Civil Liberties in the Shadow of September 11
by Jerry Krause and Ellen Abbott, WAMM
Within days following the tragic events of September 11, President Bush referred to "sacrifices" that would need to be made to effectively address issues of domestic security and meaningfully reduce the threat of future terrorism here and abroad. During the weeks that have elapsed since the president's pronouncement, the contours of such sacrifices are beginning to take shape.
The current danger lurking in our society is not just the prospect of terrorism. It is the prospect of policies implemented based not upon reason, but upon fear. It is the Draconian measures taken against individuals premised not upon evidence, but upon guilt by presumed association. We are on the threshold of a new era of increased domestic surveillance and significantly curtailed fundamental civil liberties, all in the name of combating terrorism.
The alarming swiftness by which public life has been altered and our civil liberties threatened -- within the framework of existing law, together with the onslaught of wide sweeping "anti-terrorism" legislative initiatives -- should be of deep concern to all who cherish freedom and democracy. The sheer volume of these activities, accompanied by the fervor of patriotism that has swept across the country, will virtually assure a compliant public and a climate where dissenting opinion on these matters is at best marginalized, at worst criminalized.
Indicia of dramatically increased surveillance and curtailed civil liberties embraced by a fearful and consenting public have become commonplace over the past several weeks. We are being asked to accept as "normal" the presence of U.S. military personnel carrying automatic combat weapons in airport terminals, heavily armed law enforcement outside federal reserve banks, and a dramatically increased number of police at benign public events, such as football games, even though no threat of armed attack of such facilities or events is known to exist.
We are being asked to understand the need to hastily arrest and detain under a virtual cloak of secrecy hundreds of immigrants, even though government officials admit that no more than a handful will likely be charged with any terrorism-related offense. We are being told by chief law enforcement officials that the stopping of vehicles on roadways (e.g., two rental trucks traveling together) is a constitutionally sound practice, even though the Supreme Court recently rejected as unlawful the suspicionless, random stopping of vehicles for non-traffic-related offenses.
We are expected to accept in the name of "national interests" heavy-handed governmental interference with the media when administration officials rebuke dissenting voices, and major media's hasty compliance with governmental "requests" concerning the content of their programming. One wonders what threats Condoleezza Rice had to make -- or worse yet, that no threats were required -- to secure an agreement of the five major networks to censor Osama bin Laden's message.
An even broader array of surveillance measures and threats to privacy and individual liberties is lurking. The ever-moving and ill-defined legislative initiatives swirling about in Washington, D.C., make it virtually impossible to keep abreast of these multi-faceted attacks. For example, there are initiatives calling for drastically reduced legal thresholds to support governmental wiretapping, increased ease of information gathering about e-mail and Internet usage, and easier access to personal banking and credit records.
Attorney General Ashcroft has pleaded with Congress to dramatically broaden the definition of "terrorism" and grant federal agencies the ability to indefinitely detain and deport people the government then deems as terrorists based on secret evidence. Although such ideas initially received feigned concern from Congress, the House recently passed legislation that would obliterate the statute of limitations for charging persons with the most serious terrorist crimes and provides for life sentences for those who aid terrorists.
Prospects for well-reasoned legislation that prevents unreasonable government overreaching and meaningful measures to prevent abuses by those in authority are quite dismal, especially given the current hysterical political climate and off-year elections looming on the horizon. These and other issues are, however, of too great importance and their ramifications too severe to simply be forfeited by us based upon the bellicose statements and browbeating patriotism of the "ABC team" -- Ashcroft, Bush, Cheney & Co.
The ABC team and Congress have made no case to show that the current wide array of "tools" in the toolbox of law enforcement and intelligence officials either enabled the tragic events of September 11 or in any way has hindered the ongoing investigations into these or other terrorist activities. Should we not expect more from our elected officials before sacrificially agreeing to a future of diminished constitutional liberties and the normalizing of a more militarized public life? Should we not express grave concern when defending the "land of the free" means shrink-wrapping its freedoms?
Editor's Note: The "anti-terrorism" bill known as the "USA Patriot Act" passed into law on October 26, 2001. The above article was written before the language of the legislation was finalized and passed.
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