The Erosion of Our Civil Liberties

<strong>
The Erosion of our Civil Liberties<br>
Copwatch Report<br>
Winter 2001/2002<br>
By Karla James</strong>
<br>
<br>
<i>They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.</i>
Benjamin Franklin
<br><br>
Soon after hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President George W. Bush said, "We will not allow this enemy to win the war by changing our way of life and restricting our freedom." Shortly thereafter, legislation was passed which clearly places the authority of the federal government above civil liberties.
<br><br>
USA PATRIOT ACT (HR 3162), contains a host of items that have been on the political agenda for many years, and much of it has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. It includes greatly expanded use of wiretaps, even though only 1% of wiretaps are used to investigate crimes related to terrorism. It also allows the government to search someone's house without notifying them of the search. "Most Americans do not recognize that Congress has just passed a bill that would give the government expanded power to invade our privacy, imprison people without due process, and punish dissent," said Laura Murphy of the ACLU.
<br><br>
According to the ACLU, the most troubling provisions include:
<ul>
<li>Permit the Attorney General to indefinitely incarcerate or detain non-citizens based on mere suspicion, and to deny readmission to the United States of non-citizens for engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment. </li>
<li>Minimize judicial supervision of telephone and Internet surveillance by law enforcement authorities in anti-terrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigations unrelated to terrorism.</li>
<li>Expand the ability of the government to conduct secret searches -- again in anti-terrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigations, unrelated to terrorism.</li>
<li>Give the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the power to designate domestic groups as terrorist organizations and block any non-citizen who belongs to them from entering the country. Under this provision the payment of membership dues is a deportable offense.</li>
<li>Grant the FBI broad access to sensitive medical, financial, mental health, and educational records about individuals without having to show evidence of a crime and without a court order.</li>
<li>Lead to large-scale investigations of American citizens for "intelligence" purposes and use of intelligence authorities to bypass probable cause requirements in criminal cases. Put the CIA and other intelligence agencies back in the business of spying on Americans by giving the Director of Central Intelligence the authority to identify priority targets for intelligence surveillance in the United
States.</li>
<li>Allow searches of highly personal financial records without notice and without judicial review, based on a very low standard that does not require probable cause of a crime or even relevancy to an ongoing terrorism investigation.</li>
<li>Allow student records to be searched based on a very low standard of relevancy to an investigation.</li>
<li>Create a broad new definition of "domestic terrorism" that could sweep in people who engage in acts of political protest and subject them to wiretapping and enhanced penalties.</li>
</ul>
According to Representative Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis), "This legislation is not perfect and the process is not one that all will
embrace, however these are difficult times. The legislation is desperately needed." Vice-President Dick Cheney said that we should get used to the new restrictions on our freedom, because the US will not likely return to the way things were before attacks.
<br><br>
<strong>Other Erosions of Freedom</strong><br>
Many airports around the country are using face scanning technology, including Logan Airport in Boston, where everyone's face will be scanned. The Oakland airport is using it on people who are being detained, and the Fresno airport is also using face scanning technology.
<br><br>
The government is considering creating a national ID card system, with photo and thumbprint. A machine reader would compare thumbprints on a card to the person's thumb. A national database would then be able to track people's movement throughout the country. The ACLU compares the national ID card to an internal passport. "It would create an easy new tool for government surveillance and could be used to target critics of the government."
<br><br>
<strong>Internet Access</strong>
A few hours after the tragedy on September 11, the FBI visited Internet service providers, requesting permission to place "carnivores" on their systems. Carnivores allow the FBI to monitor personal communications on the Internet. Hotmail officials have been receiving calls from the San Francisco FBI office since September 11, requesting information about a few specific accounts; Hotmail is cooperating with the FBI.
<br><br>
Within days of the attack, the government forced Internet servers to remove certain private websites from the Internet. They also removed information from federal government websites. For example, the EPA removed its Risk Management Plans (RMP) from their website, despite the fact that both the Congress and EPA acknowledged that the RMP information presented no unique opportunities for terrorism. Part of the "Right to Know" Network, the RMP provides information about the dangers of chemical accidents and how to prevent them. Using the tragedies of September 11 as an excuse, chemical companies have launched a renewed campaign to limit access to this data because they don't want the neighbors to know about the potential dangers at nearby chemical plants. The government seems happy to comply.
