Harry Browne
War and Peace Summit a Royal Farce
Gideon
Levy
America is Not a Role Model
Diane
Christian
A Scene from an Obscene War
Jules
Rabin
Remembering Deir Yassin
James Davis
Oddsmaking in Dublin: Will Bush
Shake Gerry's Hand?
Robert
Fisk
The Twisted Language of War
Patrick
Cockburn
Slaughter on the Road to Dibagah
John
Mackay
War and Art
Seth Sandronsky
Wars and the Color Line
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/7
April
5, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Iraqi Humanitarian Relief is
in Shambles
Anne
Gwynne
A Drowning in Salem
Uri
Avnery
Roadmap to Nowhere
Chris
Floyd
Hell for Leather: Bombs, Bullets, Bibles and Bush
William
Cook
Would You Have Sent Your Son (or Daughter) Off to War If...
Gila
Svirsky
A Busy Day for Bulldozers
Mike Ferner
Back from Baghdad: What Next for the Peace Movement?
Joanne
Mariner
Civilian Deaths and Official Apologies
John Stanton
Bush Takes His Killing Orders
from the Lord
Romi
Mahajan
Learning to Count the Dead
Aluf Benn
After Iraq, US Vows to Deal with
Other Mideast Regimes
Mary
Ellen Peterson
Gay Marine Refuses to Fight
William
MacDougall
Country Music and the Crimes of Patriotism
Ron
Jacobs
War and Occupation
Bernie
Pattison
Aborigines and the Different God
Mark
Engler
Iraq War as Arms Expo
Adam Engel
Li'l Box of Love: a Novelini
Poets'
Basement
Tripp, Albert, Katz
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flesh and Its Discontents: the Paintings of Lucian Freud
Norman
Madarasz
Canada and the War
April
4, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell's Shame
John
Chuckman
Was Einstein Right About Israel?
David
Krieger
The Meaning of Victory
Tom
Gorman
The Mantra of the Troops: Support
or Treason?
Adam
Federman
The Absence of War
Vijay
Prashad
There Are No More Arguments
Tom
Stephens
The End of the Innocence
Mickey
Z.
Makes Me Sic (Sic): Copy Editing
Bush Speak
Pierre
Tristam
War Coverage: a Dishonest Reality
Show
Hammond
Guthrie
The Deadly Mihrab
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/04
April
3, 2003
Uri
Avnery
A Crooked Mirror: Presstitution and
the Theater of Operations
David
Vest
Can You Hear the Silence?
Anthony
Gancarski
Colin Powell Telemarketer
David
Lindorff
Takoma: the Dolphin Who Refused
to Fight
Michael
Roberts
War, Debts and Deficits
Ramzy
Baroud
Now That Iraqis Are Being Killed Is Israel Any More Secure?
Jo Wilding
From Baghdad with Tears
Anton
Antonowicz
Cluster Bombs on Babylon
Alison
Weir
Israel, We Won't Forget Rachel Corrie
Bruce
Jackson
Hating Wolf Blitzer's Voice
Eliot Katz
War's First Week
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 04/03
Hot Stories
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
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The
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Francis Boyle
Impeach
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April 10,
2003
A Patriot Attack
on America
Ashcroft's War on
the Bill of Rights
By GEOFFREY NEALE
With public attention riveted on the war in Iraq,
politicians may be planning to launch a sneak attack against
the American people.
Their weapon: Patriot II, a piece of
legislation that would give the government frightening new powers,
including the ability to make secret arrests, issue secret subpoenas,
create a vast new DNA database and even strip Americans of
their citizenship and deport them.
Formally called The Domestic Security
Enhancement Act of 2003 (DSEA), the legislation has been shrouded
in secrecy, prompting civil liberties groups to fear the government
has been waiting for an opportunity -- such as war or another
terrorist attack -- to rush it through Congress. That's exactly
what happened with the USA Patriot Act, which passed the House
and Senate with lightning speed just six weeks after the September
11 terrorist attacks.
Now with war raging in Iraq, history
may be about to repeat itself.
Patriot II was drafted in secret earlier
this year by the U.S. Department of Justice. When rumors of
its existence started swirling around Washington, Attorney General
John Ashcroft denied it. When a leaked draft was published on
the web page of the nonpartisan Center for the Public Interest
on February 7, the Justice Department refused to comment.
