AMERYKANSKA DROGA DO NEOFASZYZMU & #35 1

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AMERYKANSKA DROGA DO NEOFASZYZMU:
The New American Police State

If you don't know what the USA Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Bill
contain, or are worried about the rising government intrusion into our
civil liberties and our privacy, then you need to read this book. If you
know all this and don't have a clue what to do about it, then you need to
read this book.
Get the data you need to protect yourself and your family in today's
unsafe world.
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The New American Police State
Introduction
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During the American Revolution and The War of 1812, we fought England and
the British; during the Mexican War, Mexico and the Mexicans; the Civil
War, ourselves; the Spanish American War, Spain and the Spaniards; World
War I, the Germans; World War II, the Germans, the Italians and the
Japanese; the Korean War, Korea, The Vietnam War, the Vietnamese; Dessert
Storm, Iraq�. Like any war, each of these conflicts entailed hostilities
between countries or peoples, and all had definite, specific conclusions:
at some point in each of these wars, somebody said "Uncle," and it ended.

But we are engaged now, according to our esteemed leaders, in a new,
different kind of
War - a war on Terrorism. It�s a war on�an idea, a concept; and that
concept is symbolized
by a certain kind of behavior. It is not a war against another
nation-state or even a people
(not to justify any war on peoples or countries), but it is a war on a
philosophy and the destructive conduct it represents.

It is easy to understand the suicide bombings of the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon as terrorist acts. And what follows is in no way intended
to lessen or diminish the insane
brutality of what occurred in New York and Washington, DC on September 11,
2001. This was a monstrous and heinous crime. The perpetrators and those
who assisted them in any way should be found and brought to justice.

But the War that the President has issued forth from the ashes of the
World Trade Center has spawned legislation and an unparalleled public
relations campaign, both of which clearly seem to have purposes other than
that of bringing the criminals of September 11th to justice. The War on
Terrorism, which frankly is more than a little ill-defined, has become a
rallying cry

Part 2: AMERYKANSKA DROGA DO NEOFASZYZMU

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AMERYKANSKA DROGA DO NEOFASZYZMU Part 2

In a follow-up story on PBS' Frontline , anchor Bill Moyers
interviewed CPI's Executive Director Chuck Lewis who disclosed that
the CPI had obtained a copy of the bill as a result of a leak from
within the Justice Department by someone who was exposing themselves
to great risk in the post-9/11 climate of secrecy in Washington. The
fact that the story was leaked raises the possibility that the Bush
administration was attempting to gauge both public and congressional
reaction prior to introducing the bill for legislative action.

WHAT'S IN PATRIOT II?
--------------------------------

CPI's Lewis was not jesting when he told Moyers that Patriot II was
five or ten times worse than the first Patriot Act.

Its provisions allow for secret arrests of persons in certain
terrorist-related cases until indictments have been handed down and
there is no time limitation for this process. America has never
permitted secret arrests for indefinite time periods. In addition,
Patriot II provides that these terrorist arrests may be under "no
bail" conditions and that any federal employee who discloses the
identity of someone who has been secretly detained may be imprisoned
for up to five years.

The bill mandates that government authorities are entitled to have ex
parte (one- on-one, without defense counsel or a public record) and in
camera (private) - meetings with judges without opposing counsel or
defendants even being notified to secure rulings on search warrants,
admissibility of evidence and investigative procedures. In certain
cases where naturalized American citizens are found to be working with
foreign governments, or making donations to foreign based charities
later found to be supporting terrorist causes, the Attorney General
will have the right to revoke U.S. citizenship and extradite those
charged to any country in the world, whether there is an extradition
treaty in place or not.

There has been some debate, encouraged by inaccurate and extremely
irresponsible reporting by some "alternative" journalists and radio
talk show hosts indicating that the bill provides the government with
the ability to strip native-born U.S. citizens of their citizenship
for seemingly trivial offenses. This is patently untrue. The actual
truth is bad enough.

