[Peace-discuss] Homeland Security

[patton paul]

Welcome to the American Gestapo
by Doug Thompson


Wonder if any of the vast sums of money approved Tuesday for the new
Department of Homeland Security are set aside for black uniforms with
knee-length boots and black leather trench coats?

Should be. Since weve gone to all this trouble to create the new American
Gestapo we might as well let them look the part.

Excuse me if I dont join in all the senseless celebration over creation of
yet another mammoth bureaucracy of the federal government. Pardon me if I
dont go ga-ga over a federal agency that has been given unlimited powers
to spy on Americans, trample all over the First and Fourth Amendments,
ignore the privacy of anyone it chooses and violate the rights of every
man, woman and child who used to live in the Land of the Free.

Our own paranoia has accomplished what Osama bin Laden and his minions
could not with hijacked airplanes and vague threats about future attacks
these fears have forced America to abandon its principles and create a
police state.

This new Department of Homeland Security has the power to wiretap any
American it wants, without a court order, without cause and without
justification to any higher authority. Homeland Security goon squads will
have the power to enter any American home, without a search warrant,
without probable cause, simply because someone somewhere says hey, this
guy might be a threat. No checks and balances, no due process. Nothing.

Video cameras at ATMs, convenience stores, department stores and office
building lobbies already record Americans living in urban areas 75-100
times on any given day but that isnt enough for the new American Gestapo.
They plan to erect video cameras on streets, along public highways, in
neighborhoods and deploy them on helicopters and police cars to record
everything you and I do every day of the year.

We are entering a new era of domestic surveillance, says retired FBI agent
Franklin Postel. One where the constitution is secondary to the cause. The
new department has the power to document the day-to-day actions of any
American it chooses.

A secret court decision last May already gives the Justice Department
expanded powers to wiretap phones, spy on Americans and share information
with other law enforcement agencies.

These powers, granted under a dangerous piece of legislation called the
USA Patriot Act, allow Attorney General John Ashcroft to sign away the
normal rights and protections that Americans used to enjoy  little things
like probable cause, due process and the now forgotten belief that any
accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Those who support these expanded powers say the system has "safeguards"
where law enforcement personnel must get a judge's approval before
wiretapping an American family but those who have studied the law said the
"safeguards" are, in fact, "carefully worded loopholes."

"The law only requires an 'administrative review' by the very department
that wants to spy on Americans," says retired federal judge John Macklin.
"Most judges would not approve such wiretaps but the law is engineered to
make sure that most judges never see the request."

Ashcroft says he will implement the new powers immediately and is already
increasing surveillance of Americans.

Look closer at the powers granted under the act and you will find things
that would make Hitler proud.

They include provisions to allow private citizens to spy on other private
citizens without fear of prosecution if the Department determines their
actions were conducted in the national interest.

Ive read some of the abstracts on the new law and they take the handcuffs
off people like me, says private detective Andrew Burlingame. I can tap
anyone I damn well please. All I have to do is claim I thought the guy was
a terrorist.

Under the new law, an agent of the Department of Homeland Security can
walk into your bank, flash a badge and demand to see your checking and
saving account records. No court order. All they need is the presumption
of guilt. They can stop you in your car without cause and search it and
you. They can hold you in jail for 30 days or more without filing any
charges or allowing you to make any phone calls.

They can call up America Online and put a trace on all your Internet
activity without a court order. They can require Visa to turn over all
your credit card activity records without notice.

"Again, the process only requires an internal administrative review and
not the involvement of any independent judicial authority," says retired
judge Macklin. "It violates all previous standards for due process and
probable cause."

In other words, they can do any damn thing they want and there isnt a
thing that any of us can do about it.

Some may argue the current terrorist threat requires such drastic
measures. But what happens when that threat is met? The Department of
Homeland Security and its draconian powers will still exist. Who will
determine the new threat? Who will decide who becomes the enemy?

"An evil exists that threatens every man, woman and child of this great
nation," the leader of another country once wrote. "We must take steps to
ensure our domestic security and protect our homeland."

That was Adoph Hitler, writing about creation of the Gestapo in Nazi
Germany.

Wecome to the American Gestapo. Be careful what you say and do. They are
watching and they will be watching from now on.

Doug Thompson is the founder and publisher of Capitol Hill Blue.