<br><br>
<strong>Detentions</strong><br>
Under new regulations issued on September 17, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) can detain a legal non-citizen for a "reasonable" period of time, in the event of an emergency or other extraordinary circumstances, which means they can indefinitely detain them.
<br><br>
Previously, they had 48 hours to either release or charge a legal non-citizen. So far, more than 1100 people have been
detained (and one has died in custody). The government hasn't released any information about how many of the detainees have been cleared and released. The ACLU has received information that many of the detainees have been denied access to their attorneys and their families.
<br><br>
The Washington Post reported on October 22, that the FBI was discussing alternative strategies to try to get some of the detainees to talk. These strategies include the use of drugs (such as sodium pentothal or "truth serum"), pressure tactics to extract information, or extradition to allied countries where they can be tortured and family members threatened.
<br><br>
<strong>Military Tribunal</strong><br>
Bush signed an executive order which will allow non-citizens (including lawful permanent residents of the US) who are charged with terrorism to be tried in a military tribunal. These tribunals would allow for secret trials without a jury, and without a unanimous verdict, circumventing the basic due process guaranteed by our constitution for all residents in the US, citizen and non-citizen alike.
<br><br>
<strong>FBI to The Rescue</strong><br>
Before the attacks of September 11, Congress had been investigating the FBI, because the FBI had lost hundreds of guns and laptop computers, withheld boxes of evidence in the Timothy McVeigh case, and subverted activist groups. Now the FBI will have even broader powers to find the "bad guys," which is alarming since the FBI seems to equate criticism of the government with terrorism. The FBI is currently investigating the San Francisco chapter of the peace-activist group Women in Black, and is threatening them with a Grand Jury. The Women in Black call the Israeli military's occupation of Palestine illegal, and hold silent vigils against violence. "If the FBI cannot or will not distinguish between groups who collude in hatred and terrorism, and peace activists who struggle in the full light of
day against all forms of terrorism, we are in serious trouble," said well-known American folksinger Ronnie Gilbert, who is a member of the San Francisco Women in Black group.
<br><br>
The Bush administration will continue to make policychanges that restrict our freedom, and the Supreme Court that appointed him, will continue to erode our rights. The US Congress will undoubtedly come up with many more patriotic sounding acronyms for bills that will take advantage of the September 11 tragedy to further their long-standing political agend^Ma of restricting and criminalizing the rights and freedom of those with whom they disagree. Now more than ever, we need to exert and know our rights and stand up for the rights of
others.
<br><br>
In pushing through a fast-track trade bill as a way to fight terrorism, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick likened the opponents of the legislation to terrorist and anti-globalization activists. In this time of massive globalization which makes US corporations richer and the world's poor more destitute, the US government will continue to act as a world police force that separates the have's from the have-nots, under the ruse of making the world safe for democracy (aka capitalism).
<br><br>
<strong>Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 or (ATA)</strong><br>
In response to the Oklahoma City bombing, President Clinton signed the ATA on April 24, 1996. This legislation did much to erode the Bill of Rights:<ul>
<li>It gutted the writ of habeas corpus, by eliminating federal constitutional review of state death penalty cases.</li>
<li>It allowed the INS to deport immigrants based on secret evidence</li>
<li>It made it a crime to support the lawful activities of an organization labeled as a terrorist group by the state
department</li>
<li>It allowed the FBI to investigate the crime of material support for terrorism based solely on activities protected under the 1st Amendment</li>
<li>It froze assets of any US citizen or domestic organization believed to be an agent of a terrorist group, but it did not specify how an "agent" would be identified as such.</li></ul>

<strong>Wiretaps</strong><br>
Currently, there are two provisions for wiretapping in the United States.
<ol>
<li>The Federal Wiretap Act of 1968, called Title 3, usually requires a court order based on probable cause that
a crime has been or is about to be committed.</li>
<li>The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 allows wiretapping of non-citizens and citizens of the United States based on probable cause that the subject is a member of terrorist group or an agent of foreign power. It doesn't require probable cause that a crime has been committed.</li>
</ol>
Proposed legislation would allow for FISA surveillance in domestic criminal investigations as well, circumventing the probable cause standard.