Section 501 of Patriot II amends section 349 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1481) pertaining to the citizenship status
of those who have acquired U.S. citizenship. It states that those who
have entered into the armed forces of a foreign government (when such
forces are engaged in hostilities against the US), or have joined or
provided material support "to a terrorist organization... if the
organization is engaged in hostilities against the United States, its
people, or its national security interests" will be deemed to have
made a prima facie (apparent on its face) statement that they intend
to relinquish their citizenship.

Lewis and Moyers were correct in their interpretation of this section
in that a naturalized American who makes a donation to an Islamic
charity later alleged to have been giving money to a terrorist
organization could be stripped of their citizenship and deported
anywhere without it ever having been established that he or she even
knew how the charity was distributing its money.

The act broadens the scope of activities that qualify for the
loose-to-non-existent guidelines for eavesdropping and surveillance
under Patriot I and allows law enforcement personnel to obtain
"national" search warrants for domestic and foreign terrorism
investigations. As discussed in previous FTW stories, under Patriot I
the definition of "domestic terrorism" is extremely vague and
non-specific. Throwing away decades of progress obtained as a result
of litigation in the 1970s and 80s the new bill specifically overturns
dozens of consent decrees prohibiting law enforcement agencies from
infiltrating non-violent religious and civic groups exercising
protected first amendment rights.

Section 126 of the act allows the U.S. government to obtain consumer
credit reports and to impose criminal penalties on credit reporting
agencies if they disclose to individuals that the government has
obtained copies of their records.

Section 127 of Patriot II allows the Federal government to supercede
all local statutes governing autopsies in terrorism investigations
which means literally that if a person died at the hands of an illegal
federal investigation, the autopsy results could show a suicide or
some other finding favorable to the government. This would also apply
in cases of accidental death due to fatalities resulting from mass
compulsory vaccinations. In such cases, instead of finding dangerous
vaccines as the cause of death the federal government could instead
blame terrorists.

Opening the door for the Total Information Awareness program run by
convicted Iran-Contra felon John Poindexter, section 128 provides for
the issuance of federal administrative subpoenas in cases "involving
domestic or international terrorism" to any company that maintains
records on any individual in the United States. This would apply to
everything from medical records, to credit card and utility bills, to
the reading habits of the targeted individual. This section also
provides stiff criminal penalties of up to five years imprisonment for
any employee of a private company who reveals that the records have
been sought.

Once compiled, these records can be shared with any foreign government
the government wishes to share them with. It also allows federal
agents to serve search warrants issued by foreign governments inside
this country.

Also in the list of list of noxious provisions, chemical and utility
companies would be absolved under the act from requirements that they
publicly disclose the kinds of dangerous chemicals in use at their
facilities or "worst case scenario" information about what might
happen if there were malfunctions or breakdowns at their facilities.
This equates to an environmental "carte blanche" for polluters.

At the same time, Supreme Court Justices and other federal VIPs are no
longer required to declare as income the cost of federally provided
bodyguard and security services. This amounts to a back door raise in
pay of up to several hundred thousand dollars a year for federal
judges and executives who will be much more likely to remain friendly
to the administration.

And in a particularly chilling passage, section 404 of Patriot II
would impose a penalty of up to five years of imprisonment for anyone
who used any form of computer encryption to commit anything defined as
domestic or foreign terrorism. Under the liberal definition of
domestic terrorism contained in Patriot I, a possible interpretation
of this section could be that a reporter who uses PGP or other
encryption program to correspond with a foreign confidential source
could be imprisoned for five years - just for using the software. It
also suggests that no commercial entity which uses encryption to
protect its proprietary data would be permitted to use any encryption
program which the government did not already possess a key to.

WHAT TO DO?
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Since the bill has not been introduced, any pre-emptive attempts to
influence members of Congress would have questionable effects. A
member's response would correctly be, "I have no power to do anything
until the bill is introduced." However, the actions of the Attorney
General and, by implication, the President, the Vice President and the
Speaker of the House are unethical and dishonest, if not illegal. It
couldn't hurt to let them know that you are watching for this bill's
introduction and how they will respond when it comes time.

Anyone wishing to make their voices heard on Patriot II should direct
their c