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?"
How could you misspell "post" when the word is directly below every message-in-preparation and posted message on this site? And, I know that it wasn't just a mistype because the "a" key and the "o" key are on opposite sides of the keyboard.
I don't want to argue with you, but to me it's the exact same times.. only the people have changed. I don't see the WTC as our reichstag fire.
I will take my chances with the terrorists because if you think about it they got 3000 people, and it was our own fault. We had people here who were supposed to be going to college who weren't, we had people wanting to only take off in commercial aircraft, we had no background checks going on for airport personell.. The INS has become the welcome wagon.
It's shameful, but I am not willing to shred the constitution over it. There's risk in everything you do from bording a plane to going to the grocery store.
Even in a virtual police state like Israel people still aren't safe. So there's no way tossing away our right's and liberties will save us here.
IMO, our best course of action is to just make the price of terrorism so incredibly high that it becomes akin to kicking a sleeping tiger.
Sure.. you can do it, but guess what happens next?
That kind of vigilance restricts the previous freedoms we had in more innocent times.
Then you admit that we lost the war. There are those of us who refuse to give up so easily. We who believe that by increasing freedom, we can increase the national defense against such "bombers or worse" at a much lower cost in lives and wealth. Increased freedom would allow for average Americans to take part in defending themselves and our freedom at no expense to our government.
Any time one writes "The ONLY way" on anything, utopian alarm bells ought to be going off. Such utopian thought processes is what one expects from citizens of Iraq, not America.
Well, we froze a bunch of their funding already.. That should help.
Osama will have to collect allot of aluminum cans to pay for his next operation. We are soon to cut off suicide bomber "compensation" from Saddam.. There's another bite out of the pie.
No need.
FEDGOV dropped the ball on 9/11, not me.
JMO, but it was the Clinton Fedgov that dropped the ball. A Fedgov that in 8 years that was decimated in intelleigence gathering and refused to take into custody osama.
Just total breakdowns and political comprimises that contributed to this.
Clinton dropped the ball on NK also, now look at the mess that's brewing there.
Even if Kim Jong does settle down, the man is nuts, his country is poor, he sells arms and he can't be taken at his word. So even if he stopped the nuke program tomorrow, we could never be sure.
Even if he never tests his three stage delivery system, he might sell material to someone else.
Add to this the Chineese ability to hit us and I just see irreversable damage here. We are going to be in conflict till the end of time if things keep playing out like they have been.
I don't know what's so hard to grasp about keeping us sovreign and not doing stupid things to put us in harms way for a couple of bucks. The founders would spin like tops over this I bet.
The eight years of Clinton did a hell of lot damage. Smoke and mirrors diplomacy of basically giving fertilizer to America's enemies so they would only grow stronger.
Non-libertarian conservatives will have little trouble drawing the line to such nonsense.... < grin > we will have our libertarian brothern to nudge us when it actually becomes anything like a real threat. Until then, I think we can concentrate on getting some judges installed.
Hint: You aren't on their team.
So just remember that every time government authority expands the *other* team gets more powerful and they would just as soon stuff you through their meatgrinder as a violent criminal because you have more money to seize.
That depends on how you look at it I suppose.
You could look at some of this as infrastructure. Assets in place to be used (or, in this scenario misused) at some point in the future.
Which is exactly what the Constitution was put in place to protect against. Future abuses of power.
Not problems today or tomorrow, but for all time. An insurance policy to protect us against abuses not yet manifested.
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