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The Bill of Rights is the cornerstone of American freedom. Duringthe debates on the adoption ofthe Constitution in the 1790s, its opponents repeatedly charged that theConstitution as drafted wouldopen the way to tyranny by the central government. Many states would nothave signed the originalConstitution without knowing that these amendments would be added,according to the federal websitewhich displays the Constitution. These amendments became known as theBill of Rights, whichAmericans have cherished, protected and fought for for over 200 years. The Patriot Act rushed through Congress and signed by PresidentGeorge W. Bush is a major steptoward a totalitarian state in which individual liberty is crushed bythe whim of police and corporatedemagogues masquerading as patriots. The Patriot Act: - Violates the First Amendment freedom of speech guarantee, right topeaceably assemble provision,and petition the government for redress of grievances provision; itviolates the First Amendment to theConstitution three times. More on this below.
- Violates the Fourth Amendment guarantee of probable cause inastonishingly major and repeatedways. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution reads: "The right of thepeople to be secure in theirpersons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches andseizures, shall not be violated,and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oathor affirmation, andparticularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons ofthings to be seized." The Patriot Act,now passed and the law of the land, has revoked the necessity forprobable cause, and now allows thepolice, at any time and for any reason, to enter and search your house —and not even tell you about it.
- Violates the Fifth Amendment by allowing for indefiniteincarceration without trial for thosedeemed by the Attorney General to be threats to national security. TheFifth Amendment guaranteesthat no person shall be deprived of life, liberty or property withoutdue process of law, and the PatriotAct does away with due process. It even allows people to be kept inprison for life without even a trial.
- Violates the Sixth Amendment guarantee of the right to a speedyand public trial. Now you may getno trial at all, ever.
- Violates the Eighth Amendment (cruel and unusual punishment).
- Violates the 13th Amendment (punishment without conviction).
Most of the following information is taken from the ACLU's writtenobjections to Congress beforeand after the passage of the Patriot Act. My comments are in brackets[]. The Patriot Act does the following (I'm putting the immigrationstuff at the bottom because that leastaffects most of the people who will be reading this): - [It keeps judges out the process and lets cops do what they want(cops meaning FBI, CIA, etc.)] Itminimizes judicial supervision of telephone and Internet surveillance bylaw enforcement authorities inanti-terrorism investigations and in routine criminal investigationsunrelated to terrorism. [Unrelated toterrorism — that means anything. How long do you think before thatincludes political dissent? Oops,too late, that's already happened.]
- It expands the ability of the government to conduct secretsearches — again in anti-terrorisminvestigations and in routine criminal investigations unrelated toterrorism. [Unrelated to terrorism —that means anything they want it to mean. If we don't agree with NaziRepublican ideas, they can nowarrest us.]
- It gives the Attorney General and the Secretary of State the powerto designate domestic groups asterrorist organizations and block any non-citizen who belongs to themfrom entering the country.Under this provision the payment of membership dues is a deportableoffense. [That means, amongother things, that Bush and Ashcroft can decide Greenpeace and RalphNader are terrorists, and underthis law, it can put them in jail.]
- It grants the FBI broad access to sensitive medical, financial,mental health, and educational recordsabout individuals without having to show evidence of a crime and withouta court order. [It means theycan do what they want for no good reason, except to persecute andimprison people with humanistic, noncorporate rip-off views.]
- It could lead to large-scale investigations of American citizensfor "intelligence" purposes and useof intelligence authorities to by-pass probable cause requirements incriminal cases. [Bye bye peacemovement. You're all going to jail; me too.]
- It puts the CIA and other intelligence agencies back in thebusiness of spying on Americans bygiving the Director of Central Intelligence the authority to identifypriority targets for intelligencesurveillance in the United States. [This is what America worked so hardfor all those years to eliminate.]
- It allows searches of highly personal financial records withoutnotice and without judicial reviewbased on a very low standard that does not require probable cause of acrime or even relevancy to anongoing terrorism investigation. [They can do any of this stuff withoutany reason whatsoever. This isthe kind of freedom these fascists always wanted — freedom to puteveryone who disagrees with themin jail.]
- It creates a broad new definition of "domestic terrorism" thatcould sweep in people who engage inacts of political protest and subject them to wiretapping and enhancedpenalties. [This means they canjail anyone who disagrees with them, and keep them in jail for lifewithout a trial.]
