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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Insatiable Appetite: Gov't's Move for Unlimited Violations of Civil Liberties |
Current rating: 0 |
by ACLU
(No verified email address) |
30 May 2002
Modified: 03:38:02 PM |
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ACLU Releases First Definitive Run-Down on Government's "Insatiable Appetite" for New Powers and Resulting Erosion of Liberty |
WASHINGTON - May 28 - The American Civil Liberties Union today released the first definitive run-down on the panoply of new powers that the government has granted itself since September 11, saying that the bulk of these new powers do little to make us safer, yet substantially erode core civil liberties in America.
"There is no proof that the incessant seizure of new powers by Congress and the Bush Administration does anything to increase safety," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU's Washington National Office. "This report is an attempt to set the record straight and detail just how extensive this erosion of basic liberty in America has been."
The report -"Insatiable Appetite: The Government's Demand for New and Unnecessary Powers After September 11" -- runs the gamut of controversial issues that have cropped up in Washington and across the country since the tragic attacks last fall.
It covers, among many other things, the Administration's ongoing stonewall approach to questions about the hundreds of 9-11 detainees still being held in facilities nationwide; the newfound impetus behind national ID proposals on Capitol Hill; the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act and its implementation; and the potential for a government crackdown on legitimate political dissent created by a number of different bills and executive regulations.
Also covered in the report are the numerous lawsuits filed by the ACLU in light of the Department of Justice's treatment of the 9-11 detainees. These include, among others, the Michigan federal case seeking a repeal of Attorney General John Ashcroft and Chief Immigration Judge Michael Creppy's order closing all immigration hearings to the media and public, and the New Jersey case filed under the state's freedom of information laws requesting key pieces of information about the more than 300 young men still detained in the Garden State.
"Criticism of these new and unnecessary powers has been astoundingly diverse, cutting across the ideological divide," Murphy said. "America stands at a prominent cross-roads; we can either continue to erode freedom or we can accept the reality that safety and liberty are not mutually exclusive and can co-exist. Hopefully this report will shed additional light on which path not to take."
"Insatiable Appetite" can be found online at: |
See also:
www.aclu.org/congress/InsatiableAppetite.pdf
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ACLU: Gov't Power Grab Expands |
by ACLU
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: -1
30 May 2002
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ACLU Says Rewriting of Domestic Spying Restrictions Gives FBI New Powers Despite Growing Evidence of Analytical Failures
WASHINGTON - May 30 - The American Civil Liberties Union today said that Attorney General John Ashcroft's decision to rewrite longstanding restrictions on domestic spying by law enforcement agencies rewards analytical failure with new powers and, by doing so, threatens core civil liberties guaranteed under the Constitution and Bill of Rights. It also demonstrates, the ACLU said, the Attorney General's seemingly insatiable appetite for new powers that will do little to make us safer but will inevitably make us less free.
"The government is rewarding failure," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU's Washington National Office. "When the government fails -- as it increasingly appears to have done before September 11 -- the Bush Administration's response is to give itself new powers rather than seriously investigating why the failures occurred."
The rewritten guidelines to be announced today by Attorney General Ashcroft were originally put in place in response to law enforcement excesses in the 1950s and 1960s. They were put in place after the FBI illegally spied on and persecuted the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other political dissenters. In response to congressional investigations into law enforcement abuse, the Justice Department adopted "Attorney General Guidelines" that limited the scope of acceptable surveillance and infiltration of religious and political organizations.
According to media reports, the new guidelines will trash a central protection against government fishing expeditions by ending the requirement that law enforcement agencies have at least a scintilla of evidence -- or even a hunch -- of a crime before engaging in certain investigative activities. Under the new Ashcroft guidelines, the FBI can freely infiltrate mosques, churches and synagogues and other houses of worship, listen in on online chat rooms and read message boards even if it has no evidence that a crime might be committed.
"Dr. King's legacy is not just the gains made toward political and social equality," said Marvin Johnson, an ACLU Legislative Counsel. "His persecution by law enforcement is a necessary reminder of the potential abuse when a government with too long a leash seeks to silence voices of dissent." An ACLU special report on this aspect of the King legacy can be found online at: http://www.aclu.org/congress/mlkreport.PDF
Gregory T. Nojeim, Associate Director and Chief Legislative Counsel of the ACLU's Washington Office, said the new rules fail to recognize the central problems of the investigations before September 11. "Federal law enforcement failed to analyze and act on relevant information," Nojeim said. "The Attorney General's solution to that failure is to gather exponentially more information." The ACLU said the new rules were the latest power grab by an Administration that seems determined to undermine the bedrock values of liberty, equality and government accountability on which the nation was founded. |
