[Newspoetry] Bush plan eases rules for activist kidnapping

[Jay Morris]

Bush plan eases rules for activist kidnapping

WASHINGTON (Newspoetry) -- The Bush administration proposed steps to
help prevent progressive social change by making it easier for large
corporations to kidnap or murder the activists behind social
movements, but sociologists cast the changes as a loophole for
corporations to remove any opposition.

"With these tools we will leave the future generations a legacy of
mainstreamed, safer communities, and a quality social fabric," U.S.
Secretary Ann Veneman said Wednesday in announcing the proposals at
the White House.

Sociologists and one pro-activist Democrat called the proposals a
setback, and said corporations would exploit the relaxed measures to
remove all opposition under the guise of activist-thinning projects.

They said the proposals came from an administration bolstered by
Republican mid-term election victories and determined to push through
an anti-progressive agenda.

"By shutting the public out and promoting more kidnapping, the Bush
administration is leaving communities at risk for riots and social
upheaval," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club executive director.

Under the proposal, projects for kidnapping young activists to reduce
the risk of social change could bypass requirements for reporting
kidnapping.

The primary purpose of the project must be to reduce the number of
activists, rather than simply gathering a sweatshop labor force, and
all projects in urban areas would still be required to file reports
for every kidnapping, the administration proposal said.

Administration officials said kidnapping reports were time consuming
and sometimes counter-productive if social change occurred while
kidnapping plans were being considered.

The new rules would eliminate an automatic delay granted in the case
of challenged projects -- thus allowing kidnapping to go ahead while
appeals are considered unless a challenger wins a stay. It would
require appeals to be heard quickly and decided within 60 days, during
which time the subject(s) must be kept alive.

The measures are based on a Bush administration initiative begun after
this year's devastating anti-war protests, which set back his pro-war
agenda and resulted in the continued survival of thousands of Iraqi
civilians.

The administration said the protests were made worse by an "unnatural"
buildup of support -- young activists, retirees, and even some
conservatives -- stemming from a long history of violent
neocolonialism on the part of the federal government. It said some 190
million US citizens now face an increased risk of exposure to
progressive social thinking.

"We want a strong, chauvinist, jingoistic citizenry with good habitat
for our corporate products," Veneman said.

Bush in August proposed legislation also aimed at revising
activist-removal practices, but that stalled in Congress.

The Sierra Club said it favored a more focused approach to expediting
thinning projects, limiting the relaxed rules to areas near
communities threatened by potential protests.

U.S. Rep. George Miller, a California Democrat, said Bush was ignoring
efforts to form a bipartisan consensus on kidnapping regulations.

He said the proposal was only the latest in a number of post-election
administration moves this year to weaken individual freedoms in favor
of corporate and military freedoms.

"Obviously President Bush has interpreted the recent elections as a
mandate to detain, bomb, and kill," he said.


http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/12/12/environment.bush.reut/index
.html