On immigration specifically, the new law permits the detention ofnon-citizens facing deportationbased merely on the Attorney General's certification that he has"reasonable grounds to believe" thenon-citizen endangers national security. While immigration or criminalcharges must be filed withinseven days, these charges need not have anything to do with terrorism,but can be minor visa violationsof the kind that normally would not result in detention at all.Non-citizens ordered removed on visaviolations could be indefinitely detained if they are stateless, theircountry of origin refuses to acceptthem, or they are granted relief from deportation because they would betortured if they were returned totheir country of origin. It permits the Attorney General to indefinitely incarcerate ordetain non-citizens based on meresuspicion, and to deny readmission to the United States of non-citizens(including lawful permanentresidents) for engaging in speech protected by the First Amendment. [Or,what used to be the FirstAmendment. Now, it doesn't exist.] Let me just take a bit more of your valuable time to make a coupleof points crystal clear, again using material from the ACLU's objectionsto passage of the Patriot Act. Wiretapping and Intelligence Surveillance The wiretapping and intelligence provisions in the USA Patriot Act soundtwo themes: they minimize the role of a judge in ensuring that lawenforcement wiretapping is conducted legally and with properjustification, and they permit use of intelligence investigativeauthority to by-pass normal criminal procedures that protect privacy.Specifically: 1. The USA Patriot Act allows the government to use its intelligencegathering power to circumvent the standard that must be met for criminalwiretaps. Currently FISA surveillance, which does not contain many ofthe same checks and balances that govern wiretaps for criminal purposes,can be used only when foreign intelligence gathering is the primarypurpose. The new law allows use of FISA surveillance authority even ifthe primary purpose were a criminal investigation. Intelligencesurveillance merely needs to be only a "significant" purpose. Thisprovision authorizes unconstitutional physical searches and wiretaps:though it is searching primarily for evidence of crime, law enforcementconducts a search without probable cause of crime. 2. The USA Patriot Act extends a very low threshold of proof for accessto Internet communications that are far more revealing than numbersdialed on a phone. Under current law, a law enforcement agent can get apen register or trap and trace order requiring the telephone company toreveal the numbers dialed to and from a particular phone. To get such anorder, law enforcement must simply certify to a judge — who must grantthe order — that the information to be obtained is "relevant to anongoing criminal investigation." This is a very low level of proof, farless than probable cause. This provision apparently applies to lawenforcement efforts to determine what websites a person had visited,which is like giving law enforcement the power — based only on its owncertification — to require the librarian to report on the books you hadperused while visiting the public library. This provision extends a lowstandard of proof — far less than probable cause — to actual "content"information. 3. In allowing for "nationwide service" of pen register and trap andtrace orders, the law further marginalizes the role of the judiciary. Itauthorizes what would be the equivalent of a blank warrant in thephysical world: the court issues the order, and the law enforcementagent fills in the places to be searched. This is not consistent withthe important Fourth Amendment privacy protection of requiring thatwarrants specify the place to besearched. Under this legislation, a judge is unable to meaningfullymonitor the extent to which her order was being used to accessinformation about Internet communications. 4. The Act also grants the FBI broad access in "intelligence"investigations to records about a person maintained by a business. TheFBI need only certify to a court that it is conducting an intelligenceinvestigation and that the records it seeks may be relevant. With thisnew power, the FBI can force a business to turn over a person'seducational, medical, financial, mental health and travel records basedon a very low standard of proof and without meaningful judicialoversight. The ACLU noted that the FBI already had broad authority to monitortelephone and Internet communications. Most of the changes apply notjust to surveillance of terrorists, but instead to all surveillance inthe United States. [All surveillance. The WTO geeks will love this one.Now we can be just like China.] Law enforcement authorities -- even when they are required to obtaincourt orders - have great leeway under current law to investigatesuspects in terrorist attacks. Current law already provided, forexample, that wiretaps can be obtained for the crimes involved interrorist attacks, including destruction of aircraft and aircraftpiracy. The FBI also already had authority to intercept these communicationswithout showing probable cause of crime for "intelligence" purposesunder the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In fact, FISA wiretapsnow exceed wiretapping for all domestic criminal investigations. Thestandards for obtaining a FISA wiretap are lower than the standards forobtaining a criminal wiretap. Criminal Justice The law dramatically expands the use of secret searches. Normally, aperson is notified when law enforcement conducts a search. In some casesregarding searches for electronic information, law enforcementauthorities can get court permission to delay notification of a search.The USA Patriot Act extends the authority of the government to request"secret searches" to every criminal case. This vast expansion of powergoes far beyondanything necessary to conduct terrorism investigations. The Act also allows for the broad sharing of sensitive information incriminal cases with intelligence agencies, including the CIA, the NSA,the INS and the Secret Service. It permits sharing of sensitive grandjury and wiretap information without judicial review or any safeguardsregarding the future use or dissemination of such information. These information sharing authorizations and mandates effectively putthe CIA back in the business of spying on Americans: Once the CIA makesclear the kind of information it seeks, law enforcement agencies can usetools like wiretaps and intelligence searches to provide data to theCIA. In fact, the law specifically gives the Director of CentralIntelligence - who heads the CIA -- the power to identify domesticintelligence requirements. The law also creates a new crime of "domestic terrorism." The newoffense threatens to transform protesters into terrorists if they engagein conduct that "involves acts dangerous to human life." Members ofOperation Rescue, the Environmental Liberation Front and Greenpeace, forexample, have all engaged in activities that could subject them toprosecution as terrorists. Then, under this law, the dominos begin tofall. Those who provide lodging or other assistance to these "domesticterrorists" could have their homes wiretapped and could be prosecuted. [If you have any doubt that these are the trappings of a police state,then you need to go back to elementary school and read about theConstitution, which we no longer have.] [Fox News Channel reports tonight that 90% of the American peopleare really happy with what Bush has done. I think somebody wrote thisall in a book once, that when a free people gave away their freedom,they did it happily and with much fanfare.] John Kaminski live in Englewood Florida. E-mail: skylax@home.com ###
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