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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dorine Essey who wrote (3945)	6/11/2002 1:49:07 AM
From: Patricia Trinchero	Respond to of 15516

This guy they caught is an American citizen and he is being held without being charged.............apparently there is no evidence to charge him............this is scary. He may be guilty but where is the rule of law? THey held the guy for a month without telling us.........and they have not let him see even an attorney...........he's being held in a military jail I presume? The key word in their allegations is "may"......which means nothing is for certain. This Bush administration is getting scarier by the hour. Pat

To: Dorine Essey who wrote (3945)	6/17/2002 5:41:28 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Fla. Election Monitors Recruited Mon Jun 17, 8:27 AM ET JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Civil rights leaders and liberal groups are organizing Florida residents to monitor polling places in the upcoming election for fraud and improper conduct. The strategy, called "election protection," will use citizens, lawyers and activists to monitor election workers and direct voters who are turned away from the polls to a legal hot line. Volunteers at precincts with a history of problems will inform voters of their rights and offer assistance, the organizers said. They also plan voter education drives before the Nov. 5 election. The nonpartisan campaign was devised after the 2000 election by the liberal People for the American Way Foundation, which has allotted $750,000 in seed money for Florida and a total of $3 million for the 12 states involved, said Ralph Neas, the foundation's president. Also providing funds are the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the American Civil Liberties Union , he said. The strategy is partially in response to the Bush administration's decision not to have the Justice Department pursue further legal action in Florida's 2000 election. In the bitterly disputed count, President Bush won the state by 537 votes. "We can't wait for Justice to do anything for us," Earl O'Neal, a political action specialist with the AFL-CIO, said at a meeting in Jacksonville. "We have to educate people on the election laws in this country." O'Neal was among the civil rights leaders who advised more than 450 Jacksonville residents last week on how to protect their vote. ___ On the Net: People for the American Way Foundation: pfaw.org story.news.yahoo.com

To: Dorine Essey who wrote (3945)	6/17/2002 5:45:25 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

What was Ashcroft doing in Russia? Imitating KGB techniques...... See following Op-Ed piece by Bob Herbert

To: Dorine Essey who wrote (3945)	6/17/2002 5:47:53 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Isn't Democracy Worth It? The New York Times June 17, 2002 By BOB HERBERT Donna Newman can talk to me, but she can't talk to her client. Ms. Newman is an attorney who was assigned to represent Jose Padilla, the former Chicago gang member accused of participating in a Qaeda plot to detonate a radioactive bomb in the United States. I have no trouble believing that Mr. Padilla, who now calls himself Abdullah al-Muhajir, is a dangerous man. He may well be. But given the way his case has been handled by the Bush administration, we have no way of knowing how much of a terror threat he really was, and no prospect of finding out anytime soon. Mr. Padilla, an American citizen, has been sucked into a procedural black hole in which he no longer has any legal rights. This is a new and dangerous region that is outside the public's view and, for the time being at least, beyond the reach of the Constitution. If left unchecked, this contempt for the law and due process could pose more of a threat to our way of life than Al Qaeda. Mr. Padilla is locked in a Navy brig in South Carolina. He has not been charged with any crime. He is not allowed to speak with Ms. Newman. The government has no plans to present a case against him, and no plans to let him go. Officials have said, in essence: We've got him, and you can forget about due process. The K.G.B. was very good at this sort of thing. And it's chillingly ironic that Mr. Padilla's arrest was announced from Moscow by Attorney General John Ashcroft, who happened to be in Russia on an unrelated matter. "We have captured a known terrorist who was exploring a plan to build and explode a radiological dispersion device, or `dirty bomb,' in the United States," said Mr. Ashcroft. It is now believed that Mr. Ashcroft may have overstated the case somewhat. But if, as most people suspect, Mr. Padilla really was involved in some sort of terror conspiracy, it is almost impossible to believe that the combined efforts of the C.I.A. and F.B.I. have failed to come up with enough evidence to hold him legitimately on some charge. But the government won't produce the evidence. Mr. Padilla has been slapped with the legally dubious designation of "enemy combatant," and in the administration's view that is enough of a basis for holding him until the cessation of hostilities in the war against terror. That is tantamount to a life sentence. "He's been tried and convicted by the executive branch," said Ms. Newman. Her voice conveyed the frustration she feels at being assigned to represent Mr. Padilla but not being permitted to do so in any way that might be effective. In the United States, as opposed to the many tyrannical societies we've known and are coming to know, the government is not permitted to hustle its citizens into prison without offering a legally sound reason for their incarceration, and without giving the accused an opportunity to challenge their loss of liberty. Today it may be Padilla. Tomorrow it might be you. I believe the government has the goods on Mr. Padilla, but for whatever reasons finds the due process route to be inconvenient. That kind of arrogance of power has no place in the U.S., where the rule of law is supposed to be something very special. Freedom comes with a heavy price tag. Ben Franklin said in 1755, "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." You don't abandon the rule of law and due process simply because the populace is angry and frightened. The United States is strong enough to handle the likes of Jose Padilla within the precious boundaries of the law and the Constitution. If new rules are needed for the processing and detention of terror suspects, then by all means establish new rules. But you don't abandon all rules while waiting for new ones to be promulgated. The war against terror is not merely a fight for survival. It's a fight for the survival of a free and democratic way of life. If that's not the case, then we're just blowing stale smoke rings of hypocrisy when we place our hands over our hearts and recite pledges about liberty and justice, or sing about the free and the brave. nytimes.com Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company