Patriot Act Enhancement Provides Death Penalty For Any

http://www.infowars.com/print/ps/patriotact_deathpenalty.htm


Patriot Act Enhancement Provides Death Penalty For Any
Federal Crime Punishable By Over One Year In Jail

Infowars.com
April 27, 2004

Note from Alex Jones: The First Patriot Act passed in
October of 2001 defines terrorism as any misdemeanor.
Now this supplemental legislation, "The Terrorist
Penalties Enhancement Act" (HR 2934) will allow the
government to kill you for the crime of terrorism.

Bush has been traveling the country telling the
American people that they had better expand the
Patriot Act or that the terrorists will "get them."
His statements in themselves are, by definition,
terrorism:

ter·ror·ism
Pronunciation: 'ter-&r-"i-z&m
Function: noun
: the systematic use of terror especially as a means
of coercion
: the use of or the threatened use of violent action
by a group or individual to coerce another group or
individual to submit to their demands.

Bush is effectively telling us to follow his orders,
do as he says, give up our liberties -- or else. In
reality it is Bush and the military-industrial complex
that owns him that are expanding their power and
profiting from the terrorism organization that they
manufacture.


Counterpunch | April 27 2004

Keeping up with the lies of the Bush Administration
(something that Steve Perry has been doing at Bush
Wars) would be a full-time job. In order to maintain
my sanity, I focus only on lies about civil liberties.
Until recently, Attorney General John Ashcroft has
been the Fraudmeister. But fueled by the 9-11
Commission hearings (the panel Bush did not want to
begin with) and the steady stream of Administration
talking heads who tout the Patriot Act as the
compilation of laws that will save us from
"terrorism," Bush's handlers have come to the
recognition that touting the Patriot Act is a mighty
fine reelection campaign tool. After all, it is aptly
named so that if you are not for it, you are
un-"Patriot"-ic.

Last week, Bush made two speeches about the Patriot
Act, one in New York City, one in Buffalo. The Buffalo
speech focused on how the Lackawanna Six, young
American citizens of Yemeni descent who never engaged
in one act of terrorism but made the dumb mistake of
going to Afghanistan (and returning) to study Islam
before September 11, are serving long prison terms
because of the Patriot Act and the prosecutors who
used it to nab the bad guys before they could hurt us.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The Patriot
Act itself cannot be tied to any terrorism
"convictions" (mostly guilty pleas) other than the
fact that it defines "terrorism" so broadly that my
writing this article equals a terrorist act. Ergo,
traveling to a "terrorist" country before September 11
makes you a terrorist.

The ACLU has saved me the trouble of cataloguing and
contradicting Bush's lies about the Patriot Act:

The President:

"By the way, the reason I bring up the Patriot Act,
it's set to expire next year. I'm starting a campaign
to make it clear to members of Congress that it
shouldn't expire. It shouldn't expire for the security
of our country."

The Truth:

Less that 10 percent of the Patriot Act expires; most
of the law is permanent and those portions that do
sunset will not do so until December 31, 2005.

The President:

"And that changed, the law changed on- roving wiretaps
were available for chasing down drug lords. They
weren't available for chasing down terrorists, see?"

The Truth:

Roving wiretaps were available prior to 9/11 against
drug lords and terrorists. Prior to the law, the FBI
could get a roving wiretap against both when it had
probable cause of crime for a wiretap eligible
offense. What the Patriot Act did is make roving
wiretaps available in intelligence investigations
supervised by the secret intelligence court without
the judicial safeguards of the criminal wiretap
statute.

The President:

"... see, I'm not a lawyer, so it's kind of hard for
me to kind of get bogged down in the law. (Applause).
I'm not going to play like one, either. (Laughter.)
The way I viewed it, if I can just put it in simple
terms, is that one part of the FBI couldn't tell the
other part of the FBI vital information because of the
law. And the CIA and the FBI couldn't talk."

The Truth:

The CIA and the FBI could talk and did. As Janet Reno
wrote in prepared testimony before the 9/11
commission, "There are simply no walls or restrictions
on sharing the vast majority of counterterrorism
information. There are no legal restrictions at all on
the ability of the members of the intelligence
community to share intelligence information with each
other.

"With respect to sharing between intelligence
investigators and criminal investigators, information
learned as a result of a physical surveillance or from
a confidential informant can be legally shared without
restriction.

"While there were restrictions placed on information
gathered by criminal investigators as a result of
grand jury investigations or Title III wire taps, in
practice they did not prove to be a serious impediment
since there was very little significant information
that could not be shared."

The President:

"Thirdly, to give you an example of what we're talking
about, there's something called delayed-notification
search warrants. ... We couldn't use these against
terrorists [before the Patriot Act], but we could use
against gangs."

The Truth:

Delayed-notification - or so-called sneak-and-peek
search warrants - were never limited to gangs. The
circuit courts that had authorized them in limited
circumstances prior to the Patriot Act did not limit
the warrants to the investigation of gangs. In fact,
terrorism or espionage investigators did not
necessarily have to go through the criminal courts for
a covert search - they could do so with even fewer
safeguards against abuse by going to a top secret
foreign intelligence court in Washington.

For criminal sneak-and-peek warrants, the Patriot Act
added a catch-all argument for prosecutors - if notice
would delay prosecution or jeopardize an investigation
- which makes these secret search warrants much easier
to obtain.

The president's sneak-and-peek misstatement clearly
demonstrates that the Patriot Act is not limited to
terrorism. In fact, many of the law's expanded
authorities can clearly be used outside the war on
terrorism.

