THE USA PATRIOT ACT
Attacks on our First Amendment and Constitutional rights, embodied in recent Executive
Orders, the USA Patriot Act, and related measures intended ostensibly to enhance domestic
security at the expense of our freedoms, must be ended. We desire a return to a fully
constitutional form of government, with an appropriate balance of powers, and with the
full protection of our civil rights. The Patriot Act should be rescinded, and further
attempts to extend it should be resisted.
It's UN-AMERICAN!
The USA PATRIOT Act, signed into law in October of 2001, was passed by
congress with such speed (urged on by Attorney General John Ashcroft)
that some members did not even have a chance to read the 342 page bill.
Some later said that parts of it might be unconstitutional, but with
up-coming elections, no one wanted to appear unpatriotic. The few
changes that addressed civil liberty issues were taken out in closed
meetings before the vote. This Act radically threatens the civil
liberties we all have come to take for granted under the Bill of Rights
- these are the very freedoms we have been told inspire such violent
jealousy in terrorists. Among other things, this law:
- Extends the power of the government to conduct surveillance of U.S.
citizens & reduces judicial review of such surveillance
- Permits non-citizens to be jailed indefinitely and with little
judicial review, based on mere suspicion
- Allows the FBI to require libraries and bookstores to hand over
lists of books borrowed or bought by a person included in a terrorist
investigation (The warrant, issued by the secret Foreign Surveillance
Court requires a lower standard than the 4th Amendments "probable cause")
- Imposes a gag rule that prohibits a librarian or bookseller from
informing anyone that the search has taken place.
- Allows government agents to listen in on lawyer-client conversations
in federal prisons
- Extends the scope of wiretaps on phones & computers.
- Permits government agents to search a suspects home without
notifying them of the search (This is not limited to terrorism, but all
criminal cases)
The USA PATRIOT Act can apply to U.S. citizens, as well as non-citizens.
This act was promoted as a tool to fight foreign terrorists, but many of
its provisions are not limited to the crime of terrorism, but apply to
all criminal cases. Terrorism as it is defined in the act could be
interpreted to encompass more than you might think.
A person "commits the crime of domestic terrorism if within the U.S.
activity is engaged in that involves acts dangerous to human life that
violate the laws of the United States or any state and appear to be
intended to:
- intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
- influence the policy of government by intimidation or coercion; or
- affect the conduct of government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping
The use of the words, "appear to" make this alarmingly subjective, and
the first two provisions are so loosely worded that some people engaged
in political protest could be swept into the definition.
Other Attacks on Liberty
Although the USAPatriot act is the best known of the laws passed in the
wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, there are other new laws and
executive orders dealing with air travel, immigration, police practices
and emergency powers. These allow innocent people to be denied services,
deported and detained in secret. Those who are arrested or singled out
by mistake under these policies have little opportunity to correct the
error, and the government can prevent them from traveling and hold them
incommunicado for interrogation. People have been treated like
terrorists simply for supporting causes that are unpopular with people
with authority.
Watch for USA PATRIOT II!
A leaked 86 page draft of "The Domestic Security Enhancement act" would,
among other provisions, restrict public access to information about
environmental and heath risks, allow secret arrests, and shelter federal
agents engaged in illegal surveillance. It even * allows the government
to strip US citizens of their citizenship. *This act is not law, yet,
but considering the speed with which PATRIOT I was launched, it bears
watching.
Democracies die behind closed doors. Download of the full flyer with graphics as a pdf.
