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Posted on 10/29/2001 6:23:37 AM PST by sendtoscott

U.S. SURRENDERS TO TERRORISTS

Refusing to Address the Obvious, the Politicians Forfeit Your Privacy Instead

by Michael S. Hyatt

October 27, 2001

The terrorists won a major victory last week. This time the blow wasn't physical. It didn't result in the loss of life or property. The victory was philosophical. The terrorists struck a blow at the Constitution and were successfully able to alter our way of life. The sad part is that our elected officials unwittingly assisted them.

On Friday, October 26, 2001, President George Bush signed into law the U.S.A. Patriot Act of 2001, the so-called new antiterrorism bill which gives the federal government sweeping new powers to pursue and apprehend terrorists. In truth, it is an assault upon the civil liberties and freedoms that have differentiated America from the other nations of the world.

The Administration has put enormous pressure on Congress to pass this bill. They discouraged debate. And, of course, they linked it to the subject of patriotism, thus implying that anyone who opposes the bill is somehow unpatriotic. Frankly, I have to wonder whether most legislators bothered to read the bill. Either they didn't read it or they haven't read the Bill of Rights in a very long time. I don't see how you can square both documents.

Part of my problem with this bill is the fact that the Administration hasn't done the obvious things to fight terrorism. For example, why doesn't President Bush do the following:

Seal our borders and deport illegal aliens. Why haven't we rounded up and deported the thousands — if not millions — of foreigners who are here illegally? Thirty thousand foreigners are resident in America on student visas. Some experts believe that more than half of these have never attended a U.S. school and don't plan to. Mohammad Atta, one the 9-11 terrorists, was one such person. How many terrorist agents are continuing to slip across our borders every day? This is a simple solution that would radically reduce the likelihood of further attacks on American soil, yet the Administration is strangely silent on this point.

Arm commercial airline pilots. This would be so simple. Better, it would be inexpensive and effective. Arming pilots would require the issuing of a handgun and providing firearms training. This would cost no more than $500 per pilot and no more than 40 hous of training. Instead, the Administration is advocating a sky marshal system which will place at least two federal agents on each commercial flight. At 30,000 commercial flights per day, experts estimate this will require at least 20,000 new agents — more agents than currently employed by the FBI and CIA combined. The Administration's proposal will, in addition to the handgun and firearms training, require paying $60,000 per year per sky marshal in salary and benefits. This will cost U.S. taxpayers a whopping $1.2 billion. Unfortunately, it will also require a new federal bureaucracy to administrate the system. In addition to the cost of the marshals, the bureaucracy will likely cost another $1.2 billion, bringing the total to $2.4 billion.

Encourage civil defense. We used to have a fairly active civil defense program. Remember the 1960s? Today, we have virtually none. Individual citizens are discouraged from doing anything to protect themselves or take responsibility for their own lives. The Administration has repeatedly told us we don't need gas masks (even though everyone in Congress has been issued one), we don't need antibiotics, and we need to resume business as usual. We have not been instructed on how to reduce the threat of becoming a victim of terrorism. Instead, we have been told again and again that the federal government will take care of everything. Notice a pattern here?

The bottom line is that we are witnessing the largest federal power grab in history. I hate to sound so cynical. I'd like to believe that our government is truly looking out for our best interests. Unfortunately, bureaucrats — being true to their nature — are using the tragic events of 9-11, to further expand their power and funding while restricting our rights and freedoms. This is only the most recent episode in the assault on our Constitution which arguably began with the Civil War.

Meanwhile, the majority of our fellow citizens seem to be asleep at the wheel, or worse, happily cheering on the politicians as they exchange our civil liberties for the hallow promise of peace and security.

Instead of doing the obvious, Congress and the Administration have concocted the U.S.A. Patriot Act of 2001. This new bill, signed into law by the President yesterday, will do little to stop the real terrorists. However, it moves us one giant step closer to becoming a Police State and vanquishing privacy forever. Among the worst seven provisions of the bill are the following.

1. The FBI can secretly enter someone's home or office, search the premises, and leave without notifying the owner. In theory, this would be supervised by a court. However, the notification of the secret search "may be delayed" indefinitely (Section 213). This is, of course, a complete violation of the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits "fishing expeditions" and guarantees the right of the people to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." All the federal government must do to suspend your Fourth Amendment rights is accuse you of terrorism.

2. Any U.S. attorney or state attorney general can order the installation of the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system. As I have reported before, this system records all e-mail correspondence and the addresses of Web pages visited by a specific target. Previously, there were legal restrictions on Carnivore and other Internet surveillance techniques (Section 216). Even more troubling, Fox News reported today that the FBI plans to go beyond the authorization of the new bill and change the very architecture of the Internet. The FBI wants to route all net traffic through central servers for monitoring. While this will require the voluntary compliance of the major ISPs, most experts agree that they will quickly cave into these demands for fear of appearing uncooperative or unpatriotic.

3. An accused terrorist who is a foreign citizen can be held for an unspecified series of "periods of up to six months" with the attorney general's approval. He doesn't have to be charged and he may be denied access to an attorney (Section 412). In effect, this provision suspends any due process provisions of the Constitution, especially the Fifth Amendment which states that "no person … [shall] be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law." While the provision of this bill only applies to foreigners, it sets a dangerous precedent and could easily be used in the future against U.S. citizens accused of domestic terrorism.

4. Foreigners who enter the U.S. on a visa will be subjected to biometric technology, such as fingerprint readers or iris scanners. This will become part of an "integrated entry and exit data system" (Section 414). My fear is that eventually all Americans will be forced to submit to this technology. This bill will put the infrastructure in place. In will then be a simple step to require all citizens to participate in this system. Failure to do so may result in the inability to travel or even to buy and sell merchandise or property.

5. Without a court order, the FBI can require telephone companies and Internet service providers to turn over customer records. All they have to do is claim that the "records sought are relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism." Worse, the company contacted may not "disclose to any person" that the FBI is doing an investigation (Section 505). The bill of rights was written to protect citizens from exactly this kind of abuse. This provision of the new law completely throws out the presumption of innocence doctrine that is central to our system of justice. Now anyone can be treated as a criminal if they are merely accused of a crime.

6. Without a court order, credit reporting agencies must disclose to the FBI any information that agents request in connection with a terrorist investigation. The agencies may not disclose to the subject that the FBI is snooping in their file (Section 505). Again, there is no presumption of innocence and the suspect is denied his due process rights. This gives government agents the authority to spy on anyone's financial activities. All they have to do is make the accusation of terrorism and the door swings wide open.

7. The current definition of terrorism is expanded to include biochemical attacks and computer hacking. Some current computer crimes — such as hacking a U.S. government system or breaking into and damaging any Internet-connected computer — are also covered (Section 808). While these are no doubt crimes and should be prosecuted, by classifying them as "terrorist activities," suspects are subject to having their rights radically curtailed, as I have outlined above. If convicted, they are subjected to extremely stiff penalties. Prison terms range between five and 20 years (Section 814).

Fortunately, the bill has a "sunset provision" included in it, so that some of its worst features automatically expire in 2005. Let's hope we can educate enough of our fellow citizens by then to keep Congress from reenacting these provisions, or worse, resurrecting them in a new bill that would apply them even more broadly.

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