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AMP comment - Oct. 26, 2004
On the third anniversary of Patriot Act
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Today, Oct. 26 2004, marks the third anniversary of the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.
The Patriot Act has given sweeping new powers to both domestic law enforcement and intelligence agencies and has eliminated the checks and balances that previously gave courts the opportunity to ensure that these powers were not abused. Most of these checks and balances were put into place after previous misuse of surveillance powers by these agencies, including the revelation in 1974 that the FBI and foreign intelligence agencies had spied on over 10,000 U.S. citizens, including Martin Luther King.
Most of the changes to surveillance law made by the Patriot Act were part of a long standing law enforcement wish list that had been previously rejected by Congress, in some cases repeatedly. Congress reversed course because it was bullied into it by the Bush Administration in the frightening weeks after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. The 342-page Patriot Act bill was introduced in the congress on September 24, 2001 only 14 days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It was approved on Oct. 25, without any substantial discussion, by the congress and signed into law the next day by President Bush.
The Patriot Act has affected the civil rights of all US citizens and residents but the American Muslim and Arabs communities have taken the brunt of the Patriot Act and other federal powers applied in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, as confirmed by a May 2004 report released by the California Senate Office Of Research. The government measures have created a fear that gripped the Muslims and Arabs following federal sweeps, round-ups, detentions of innocent Muslims and Arabs, who had neither terrorist intentions nor any connection to terrorist organizations. In the latest wave of interviews of Muslims and Arabs thousands of people are being questioned in a questionable manner. Worshippers in mosques are being asked some questions which are not related to terrorism.
In a bid to get more information about the agency's questioning of Muslims and Arabs as it investigates the possibility of pre-election terror attacks the American Civil Liberties Union-Northern California sued the FBI on Oct. 21, 2004. The ACLU, which describes the unannounced interviews at homes, workplaces and mosques "interrogations," is seeking internal documents under the Freedom of Information Act about whether the government is protecting the constitutional rights of those interviewed. The FBI has done more than 13,000 interviews this year as part of its 2004 Threat Task Force effort to detect and disrupt a potential election-year terror attack.
Critics of the Act and other measures are having their positions validated by a growing list of court decisions and Department Of Justice missteps. The Supreme Court handed down two decisions in June 2004 that disagreed with the Bush Administration concerning the rights of “enemy combatants,” and two federal judges have found parts of the USA PATRIOT Act to be unconstitutional. More such decisions are expected. The DOJ’s Inspector General is examining allegations of misuse of the Act in connection with the wrongful detention of Oregon Attorney Brandon Mayfield, and the DOJ asked a Detroit judge to overturn the convictions of the so-called Detroit Terror Cell, which were secured through prosecutorial misconduct. The DOJ had previously touted the convictions as a key victory against terrorism.
As opposition to the Patriot Act continues to grow, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) has compiled all of the resolutions and ordinances opposing the Act and sent them to President Bush. The final document is over three times as long as the 342-pages Act. One in five U.S. residents—55 million people—now live in communities, counties, or states with resolutions condemning parts of the USA PATRIOT Act, making this one of the largest mass movements in U.S. history. Since President Bush signed the USA PATRIOT Act into law on October 26, 2001, 355 communities, four states, and hundreds of organizations including the American Library Association and the National League of Cities have registered their opposition to sections of the Act and to what they see as a general erosion of civil liberties since 9/11.
The controversial provisional of the Patriot Act are resonating in the presidential election. Democratic Party leaders have acknowledged that the Muslims and Arabs are unfairly targeted by the Patriot Act. Senator John Kerry believes that some provisions of the Patriot Act - like the money laundering provisions - must be made stronger. “Others - like the library and 'sneak-and-peek' search provisions - must be made smarter, to better protect the freedom of law-abiding patriotic Americans while allowing the government to do everything necessary to track down terrorists and defend America.” Senator Kerry is a co-sponsor of the SAFE Act that, among other things, will impose limits on the Government's ability to carry out what are called sneak-and-peek searches. However, President Bush insists that not a single civil liberties violation associated with the Patriot Act has been cited by the inspector general. He has called upon the United States Congress to promptly renew the expiring provisions of the Patriot Act.
In the 2000 election, civil liberty was the most important issue for the Muslims and Arabs when they voted in a virtual bloc vote for George Bush who had pledged to end Secret Evidence Act that was particularly used in immigration trials against the Muslims and Arabs. The civil liberty is also their main concern in this year’s presidential election. This issue has again forced them to support Senator Kerry with great expectations that their grievances would be addressed.
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