Why does shrub hate our freedoms? Liberty related reasons to vote against shrub:
Liberty: F.B.I. Goes Knocking for Political Troublemakers
WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been questioning political demonstrators across the country, and in rare cases even subpoenaing them, in an aggressive effort to forestall what officials say could be violent and disruptive protests at the Republican National Convention in New York.
F.B.I. officials are urging agents to canvass their communities for information about planned disruptions aimed at the convention and other coming political events, and they say they have developed a list of people who they think may have information about possible violence. They say the inquiries, which began last month before the Democratic convention in Boston, are focused solely on possible crimes, not on dissent, at major political events.
But some people contacted by the F.B.I. say they are mystified by the bureau's interest and felt harassed by questions about their political plans. New York Times Monday August 16, 2004
Liberty: The Court v. Bush
WASHINGTON -- A state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens." With those words, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor confronted the claim of President Bush that the "war on terror" entitles him to act without any meaningful check by the courts. She and seven of her colleagues on the Supreme Court firmly rejected his presumption of omnipotence. New York Times Tuesday June 29, 2004
Liberty: 130 Jurists Condemn White House Torture Memos
Nearly 130 influential U.S. jurists, including twelve former federal judges and a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have signed a statement denouncing Bush administration memoranda regarding the treatment of Iraqi and other detainees and accusing their authors of unprofessional conduct.
The statement, in the form of an open letter sent Wednesday to President George W. Bush, other top administration officials and members of Congress, declares that the memoranda, which were drafted by political appointees in the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the White House, "seek to circumvent long established and universally acknowledged principles of law and common decency." Anti-War Saturday August 07, 2004
Liberty: The FBI's Pre-Emptive Interrogations Of "Possible" Demonstrators:
Chilling Political Speech
The FBI, no longer content with working to maintain order at political events, is now preemptively identifying and interrogating ("interviewing") possible demonstrators. It has summarized this strategy in a memo.
To make matters worse, the Department of Justice blessed the FBI strategy in its own memo - suggesting that no First Amendment concerns are raised by the interrogations.
As I will explain in this column, however, the truth is quite to the contrary: The strategy, as outlined in the memo, is a serious threat to free speech. FindLaw Saturday August 28, 2004
Liberty: Trading Liberty for Security
Americans lost so much on that gorgeous, sunlit morning of Sept. 11, 2001. More than 3,000 mothers, fathers, sons and daughters. The belief, however chimerical, that this nation was invulnerable. A nation's naivete about the wickedness that men will do. In the sad and anxious years since, there have been other losses, including one that has revealed itself more slowly: the steady erosion of civil rights.
The president and attorney general, from their first days in office, have pursued secrecy and restrictions on civil liberties. The terror attacks gave them a new rationale -- national security.
Three years later, the landscape of American liberties stands profoundly altered. The Patriot Act gives the government unprecedented new powers to snoop and arrest. Incorporated almost verbatim into the law's 300 pages are wish lists that prosecutors drafted long before the attacks. Los Angeles Times Friday September 10, 2004
Liberty: Racial Profiling Increases
Good morning. I'm Curt Goering, Senior Deputy Executive Director at Amnesty International USA. Today Amnesty International releases its first-ever report on racial profiling in the United States. After a yearlong investigation that included analysis of statistical data, Amnesty International has found that approximately one of every nine Americans has been victimized by racial profiling and that state and federal agencies, under the guise of fighting terrorism, have expanded the use of this degrading, discriminatory and dangerous practice.
Racial profiling is not new. But the government's reliance on it has grown dramatically since the September 11th attacks. Amnesty International's review of existing data shows that an estimated 32 million Americans -- a number equivalent to the population of Canada -- have been subjected to profiling. We estimate that 87 million Americans -- almost one of every three people -- are at high risk for such abuse.
Racial profiling is to the 21st Century what Jim Crow laws were to the last, turning entire groups of people into second-class citizens and denying them the rights to which we all are due. Amnesty International Tuesday September 14, 2004
Liberty: The D.C. Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight
President Bush has staked his claim for reelection on his performance in the war on terrorism. But are we safer?
The war on terrorism certainly has not made the world a safer place. For a brief moment this year, the State Department claimed that terrorism incidents worldwide had fallen ‹ until it admitted a week later that it had miscounted and that in fact terrorist incidents were on the rise.
And what of the situation at home? Thankfully, there has not been a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since Sept. 11. But despite Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's insistence that "domestic warriors" at the federal, state and local levels have used the Patriot Act to "hunt down Al Qaeda, destroy their safe haven and save American lives," the record offers little basis for such a claim. Los Angeles Times Sunday September 19, 2004
Liberty: Homeland Security Gets Data on Arab-Americans
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Census Bureau has provided population data on Arab-Americans to the Department of Homeland Security, including their ancestry and the cities and postal areas in which they live, The New York Times reported on Friday.
While the information sharing is legal, so long as the data do not identify individuals, civil liberties and Arab-American groups called it a breach of public trust and likened it to steps taken against Japanese-Americans in World War II, the newspaper said. Reuters Thursday July 29, 2004
Liberty: Trampling Aliens in the Name of Anti-Terrorism
Americans are still learning the details of some of the abuses that were committed against those rounded up as suspected terrorists after 9/11. The Justice Department inspector general issued superb reports in June and December 2003 detailing violation of rights, denial of due process, and, in some cases, physical brutality.
Perhaps the best way to capture the flavor of the abuses of the post-9/11 era is to consider a few case examples.