The President:

"Judges need greater authority to deny bail to
terrorists."

The Truth:

The new presumptive detention that the president is
proposing takes judicial authority away from the bail
process. The presumption would take away the
prosecution's burden of showing that the accused is a
danger or flight risk and instead puts it on the
accused.

Pending Legislation to "Enhance" the Patriot Act

President Bush is setting the stage for a fight that
will ensue next year, as several controversial
provisions of the Patriot Act that impinge most on
American's civil liberties are set to expire. He wants
to convince the public that spying on citizens is the
way to stop terrorism. If Congress does what it did in
2001, it will once again sell our liberties down the
river--this time for good.

In addition, new legislation is pending to create more
crimes of "terror," many of them carrying the death
penalty.

Following on the heels of President Bush's road trip
to promote the controversial Patriot Act at events in
Pennsylvania and New York, on April 21, 2004 a key
House subcommittee considered a proposal to expand the
Patriot Act's controversial definition of "terrorism"
to provide a death penalty for any federal crime
punishable by more than one year in prison if the
crime was intended to influence government policy and
results in death.

"The Patriot Act remains one of the most controversial
measures ever passed by Congress," said Timothy Edgar,
an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "Attempts to expand it,
such as the now-defunct draft Patriot Act 2 that
floated around Congress last year, have been highly
contentious. Now we're seeing attempts to pass
provisions of Patriot Act 2 piece-by-piece."

Federal law already provides 20 separate death
penalties for serious terrorism crimes, including
bombings, hijackings, assassinations and hostage
taking.

Testifying at the April 21 hearing before the House
Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and
Homeland Security, Edgar reminded committee members
that the Justice Department has not been forthcoming
in its disclosures regarding how the Patriot Act has
been used so far, saying Congress should review
existing powers before adding to them.

"This proposal will rightly be seen as another federal
infringement on civil liberties that will not make
America safer," Edgar added. "It will result in
increasing mistrust, both at home and abroad, even of
legitimate anti-terrorism efforts and further isolate
America in the world. It should be rejected."

The proposed legislation would do two things. First,
it would make 23 crimes eligible for the death
penalty. Second, it would create an unprecedented
"catch-all" death penalty for any other federal crime
punishable by more than a year in prison if it meets
the PATRIOT Act's overbroad definition of terrorism
and results in death. The ACLU said that protestors
and activists from groups including Greenpeace and
Operation Rescue could risk being sentenced to death
for participating in certain civil disobedience events
if they involved a federal crime punishable by more
than a year in prison and resulted in a death of one
of the participants or someone else.

Laws such as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances
(FACE) Act and the federal gun control regime at 18
<U.S.C>. sec 922, among many other crimes, could carry
death sentences if the bill passed, Edgar said.

The ACLU also noted that the proposal could actually
hurt the anti-terror efforts. Many nations that have
abolished the death penalty are unwilling to extradite
or provide evidence in federal terrorism cases if the
death penalty might result from their cooperation.
Suicidal, politically motivated terrorists such as
members of Al Qaeda would be unaffected as often they
are seeking to create martyrs for their causes and to
generate publicity.

Read the ACLU's testimony on HR 2934, the "Terrorist
Penalties Enhancement Act of 2003."

Terrorist Penalties Enhancement Act of 2003
(Introduced in House)


HR 2934 IH

108th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 2934

To increase criminal penalties relating to terrorist
murders, deny Federal benefits to terrorists, and for
other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES


July 25, 2003
Mr. CARTER introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary


A BILL

To increase criminal penalties relating to terrorist
murders, deny Federal benefits to terrorists, and for
other purposes.


Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Terrorist Penalties
Enhancement Act of 2003'.

SEC. 2. PENALTIES FOR TERRORIST MURDERS.

(a) Chapter 113B of title 18, United States Code, is
amended--

(1) in the chapter analysis, by inserting at the end
the following:

`2339D. Terrorist offenses resulting in death.';

and

(2) by inserting at the end the following:

`Sec. 2339D. Terrorist offenses resulting in death

`(a) A person who, in the course of committing a
terrorist offense, engages in conduct that results in
the death of a person, shall be punished by death or
imprisoned for any term of years or for life.

`(b) As used in this section, `terrorist offense'
means--

`(1) international or domestic terrorism as defined in
section 2331;

`(2) a Federal crime of terrorism as defined in
section 2332b(g);

`(3) an offense under this chapter, section 175, 175b,
229, or 831, or section 236 of the Atomic Energy Act
of 1954 (42 U.S.C. 2284); or

`(4) an attempt or conspiracy to commit an offense
described in paragraph (10), (2), or (3).'.

(b) Section 3592(c)(1) of title 18, United States
Code, is amended by inserting `section 2339D
(terrorist offenses resulting in death),' after
`destruction),'.

SEC. 3. DENIAL OF FEDERAL BENEFITS TO TERRORISTS.

Chapter 113B of title 18, United States Code, is
amended--

(1) in the chapter analysis, by adding at the end the
following:

`2339E. Denial of federal benefits to terrorists.';

and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

`Sec. 2339E. Denial of federal benefits to terrorists

`(a) IN GENERAL- Any individual who is convicted of a
Federal crime of terrorism (as defined in section
2332b(g)(5)) shall, as provided by the court on motion
of the government, be ineligible for any or all
Federal benefits for any term of years or for life.

`(b) DEFINITION- As used in this section, `Federal
benefit' has the meaning given that term in section
421(d) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C.
862(d)).'.
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