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Judge Rules Against Patriot Act Provision
(Gail Appleson, Reuters, 29 September 2004)
A key part of the Patriot Act, a central plank of the Bush Administration's war on terror, was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge on Wednesday, in the latest blow to U.S. security policies. . . . U.S. District Judge Victor Marreo ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the power the FBI has to demand confidential financial records from companies that it can obtain without court approval as part of terrorism investigations. . . . The legislation bars companies and other recipients of these subpoenas from ever revealing that they received the FBI demand for records. Marreo held that this permanent ban was a violation of free speech rights. . . . In his ruling, Marreo prohibited the Department of Justice and the FBI from issuing special administrative subpoenas, known as national security letters. . . . The ruling was the latest blow to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies. . . . In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that terror suspects being held in U.S. facilities like Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, can use the American judicial system to challenge their confinement. That ruling was a defeat for the president's assertion of sweeping powers to hold "enemy combatants" indefinitely after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. . . . The ACLU argued that the anti-terrorism laws give the FBI unconstitutional power to demand sensitive information without adequate safeguards. . . . The judge agreed, saying the provision "effectively bars or substantially deters any judicial challenge." . . . "Such a challenge is necessary to vindicate important rights guaranteed by the Constitution," Marreo said. . . . Under the provision, the FBI does not have to show a judge a compelling need for the records nor does it have to specify any process that would allow a recipient to fight the demand for confidential information. . . . Prior to December, the letters could only be sent to certain financial institutions. . . . However, legislation signed by President Bush in December expanded the definition of companies from which information can be obtained and allowed FBI agents to send out the letters without first obtaining a judge's approval. . . . The legislation [which the judge ruled unconstitutional] allows the FBI to seek information from businesses such as insurance firms, pawnbrokers, precious metal dealers, the Postal Service, casinos, and travel agents.

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 2:59 PM

 

THE STAR CHAMBER IS BACK
(Paul Craig Roberts, Chronicles Magazine, August 26, 2004)
The Bush administration has sacrificed the Bill of Rights to its "war on terror." As Elaine Cassel conclusively demonstrates in her forthcoming book, "The War on Civil Liberties" (Lawrence Hill Books), the "war on terror" is in truth a war on the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth amendments to the Constitution.Cassel shows that Bush and Ashcroft have mobilized patriotism against the Constitution.The coup, Cassel writes, "came when some staffer dreamed up the acronym USA PATRIOT (United and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act for a law that makes a mockery of constitutional protections. To be against the Patriot Act makes one unpatriotic." The Patriot Act defines terrorism so broadly that any act of protest or civil disobedience can be construed as "terrorism," a charge for which the government can hold a person indefinitely. Thus, the Patriot Act permits punishment without conviction. If you think you still live in a free society, consider:
-The Patriot Act overturns the attorney-client privilege, and attorneys who aggressively defend their clients can be indicted for "aiding and abetting terrorism."
-Internet service providers who move to quash government surveillance of their customers can be charged with "obstructing justice."
-Parents who object to airport security personnel dragging away a frightened child to be searched can be arrested for "obstructing a federal law enforcement officer."
According to Cassel, regulations have been issued that permit federal prosecutors to override federal judges - a gross breach of the separation of powers and a classic tool of 20th century police states.Indeed, Cassel herself might be subject to arrest "for aiding and abetting terrorists." Here is what Ashcroft told the Senate Judiciary Committee: "To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve."Cassel dryly notes that Sept. 11 was caused by intelligence failures, not by civil liberties. Yet, the government's response was to attack civil liberties.All of the police state measures were waiting on the shelf. Sept. 11 was an excuse to grab unconstitutional power - just as the Reichstag fire was for Hitler.

. . . Read more!

posted by A Curmudgeon 2:15 PM

 

Thousands arrested in battle for New York
(David Usborne, The Independent, 03 September 2004)
There have been complaints and plaudits for the New York police this week as they toiled to contain myriad protests that erupted in Manhattan, arresting almost 2,000 people over four days, [COMMENT: This is a record number of arrests at an event like this in the U.S., Gulag Amerika.] but mostly managing to keep activists away from the Republican Convention. . . . Once again yesterday, the streets of the city were coloured dark blue with the uniforms of thousands of police officers, and the skies vibrated with helicopters and a large NYPD airship as commanders braced for more noisy demonstrations on the last night of the convention, attended by President George Bush. . . . While many more people have been arrested than at the famously anguished Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968, there has been little serious violence . . . However, the police department has been forced on the defensive, in part by claims of poor treatment of those taken into custody, who are initially corralled inside a dilapidated pier warehouse on the Hudson River. Protesters are placed in chain link pens with razor wire around them and forced to wait sometimes as long as eight hours before being bussed elsewhere to be ticketed and then, in most cases, released. . . . The warehouse, which until recently was a bus garage, has been dubbed "Guantanamo on the Hudson" by some critics, who compare conditions inside to those at the famous base and prison on Cuba filled with detainees from the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. There have been claims also of asbestos contamination in the facility. . . . "It appears they went out of their way to find a place that would be uncomfortable," said Nathan Salsburg, 26, who was arrested last Friday during a cycle rally. "There's no lawyer to be seen. There are no calls out. That is very, very similar to the kind of conditions I hear at Guantanamo Bay." Officials have declined to allow reporters inside the facility. . . . Without scenes of out-and-out mayhem to capture - no brigades of police charging with shields, no clouds of tear-gas - the media in New York, especially the television, have not paid too much attention to the demonstrators, at least not since the huge, and mostly restrained, march through the city last Sunday. . . . A dilemma faced the protest organisers from the start. If violence and lawlessness were to break out, they feared that they would be playing straight into the hands of Republicans. But if the protests remain largely peaceful, no one would pay very much attention to them. Even among the protesters, arguments rage about how far to provoke the police. . . . Barricades have been the most important tool for the police, as well as rolls of orange plastic netting deployed to capture people they want to arrest. Hundreds of officers have been keeping mobile, meanwhile, on a huge fleet of shiny new motor-scooters, which have replaced horses at demonstrations. . . . "They are treating peaceful people who want to voice their political views as if they're criminals - scooping people off sidewalks with terrible results," said Bill Dobbs, a spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, the umbrella organisation that sponsored the Sunday march.

. . . Read more!

posted by LoZo 1:34 PM