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Politics : Foreign Policy Discussion Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epsteinbd who wrote (861)	12/21/2002 10:14:22 PM
From: lorne	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15987

Muslim-Americans Decry Patriot Act By LAURA WIDES Associated Press Writer December 21, 2002, 9:08 PM EST LONG BEACH, Calif. -- The USA Patriot Act passed in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is the biggest threat to democracy in the United States, Muslim leaders and activists said Saturday. The denunciation at a Muslim-American convention came days after vocal protests were held over the detention of hundreds of Middle Eastern immigrants who voluntarily registered with the Immigration and Naturalization Service under new federal guidelines, and urged for an end the program. Speakers at the Muslim Public Affairs Council convention called on the public to challenge the Patriot Act, which they called an unconstitutional law that violates basic civil liberties. They also urged the roughly 1,500 people attending to demand that the media provide diverse perspectives on the potential war with Iraq to complement the official government stand. "The Patriot Act is the biggest attack on democracy in America right now," council board chairman Omar Ricci said in his opening speech at the two-day annual conference. The Patriot Act, approved in October 2001, gives the government new powers to obtain personal information about U.S. citizens and allows the government to detain aliens deemed threats to national security and hold them without public acknowledgment. It also has given federal law enforcement agencies greater wiretap authority, access to student and library records and new Internet wiretap powers. Bryan Sierra, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, defended the Patriot Act as "an incredibly valuable tool in the war on terrorism." "Ultimately, the question of civil liberties and what infringes on the Constitution is a matter for the courts to decide," Sierra said in a telephone interview from Washington. "But the ultimate goal here is liberty and safety and the security of Americans." Francisco Arcaute, an INS spokesman in Los Angeles, declined to comment Saturday. Justice attorney Joseph Zogby, who attended the conference, said he would relay the council's concerns about alleged civil rights abuses to the Attorney General. Zogby also said the department does not have control over INS policies. Zogby, who works in the department's post-Sept. 11 hate crimes investigation division, urged people to register civil rights complaints. Council board member Gasser Hathout compared the Patriot Act to the Alien and Sedition Act of 1789, which made it illegal to criticize then-President John Adams. He said civil liberties also came under attack in the 1950s from the House Un-American Activities Committee and in the 1960s when the FBI investigated civil rights activists and Vietnam War opponents. "I'm calling on people not to surrender their civil rights," Hathout said after a morning panel discussion. "They are not mutually exclusive things, security or civil rights." Hathout said he had statistics showing that since the Patriot Act was approved, the number of federal subpoenas of phone and Internet records have been doubling every month and have reached into the thousands. He also urged the audience not to be cowed into silence about the potential war with Iraq or restrictions on their civil liberties. Panelist Amy Goodman, a host of the national radio program "Democracy Now!," said the public can affect the media's coverage of the war. She recalled a Sally Jessy Raphael talk-show episode that she participated in during the Gulf War that was nearly canceled before callers urged the show's producer to broadcast it. newsday.com * __ On the Net: Muslim Public Affairs Council: mpac.org