Nineteen months after Sept. 11, 2001, a year and a half after the passage of the USA PATRIOT Act and the same day Iraqi forces in Baghdad surrendered to the U.S. military, The New York Times reported that Republican legislators support a bill that would make the devastating powers granted to the Justice Department under the PATRIOT Act a permanent part of the arsenal in the war on terror.
A proposal by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would repeal the sunset clause attached to the bill that overwhelmingly passed Congress, granting Attorney General John Ashcroft and his ilk new authority in areas of criminal procedure, wiretapping, immigration and the laws governing the privacy of student records.
Among its more atrocious violations of basic civil rights, the act lifts the requirement to demonstrate \probable cause"" to seek a warrant, lowering the standard to a claim of belief that records sought may be related to an investigation related to terrorism or intelligence activities.
Lest anyone wonder, the PATRIOT Act violates a handful of constitutionally guaranteed civil rights.
While such blatant disregard of basic civil liberties was an embarrassment at the time, the basis for extending the life of the bill beyond its 2005 expiration date is inconceivable. And yet, members of our Republican delegation are willing to sign their names to such a plan.
Supporters of the PATRIOT Act say the act only enables the investigation of the bad guys to protect innocent Americans. This na??ve statement must largely be taken at face value, as the Justice Department has classified any evidence that might prove otherwise in its report to House Judiciary leaders Reps. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., and John Conyers, D-Mich. But while the DOJ has maintained its defense of citizens' rights since the bill became law, a draft of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, known as PATRIOT II, would give authority to strip citizenship of Americans for their political affiliations-even if those associations are legal, according to a report by Georgetown Law Professor David Cole.
The same bill would permit secret arrests, allowing government officials to conceal the identity of individuals arrested or under investigation for suspected terrorist activity. It would also establish a DNA database of suspected terrorists, casting a wide net of jurisdiction.
It shouldn't be necessary to explain the injustice of these bills and the threat they pose to the American way of life. Their existence undermines the values on which our nation was based. Their powers are baldly dangerous in the hands of trustworthy people and terrifyingly imposing as the weapons of any government leadership, good or bad.
Though we call the guarantees of the Constitution rights, these days our leaders treat them more and more as privileges to be earned.