Nacer Fathi Mustafa, a 29-year-old American citizen, was traveling back to the United States with his Palestinian father on September 15, 2001, after purchasing leather jackets in Mexico for a Florida truck stop he manages. FFF Thursday July 29, 2004
Liberty: Guantanamo Dawdle
In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Bush administration to let the hundreds of detainees it claims are terrorists meet with lawyers and challenge their imprisonment ? nearly three years behind bars for some. The high court decisions were a resounding defeat for the president, who has steadfastly asserted his right to round up and put away pretty much anyone he deems a terrorist.
So, after the court rejected Bush's arguments, government officials opened the doors of military brigs and the Guantanamo Naval Base to detainees' lawyers, right?
Wrong. LA Times Sunday August 08, 2004
Liberty: ABA denounces U.S. treatment of detainees
ATLANTA -- The nation's largest lawyers' organization yesterday condemned the U.S. government's treatment of foreign detainees and called for an independent commission to investigate the matter.
Critics called the resolution overwhelmingly passed by delegates to the American Bar Association at its annual meeting in Atlanta an unwarranted attack on the White House.
The resolution calls on the Bush administration to comply with the Geneva Conventions, which set rules for dealing with prisoners of war, and it urges the formation of an independent bipartisan commission to fully investigate U.S. detention and interrogation practices used battling terrorism. Seattle PI Tuesday August 10, 2004
Liberty: Persecuted, in chains, in the United States
In jails and prisons across the United States, thousands of people are detained who have never been accused of crimes. The guards treat them like criminals, and the criminals they bunk with often abuse them. They are held for months, sometimes even years, but unlike the criminals, they do not know when their sentences will end. They receive this treatment because they are foreigners who arrived in the United States saying that they were fleeing persecution at home. IHT Monday September 27, 2004
Liberty: The Patriot Act places a gag order on librarians
American Booksellers Association Thursday November 14, 2002
Liberty: Administration denies rights to "enemy combatants"
In the administration's view, a citizen held as an enemy combatant can be detained without charges or judicial review and has no right to bail or a lawyer. Common Dreams Friday January 10, 2003
Liberty: US shirks its human rights commitments
The influential Human Rights Watch World Report 2003 blasts the United States for shirking its human rights commitments in the name of the war on terror. The report censures the US for detaining "enemy combatants" without charges, holding closed-door deportation hearings, and abusing prisoners in Guantnamo Bay in violation of the Geneva Convention. Global Policy Forum Tuesday January 14, 2003
Liberty: Bush wants TIA prgram to monitor citizens in a vast, centralized database
The US Senate blocked funding for the Total Information Awareness program until the Pentagon explains the program and assesses its impact on civil liberties. The TIA program would monitor every US citizen in a virtual, centralized grand database. (Reuters) Global Policy Forum Thursday January 23, 2003
Liberty: Using an over-broad definition of terrorism
that could cover some protest tactics such as those used by Operation Rescue or protesters at Vieques Island, Puerto Rico as a new predicate for criminal wiretapping and other electronic surveillance. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act opens the door to abuse
The Patriot Act gives the Director of Central Intelligence the power to identify domestic intelligence requirements. That opens the door to the same abuses that took place in the 1970s and before, when the CIA engaged in widespread spying on protest groups and other Americans. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act II undermines fundamental constitutional rights of Americans under over-broad definitions of "terrorism
if they provide support to unpopular organizations labeled as terrorist by our government, even if they support only the lawful activities of such organizations, allowing them to be indefinitely imprisoned in their own country as undocumented aliens. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Undercutting trust between police departments and immigrant communities
by opening sensitive visa files to local police for the enforcement of complex immigration laws. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act transforms protesters into terrorists
if they engage in conduct that "involves acts dangerous to human life" to "influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion." ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The proposed PATRIOT Act II diminishes personal privacy by: Making it easier for the government to initiate surveillanc
under the authority of the shadowy, top-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Threatening public health
by severely restricting access to crucial information about environmental health risks posed by facilities that use dangerous chemicals. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act allows unconstitutional search and seizure
The Patriot Act, however, unconstitutionally amends the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to allow the government to conduct searches without notifying the subjects, at least until long after the search has been executed. This means that the government can enter a house, apartment or office with a search warrant when the occupants are away, search through their property, take photographs, and in some cases even seize property - and not tell them until later. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act applies the distinction between transactional and content-oriented wiretaps to the Internet
The problem is that it takes the weak standards for access to transactional data and applies them to communications that are far more than addresses. On an e-mail message, for example, law enforcement has interpreted the "header" of a message to be transactional information accessible with a PR/TT warrant. But in addition to routing information, e-mail headers include the subject line, which is part of the substance of a communication - on a letter, for example, it would clearly be inside the envelope. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Targeting undocumented workers with extended jail terms
for common immigration offenses. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act II diminishes corporate accountability under the pretext of fighting terrorism
specifically, by: Granting immunity to businesses that provide information to the government in terrorism investigations, even if their actions are taken with disregard for their customers' privacy or other rights and show reckless disregard for the truth.Such immunity could provide an incentive for neighbor to spy on neighbor and pose problems similar to those inherent in Attorney General Ashcroft's "Operation TIPS." ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act gives the attorney general unprecedented new power to determine the fate of immigrants
The attorney general can order detention based on a certification that he or she has "reasonable grounds to believe" a non-citizen endangers national security. Worse, if the foreigner does not have a country that will accept them, they can be detained indefinitely without trial. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act expands sneak and peek searches
