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November 28, 2001
Patrick Cockburn
Tribal
Council: Don't Blame Everything on the Taliban
Sunil
Sharma
Suffer
Palestine's Children
November 27, 2001
Paul Coggins
Kafka and
the Patriot Act
Tariq
Ali
Tigris
and Euprhates
November 26, 2001
Robert Fisk
Blood and
Tears in Kandahar
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Boeing's
Sweet Deal
CounterPunch Wire
Human
Rights Abuses and
Nuke Waste Shipments
Alexander
Cockburn
Harry
Potter and Terrorism
November 25, 2001
Ralph Nader
The Crisis
in Leadership
Sam Bahour
Israel's
Choice
November 24, 2001
Patrick Cockburn
He Who
Has
the Guns Rules
November 23, 2001
Phyllis
Pollack
Long
Live The Clash
Cockburn/St. Clair
The Press
and
the Patriot Act
November 22, 2001
Oscar
Gonzalez
A
Homeland Thanksgiving
November 21, 2001
CounterPunch Wire
Rep. Chambliss
Calls for Arrest of Every Muslim That Enters Georgia
Tom Turnipseed
Broadcasting
and Bombing
David Price
Academia Under
Attack
Molly
Secours
Modern
Day Witch Trials
Tariq Ali
Killing
Mr. Biswas
November 20, 2001
Sam Bahour
Plain
Truths About Palestine
Michael Ratner
Moving Toward
a
Police State
A Photographic Journal of Life
in an Afghan Refugee Camp
By Judith Mann
November 19, 2001
Edward
Said
Suicidal
Ignorance
November 18, 2001
John Farley
Shame on You,
Chelsea!
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War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
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Peter Linebaugh on
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Press
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The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
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Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
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November 28,
2001
Who Gave Away
Your Civil Liberties?
By Harry Browne
Many conservatives, liberals, and libertarians
are protesting the numerous invasions of your liberty that
Congress and the Bush administration have imposed during the
past two months.
But without realizing it, many of the
protestors brought these invasions on themselves.
THIS IS
AMERICA?
I do share their concerns, however.
First, Congress rammed through an "anti-terrorism"
bill that violates the civil liberties of all Americans, not
just terrorists.
The new law allows federal officials
to search your home when you're not present and not even tell
you your home has been searched. You could come home one day
and find your computer, file cabinets, and legal papers have
disappeared. You'd naturally think it was a burglary, but the
burglars would be government employees (shades of Watergate).
Warrants can be issued in secret, and
you may not be allowed to see a warrant - or contest it - covering
a search of your property.
This is America?
Government officials can go into any
company anywhere and search records of your purchases and credit
history, discover the websites you've visited, or monitor your
email--without evidence of a crime and without telling you, and
they can order the companies not to tell you about the search.
Then the Bush administration, apparently
invoking the divine right of kings, decided that people can
be tried and executed by secret courts (using secret evidence
not available for you to refute), that government agents can
eavesdrop on attorney-client conversations, and that federal
agents can conduct searches without judicial oversight.
This is America?
And understand that the so-called "War
on Terrorism" is only two months old. This is just the
beginning. What's still to come? In previous wars, citizens
were imprisoned for speaking out against the government, newspapers
were closed for protesting the war, private publications were
censored, and people of foreign ancestry were put in concentration
camps. We have a lot to look forward to.
DON'T BE
DECEIVED
The press implies that the new civil-liberties
invasions will apply only to terrorists.
Not true.
They apply to you, because anyone can
be suspected of being a terrorist--including you. In fact, the
new definition of "suspected terrorist" includes people
speaking out against government policies.
And if law-enforcement officials are
to decide whose civil liberties will be denied, one of them
may become convinced you're connected to the terrorists in some
way, try you in a secret court, sentence you, imprison you,
and even execute you--with no opportunity for you to appeal
the verdict or your sentence.
This is America?
An administration official told The Washington
Post, "The U.S. Constitution doesn't protect . . . anyone
hiding and planning acts of violence." But what he meant
was, "The U.S. Constitution doesn't protect anyone we suspect
of hiding and planning acts of violence." They don't know
who's actually guilty until after a civil, public trial--conducted
with all the traditional rules of evidence. What they have
arrogated to themselves is the power to decide whether or not
you will be protected by the Constitution.
This is America?
If you're not frightened by this, you're
simply not paying attention.
WON'T BE
LIMITED TO A FEW PEOPLE
Have you been told that some of these
invasions apply only to aliens--or some other small group of
people?
Don't be reassured. When has any invasion
of liberty not been expanded to cover all people eventually?
The clearly unconstitutional RICO laws
were supposed to apply only to organized crime--but hardly a
single Mafia kingpin has been prosecuted using RICO, while abortion
protestors and stockbrokers have been jailed by these laws.
The clearly unconstitutional asset-forfeiture laws were only
to nab big-time drug dealers, but all across America the property
of innocent people has been seized.
It's only a matter of time until every
new oppression applies to all Americans.
WHY THIS
HAPPENED
I said that many of those protesting
these invasions brought this on themselves. How? It's very simple.
Attorney General John Ashcroft justified
the unconstitutional police-state tactics by saying, "I
think it's important to understand that we are at war now."
And there you have it. As Randolph Bourne
said, "War is the health of the state." Once you grant
the government war-making powers, you grant the politicians
the power to do anything they want. After all, you can't put
your own personal liberty ahead of the good of the Fatherland,
can you?
Congress didn't declare war. There were
none of the usual pre-war negotiations to try to avoid going
to war. We're not even at war with any specific nation. But
just utter the magic word "war" and all your rights
can be stolen from you.
So if you hollered for war, you hollered
to have your rights taken away from you.
Who gave your rights away? You did--if
you supported the idea that the politicians should be free to
do anything they want to satisfy a national lust for revenge.
Isn't it time to start taking back your
liberty?
Harry Browne
ran for president as the Libertarian Party's candidate in 2000.
He is the director of the American
Liberty Foundation.
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