But when the bombs began to fall on Baghdad
in late March, Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo finally
confirmed that such a measure would be introduced soon.
Yet if Patriot II is actually good for
America, why all the secrecy? After all, politicians don't normally
lie about the existence of "good" programs; they brag
about them. They resort to stealth and deception only when they're
doing something they're ashamed of, such as creating pork barrel
projects, lining their pockets with another congressional pay
raise -- and spawning more police state powers.
Simply put, this legislation would destroy
some of the legal protections that make America different from
totalitarian states like Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Iraq. For
example, Patriot II would allow the government to arrest and
detain people in secret, paving the way for the midnight knock
on the door that terrorizes the population in police states.
In such countries, relatives never know
what's happened to their loved ones -- and police don't have
to explain. There's no need to file charges, present evidence,
or even hold a trial. A simple accusation by the police or an
anonymous informant is all that's needed to lock up an innocent
person for life.
Think such a thing could never happen
in America? It already has. Dozens of individuals rounded up
during the 9/11 investigations are still being held without
charges and without the right to see an attorney.
The authors of Patriot II want to keep
things that way. Its secret detention provision was created
to circumvent a federal court decision requiring the Justice
Department to identify those 9/11 detainees.
Under this legislation, prosecutors could
also issue secret subpoenas, and jail people who reveal to anyone
except their attorney that they have received one. Since most
people who receive subpoenas are not criminal suspects, this
amounts to letting the government conduct mass, secret interrogations
of completely innocent Americans, then jailing them if they
tell anyone what's happened.
Secret arrests, secret evidence, secret
subpoenas -- haven't thousands of American soldiers died fighting
this kind of government?
Even one of the most cherished rights
in America -- the right of citizenship -- is targeted under
this bill. Patriot II empowers the Justice Department to strip
citizenship from Americans who associate with a group designated
as a "terrorist organization," even if they've done
nothing illegal.
Individuals who contribute money to such
a group, even unwittingly, or attend the "wrong" political
rally could lose their citizenship -- and thus become easier
to prosecute and/or deport.
Imagine this scenario: Two years from
now, a violent individual blows up an abortion clinic. President
Hillary Clinton responds by labeling Operation Rescue, and a
number of other conservative Christian groups, "domestic
terrorist organizations." She orders everyone who has ever
contributed to one of these organizations or attended a meeting
rounded up, stripped of their citizenship and deported.
Or this: A radical environmentalist attacks
an oil tanker, and President John Ashcroft responds with similar
tactics against Greenpeace or the Sierra Club. He denounces
them as domestic terrorist organizations, freezes their bank
accounts and starts arresting their members.
Couldn't happen in America? It already
has happened -- to several non-citizens rounded up during the
9/11 investigation. But if Patriot II is approved, it could
start happening to American citizens as well.
Other provisions of this legislation
are just as chilling. For example, the government could create
a database of DNA collected not just from "suspected terrorists,"
but from non-citizens suspected of ordinary crimes, such as
burglary and assault.
In direct violation of the Fourth Amendment,
prosecutors could conduct a wiretap for 15 days without a judge's
approval, and monitor an individual's Internet behavior for
two days without a warrant.
The attorney general could deport any
foreigner, even a permanent legal resident, by deeming their
presence "inconsistent with national security."
Local police departments could resume
spying on political protesters, because the legislation overturns
court decrees prohibiting such surveillance.
Simply put, Patriot II would make America
less of a free country -- and there's nothing patriotic about
that.
Geoffrey Neale,
Austin, Texas, is national chair of the Washington, DC-based
Libertarian Party.
Today's
Features
Doug
Lummis
Saving Private Lynch: Hollywood and
War
Susan
Davis
The New York Times and the Peace Movement
David Vest
Smoking Gun? You're Watching It
John
Chuckman
America's Sovereign Right to Do
as It Damn Well Pleases
Akiva
Eldar
Gary Bauer and AIPAC: an Unholy Alliance
with the Christian Right
Ray
Hanania
Suicide Bombers without the Suicide:
Racism, Hypocrisy and the War on Iraq
David Lindorff
Secret Bechtel Docs Reveal: Yes,
the War Is About Oil
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/9
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