The final version of the anti-terrorism legislation, the Uniting and Strengthening America By Providing Appropriate Tools Required To Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (H.R. 3162, the "USA PATRIOT Act") would allow law enforcement agencies to delay giving notice when they conduct a search. This means that the government could enter a house, apartment or office with a search warrant when the occupant was away, search through her property and take photographs, and in some cases seize physical property and electronic communications, and not tell her until later. This provision would mark a sea change in the way search warrants are executed in the United States. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Sharing personal information with state and local law enforcement agencies
Permitting, without any connection to anti-terrorism efforts, sensitive personal information about U.S. citizens to be shared with local and state law enforcement. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Sheltering federal agents engaged in illegal surveillance
without a court order from criminal prosecution if they are following orders of high Executive Branch officials. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act II diminishes public accountability by increasing government secrecy
Authorizing secret arrests in immigration and other cases such as material witness warrants, where the detained person is not criminally charged. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Terminating court-approved limits on police spying
which were initially put in place to prevent McCarthy-style law enforcement persecution based on political or religious affiliation. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Providing for general surveillance orders covering multiple functions of high tech devices
, and by further expanding pen register and trap and trace authority for intelligence surveillance of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Patriot Act marginalizes the role of the judiciary
Under the Patriot Act pen register/trap and trace (PR/TT) orders issued by a judge are no longer valid only in that judge's jurisdiction, but can be made valid anywhere in the United States. This "nationwide service" further marginalizes the role of the judiciary, because a judge cannot meaningfully monitor the extent to which his or her order is being used. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Permitting arrests and extraditions of Americans to any foreign country
including those whose governments do not respect the rule of law or human rights, in the absence of a Senate-approved treaty and without allowing an American judge to consider the extraditing country's legal system or human rights record. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Permitting searches, wiretaps and surveillance of United States citizens on behalf of foreign governments
including dictatorships and human rights abusers in the absence of Senate-approved treaties. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Patriot Act unconstitutionally authorizes blank warrants
In addition, this provision authorizes the equivalent of a blank warrant: the court issues the order, and the law enforcement agent fills in the places to be searched. That is a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment's explicit requirement that warrants be written "particularly describing the place to be searched." ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Providing for summary deportations without evidence of crime, criminal intent or terrorism
even of lawful permanent residents, whom the Attorney General says are a threat to national security. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Patriot Act fails to distinguish between content and transactional information
Another exception to the normal requirement for probable cause in wiretap law is also expanded by the Patriot Act. Years ago, when the law governing telephone wiretaps was written, a distinction was created between two types of surveillance. The first allows surveillance of the content or meaning of a communication, and the second only allows monitoring of the transactional or addressing information attached to a communication. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Patriot Act circumvents "probable cause" guarantee
Under the Patriot Act, the FBI can secretly conduct a physical search or wiretap on American citizens to obtain evidence of crime without proving probable cause, as the Fourth Amendment explicitly requires. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Harming fair trial rights for American citizens
and other defendants by limiting defense attorneys from challenging the use of secret evidence in criminal cases. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Further criminalizing association without any intent to commit specific terrorism crimes
by broadening the crime of providing material support to terrorism, even if support is not given to any organization listed as a terrorist organization by the government. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Justice Department attempts to evade Fourth Amendment with FISA Court
The eagerness of many in law enforcement to dispense with the requirements of the Fourth Amendment was revealed in August 2002 by the secret court that oversees domestic intelligence spying (the "FISA Court"). Making public one of its opinions for the first time in history, the court revealed that it had rejected an attempt by the Bush Administration to allow criminal prosecutors to use intelligence warrants to evade the Fourth Amendment entirely. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Enhancing the government's ability to obtain sensitive information
without prior judicial approval by creating administrative subpoenas and providing new penalties for failure to comply with written demands for records. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Gagging grand jury witnesses in terrorism cases
to bar them from discussing their testimony with the media or the general public, thus preventing them from defending themselves against rumor-mongering and denying the public information it has a right to receive under the First Amendment. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Expanding nationwide search warrants
so they do not have to meet even the broad definition of terrorism in the USA PATRIOT Act. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Creating 15 new death penalties, including a new death penalty for "terrorism"
under a definition which could cover acts of protest such as those used by Operation Rescue or protesters at Vieques Island, Puerto Rico, if death results. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Giving the government secret access to credit reports
without consent and without judicial process. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Completely abolishing fair hearings for lawful permanent residents convicted of even minor criminal offenses
through a retroactive "expedited removal" procedure, and preventing any court from questioning the government's unlawful actions by explicitly exempting these cases from habeas corpus review.Congress has not exempted any person from habeas corpus -- a protection guaranteed by the Constitution -- since the Civil War. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Bush refuses to reveal how the Patriot Act is being used
