US Patriot Act Looks
Like Totalitarianism
Commentary
By Barbara Sumner Burstyn
10-26-3
Only in America?
It's a strange feeling to wake up one average, middle-class North
American morning and realise your beliefs could get you killed. Not in
a random, drive-by, developing-world, terrorist-bombing kind of way.
But in an officially sanctioned, totally legal, death by lethal
injection way.
At least, if President Bush's call on Congress on the eve of the
second anniversary of September 11 to extend the death penalty is
anything to go by.
It began in June when Attorney-General John Ashcroft told lawmakers
that the death penalty needed to be expanded to cover "material
supporters" of terrorist organisations. On the surface it seems fair
enough. If you give money to al Qaeda then you have to expect a harsh
penalty.
But there's a catch. They've changed the definition of terrorist.
In fact the Patriot II Act redefines terrorism so vaguely and broadly
it's not a great leap to envisage the definition including political
activists or just about anyone who belongs to an organisation that
disagrees with the Administration.
Greenpeace for example. It stands for non-violent, creative
confrontation to expose global environmental problems and their
causes. While Greenpeace is adamant it does not endorse sabotage it's
really only a matter of definition, especially since the organisation
has simulated sabotaging safety at nuclear facilities.
And given that Bush specifically stated that the death penalty should
be used in certain cases of sabotage against military and nuclear
facilities, it's not difficult to see how Greenpeace could be ruled a
terrorist organisation, transforming your membership into material
support.
A little extreme perhaps? Not if you consider the FBI arrest of
peaceful protesters exposing an illegal shipment of mahogany. Or the
dubbing of acts of vandalism by the Earth Liberation Front (they
spray-painted slogans such as "greed and sloth" on SUVs) as domestic
terrorism. Or the ability under Patriot II to conduct all manner of
surveillance without warrants; authorise secret arrests, detentions,
and grand jury subpoenas; create DNA databases of those suspected of
association with terrorism or terrorist groups; and to enable the
Government to remove citizenship from persons who belong to or support
disfavoured political groups.
But its not only your organisation membership that brings you under
the Patriot II umbrella. Hiding behind that new broad catch-all
phrase, domestic terrorism, the act is shaping up to become a
crime-fighting tool par excellence.
US Justice Dept official Mark Corallo was reported in the New York
Times as saying they have an obligation to do everything to protect
the lives and liberties of Americans from attack, whether it's from
terrorists or garden-variety criminals.
And there, right before your eyes, you see how far the ground has
shifted. Under Patriot II all other criminal legislation can be
short-circuited, the laws and standards of evidence lowered, the usual
legal checks and balances of a democratic society superseded. And
instead of a judiciary-led legal system you begin to understand it's
the FBI that is in charge, with a Government agenda.
Under imminent terrorist attack those shortcuts make perfect sense,
but when used against local drug dealers, car thieves, internet
fraudsters et al, they begin to look suspiciously like the early
tentacles of a totalitarian society.
Section 127 of Patriot II allows the Federal Government to supersede
all local statutes governing autopsies. So imagine yourself caught up
in an investigation following, say, your attendance at an anti-war
rally. Remember, under this act you can't call a lawyer or even a
family member. Essentially, once you've slipped into the wide cracks
of the over-broad definition of a terrorist, you have no rights at
all.
And if perhaps you died while under interrogation, the autopsy results
could show a suicide or some other finding favourable to the
Government.
Perhaps this all sounds far-fetched. Especially, if, like me, you were
bought up with the golden rule: if you've nothing to hide, you've
nothing to worry about. But when your Greenpeace bumper sticker, or
your church attendance or the size of your family become red flags
that can trigger the opening of an FBI file in your name, you know
things have changed.
And it's the little things that signal that change. Like the growing
sense that it's not wise to express your concerns openly. Or when you
pick up any suburban US newspaper and discover the two defining
characteristics: the dearth of international coverage and the
voluminous column space given to crime, all of it ugly, all of it
adding to the climate of fear that increasingly pervades the country.
In that masterfully created environment, US Justice Department
official Corallo's comments sound not only imminently sensible, they
sound like a lifesaver.
Unless of course you really do have something to hide; like your
Greenpeace membership, your internet browsing and perhaps that book on
activism you bought from Canada. That could just about be enough to
get you killed. Only in America. Oh, and North Korea and Communist
China and Stalinist Russia and Zimbabwe and Iraq, pre and post Saddam.
"life is like a mushroom, they feed you ***** and keep you in the dark"
.
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| User: "Grantland" |
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| Title: Re: US patriot act more like Totalitarianism |
26 Oct 2003 11:10:34 AM |
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wrote:
US Patriot Act Looks
Like Totalitarianism
Yep. Just like Russia. And still they sleep.
Grantland
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| User: "Mark Tyme" |
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| Title: Re: US patriot act more like Totalitarianism |
26 Oct 2003 11:21:54 AM |
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On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 17:10:34 GMT, (Grantland)
wrote:
DaarkSyde@home.com wrote:
US Patriot Act Looks
Like Totalitarianism
Yep. Just like Russia. And still they sleep.
Grantland
Who was it, that once said - "Those who want peace at the
expense of freedom, deserve neither."
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| User: "Anon Ymous" |
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| Title: Re: US patriot act more like Totalitarianism |
27 Oct 2003 03:41:25 AM |
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Mark Tyme <MarkTyme@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message news:<dk0opv0jd4k97kjkk13q012cvn0dk9gjom@4ax.com>...
On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 17:10:34 GMT, (Grantland)
wrote:
DaarkSyde@home.com wrote:
US Patriot Act Looks
Like Totalitarianism
Yep. Just like Russia. And still they sleep.
Grantland
Who was it, that once said - "Those who want peace at the
expense of freedom, deserve neither."
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
--Ben Franklin
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