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March 26, 2003
Fascism and the Patriot Act
Last week I posted about the creeping fascism that seems to be growing in our nation. It's a topic I plan to stay on top of, and which other bloggers and activists have been writing about as well. I found this passage in an interesting article at The Email Activist. While there are points in the article where the author seems to be slipping a bit into hyperbolic paranoia (such as asking when slave labour may be making a comeback), the majority of the article reflects what I've seen and heard from a variety of other sources, and it makes an excellent point about how far we've come from the roots of this country and why it was initially established in the first place.
When the shooting started at Lexington Green in 1775, those calling themselves patriots were the men and women who refused to yield their rights to an increasingly oppressive government.Today, according to John Ashcroft and his Patriot Act of 2001, a patriot is someone who kneels down in fear and hands over his or her rights to the government in the name of fighting terrorism.
Isn’t the hypocrisy of this all too obvious? The Bush administration wants us to fight in Afghanistan, to fight in Iraq, and to fight wherever terrorists may be hiding. And what, pray tell, are we fighting for? Well, according to the White House, we’re fighting for freedom. Yet freedom is exactly what the White House is demanding that we now surrender in the name of fighting terrorism.
The article also includes a short list of the rights and freedoms that we have lost since 9/11 - most of them through the USA PATRIOT act. Some of those listed are ones that have been talked about fair frequently: The ability of the government to search homes or businesses without notifying you; libraries and bookstores can now be required to turn over your reading lists - and are forbidden to tell you if they've been asked for your records; the ability of the government to arrest and detain people suspected of possible terrorist involvement indefinately, without charges and without the ability to contact an attorney, and then - if they choose to take the case to trial - they can do so in a secret military tribunal, with no jury, no public oversight, no right to confront the evidence and no appeals; and the ability of law enforcement to listen in to conversations between attorneys and their clients.
There were two items on the list that I was not aware of, and which I find at least as troubling as the ones I was aware of - if not moreso. The first is that the government can now take steps, including using bugs, to track phone calls and emails of people who are not even suspected of having commited a crime. In addition, the FBI can make use of their Magic Lantern technology to track everywhere you visit on the Internet, and to capture every keystroke you make. The second is that the Feds can now investigate someone even if their only reason for being suspicious of them is that they have participated in activities that are legal and protected by the First Amendment - such as if someone has taken part in an anti-war protest or something of that nature.
Of course, John Ashcroft and his Justice department don't think the Patriot Act goes quite far enough, so they are working on a bill to "enhance" the new powers it grants.
Dr. David Cole, a Law professor at Georgetown University and author of Terrorism and the Constitution assessed the document, saying, “I think this is a quite radical proposal. It authorizes secret arrests. It would give the Attorney General essentially unchecked authority to deport anyone who he thought was a danger to our economic interests. It would strip citizenship from people for lawful political associations.”
Today's Washington Post reports on how the government is stepping up the use of secret surveilance and records searches which do not require authorization through the courts and - unless a case comes to trial - are not subject to any judicial oversight. In many of these cases, the government has no obligation to notify you that you're being investigated, or that they've requested your personal records from various businesses. These records may include e-mails, phone records, banking records and credit reports. These, too, are courtesy of the Patriot Act.
The Patriot Act also significantly increased the amount of intelligence information that can be shared with criminal prosecutors and federal grand juries, giving authorities new powers in the war on terrorism. National security letters can be used as part of criminal investigations and preliminary inquiries involving terrorism and espionage, according to officials and internal FBI guidelines on the letters.
There is, however, one small bit of hopeful news in all of this. As it currently stands, Congress will be reviewing provisions of the Patriot Act in 2005. True, that sounds like it's a long ways off - and as fast as things are changing in this country, to a certain extent it is, but as more citizens become aware of the extent to which this country is sliding into fascism, more pressure can be brought to bear on Congress to ensure that they retain the necessary control in order to do those reviews, and that they will rescind, repeal or otherwise refuse to renew as many provisions of the act as possible.
Posted by thorswitch at March 26, 2003 11:29 AM
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