Attempts to find out how the new surveillance powers created by the Patriot Act were implemented during their first year were in vain. in June 2002 the House Judiciary Committee demanded that the Department of Justice answer questions about how it was using its new authority. The Bush/Ashcroft Justice Department essentially refused to describe how it was implementing the law; it left numerous substantial questions unanswered, and classified others without justification. In short, not only has the Bush Administration undermined judicial oversight of government spying on citizens by pushing the Patriot Act into law, but it is also undermining another crucial check and balance on surveillance powers: accountability to Congress and the public. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: The Patriot Act allows sampling and cataloguing of genetic information
The Patriot Act would allow for the sampling and cataloguing of innocent Americans? genetic information without court order and without consent. (Sections 301-306) ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Creating a new, separate crime of using encryption technology
that could add five years to any sentence for crimes committed with a computer. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Creating a new category of "domestic security surveillance"
that permits electronic eavesdropping of entirely domestic activity under looser standards than are provided for ordinary criminal surveillance under Title III. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Allows government to bypass FISA courts
Permitting the government, under certain circumstances, to bypass the FISA Court altogether and conduct warrantless wiretaps and searches. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Justice Department refuses to identify enemy combatants
The Justice Department's position on detainees is that if they are held incommunicado indefinitely without being charged with a crime, they need not be publicly identified. Find Law Monday February 17, 2003
Liberty: Allowing the Attorney General to deport an immigrant to any country in the world
even if there is no effective government in such a country. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: "Sneak and Peek" being applied to criminal cases that have nothing to do with fighting terrorism
Finally, this new "sneak and peek" power can be applied as part of normal criminal investigations; it has nothing to do with fighting terrorism or collecting foreign intelligence. ACLU Friday February 14, 2003
Liberty: Bush undermines civil liberties since 9/11
The changes in US law and policy since 9/11 have disrupted the constitutional system of checks and balances. What's more, the media have failed to give consistent and in-depth coverage on how the Bush government undermines the civil liberties of US citizens. (Village Voice) Global Policy Forum Friday April 11, 2003
Liberty: Justice Department establishes pattern of deceit concerning Patriot Act
The Justice Department has made a number of misleading statements about the scope and authority of the act, establishing a pattern of deceit. Talk Left Wednesday July 09, 2003
Liberty: Patriot Act II could strip US citizens of their citizenship
Conservatives and Liberals have joined forces to block a new Patriot Act, which would seriously infringe civil liberties in the US. Among other things, the new Patriot Act would include the right to strip US citizens of their citizenship. (Seattle Times) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: War on terror undermines human rights
9/11 marked the birth of a new era in international politics and the application of human rights law. Legal experts agree that the war on terrorism undermines human rights around the world. (Inter Press Service) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: Cities refuse to participate in Patriot Act rules
A rising number of US cities are passing resolutions to prevent the erosion of civil liberties caused by the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act. (Washington Post) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: Secret detentions undemocratic
Human rights groups condemn a federal appeals court ruling that allows the government to withhold the names and other information of Muslim immigrants rounded up after 9/11. Secret detentions have no place in a democracy, says the Human Rights Watch US program director. (OneWorld) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: US using war on terrorism to justify human rights abuses
Human Rights Watch expressed its concern about how governments have used the war against terror to justify human rights abuses. "Human rights abuses will fuel terrorism, not defeat it," the global advocacy director for the organization said. Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: Children held as prisoners in Guantanamo Bay
In a letter to US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Human Rights Watch has expressed concern about children being held as prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. These children are entitled to rehabilitation, not indefinite detention, said Jo Becker, child rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: Arab and Middle Eastern men required to register with INS program
Lawyers and human rights groups express their concern about the mandatory INS registration of Arab and Middle Eastern men. The program highlights the growing tensions between protecting citizens from terrorism and upholding civil rights. (Christian Science Monitor) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: "The war on terror quickly became a war on immigrants,"
says the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. The US Justice Department's inspector general admits that there were "significant problems" with the roundup of hundreds of illegal immigrants in the months after the 9/11 attacks. (New York Times) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: Bush reduces liberties to save liberties
The Bush administration defends its assault on US civil liberties as a vital measure to protect US security against terrorists. This Village Voice article argues that it is in fact US citizens that need to be secure from their own government. Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: Justice Department violates civil rights
A Justice Department report identifies dozens of cases in which department employees engage in serious civil rights and civil liberties violations. These incidents involve employees enforcing the sweeping federal antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act. (New York Times) Global Policy Forum Monday July 21, 2003
Liberty: HHS Secretary silences critics
Bush's Health and Human Services Department (HHS) threatened advocates of the nonprofit Head Start including parents and teachers of poor children with monetary sanctions or even prosecution for speaking out against a presidential proposal. Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
Liberty: Sex Ed groups may be driven out of business because of Bush legal challenges
The fight with Washington has forced Stop AIDS to consult with legal counsel, something many resource-strapped nonprofits worry about having to do. If CDC prevails, Krochmal says, it will add another brick in an overall homophobic agenda she sees building under Bush. Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
Liberty: HHS chastises advocacy groups for preventing "message of hope"
Thompson's deputy, Claude Allen, told The Washington Post at the time that advocacy groups need to think twice before preventing a Cabinet-level official from bringing a message of hope to an international forum. Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
Liberty: Groups worry that "condom" may lead to loss of funding Meanwhile, a
