Pubdate: Fri, 05 Sep 2003 Source: Amarillo Globe-News (TX) Copyright: 2003 Amarillo Globe-News Contact: http://amarillonet.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/13 Author: William H. Seewald Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?203 (Terrorism) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Victory+Act HOLY CIVIL LIBERTIES! HOLD TIGHT TO BILL OF RIGHTS The Bush administration's chief brown shirt, Attorney General John Ashcroft, has been on the road trying to drum up support for the USA PATRIOT Act and laying the groundwork for new, even more outrageous assaults on American civil liberties. Meanwhile, Utah Sen. Orin Hatch has rolled out the so-called VICTORY Act, the new Orwellian name for the latest proposed usurpation of our liberties. It's another one of those eponymous acronyms minted to fold patriotism and nationalism into a veil for sinister realities. Amazingly, this radical perversion of the rule of law empowers the government to summarily strip Americans of their citizenship. Give money to the cause of liberating Palestinians from Israeli occupation and you, my friend, are a supporter of terrorism - not on the basis of any proceedings in a court of law but on the word of the creepy attorney general in charge of the burgeoning American police state. The Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003 would further remove the judicial system from oversight of the government's wiretap authority and similarly expand law enforcement's unsupervised subpoena powers. This summer the House voted by a wide margin (309-118) to eliminate funding for the "sneak-and-peek" powers originally authorized in the PATRIOT Act. But, under VICTORY, the attorney general's secret powers would expand to drug cases, allowing federal agents wider grounds than terrorism to enter American homes and businesses without a court order and without even notifying the targets that it has happened. Rep. Butch Otter, R-Idaho, introduced this curb on the attorney general's authoritarian ambitions. Still, it's only a parry in the larger struggle between legislators and an executive branch bearing down anywhere it thinks it can expand its power to evade the checks and balances of the other two branches of government. This new bill would treat drug possession as a "terrorist offense." This is the rankest form of political expediency and cynicism. Bereft of political leadership as we are, will alienated Americans remain so occupied watching "reality TV" that the VICTORY Act slides through Congress upon the occasion of some new, fearful act of terrorism? A couple of lawsuits already challenge provisions of the PATRIOT Act, legislation that most congressmen didn't even fully understand or read, much less take the time to vet, in the fear-filled aftermath of 9/11. Three states and more than 140 cities, towns and counties already have passed resolutions critical of the PATRIOT Act. Some have directed their local law enforcement not to cooperate with federal agents involved in investigations deemed unconstitutional. The Center for Constitutional Rights (located in New York) is challenging as unconstitutionally vague the provision making it illegal to provide "expert advice and assistance" to groups with alleged ties to terrorism. A $10 contribution to an Islamic charity could set you up to be hounded by the Ashcroft apparatchiks. The Bush administration can't credibly distinguish a terrorist from a malcontent. It's about as promising as Joseph McCarthy having differentiated a communist and a leftist. So, the ACLU is suing over the provision that allows law enforcement to secretly subpoena people's bookstore and library records. Having John Ashcroft going around the country selling the idea of Americans turning more of our civil liberties over for his safekeeping seems as foolhardy and rash as consigning your 21-year-old daughter for a Clinton White House internship. It could be dangerous. At the minimum someone is going to get . . . well, you won't see it on "Girls Gone Wild." Actually, PATRIOT II was trotted out earlier to a less than rousing reception. So the VICTORY Act repackages some of the same objectives with the Justice Department publicly disowning any connection. The American "wars" on terrorism and drugs grow conveniently and disturbingly more interchangeable. The same American operations in Colombia that used to be termed anti-drug are now "anti-terrorist." Nothing changed but the term for the "enemy." Whether focus group or poll driven, we're left to presume that whatever term is in vogue pushes the most fear buttons, cowing the general population and what passes for political leadership into the unquestioning acquiescence of fear. Seeing the creepy attorney general in his role of public shill is as startling as Morticia Addams becoming the Coppertone spokesperson. Ashcroft just isn't a fella whom sunshine particularly flatters. May the elections next year please close the lid on this dreadful, dangerous administration before the American commitment to individual liberty withers, unrecognizable within the values of those who've given their lives to secure it. - --- MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk