CWA 1180 - Political Action

Shredding the Bill of Rights
Casualties in the 'War on Terror'
April 2003

On September 11, 2001, terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center and killed thousands of people. They could not, however, destroy the institutions and principles that we as Americans are proud of as the basis of our government. For that, it took the Bush Administration and its cynical and shameless exploitation of that dark day. Since 9/11, the federal government has used "national security" and the "war on terrorism" as an excuse and cover for everything from union busting to secret arrests to tax cuts for the wealthy. But nowhere has this tendency been more alarming than in the area of civil liberties, where the administration has systematically rolled back rights and infringed on the most basic liberties protected in the Bill of Rights.

Here is an overview of some of the most dangerous developments (only some, there are more):

Government spying

The so-called Patriot Act, railroaded through Congress without debate in October 2001 and passed without many legislators even reading the bill, allows the government to compel doctors, libraries, Internet service providers, universities, bookstores and others to turn over data. It does not require the government to have a "reasonable suspicion" of criminal activity, only to state that the information sought is part of an ongoing terrorism investigation; it allows the government to make such a claim based on an individual's protected First Amendment activity, such as what books or websites she or he is reading. The act further prohibits the parties from whom the records are sought from telling the individual being spied on. The Patriot Act also allows secret government searches of people's homes, and it expands the government's authority to wiretap; among other things, the government no longer needs "probable cause" to trace your e-mail origins and destinations (the "headers").

Last year the Defense Department began building a huge electronic surveillance operation called the Total Information Awareness Program. It uses data-mining technology to link together all kinds of commercial and government records, from credit card information to medical records to phone calls, web searches, travel history—basically every record of every thing you do—allegedly to try to detect suspicious terrorist activity before it happens. The potential for abuse is immense and obvious, quite apart from the gross violation of privacy. After much citizen uproar, Congress recently put this program on ice for 90 days and required the Defense Department to submit a report on its "impact." But they did not kill it.

The Transportation Security Administration is also using data-mining to create an airline passenger profiling system, called Computer-Assisted Passenger Pre-Screening System (CAPPS II).

In January, a secret draft of new legislation prepared by the Justice Department was leaked to the press (where it, shockingly, has been largely ignored). Titled the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act" and dubbed the Patriot Act II, it would further erode Fourth and First Amendment protections. It would allow government wiretaps and surveillance of protesters, and end all court-ordered consent decrees that prohibit government spying based on political or religious affiliation; it would also bar any such decrees in the future.

Mass detentions and secret arrests

After 9/11, the government rounded up and detained hundreds of immigrants from Muslim and Arab countries and refused to release their names. The Patriot Act II would broadly permit such secret arrests, overturning a federal court ruling mandating that the names of the detainees be released. Late last year, the Immigration and Naturalization Service ordered immigrants from a list of Muslim countries to appear at federal offices. When they did, over 1,100 of them were arrested and detained.

Several U.S. citizens have also been arrested and held without charge or without access to lawyers. Most recently, Mike Hawash was arrested on March 20 in Oregon, where he works and lives with his wife and children, and is being held indefinitely without charge in a high-security federal prison. The warrants for his arrest and search of his home are all secret, sealed by the court at the government's request.

Criminalizing dissent

The Patriot Act II broadens the definition of terrorism, and further reduces judicial review and public accountability of law enforcement. This would make it even harder to challenge First Amendment violations that occur in the name of fighting terrorism.

In essence, the government has created a legislative and judicial dragnet that can be used to repress protest against government policy. This tendency is increased by the rhetoric emanating from Washington, where the "President" and others use good-and-evil imagery to equate questioning of government policy with treason. Branding someone as sympathetic to "terrorists" is being used in much the same way as the accusation of communist sympathizer was used during the McCarthy era.

Information sources for this article include the ACLU, the Center for Public Integrity and The Progressive

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