December 2002 letter from the federal government to groups dealing with HIV prevention and sex education abroad admonished that all operating units should ensure that USAID-funded programs and publications reflect appropriately the policies of the Bush administration. Some nonprofits worry that the smallest conflict "for instance over the use of words like condom or abortion on a website" could give the government an excuse to funnel funds to groups whose views it prefers. Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
Liberty: Iraq relief agencies required to advertise US generosity
In an interesting but brief mention, OMB Watch also reveals that groups currently applying for federal grants to provide humanitarian relief in Iraq are required to advertise the U.S. government's generosity. Presumably, any criticism of Bush administration policy would be considered to send the opposite message. Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
Liberty: Administration steps up scrutiny of sex ed groups
Most squarely in the administration's sights are groups that deal progressively and explicitly with sex education. One of them, Stop AIDS, is a San Francisco-based nonprofit that has used streetwise language to promote HIV prevention among gay and bisexual men since 1984. Since Bush took office, it has been audited twice by HHS and forced to submit program materials for review by the HHS subsidiary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), according to Stop AIDS spokesperson Shana Krochmal. Village Voice Wednesday August 06, 2003
Liberty: Justice Department defies judge. Accused terrorist not allowed to question captives
The Justice Department on Wednesday defied a federal judge for the second time, refusing to allow Zacarias Moussaoui to question senior al-Qaida captives in preparation for his criminal trial. Judicial punishment that could damage the prosecution is likely to follow. AP Wednesday September 10, 2003
Liberty: Patriot Act laws increasingly used against those charged with common crimes
In the two years since law enforcement agencies gained fresh powers to help them track down and punish terrorists, police and prosecutors have increasingly turned the force of the new laws not on al-Qaida cells but on people charged with common crimes. New York Times Sunday September 14, 2003
Liberty: Immigrants are to be finger printed and photographed
Abstract from Fair.org: Immigration and Naturalization Service offices around the country have been asking non-green card holding men from countries regarded as potential sources of terrorists to come in to be registered. Although many of these men have pending applications for work permits and green cards, they are yet to be processed due to Labor Department and INS delays in implementing an "amnesty of sorts" offered during President Clinton's term... and as a result, these men are being detained and arrested en masse. Washington Post Sunday September 14, 2003
Liberty: Wronged at Guantanamo
FOR GOOD reason, many voices have been raised against the Bush administration's detaining of 660 so-called enemy combatants -- indefinitely and in violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions -- at a prison camp on the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. President Bush would best protect Americans and their national interests if he were to abide by international law and US traditions. The criticism comes from American allies such as Great Britain and Australia, from human rights groups and the Red Cross, and from retired US military and diplomatic officers. The critics are trying to remind forgetful leaders in Washington why their predecessors originally signed and ratified the Geneva Conventions. Boston Globe Saturday October 25, 2003
Liberty: Waiting at Guantanamo
A YEAR AGO, federal officials said the government was nearly ready to go ahead with military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Last May, a senior defense official said, "Pretty much, we're ready to go." This week, Army Col. Frederic L. Borch III -- the chief prosecutor for the planned trials -- declared, yet again, that their start was "imminent." In light of the previous delays, this promise should perhaps be taken with a grain of salt. The tribunals were announced with much fanfare and controversy -- and no small sense of urgency -- barely two months after the 9/11 attacks. Yet the administration's urgency has waned -- no doubt partly because it has discovered that indefinitely detaining Taliban and al Qaeda fighters captured abroad is a lot easier than the messy process of trying them. Nearly two years after President Bush ordered their preparations, the tribunals are ever impending but never seem to arrive. Washington Post Monday November 03, 2003
Liberty: 'Enemy Combatant' Sham
The Bush administration insists that it can hold American citizens in secret as long as it wants, without access to lawyers, simply by calling them "enemy combatants." A New York federal appeals court heard a challenge to that policy this week by the so-called dirty bomber, Jose Padilla. The administration's position makes a mockery of the Constitution and puts every American's liberty at risk. It is important that the court strike it down, and give Mr. Padilla the rights he has been denied. NY Times Wednesday November 19, 2003
Liberty: F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies WASHINGTON, Nov. 22 -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation has collected extensive i
Martin Luther King Jr. ">NY Times Saturday November 22, 2003
Liberty: Under attack -- by the FBI
If Ashcroft does not understand why it is wrong to engage the FBI in spying on Americans who demonstrate peaceably for peace, President Bush ought to call the attorney general into the Oval Office for a civics lesson. If the core value of genuine conservatism is to protect the citizen from the overweening power of the state, then Ashcroft and the FBI have been subverting the conservatives' credo. Boston Globe Tuesday November 25, 2003
Liberty: In Bush's America, Rules of War Trump Civil Law
NEW YORK -- Is the Bush administration's "war on terrorism" a real war, and thus governed by the rules of armed conflict? Or is it a law-enforcement effort governed by traditional rules of criminal justice? Two recent rulings by federal appeals courts offered answers to these questions. One involved Jose Padilla, a U.S. citizen who flew from Pakistan to Chicago in May 2002 allegedly to scout targets for a radioactive "dirty" bomb. Rather than prosecute him, President Bush declared him an "enemy combatant" and claimed that the government had the right to hold Padilla without charge or trial until the end of the "war" against terrorism. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, based in New York, ruled that, absent explicit congressional authorization, the president has no such power. LA Times Sunday January 04, 2004
Liberty: Law gives FBI too much access
President Bush has signed into law a bill that undermines Americans' civil liberties needlessly. The objectionable section of the Intelligence Authorization Act allows the FBI greatly expanded authority to obtain an individual's financial records without the person knowing about it and without judicial oversight or review. The government needs good tools in its important battle against terrorism. But this law simply goes too far. As quickly as possible, Congress should revise it. Kansas City Star Sunday January 04, 2004
Liberty: White House Seeks Secrecy on Detainee
WASHINGTON (AP) -- In an extraordinary request, the Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let it keep its arguments secret in a case involving an immigrant's challenge of his treatment after theSept. 11 terror attacks. Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel wants the high court to consider whether the government acted improperly by secretly jailing him after the attacks and keeping his court fight private. He is supported by more than 20 journalism organizations and media companies. AP Monday January 05, 2004
