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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Green
Party sharply criticized recent measures enacted by the Bush
Administration and the recent antiterrorism legislation passed by
Congress, calling them a severe blow to constitutional rights,
protections against violations of privacy, and anti-discrimination
guarantees, and unlikely to be effective in keeping Americans safe from
acts of terrorism.
"President Bush has established an Office of Homeland Security that
is subject neither to congressional nor public oversight," said
David Cobb, a Texas Green organizer and Legal Counsel for the national
party. "We're seeing new tools for the suppression of legitimate
political dissent. The distinction between domestic law enforcement and
foreign intelligence is being erased. Ashcroft's terrorism alerts are
being used to frighten Americans into accepting these measures and
sacrificing their privacy rights. These actions are systematically
eroding the freedoms President Bush says we are fighting to
protect."
Greens list several measures that violate essential rights and freedoms:
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The Antiterrorism Act
passed by Congress at the President's request in late October guts
the Constitution's guarantees of habeas corpus, presumption of
innocence, and due process, allowing the the federal government (the
Justice Department, CIA, FBI, and INS) to incarcerate or detain
nonecitizens on nonexistent or secret evidence, conduct wiretaps and
surveillance without evidence of wrong-doing, conduct searches and
seizures without warrant, eavesdrop on private conversations between
defendants and their lawyers in violation of attorney-client
privilege, and investigate private citizens without 'probable
cause'. The bill also allows the government to wield the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) as a weapon to harass
dissident organizations under the guise of fighting terrorism,
subjecting them to unconstitutional search and seizure.
"The bill, with the Orwellian nickname USA PATRIOT Act, is
being used to target non-citizen Arabs, even though the
Constitution's protections apply to all people in the U.S.
regardless of citizenship," said Steve Breyman, a member of the
Capital District and Rensselaer County (New York) Greens and a
professor of environmental policy at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute in Troy, New York. "But this legislation abrogates
the constitutional rights of all Americans, even as we're being told
that opposing it means lack of patriotism."
Greens note that the Antiterrorism Act passed with the support of
both Democrats and Republicans -- only Sen. Russell Feingold voted
nay in the Senate -- and that conservative Republicans, not
Democrats, negotiated expiration dates for some of the bill's more
repressive violations of privacy. The expiration dates may prove
meaningless if the 'War on Terrorism' is as open-ended as President
Bush promises.
"This is the same 'bipartisan' surrender as when Democrats
helped confirm Ashcroft and Norton," added Robbie Franklin, a
Texas Green and treasurer of the Green Party of the United States.
"Constitutional rights are not negotiable, to be compromised in
order to investigate crime. It was against such compromises that the
Bill of Rights was enacted in the first place."
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Since September 11, the
government has detained nearly 1,200 people, many on immigration
violations; the Justice Department will not say how many have been
released. Muhammed Butt, a 55-year-old Pakistani man, died of a
heart attack after being locked away for a month on a simple visa
violation. Other detainees have been denied the right to see a
lawyer or their families. The New York Times reported on November 13
that the Justice Department is profiling students of Arab
ancestry.
"We praised President Bush's condemnation of harassment against
Muslims and people of Arab ancestry after the September 11
attacks," said Anita Rios, an Ohio Green and member of the
party's national steering committee. "But the widespread
targeting by the government of many of the same people undermines
protections against bias based on ethnicity and religion. We take
this personally, as many Green Party members come from Arab and
Muslim backgrounds. Our 2000 presidential candidate is Lebanese
American."
Greens demand that those held on nonexistent evidence, baseless
suspicion, or irrelevant reasons be released, and that due process
be guaranteed for all held on more substantial evidence. The
government should adhere to prevailing standards of evidence and to
usual legal procedures for those held only on invalid visas, with
full respect for the legal rights of immigrants and consideration of
amnesty for undocumented workers and their families.
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President Bush has ordered
secret military tribunals, with the power to wield the death
penalty, for noncitizens accused of assisting terrorists. Apologists
for this order claim that Abraham Lincoln also instituted secret
trials during the Civil War, but ignore the Supreme Court's later
decision that Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus was
unconstitutional, saying that military trials (what the court called
"martial rule") must be confined to the location of an
actual war, may only be used for a limited duration, and may not be
applied in places where the civil courts and government are in full
operation.
"The U.S.'s reputation as a free nation governed by laws and
whose government is limited by rights will suffer greatly --
especially in the Muslim world, since most of those targeted will be
Muslim or Arab, but also among nations - and among many Americans,
including Greens - who have called for an international court to
deal with terrorists and who oppose the death penalty,"
said Anita Rios.
"There's an inherent conflict of interest here," said
David Cobb, noting that the President's order abolishes the
constitutional separation of executive and judicial branches.
"The fact that military courts are tied to the executive branch
means that there will be pressure from the president to try and
convict, for public relations reasons, whether the person is
guilty or not. Furthermore, the verdicts of military courts are not
likely to be accepted overseas, and it may set a terrible precedent
for how our own citizens will be treated when detained in other
countries."
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Torture has been discussed
as a means of stopping further terrorism, even though torture
(whether committed by the U.S. or 'outsourced' to less democratic
nations) violates international law, is notoriously unreliable for
collecting information, and places the U.S. at the moral level of
the Taliban.
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A national ID card has
been proposed, even though such a measure won't stop terrorists and
can easily be used to violate privacy by tracking Americans' travel,
spending habits, and other personal information.
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Some Congress members and
Bush Administration officials (especially advisor Paul Wolfowitz)
want to revise the Posse Comitatus Act in order to allow the U.S.
military to be used for civilian law enforcement.
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President Bush signed an
executive order that allows any incumbent president to block release
of presidential documents of a predecessor, whether or not the past
president wants the records disclosed. Under this order, files that
incriminate current and former officials can be hidden from
investigation by journalists and historians -- a valuable strategem
for the Bush Administration to shield current officials from future
accountability.
The Green Party of the United
States Contacts:
Nancy Allen, Media Coordinator 207-326-4576, nallen@acadia.net
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624, scottmclarty@yahoo.com
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