Lawyers say post-9/11 U.S. is like police state

[reprehensor]

(Not breaking news to anyone on this website, but it's good to see it talked about in any media forum.)

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1083411750274472.xml

05/01/04

Jim Nichols
Plain Dealer Reporter

Americans have a fearsome new enemy since 9/11, and that enemy is their own government, a panel of prominent defense lawyers told colleagues Friday.

Congress and the Bush administration are behaving in most un-American ways under the guise of national security, the lawyers argued: gutting civil rights, usurping powers to eavesdrop, creating secret tribunals where the accused have no rights.

And, they emphasize, all Americans not just terrorists are potential victims of the USA Patriot Act and other laws and presidential orders implemented in 9/11's wake.

"We are living in a very dangerous age," said Marvin Miller, an Alexandria, Va., trial lawyer. "I have this theory that just because we started out as a democracy doesn't mean we're going to survive as a democracy."

more@link

[Political_Junkie]

1. Nice!

Thanks

[Abe Linkman]

2. Lawyers aren't the only ones, and Mr. Miller sounds wimpy

The U.S. today isn't only "like" a police state; it IS a police state.
Anyone who disagrees is either an English teacher who has a semantics beef, or a rich person who doesn't have to be concerned, or else one of the many millions of Americans who don't have a clue about much of anything.

[Tempest]

3. Secret Searches Skyrocket (almost doubled from 2 years ago)

Secret Searches Skyrocket

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=6228

The Justice Department conducted more than 1700 secret electronic searches approved by the secret intelligence court last year, almost double the number conducted just two years ago. The dramatic rise in clandestine electronic surveillance, most directed at phones and computers, represents a sea change in the way the government investigates crime in the United States. The number of electronic searches approved by the secret court exceeded the number approved by all regular federal and state courts combined. Of the 1727 applications for secret searches requested by the Justice Department all but three were approved by the court – and two of those were ultimately approved after changes were made in the application. The trend is disturbing because applications for secret searches can be approved on a weakened standard of "probable cause" or other traditional protections afforded to the target of a criminal investigation under the 4th Amendment. Nevertheless, the fruits of the secret surveillance "can later be used in criminal prosecutions," although "defendants in such proceedings have fewer rights to attack the basis of the searches or to obtain intercepted information." The rise in this type of activity "was a direct result of the easing of standards for intelligence-gathering that was authorized by the Patriot Act" – a bill passed hastily in the days following 9/11. (For more on the stalled policy on Guantanamo, read this American Progress column by Mark Agrast.)

AIRLINES SEND VAST AMOUNTS OF SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFO TO FBI: In 2001, some of the nation's largest airlines, including American, United and Northwest, "turned over millions of passenger records to the Federal Bureau of Investigation." The information, which in some cases included as much as a year's worth of passenger records, included "names, addresses, travel destinations and credit card numbers." But, despite the size of the request, an F.B.I. official said "there is no indication that the passenger data produced any significant evidence about the <9/11> plot or the hijackers." The quantity of information turned over by the airlines to the FBI – 6,000 CD-ROMs of digital records from Northwest Airlines alone – was revealed by a Freedom of Information Act request by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Stewart Baker, former general counsel for the National Security Agency, said the incident "is clearly something that is going to be, at minimum, a public embarrassment" for the government and the airlines.

TWO YEARS LATER, ONLY TWO DETAINEES IN GITMO CHARGED WITH A CRIME: 600 detainees still are languishing in the legal black hole of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Only two have been formally charged with a crime and just a handful have been permitted to see a lawyer. Many "have been in custody for two years." The detentions "have been condemned by foreign governments and human rights groups and are now being weighed by the U.S. Supreme Court." Paul W. Butler, a Defense Department official who oversaw the detentions, said, "we freely admit we're learning this as we go along." While Vice President Dick Cheney called the detainees "the worst of a very bad lot," 134 were released without ever being charged with any crime.

AS PER USUAL, HALLIBURTON PROFITS: The prison camps in Guantanamo cost the military about $118 million a year to operate. A new facility, Camp 5, will open this week, expanding the prison's capacity to 1,100. Halliburton subsidiary KBR has been awarded $110 million worth of work "to build prison cells and other facilities." The expansion is curious in light of the fact that Paul Butler said the United States is interested in transferring at least half of the 600 remaining detainees to the custody of their home countries.