Liberty: Bush Grabs New Power for FBI
While the nation was distracted last month by images of Saddam Hussein's spider hole and dental exam, President George W. Bush quietly signed into law a new bill that gives the FBI increased surveillance powers and dramatically expands the reach of the USA Patriot Act. The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 grants the FBI unprecedented power to obtain records from financial institutions without requiring permission from a judge. Under the law, the FBI does not need to seek a court order to access such records, nor does it need to prove just cause. Previously, under the Patriot Act, the FBI had to submit subpoena requests to a federal judge. Wired Tuesday January 06, 2004
Liberty: School forum leads to subpoenas
In addition to the subpoena of Drake University, subpoenas were served this past week on four of the activists who attended a Nov. 15 forum at the school, ordering them to appear before a grand jury Tuesday, the protesters said. Common Dreams Saturday February 07, 2004
Liberty: Feds Win Right to War Protesters' Records
DES MOINES, Iowa - In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in decades, a federal judge has ordered a university to turn over records about a gathering of anti-war activists. Common Dreams Saturday February 07, 2004
Liberty: Justice Department demans patient records in search of illegal abortions
Privacy in Peril: In an attempt to bolster its defense of the unconstitutional Partial Birth Abortion Act of 2003, the Bush administration has gone beyond its campaign to destroy women's reproductive rights and has attacked the privacy rights of all Americans. This assault is being conducted through subpoenas the Justice Department has issued demanding that at least six hospitals in New York City, Philadelphia, Illinois and elsewhere turn over hundreds of patient records for certain abortions. This egregious intrusion on patients' privacy is being pursued in the name of defending lawsuits against the abortion ban. Not only is the information not needed to do that, but it is also a flagrant example of why Congress and the attorney general have no business second-guessing sensitive medical decisions made by individuals and their doctors. NY Times Saturday February 14, 2004
Liberty: Privacy Protecting Programs Killed
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two cutting-edge computer projects designed to preserve the privacy of Americans were quietly killed while Congress was restricting Pentagon data-gathering research in a widely publicized effort to protect innocent citizens from futuristic anti-terrorism tools. As a result, the government is quietly pressing ahead with research into high-powered computer data-mining technology without the two most advanced privacy protections developed to police those terror-fighting tools. "It's very inconsistent what they've done," said Teresa Lunt of the Palo Alto Research Center, head of one of the two government-funded privacy projects eliminated last fall. NY Times Monday March 15, 2004
Liberty: Detainees' rights
IN IRAQ, according to President Bush, the United States is fighting for democracy. His press conference last week added new emphasis to this as the currently prevailing rationale: The United States has positioned a massive army 6,200 miles away because the world will be far better if the benefits of democracy are felt in the Middle East. Yet this week Bush sent his lawyers just a few blocks to argue that some of the most fundamental rights of democracy should be denied detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Boston Globe Thursday April 22, 2004
Liberty: Iraq: U.S. Treatment of Detainees Shrouded in Secrecy
(Baghdad, 2004-04-22)--The United States has failed to provide clear or consistent information on its treatment of some 10,000 civilians detained in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said today. HRW Thursday April 22, 2004
Liberty: Ashcroft Fishes Out 1872 Law in a Bid to Scuttle Protester Rights
in April of 2002, a cargo ship, the Jade, was steaming toward Miami carrying a cargo of mahogany illegally cut from the Brazilian Amazon. Two Greenpeace activists tried to clamber aboard the ship and hang a banner that read "President Bush: Stop Illegal Logging." None of which is unusual. LA Times Friday May 14, 2004
Liberty: Justice Memos Explained How to Skip Prisoner Rights
WASHINGTON, May 20 -- A series of Justice Department memorandums written in late 2001 and the first few months of 2002 were crucial in building a legal framework for United States officials to avoid complying with international laws and treaties on handling prisoners, lawyers and former officials say. The confidential memorandums, several of which were written or co-written by John C. Yoo, a University of California law professor who was serving in the department, provided arguments to keep United States officials from being charged with war crimes for the way prisoners were detained and interrogated. They were endorsed by top lawyers in the White House, the Pentagon and the vice president's office but drew dissents from the State Department. NY Times Saturday May 22, 2004
Liberty: U.S.-Led Terror War 'Bereft of Principle' -Amnesty
LONDON (Reuters) - Washington's global anti-terror policies are "bankrupt of vision" as human rights become sacrificed in the blind pursuit of security, a leading human rights group charged on Wednesday. Amnesty International also rapped partners across the world in the United States' self-declared "war on terror" for jailing suspects unfairly, stamping on legitimate political and religious dissent, and squeezing asylum-seekers. Reuters Wednesday May 26, 2004
Liberty: Survey Finds U.S. Agencies Engaged in 'Data Mining'
WASHINGTON, May 26 - A survey of federal agencies has found more than 120 programs that collect and analyze large amounts of personal data on individuals to predict their behavior. The survey, to be issued Thursday by the General Accounting Office, an investigative arm of Congress, found that the practice, known as data mining, was ubiquitous. NY Times Thursday May 27, 2004
Liberty: The Homicide Cases
PRESIDENT BUSH'S persistence in describing the abuse of foreign prisoners as an isolated problem at one Iraqi prison is blatantly at odds with the facts seeping out from his administration. These include mounting reports of crimes at detention facilities across Iraq and Afghanistan and evidence that detention policies the president approved helped set the stage for torture and homicide. Yes, homicide: The most glaring omission from the president's account is that at least 37 people have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and that at least 10 of these cases are suspected criminal killings of detainees by U.S. interrogators or soldiers. Washington Post Friday May 28, 2004
Liberty: You Have Rights -- if Bush Says You Do
This week, the U.S. Justice Department held an extraordinary news conference. After insisting for two years that details of the case of Jose Padilla, an American citizen accused of being an "enemy combatant," had to be kept secret even from the federal courts, the Justice Department suddenly released detailed information on his interrogations and their results. What made this press conference particularly notable was its intended audience: the U.S. Supreme Court. LA Times Thursday June 03, 2004
Liberty: Rights worth preserving
