Posted on 03/07/2003 10:14:33 PM PST by Commie Basher
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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
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For release: March 6, 2003
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For additional information:
George Getz, Communications Director
Phone 202) 333-0008
E-Mail: pressreleases@hq.LP.org
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Sequel to USA Patriot Act is every tyrant's dream, Libertarians say.
WASHINGTON, DC -- Here's great news for everyone who supported the USA Patriot Act, Libertarians say: The Justice Department has secretly drafted follow-up legislation that would allow the government to make secret arrests, create a vast new DNA database of "suspected terrorists" and even strip Americans of their citizenship and deport them.
"If you liked the Patriot Act, you're going to love the sequel," said George Getz, Libertarian Party communications director. "Patriot II offers awesome government power, rapidly disappearing freedom, and an action-packed war on the Constitution. You'll be sitting on the edge of your seat as your liberties are stripped away."
The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003 (DSEA) – dubbed "Patriot II" because of its similarities to the USA Patriot Act – was secretly written by the Justice Department in January and has not yet been introduced in Congress. A draft of the legislation was leaked recently to the Center for Public Integrity and posted on its website.
"The original Patriot Act got rave reviews from authoritarians everywhere," Getz noted. "Rogue FBI agents conducting 'sneak-and-peak searches,' an e-mail spy scheme named Carnivore, secret deportations – this legislation was every petty tyrant's dream.
"It opened to a packed House – and Senate – in October 2001 and got a nearly unanimous 'thumbs up.' Clearly there's a market out there for less freedom, and Washington is rushing to cash in with a sequel."
The plot for Patriot II: A group of unscrupulous politicians in a large, Western democracy capitalize on a terrorist attack in order to vastly expand their powers. They embark on an effort to convince their subjects that by surrendering their freedom they will be protected from terrorists and other criminals.
Working along with a "Department of Justice," they subvert the Constitution by secretly crafting legislation that allows the government to:
* Make secret arrests, overturning a federal court decision requiring the government to identify persons detained in the 9/11 investigation.
* Issue secret subpoenas, and jail people who reveal to anyone except their attorney that they are the subject of a secret investigation.
* Strip citizens of their citizenship for associating with a group designated by the attorney general as a "terrorist organization," even if the individual's conduct is legal.
* Allow the attorney general to deport any foreigner, even a permanent legal resident, whose presence he deems "inconsistent with national security."
* Create a database of DNA collected from "suspected terrorists" and from non-citizens suspected of ordinary crimes.
* Conduct a wiretap for 15 days without a judge's approval, and monitor an individual's Internet and chat room visits for 48 hours without a court order.
* Overturn local court decrees that restrict police from illegal spying.
* Weaken the Freedom of Information Act to prevent journalists from learning who is being held in police custody.
Though Patriot II is expected to be a hit with politicians and much of the public, not everyone will be buying a ticket, Getz predicted.
"Libertarians and other freedom-loving Americans have panned Patriot II for obvious reasons," he said. "It's burdened by the same clichéd cast of characters as the original – a devious attorney general, an opportunistic president, and pandering politicians who hoodwink people into surrendering their freedom.
"Will anyone fall for this story line a second time?"
They have prohibitions on murder. Your argument self-destructed again.
Ramzi Yousef was apprehended in 1995. Hitler had plans for increasing the range of his V-2 rockets to hit targets in the continental United States; are you seriously suggesting that the government was remiss as a result in not proposing and implementing Star Wars immediately after World War II? Who's to say that some Nazi sympathizers weren't busily working on just such a weapon to be launched from Argentina?
You simply can't plan for everything.
In JULY 2001, the Genoa Economic Conference was threatened by Al Qaeda. They were going to hijack a plane and fly it into the building where the world leaders were gathering. The Italian government deployed surface to air missiles in response.
The Italian government had the advantage of knowing exactly when and where these attacks were to have occurred. Are you seriously suggesting that SAMs should have been deployed near every airport servicing commercial and general aviation traffic and major city in the United States before 9/11? On the sole word of the contents of a terrorist's hard drive?
The chief of Pakistani intelligence visited Washington during the week prior to 9/11 ...
There were several intriguing rabbit trails in that paragraph, but you did note that the CIA computer modeling took place on or after 9/11. If you have another point or points to make, please try to make it/them again and not go in so many directions at the same time.
The Minnesota Office of the FBI was warned by Eagan, Minnesota flight trainer of the 20th hijacker, Zaccharia Moussaoui, that these Arabs could use their training to fly planes into buildings and referenced the effects of exploding jet fuel.
I find it interesting that Eagan had no problem with taking Moussaoui's money even while issuing this "warning." And, the same warning would be applicable for any person receiving flight training, not just Arab males. (Have we **ssed off any left-handed Anabaptists lately who want to learn how to fly?)
The Minneapolis FBI, PRIOR TO 9/11, attempted to obtain search warrants to Moussaoui's computer under a PRE-EXISTING 1978 ANTI-TERRORISM LAW.
Yes, the FISA. And thank (deity) that the Patriot Act now makes that process much easier.
Oh, I think they had an idea of what Al Qaeda was cooking up, and had a golden opportunity to stop it
What "golden opportunity?" Half the planet (read neo-Nazis, radical Zionism, the Communist Chinese, the Red Brigades, the Cubans, Sendero Luminoso, the North Koreans, old commies in Russia, ad nauseum) hates the US. Do we turn the country into an armed camp just because some wackjob sent a mail bomb to a US consulate somewhere in BFE last year?
but somehow, for some reason, SOMEBODY DROPPED THE BALL.
Even the most skilled jugglers drop a ball occasionally. And we don't pass laws making juggling a required subject in kindergarten as a result.
I just like to yank their collective chains, every now and again. LOL
When they are my neighbors and pop off rounds onto my property (like one of your liberteen buddies after a snootful of coke), I make it my business. Don't like it? Tough.
Don't tease me.
But you said yourself in Post 178 that "it's none of your business what sort of firearms people have." Yet now you're freely admitting that it IS my business in certain situations.
So which is it? Not my business? Or my business?
Friendly suggestion: If you're so inclined, stay off the sauce when you post here. You seem to have a hard enough time trying to keep up with the discussion; why handicap yourself further?
(And, I saw your pulled post before it was pulled. A looneytune losing an argument is not a pretty thing to watch).
You are so dense you're dangerous. CA has ~already~ banned so-called semi-auto assault 'style' rifles, thanks to creeps voted in by ignorant CA prohibitionist clowns.
As far as the bullets, I know basically "any" bullet can pierce from point blank a cops vest protection, but a vest from a distance is the issue. I was saying from over a block away piercing a cops protective vest.
The typical military rifle hardball round is designed to do exactly that.
That isn't typical or legal is it?
Yes 'guy', it's still legal. [How did this guy get in here?]
Yes, I would think that is too powerful when there are officers out there trying to go home alive at the end of the night to enjoy their Freedom and Liberty.
Is you next bit going to be about protecting the children 'guy'? If so, I'm gonna hafta puke.
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