From the Houston Chronical editorial page:
Nov. 17, 2001, 7:12PM
Bush going too far curtailing our rights
By HELEN THOMAS
The Bush administration is using the national trauma and state of
emergency resulting from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to trample
the Bill of Rights.
Operating on fears and apparently sensing that the American people
may be willing to forego many of their civil liberties in the name of
national security, Attorney General John Ashcroft, in particular, is
riding roughshod over individual rights.
Let's hope the people are not willing to set aside key protections of
the Constitution in the current crisis. Once taken away, those basic
rights may be hard, if not impossible, to restore.
To win confirmation for his Cabinet post, the right-wing Ashcroft
overcame strong opposition to his controversial appointment by
promising to carry out the law of the land even if he disagreed with
it. And he has certainly done that on the issue of legal abortion
rights.
But he is now using the war in Afghanistan and on the home front to
push his own ideology. An egregious example is his approval of a rule
that permits the Justice Department to eavesdrop on the confidential
conversations between lawyers and some clients in federal custody.
These clients include suspects who have been detained but not charged
with a crime whenever the government says such steps are necessary to
prevent acts of terrorism.
Ashcroft rammed the rule through late last month as an emergency
measure without allowing the usual waiting period for public comment.
The regulation permits the government to monitor conversations and
intercept mail between the suspects and their lawyers for up to a
year.
The Justice Department now says the attorney general must be able to
certify that "reasonable suspicion" exists to believe that a
particular detainee or federal prison inmate is using contacts with a
lawyer to "facilitate acts of terrorism."
In the amended version the department stressed, as a "safeguard,"
that the attorney and client would be notified if they are being
monitored and that information protected by the attorney-client
privilege may not be used by the prosecution without a judge's
permission. But there would be no protection for communications
related to ongoing or contemplated illegal acts.
The fact that Ashcroft buckled somewhat shows that having a vigilant
public can pay off.
But he still refuses to release the names or numbers of people
detained for questioning about terrorism.
The new anti-terrorism law that Congress passed last month has given
him a much freer hand to deal with such matters -- and to curb basic
rights. The law permits the government to detain or deport suspects,
eavesdrop on Internet communications, monitor financial transactions
and obtain electronic records on individuals.
Middle Easterners, especially students, are special targets -- one
more example of racial profiling, which apparently is in style again.
In another action, Ashcroft moved to inhibit press freedom, a First
Amendment right, by encouraging federal agencies to use the pretense
of national security to hide public records that the press is
ordinarily entitled to receive under the Freedom of Information Act.
The law was passed during the Cold War to encourage an open
government. Last month Ashcroft issued a memo to federal agencies
telling officials that if they decide to deny requests for
information filed under the FOIA, they "can rest assured that the
Department of Justice will defend your decisions ... ."
Such a retreat into secrecy, while an outrageous violation of the
principles of openness followed by previous administrations, is just
what you can expect from this one.
On Tuesday night, after declaring an "extraordinary emergency,"
President Bush announced he had issued a directive claiming the power
to order military trials for suspected international terrorists and
their collaborators. That directive, which applies to non-U.S.
citizens arrested here or abroad, allows him to take the highly
unusual step of bypassing the nation's criminal justice system with
its rules of evidence and constitutional guarantees. I think that
would be a mistake.
Even before the horrific terrorist bombings of the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon, Ashcroft had edged around the U.S. Constitution by
holding prayer meetings every morning in his Justice Department
office. With the clear approval of President Bush, Ashcroft is moving
aggressively against civil liberties in the hunt for terrorists. But
in his headlong rush to ignore the Constitution, he should remember
the words of Benjamin Franklin: "If we give up our essential rights
for some security, we are in danger of losing both."
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