THE CAUTIONARY TALE of Jose Padilla and the new world of enemy combatants grew even stranger last week, as the Bush administration cynically used its Justice Department as a PR machine for tearing up the rule of law. After government officials argued for two years that Mr. Padilla's case was too sensitive to be handled in public via the court system, the Justice Department called a very public press conference to spill its beans. Deputy Attorney General James Comey Jr. gave what amounted to the opening statement of an imaginary trial. Baltimore Sun Friday June 04, 2004
Liberty: The Roots of Abu Ghraib
In response to the outrages at Abu Ghraib, the Bush administration has repeatedly assured Americans that the president and his top officials did not say or do anything that could possibly be seen as approving the abuse or outright torture of prisoners. But disturbing disclosures keep coming. This week it's a legal argument by government lawyers who said the president was not bound by laws or treaties prohibiting torture. Each new revelation makes it more clear that the inhumanity at Abu Ghraib grew out of a morally dubious culture of legal expediency and a disregard for normal behavior fostered at the top of this administration. New York Times Wednesday June 09, 2004
Liberty: Legalizing Torture
THE BUSH administration assures the country, and the world, that it is complying with U.S. and international laws banning torture and maltreatment of prisoners. But, breaking with a practice of openness that had lasted for decades, it has classified as secret and refused to disclose the techniques of interrogation it is using on foreign detainees at U.S. prisons at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a matter of grave concern because the use of some of the methods that have been reported in the press is regarded by independent experts as well as some of the Pentagon's legal professionals as illegal. The administration has responded that its civilian lawyers have certified its methods as proper -- but it has refused to disclose, or even provide to Congress, the justifying opinions and memos. Washington Post Wednesday June 09, 2004
Liberty: Prison Interrogators' Gloves Came Off Before Abu Ghraib
WASHINGTON -- After American Taliban recruit John Walker Lindh was captured in Afghanistan , the office of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld instructed military intelligence officers to "take the gloves off" in interrogating him. The instructions from Rumsfeld's legal counsel in late 2001, contained in previously undisclosed government documents, are the earliest known evidence that the Bush administration was willing to test the limits of how far it could go legally to extract information from suspected terrorists. Yahoo News Wednesday June 09, 2004
Liberty: Rights Group Says Bush Policies Created Iraq Abuse
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused the Bush administration of creating the climate for the Iraqi prison torture scandal when it "cast the rules aside" on prisoner interrogation techniques. The New York-based watchdog said Washington circumvented international law and spent two years covering up or ignoring reports of torture or abuse by U.S. troops in the war in Afghanistan and occupation of Iraq. Reuters Wednesday June 09, 2004
Liberty: Disappeared in Iraq
THE COARSENING of US policy since 9/11 is no better illustrated than by the existence of "ghost detainees" -- prisoners whose status and whereabouts are kept secret from the International Committee of the Red Cross. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld personally ordered the Army in Iraq to hold a prisoner in this arbitrary and unethical way. President Bush should repudiate the decision, demand a full accounting of detainees, and make US policy accord with international law and humanitarian practice -- unless he agrees with Rumsfeld's lawless action. Boston Globe Friday June 18, 2004
Liberty: Prisoner Abuse Bush Order
Text of order signed by President Bush on Feb. 7, 2002, outlining treatment of al-Qaida and Taliban detainees:
1. Our recent extensive discussions regarding the status of al-Qaida and Taliban detainees confirm that the application of Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War of August 12, 1949, (Geneva) to the conflict with al-Qaida and the Taliban involves complex legal questions. By its terms, Geneva applies to conflicts involving "High Contracting Parties," which can only be states. Yahoo News Tuesday June 22, 2004
Liberty: Bush wants a national ID system, which would allow tracking citizens movements about the country
CNET Monday July 22, 2002
Liberty: PATRIOT Act gives excessive power to executive branch
The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT Act) gives excessive power to the executive branch to determine who is an enemy combatant. Rense Friday June 28, 2002
Liberty: In 3 Rulings, Supreme Court Affirms Detainees' Right to Use Courts
WASHINGTON, June 28 -- The Supreme Court ruled today that people being held by the United States as enemy combatants can challenge their detention in American courts ? the court's most important statement in decades on the balance between personal liberties and national security.
The justices declared their findings in three rulings, two of them involving American citizens and the other addressing the status of foreigners being held at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Taken together, they were a significant setback for the Bush administration's approach to the campaign against terrorism that began on Sept. 11, 2001. New York Times Monday June 28, 2004
Liberty: Journalists hit by new US visa rules
A crackdown by US authorities on issuing visas to foreign journalists threatens to cause chaos for overseas broadcasters and newspapers just five months before the presidential election.
The new rules, which come into force next week, will ban overseas reporters and news crews stationed in the US from renewing their visas without leaving the country first. Guardian Thursday July 08, 2004
Liberty: Lawmakers Take Aim at Part of Patriot Act
WASHINGTON - Lawmakers who say portions of the USA Patriot Act went too far are taking aim at its provision that made it easier for investigators to learn what people are reading ? despite a veto threat from the White House.
The House planned to vote Thursday on a proposal by Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., that would prevent the government from using the Patriot Act to demand records from book stores and libraries. Yahoo News Thursday July 08, 2004
Liberty: Pentagon vs. prisoners
JUST A WEEK after the Supreme Court jolted the Bush administration by declaring that "a state of war is not a blank check for the president" to deny rights to prisoners, the Defense Department has cobbled together a flawed tribunal process for detainees at Guantanamo. The Pentagon should change course and meet basic due process standards before another court orders it to. Boston Globe Friday July 09, 2004
Liberty: The CIA's Prisoners
FOR DECADES the United States led the denunciation of despots whose enemies "disappear" -- vanish into official custody, with no accounting for their whereabouts or treatment, no notification of their families and sometimes, no acknowledgement that they are being held. Now that same term is being applied to prisoners held by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism. Washington Post Thursday July 15, 2004
Liberty: Abu Ghraib, Whitewashed
A week ago, John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was satisfied that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was keeping his promise to leave no stone unturned to investigate the atrocities of Abu Ghraib prison. A newly released report by the Army's inspector general shows that Mr. Rumsfeld's team may be turning over stones, but it's not looking under them.
