http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=3314



August 17, 2004
The Star Chamber Is Back
by Paul Craig Roberts

Are George Bush and Tony Blair building democracy in the Middle East or police
states at home?

There is no sign of democracy in Iraq. Bush has installed a puppet government
backed up by U.S. military force. America's hamhanded occupation has resulted
in large civilian casualties, prison tortures and a breakdown in public order.

Domestic police states, however, are in evidence in the U.S. and UK.

During the cold war, Western freedoms were favorably compared to the Soviet
national identity card, which increased secret police efficiency.

Today, UK Home Secretary David Blunkett says Englishmen are to be issued with
national identity cards. This prompted UK Information Commissioner Richard
Thomas to remark that the UK is "sleepwalking into a surveillance society."

In the U.S. there are plans for identity cards complete with retina scans and
DNA information.

The biggest threat to freedom, however, is the full-scale assault on what 18th
century English jurist William Blackstone called "the Rights of Englishmen" and
Americans know as civil liberties.

President George Bush and his Attorney General, John Ashcroft, have resurrected
the "Star Chamber," made infamous by the Stuart kings in the 17th century for
arbitrary, secret proceedings with no right of appeal.

Today, American citizens can be arrested and held in secret indefinitely
without being charged.

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 September 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. September 11 was an
excuse to grab unconstitutional power – just as the Reichstag fire was for
Hitler.

Cassel says the fate of our free society rests with the judiciary. In her
chapter, "The War in the Courts," she assesses whether courts are up to the
challenge. Some are and some are not. Ironically, it is the conservative
Republican judges who go along with the police state measures. So much for the
old saw that we need a Republican president to save us from liberal judges.

At the time Cassel's book went to press, the Supreme Court had yet to rule
whether the government can indefinitely hold a person without charging him and
bringing him to trial.

After the Padilla and Hamdi decisions, Cassel concludes that the Court did not
consent to being read out of the picture, but did nothing effective to defend
civil liberties. Civil libertarian Harvey Silverglate concurs.

Where do matters stand? We are all in Abu Ghraib now. If the government
declares you "an enemy combatant" or a "material witness" you have no rights.
The government can hold you forever without charges or until you admit to some
offense in order to escape from isolation and from psychological and perhaps
physical torture.

I would rather take my chances with terrorists.

Cassel discusses specific cases, including cases of "guilt by association." She
names names and holds accountable the brown shirts in our government. She
describes absurd regulations under which innocent American citizens can be
convicted of terrorism.

In a chapter on grass roots resistance, Cassel notes that more than 250
counties and municipalities in 28 states, plus two entire states, representing
43 million Americans, have passed resolutions criticizing the PATRIOT Act or
forbidding local law enforcement from cooperating with the Bush
administration's attack on the U.S. Constitution.

After the horrors Cassel describes, it is refreshing that there are still 43
million Americans who can recognize tyranny when they see it.