Posted on 09/10/2001 11:45:45 AM PDT by JRadcliffe
WASHINGTON - Drug control is out of control, say privacy advocates. A broad coalition of privacy groups is urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to red-flag the confirmation of President Bush’s designated "drug czar” until he promises to address invasions of personal privacy and civil liberties in the program.
The letter, to be released at a news conference Monday, neither opposes nor supports the nomination of John Walters. Rather, the coalition, which includes conservative and some liberal groups, "wants to ensure that [Chairman Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member Orrin Hatch] and the [other] members of the Judiciary Committee,” scheduled to consider the nomination Tuesday, "are fully acquainted with the threat posed to civil liberties by the current approach to the War on Drugs,” and that "needed reforms” will "prevent the War on Drugs from escalating into a full-fledged assault on our privacy and civil liberties.”
The coalition charges that privacy-intrusive efforts by the federal government include taking peeks at private e-mails, profiling "suspicious” citizens, and even seizing private assets.
One look at the line-up of signatories to the letter is enough to convince anyone that this is not a "soft on drugs” group.
The lead signatures are those of Paul M. Weyrich, national chairman, Coalitions for America, and his privacy expert, Lisa S. Dean, vice president for technology policy, Free Congress Foundation.
The coalition notes that even such tough-on-drugs conservatives such as Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., a former prosecutor, have expressed concern about heavy-handed government intrusions into the privacy of citizens.
Everyone's a Suspect
If you travel by plane, especially on international flights, you will be interested to know how you can arouse the suspicions of the U.S. Customs Service. As noted by Georgetown University professor David Cole, who is quoted in the letter to the committee, the following "drug courier profiles” are used by Customs:
Arrived late at night.
Arrived early in the morning.
Arrived in afternoon.
One of the first to deplane.
One of the last to deplane.
Deplaned in the middle.
Bought coach ticket.
Bought first-class ticket.
Used one-way ticket.
Used round-trip ticket.
Traveled alone.
Traveled with a companion.
In short, everyone, everywhere at any time could fit the profile of a drug courier, according to U.S. Customs officials.
If you instead travel by train, apparently you’re still not safe. Last April the Albuquerque Journal reported Amtrak was giving Drug Enforcement Agency officials access to its ticketing database, giving the DEA the passengers’ last names, destinations, method of payment, and whether they were going one-way or round trip. Amtrak was given 10 percent of any property the government seized in making arrests.
Organizations signing on to the letter include:
Americans For Tax Reform; American Policy Center; Association of American Physicians and Surgeons; American Civil Liberties Union; Consumer Alert; 60 Plus Association; Property Rights Foundation of America Inc.; The Multiracial Activist and Examiner; Strategic Issues Research Institute of the U.S.; People Against Church Taxation; Concerned Citizens Opposed to Police States; Coalition on Urban Renewal & Education; Small Business Survival Committee; Privacy International (London); The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation; Young Americans for Freedom; Republican Leadership Council; Catholicvote.org; Eagle Forum chapters in Wisconsin, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas and Tennessee; the Libertarian Party organizations in Montana and Colorado; Family Alliance.
At Monday’s news conference, the coalition intends to show how the government attempts to use its regulatory power to force private businesses to monitor their customers.
NewsMax.com will be there.
I think that pretty much sums it up. Thank God more people are becoming aware of this treason.
Too late. It's already happened. The recent Michigan campground incident is just the latest in a long line of abuses.
There's only 1 way to "reform" the War on Drugs: END IT, AND END IT NOW!
It has long since escalated to this level. If they can't even keep drugs out of prisons then how will they keep them out of a free society? Simply put, it can't be done. Liberties must be curtailed beyond the level of a prison for this to work. Maybe then we can be secure in the knowledge that nobody anywhere is doing anything verboten.
I'd rather have liberty than security, imho.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."-- Benjamin Franklin
If it just stops one loser from overdosing on heroin...
Or so say the drug war supporters.
Yes. I am an honorary member of NOW. I don't think they know though. According to Dane, I am just like Patrichia Irland because I do not believe that the government owns my body.
"Or so say the drug war supporters. "
Is that the EXCUSE they're using now?
This is very disturbing.
It's organized extortion. The passengers don't stand a chance when these kinds of alliances are made between government and business.
The purpose of business is to serve its customers, and the customers are ALWAYS AND WITHOUT EXCEPTION the tax-paying public -- even if they are a defense industry.
Some of the industries located in Northern Virginia are just covers for covert government operations (not tin-foil hat -- well documented) The government helps set these companies up, with the aire of respectablity, and uses them around the world whenever they don't believe the public will support another all-out war -- or they want to engage in a clearly unconstitutional act, or an act which would be in violation of international agreements. A "private" company gives the US Government an aire of respectability and plausible deniability.
It's just like Bush giving Colombia 1.2 billion dollars, part of which was for the expressed purpose of buying MONSANTO Round Up, which was ultimately sprayed on innocent peasant farmers and their children. It gave the government an aire of "respectability" (The Holy and Righteous Drug War) while at the same time providing a layer of cover for spraying little children with poison.
Before long business will be government and government will be business. The individual will, of course be royally screwed unless rich and powerful enough.
Me too. Militant lesbian trapped in a man's body :)
My personal feeling is that it is about money. This deal with Amtrak tells me that they no longer care to hide their motivations.
There is just far too much money to be made for counties, states, and the Federal government especially.
It seems to me that increasingly the police are less interested in pursuing the traditional quarry (murderers, rapists, robbers) as their role becomes more that of another revenue generating agency.
Yes, prisons are awash in the stuff from what I hear. Personally, this American doesn't care to become a prisoner in his own country.
I'll second that!
Imagine my surprise. I'm a militant homophobe, trapped in a red-neck's body. Oh no!
Hang tight. It will collapse shortly. Look at all the different organizations and views that have signed onto this. We need to give it another couple of years to gel, but things are slowly coming together.
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