The authors of this 300-page whitewash say they found no "systemic" problem - even though there were 94 documented cases of prisoner abuse, including some 40 deaths, 20 of them homicides; even though only four prisons of the 16 they visited had copies of the Geneva Conventions; even though Abu Ghraib was a cesspool with one shower for every 50 inmates; even though the military police were improperly involved in interrogations; even though young people plucked from civilian life were sent to guard prisoners - 50,000 of them in all - with no training. New York Times Friday July 23, 2004
Liberty: A Secret Deportation Of Terror Suspects
STOCKHOLM -- The airport police officer was about to close his small precinct station for the night, when two men wearing suits walked in. The visitors said the special Swedish security police had just arrested two suspected terrorists -- very dangerous men -- and needed a place to hold them until a plane could take them away.
The airport policeman recounted in an interview that he agreed to let them borrow his cramped office that night, Dec. 18, 2001, and stepped out of the way. But there was something strange about this operation. The two men in suits, who were soon joined by two uniformed Swedish police officers, did not speak Swedish, he said, and their English sounded distinctly American. Washington Post Sunday July 25, 2004
Liberty: Why This Really Is "the Most Important Election of Our Lifetime"
Veterans For Peace just concluded its 2004 National Convention, held in Boston at the same time as the Democratic Party's Convention. Attenders heard Daniel Ellsberg and Howard Zinn both warn of an escalating danger of fascist-like repression if we have another four years under the current administration.
I would like to commend to you Senator Robert Byrd's new book, Losing America. Byrd, you will recall, accused his Senate colleagues of "sleepwalking through history" for their failure to resist George Bush's spurious rush to war against Iraq. Now he expresses the bleak conviction that we are on the verge of losing our democracy, just as Rome slipped from republic to autocratic empire through an inert populace, a supine legislature, and an ambitious and arrogant executive. Baltimore Chronicle Sunday August 01, 2004
Liberty: Terrorism suspect's suit tells of U.S. abuse
Recently declassified documents in a Seattle federal court describe the extreme isolation of an alleged al-Qaida member at a U.S. military prison that experts say constitutes torture and war crimes.
The documents, unsealed yesterday at the request of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and others, include U.S. Navy lawyer Charles Swift's firsthand observation at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, prison of the conditions of solitary confinement of his client, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a 34-year-old Yemeni who acknowledges chauffeuring Osama bin Laden at his Afghan farm.
The court documents describing the alleged mistreatment of Hamdan are part of a lawsuit challenging his detention, the conditions of detention and his prolonged isolation in solitary confinement.
The suit also directly challenges President Bush's plan to use military tribunals to try Hamdan and other alleged terrorists as an unconstitutional power grab that would fail to give him a fair trial. Seattle PI Friday August 06, 2004
Liberty: Tyranny in the Name of Freedom
So it has come down to this: You are at liberty to exercise your First Amendment right to assemble and to protest, so long as you do so from behind chain-link fences and razor wire, or miles from the audience you seek to address.
The largely ignored "free-speech zone" at the Democratic convention in Boston last month was an affront to the spirit of the Constitution. The situation will be only slightly better when the Republicans gather this month in New York, where indiscriminate searches and the use of glorified veal cages for protesters have been limited by a federal judge. So far, the only protesters with access to the area next to Madison Square Garden are some anti-abortion Christians. High-fiving delegates evidently fosters little risk of violence. New York Times Thursday August 12, 2004
Liberty: Ashcroft's Quiet Prisoner
Miami -- David Joseph is a little guy, about 5-foot-5, maybe 115 pounds. He's 20 years old, looks younger, and has the sluggish demeanor and sad expression of one who is deeply depressed. He has nightmares and headaches. He spends his days dressed in the blue fatigues of detainees at the federal Krome Detention Center, washing dishes at mealtimes, staring listlessly at television images broadcast in a language he doesn't understand, and praying.
"I thought I would come here for a few days and be released," he told me in a soft voice, his words translated by an interpreter. "But I watch the other people come and go, and I am stuck here."
Mr. Joseph is a refugee from Haiti who is seeking asylum in the United States. He is not a terrorist, and no one has even suggested that he is a threat to anyone. And yet he's been in federal custody for nearly two years.
An immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals have ruled that he should be freed on bond, pending a final ruling on his asylum request. But the attorney general of the United States, John Ashcroft, won't let him go. New York Times Friday August 13, 2004
Liberty: Setbacks on Press Protections Are Seen
A ruling last week ordering a reporter for Time magazine to jail for contempt and a subpoena later issued to a reporter for The New York Times in the same case are the latest examples in what legal experts characterize as an ominous trend for journalists: the weakening of fundamental protections for the gathering and publishing of news that had been generally viewed as settled since the Watergate era.
Both the contempt citation and the subpoena were issued in a federal investigation of whether the Bush administration had illegally disclosed the identity of a covert officer of the Central Intelligence Agency to the syndicated columnist Robert Novak and other journalists. New York Times Wednesday August 18, 2004
Liberty: Passport radio chips send too many signals
PARIS Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, the Bush administration - specifically, the Department of Homeland Security - has wanted the world to agree on a standard for machine-readable passports. Countries whose citizens currently do not have visa requirements to enter the United States will have to issue passports that conform to the standard or risk losing their nonvisa status.
These future passports, currently being tested, will include an embedded computer chip. This chip will allow the passport to contain much more information than a simple machine-readable character font, and will allow passport officials to quickly and easily read that information. That is a reasonable requirement and a good idea for bringing passport technology into the 21st century.
But the Bush administration is advocating radio frequency identification (RFID) chips for both U.S. and foreign passports, and that's a very bad thing. IHT Monday October 04, 2004 |
