THE END?

The Other War: The Bush administration & the end of civil liberties (Elaine Cassel, 4/23/03, City Pages)

Some of the more drastic incursions on civil liberties resulting from these Patriot Act provisions:

* It is a crime for anyone in this country to contribute money or other material support to the activities of a group on the State Department's terrorist watch list. [...]

* The FBI can monitor and tape conversations and meetings between an attorney and a client who is in federal custody, whether the client has been convicted, charged, or merely detained as a material witness. [...]

* Americans captured on foreign soil and thought to have been involved in terrorist activities abroad may be held indefinitely in a military prison and denied access to lawyers or family members. [...]

* The FBI can order librarians to turn over information about their patrons' reading habits and Internet use. [...]

* Foreign citizens charged with a terrorist-related act may be denied access to an attorney and their right to question witnesses and otherwise prepare for a defense may be severely curtailed if the Department of Justice says that's necessary to protect national security.

* Resident alien men from primarily Middle Eastern and Muslim countries must report for registration.

* Lawful foreign visitors may be photographed and fingerprinted when they enter the country and made to periodically report for questioning.

* The government can conduct surveillance on the Internet and e-mail use of American citizens without any notice, upon order to the Internet service provider. [...]

* The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) can search any car at any airport without a showing of any suspicion of criminal activity.

* The TSA can conduct full searches of people boarding airplanes and, if the passenger is a child, the child may be separated from the parent during the search. [...]

* The TSA is piloting a program to amass all available computerized information on all purchasers of airline tickets, categorize individuals according to their threat to national security, and embed the label on all boarding passes. [...]

* The TSA distributes a "no-fly" list to airport security personnel and airlines that require refusal of boarding and detention of persons deemed to be terrorism or air piracy risks or to pose a threat to airline or passenger safety. [...]

* American citizens and aliens can be held indefinitely in federal custody as "material witnesses," a ploy sometimes used as a punitive measure when the government does not have sufficient basis to charge the individual with a terror-related crime. [...]

* Immigration authorities may detain immigrants without any charges for a "reasonable period of time."

* American colleges and universities with foreign students must report extensive information about their students to the BCIS. [...]

* Accused terrorists labeled "unlawful combatants" can be tried in military tribunals here or abroad, under rules of procedure developed by the Pentagon and the Department of Justice. [...]

* A warrant to conduct widespread surveillance on any American thought to be associated with terrorist activities can be obtained from a secret panel of judges, upon the affidavit of a Department of Justice official. [...]

* The FBI can conduct aerial surveillance of individuals and homes without a warrant, and can install video cameras in places where lawful demonstrations and protests are held.

One of the difficulties that civil libhysterians like Ms Cassel face in convincing average Americans that any of this marks the "end of civil liberties" is that none of these provisions will ever affect us. In fact, the tax bill before Congress will have a far greater impact on our freedoms than will any of these laws, rules, and regulations. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 22, 2003 8:28 PM