[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [ALACOUN:8408] FW: la times

[Alfred Kagan]

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>From: "Karen G. Schneider" <kgs at bluehighways.com>
>To: ALA Council List <alacoun at ala1.ala.org>
>Subject: [ALACOUN:8408] FW: la times
>Date: Sun, 8 Dec 2002 13:48:40 -0800
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>  >From the LA Times
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>----------------------------------------------
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>
>http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-eugene8dec08,0,2144
>631.
>story?coll=la%2Deadlines%Dnation%2Dmanual
>
>New Breed of Patriots Speaking Up
>
>By Scott Martelle, Times Staff Writer
>
>
>EUGENE, Ore -- EUGENE, Ore. -- Hope Marston keeps the seeds of
>revolution in
>four plastic crates stacked on the planked floor of her overcrowded
>bungalow
>here at the southern edge of this left-leaning college town.
>
>There are pamphlets and petitions, news stories and political analyses,
>all
>part of Marston's battle against what she sees as the excesses of the
>USA
>Patriot Act, a sweeping federal law enacted after last year's terrorist
>attacks that broadens the government's ability to use secret searches,
>wiretaps and other covert surveillance techniques in the pursuit of
>terrorists.
>
>While the law's defenders say average citizens have nothing to fear,
>civil
>libertarians like Marston believe the law opens the door for government
>agents to resume the kind of domestic spying that flourished under J.
>Edgar
>Hoover, when affiliation with radical ideas was enough to get someone a
>place in the FBI's secret files.
>
>"We don't know how many people have had their homes searched, or their
>library or bookstore records checked," said Marston, a part-time
>secretary
>who launched the Eugene campaign after reading about similar efforts
>elsewhere. "People were amazed that there was something they could do
>locally."
>
>Under pressure from a campaign that drew together liberals and
>Libertarians,
>Democrats and even a few Republicans, the Eugene City Council recently
>joined a growing list of local governments calling for a full or partial
>repeal of the Patriot Act, part of a nascent nationwide effort
>organizers
>hope will persuade Congress to undo the law.
>
>Last week, city councils in Sebastopol, about 50 miles north of San
>Francisco, and Burlington, Vt., joined with their own resolutions, and
>activists are busy in Pasadena, Santa Barbara and at least eight other
>California communities.
>
>The campaign began in November 2001 in Northampton, Mass., although the
>first cities to pass resolutions were Ann Arbor, Mich., and Denver, said
>Nancy Talanian, one of the Massachusetts organizers. So far, 17 cities
>have
>passed resolutions, and campaigns are underway in at least 50 cities in
>25
>states.
>
>Organizers hope that by marshaling the voices of locally elected
>officials,
>they can better pressure Congress.
>
>"Resolutions passed by elected local leaders carry a lot more weight
>than
>letters from individual citizens," Talanian said.
>
>Still, the resolutions are largely symbolic, as local governments have
>no
>authority over federal laws or issues. The campaign echoes the
>grass-roots
>efforts of a generation ago in which local groups lobbied cities to
>declare
>themselves nuclear-free zones, a largely symbolic show of hands of those
>opposing the development, use, transport and storage of nuclear weapons.
>
>"The most important aspect is to build a national consortium, a
>groundswell,
>and by making these somewhat symbolic resolutions cities are taking a
>stand," said Brian Michaels, a Eugene attorney who helped draft the
>local
>resolution. "You do what you can to slow these things down."
>
>The resolutions differ from place to place, each tailored to local
>political
>concerns. But most call for the federal government to reveal what local
>acts
>they've taken under the USA Patriot Act, and demand that Congress either
>repeal the law or revoke some of its elements allowing domestic spying.
>
>In Eugene, home to the University of Oregon and a cross-section of
>liberal
>political groups, the City Council added its own spin by ordering no
>city
>resources -- people or money -- be used to assist in "unconstitutional
>activities."
>
>It's unclear whether that means Eugene police will reject requests for
>help
>by federal agents, though the department was one of several last year
>that
>refused to cooperate with a federal sweep of 5,000 men of Middle Eastern
>descent.
>
>Since the unanimous vote, City Council members have fielded e-mails and
>phone calls from people -- mostly from outside Eugene -- deriding the
>decision as unpatriotic.
>
>"Some of them said, 'Now we know where Al Qaeda is hiding: in the City
>Hall,' " said Councilwoman Betty Taylor, who introduced the measure.
>"But
>then we got some that said we made them proud to be American."
>
>Marston said she was pleased by the breadth of the campaign's support
>locally.
>
>"They are people who want to defend freedom, and it crossed the
>political
>spectrum," Marston said. "We have people who are way on the right saying
>we
>want to catch bad guys, too, but we don't want to be spied on in the
>process."
>
>The pivotal vote on the eight-member council came from Gary Pape, a
>self-described pro-business, conservative Republican whose support set
>the
>stage for the City Council's unanimous vote. Pape said he took little
>notice
>when Congress passed the Patriot Act but became troubled by some of its
>elements after Marston's group began lobbying for the resolution.
>
>"It's overly broad, overbearing and overly intrusive," said Pape, adding
>that he had not read the entire 342-page act -- and doubts that many
>federal
>legislators did either. "I've reviewed parts of it that deserve some
>real
>scrutiny.... Parts of it need to get into court, where they are more
>skilled
>and adept at constitutional issues than city councils."
>
>At the heart of the challenge are elements of the USA Patriot Act that
>grant
>federal investigators wide latitude in "foreign intelligence
>surveillance."
>
>That authority was backed last month by the Foreign Intelligence
>Surveillance Court of Review, which overturned a ruling that Atty. Gen.
>John
>Ashcroft was using the Patriot Act to improperly broaden the FBI's
>spying
>abilities.
>
>Under the act, federal investigators can secretly enter homes, plant
>wiretaps, search computers and take other investigative steps if they
>believe someone is connected with foreign terrorists. The act also makes
>it
>illegal for anyone who has been served a warrant under the act -- such
>as
>bookstore owners or librarians -- from talking about it.
>
>"I'm glad I live in a city where we have spoken up against it," said
>Jeremy
>Nissel, co-owner with his wife of J. Michaels Books in downtown Eugene.
>"It's a bad law."
>
>His wife, Linda Ellis, described the local vote as "an act of courage,"
>and
>disputed that it could be viewed as unpatriotic.
>
>"There are as many flags on cars in Eugene as there are in New York City
>or
>Downey," Ellis said, adding that post-attack emotions might have clouded
>Congress' judgment. "We feel like we have to rubber-stamp everything
>because
>of the things that happened in New York City and internationally. And I
>think that's a very dangerous thing."
>
>Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times
>(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
>distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
>in
>receiving the included information for research and educational
>purposes.)


-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu