Trading Freedom for Security!

Patriot Act IInowDefinition of "terrorist suspect"Definition of "designated terrorist organization"Presumptive pre-trial detention: Section 405 would "presumptively deny release to persons charged with crimes listed" in title 18 of the U.S. Code "which contains a standard list of offenses that are likely to be committed by terrorists." While it would seem sensible to deny bail and release to members of al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and other violent terrorist groups, the open-ended definition of terrorist groups provided in the law, as we will show below, would make it possible for the government similarly to deny bail to political opponents not even remotely connected to terrorism.

• ExpatriationGrowing OppositionDer Fuerherland SecurityTotal Information Awareness (TIA)Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information & Prevention System): This Bush-Ashcroft plan envisioned a national neighborhood spy system "for reporting suspicious and potentially terrorist-related activity." The TIPS goal was to enlist "millions of American workers," such as postal employees, truck drivers, utility workers, delivery drivers, and others. Widespread public opposition to this chilling mimicry of Nazi and Communist police-state practices caused the administration formally to drop this program. However, postal employees and other federal workers say that their management has still encouraged them to carry out the spirit of the program.

• Transportation Security Administration (TSA): Prior to the 9-11 attacks, the security personnel and baggage screeners at U.S. airports were provided by the airlines themselves, private security companies, local police and sheriff departments, and specially created local airport police units. Responding to the attacks, Congress created the TSA, which, virtually overnight, nationalized security functions at all U.S. airports and established one of the world's largest police forces, with 58,000 officers.

• Computer Assisted Passenger Prescreening System (CAPPS II): Citing the laudable goal of airline safety, this TSA program seeks to employ data-mining methods and technology to obtain detailed private information on airline passengers for so-called "risk assessment." No studies have been produced to show that this invasive program will be at all effective in contributing to airline security, or how constitutional and privacy issues can be reconciled with the program.

• Digital Eye Scans: In February, London's Heathrow airport launched a program using iris recognition stations that check passenger identification based on a digital eye scan. Although it is a voluntary program involving passengers on Virgin Atlantic and British Airways transatlantic flights, Britain's Home Office Minister Lord Rooker said: "These are unprecedented steps. Biometric technology offers many new possibilities." According to news reports, there are also plans to install iris scan technology at New York's JFK airport and Washington's Dulles Airport. Over the past two years there has been a growing chorus advocating mandatory use of biometrics in government identification documents.

• Virtual Strip SearchesMilitary Terror Tribunals: By a November 13, 2001 emergency executive order, President Bush established military tribunals to try accused foreign terrorists. But for these so-called courts to pass constitutional muster, Congress must declare war; Congress must create these tribunals; and these tribunals must be made subject to the appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. While many Americans may not think such technicalities are important to protect the rights of Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists, they are very important to protecting the rights of American citizens. Prominent jurist Robert Bork has advocated expanding the tribunals' jurisdiction to American citizens, and President Bush has already done so in the case of Yasser Esam Hamdi. Mr. Hamdi, a U.S. citizen, was captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Although not formally charged, he was brought to the U.S. and has been held incommunicado without access to legal counsel. Under the Patriot Act II, many loyal, law-abiding U.S. citizens stand vulnerable to being charged as terrorists, stripped of their citizenship, and subjected to these tribunals, which lack the constitutional safeguards of the American judicial system.

Over the past year and a half, our constitutional safeguards have been battered and torn like few other times in our history. We must set to repairing these breaches immediately, otherwise another major terrorist attack or crisis (real or contrived) may prove sufficient to sweep aside what remains of our republic and our freedoms.

THE NEW AMERICAN: Patriot Act / Patriot Act II