.
Are George Bush and Tony Blair
building democracy in the Middle East or police states
at home?
There is no sign of democracy in
Iraq. Bush has installed a puppet government backed up
by US military force. America`s hamhanded occupation has
resulted in large civilian casualties,
prison tortures and a breakdown in public order.
Domestic police states, however,
are in evidence in the US and UK.
During the cold war, Western
freedoms were favorably compared to the Soviet national
identity card, which increased secret police efficiency.
Today, UK Home Secretary
David Blunkett says Englishmen are to be issued with
national
identity cards. This prompted UK Information
Commissioner Richard Thomas to
remark that the UK is "sleepwalking into a
surveillance society."
In the US there are plans for
identity cards complete with retina scans and DNA
information.
The biggest threat to freedom,
however, is the full-scale assault on what 18th century
English jurist William Blackstone called
"the Rights of Englishmen" and
Americans know as
civil liberties.
President George Bush and his
Attorney General, John Ashcroft, have resurrected the
"Star Chamber," made infamous by the
Stuart kings in the 17th century for arbitrary,
secret proceedings with no right of appeal.
Today, American citizens can be
arrested and held in secret indefinitely without being
charged.
The Bush administration has
sacrificed the Bill of Rights to its "war on terror."
As Elaine Cassel conclusively demonstrates in her
forthcoming book,
The War on Civil Liberties (Lawrence Hill
Books), the "war on terror" is in truth a war on the
first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth amendments to
the Constitution.
Cassel shows that Bush and Ashcroft
have mobilized patriotism against the Constitution.
The coup, Cassel writes,
"came
when
some staffer dreamed up the acronym USA PATRIOT
(United and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct
Terrorism) Act for a law that makes a mockery of
constitutional protections. To be against the Patriot
Act makes one unpatriotic."
The Patriot Act defines terrorism
so broadly that any act of protest or civil disobedience
can be construed as "terrorism," a charge for
which the government can hold a person indefinitely.
Thus, the Patriot Act permits punishment without
conviction.
If you think you still live in a
free society, consider:
The Patriot Act overturns the
attorney-client privilege, and attorneys who
aggressively defend their clients can be indicted for
"aiding and abetting terrorism."
Internet service providers who move
to quash government surveillance of their customers can
be charged with "obstructing justice."
Parents, who object to airport
security personnel dragging away a frightened child to
be searched,
can be arrested for "obstructing a federal law
enforcement officer."
According to Cassel, regulations
have been issued that permit federal prosecutors to
override federal judges—a gross breach of the separation
of powers and a classic tool of 20th century police
states.
Indeed, Cassel herself might be
subject to arrest "for aiding and abetting terrorists."
Here is what Ashcroft told the
Senate Judiciary Committee: "To those who scare
peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my
message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists for
they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve."
Cassel dryly notes that September
11 was caused by intelligence failures, not by civil
liberties. Yet, the government`s response was to attack
civil liberties.
All of the police state measures
were waiting on the shelf. September 11 was an
excuse to grab unconstitutional power—just as the
Reichstag fire was for Hitler.
Cassel says the fate of our free
society rests with the judiciary. In her chapter,
"The War in the Courts," she assesses whether courts
are up to the challenge. Some are and some are not.
Ironically, it is the conservative Republican judges who
go along with the police state measures. So much for the
old saw that we need a Republican president to save us
from liberal judges.
At the time Cassel`s book went to
press, the Supreme Court had yet to rule whether the
government can indefinitely hold a person without
charging him and bringing him to trial.
After the Padilla and
Hamdi decisions, Cassel concludes that the Court did
not consent to being read out of the picture, but did
nothing effective to defend civil liberties. Civil
libertarian Harvey Silverglate concurs.
Where do matters stand? We are all
in Abu Ghraib now. If the government declares you "an
enemy combatant" or a "material witness" you
have no rights. The government can hold you forever
without charges or until you admit to some offense in
order to escape from isolation and from psychological
and perhaps physical torture.
I would rather take my chances with
terrorists.
Cassel discusses specific cases,
including cases of "guilt by association." She names
names and holds accountable the brown shirts in our
government. She describes absurd regulations under which
innocent American citizens can be convicted of
terrorism.
In a chapter on grass roots
resistance, Cassel notes that more than 250 counties and
municipalities in 28 states, plus two entire states,
representing 43 million Americans have passed
resolutions criticizing the Patriot Act or forbidding
local law enforcement from cooperating with the Bush
administration`s attack on the US Constitution.
After the horrors Cassel describes,
it is refreshing that there are still 43 million
Americans who can recognize tyranny when they see it.
COPYRIGHT CREATORS
SYNDICATE, INC.
Paul Craig Roberts is the author with Lawrence M.
Stratton of
The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and
Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name
of Justice
