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Patriot II's Deadly New
Definition Of 'Terrorists'
Only In America?
By Barbara Sumner Burstyn
12-24-03
October 6, 2003: (Dissident Voice) It's a strange feeling to wake up one
average, middle-class North American morning and realize your beliefs could get
you killed. Not in a random, drive-by, developing-world, terrorist-bombing kind
of way. But in an officially sanctioned, totally legal, death by lethal
injection way.
At least, if President Bush's call on Congress on the eve of the second
anniversary of September 11 to extend the death penalty is anything to go by.
It began in June when Attorney-General John Ashcroft told lawmakers that the
death penalty needed to be expanded to cover "material supporters" of terrorist
organizations. On the surface it seems fair enough. If you give money to al
Qaeda then you have to expect a harsh penalty.
But there's a catch. They've changed the definition of terrorist.
In fact the Patriot II Act redefines terrorism so vaguely and broadly it's not
a great leap to envisage the definition including political activists or just
about anyone who belongs to an organization that disagrees with the
Administration.
Greenpeace for example. It stands for non-violent, creative confrontation to
expose global environmental problems and their causes. While Greenpeace is
adamant it does not endorse sabotage it's really only a matter of definition,
especially since the organization has simulated sabotaging safety at nuclear
facilities.
And given that Bush specifically stated that the death penalty should be used
in certain cases of sabotage against military and nuclear facilities, it's not
difficult to see how Greenpeace could be ruled a terrorist organization,
transforming your membership into material support.
A little extreme perhaps? Not if you consider the FBI arrest of peaceful
protesters exposing an illegal shipment of mahogany. Or the dubbing of acts of
vandalism by the Earth Liberation Front (they spray-painted slogans such as
"greed and sloth" on SUVs) as domestic terrorism. Or the ability under Patriot
II to conduct all manner of surveillance without warrants; authorize secret
arrests, detentions, and grand jury subpoenas; create DNA databases of those
suspected of association with terrorism or terrorist groups; and to enable the
Government to remove citizenship from persons who belong to or support
disfavored political groups.
But it's not only your organization membership that brings you under the
Patriot II umbrella. Hiding behind that new broad catch-all phrase, domestic
terrorism, the act is shaping up to become a crime-fighting tool par
excellence.
US Justice Dept official Mark Corallo was reported in the New York Times as
saying they "have an obligation to do everything to protect the lives and
liberties of Americans from attack, " whether it's from terrorists or
garden-variety criminals"
And there, right before your eyes, you see how far the ground has shifted.
Under Patriot II all other criminal legislation can be short-circuited, the
laws and standards of evidence lowered, the usual legal checks and balances of
a democratic society superseded. And instead of a judiciary-led legal system
you begin to understand it's the FBI that is in charge, with a Government
agenda.
Under imminent terrorist attack those shortcuts make perfect sense, but when
used against local drug dealers, car thieves, internet fraudsters et al, they
begin to look suspiciously like the early tentacles of a totalitarian society.
Section 127 of Patriot II Patriot II allows the Federal Government to supersede
all local statutes governing autopsies. So imagine yourself caught up in an
investigation following, say, your attendance at an anti-war rally. Remember,
under this act you can't call a lawyer or even a family member. Essentially,
once you've slipped into the wide cracks of the over-broad definition of a
terrorist, you have no rights at all. And if perhaps you died while under
interrogation, the autopsy results could show a suicide or some other finding
favorable to the Government.
Perhaps this all sounds far-fetched. Especially, if, like me, you were bought
up with the golden rule: if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to worry
about. But when your Greenpeace bumper sticker, or your church attendance or
the size of your family become red flags that can trigger the opening of an FBI
file in your name, you know things have changed.
And it's the little things that signal that change. Like the growing sense that
it's not wise to express your concerns openly. Or when you pick up any suburban
US newspaper and discover the two defining characteristics: the dearth of
international coverage and the voluminous column space given to crime, all of
it ugly, all of it adding to the climate of fear that increasingly pervades the
country. In that masterfully created environment, US Justice Department
official Corallo's comments sound not only imminently sensible, they sound like
a lifesaver.
Unless, of course, you really do have something to hide; like your Greenpeace
membership, your internet browsing and perhaps that book on activism you bought
America. Oh, and North Korea and Communist China and Stalinist Russia and
Zimbabwe and Iraq, pre and post Saddam.
Barbara Sumner Burstyn is a freelance writer who commutes between Montreal,
Quebec and The Hawkes Bay in New Zealand. She writes a weekly column for the
New Zealand Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz), and has contributed to a wide range of
media. She can be reached at: barb@sumnerburstyn.com. Visit her website to read
more of her work: http://www.sumnerburstyn.com/
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