[Peace-discuss] Lawyers Committee for Human Rights report

[Alfred Kagan]

  From Lawyers Committee for Human Rights

For Immediate Release: September 5, 2002


Contact: David Danzig (212) 845 5252
Report Outlines Changes in U.S. Civil Liberties since September 11:

Calls for Reexamination of New Laws and Policies that Contradict Core 
American Values

NEW YORK - Since September 11, 2001, the U.S. government has 
introduced a series of security laws and practices that contradict 
the core values and principles on which the American government is 
founded, says a new report released today by the Lawyers Committee 
for Human Rights.

"Viewed separately, some of the changes may not seem extreme, 
especially when seen as a response to the September attacks," said 
Michael Posner, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee. "But 
when you connect the dots, a different picture emerges. The composite 
picture outlined by this report shows that too often the U.S. 
government's mode of operations since September 11 has been at odds 
with core American and international human rights principles."

The U.S. government's actions over the past year have rolled back 
Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure, 
targeted immigrants, undermined the principal of separation of 
powers, and have frequently been undertaken in secret. In doing this, 
the United States has also given encouragement to other governments 
around the world to deny rights in similar ways, the report says.

In the new report, "A Year of Loss: Reexamining Civil Liberties since 
September 11," the Lawyers Committee writes that the United States 
has much to mourn over the past year. In addition to the loss of life 
and a sense of invulnerability, the report says, "the United States 
has lost something essential and defining: some of the cherished 
principles on which the country is founded have been eroded or 
disregarded."

In the report's five main chapters, the Lawyers Committee outlines 
the range of changes in U.S. policy and practice since September 11. 
The Lawyers Committee has also prepared a timeline - by date - of the 
actions taken by the U.S. government since Sept. 11.

To read the report, go to www.lchr.org/aftersept/loss/report.htm.

The Timeline is available (as a PowerPoint presentation or a pdf 
file) at: www.lchr.org/aftersept/loss/Timeline -- A Chronology.pdf.

The report also includes a set of recommendations. They are available 
at: www.lchr.org/aftersept/loss/RECOMMENDATIONS.pdf.

The areas addressed in the "A Year of Loss" are:

Chapter 1: Open Government. This chapter covers: lack of 
Congressional participation, reversing the Freedom of Information 
Act, restrictions on public access to information, and loosening 
protections for government whistleblowers.

Chapter Two: Right to Privacy. This chapter covers: The USA-PATRIOT 
Act, expansion of search and seizure powers, interception of 
telephone and internet communications, easing limits on foreign 
intelligence and domestic spying, access to library records, the new 
FBI guidelines on domestic spying, and Operation TIPS: the Terrorism 
Information and Prevention System.

Chapter Three: Treatment of Immigrants, Refugees and Minorities. This 
chapter covers: the shut down of the refugee resettlement program, 
new hardships for refugees seeking asylum, the USA PATRIOT Act and 
the post-September 11 detainees (preventive detention, criminal 
detainees, material witnesses, and immigration detainees).

Chapter Four: Security Detainees and the Criminal Justice System. 
This chapter covers: the detention of U.S. citizens, military 
commissions, applicability and interpretation of the Geneva 
Conventions for detainees on Guantanamo, the absence of judicial 
oversight, and denial of access to counsel.

Chapter Five: The effect of U.S. actions on other governments around 
the world. The chapter covers the international repercussions of the 
changes in U.S. policy. In lowering the United States' own human 
rights standards, the U.S. has moved, though in some cases 
inadvertently, to lower the standards of human rights around the 
world.

# # #

To read the report online or learn more about the Lawyers Committee, 
visit: www.lchr.org.
For a hard copy, call: 212-845-5245.

Since 1978, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights has worked in the 
U.S. and abroad to create a secure and humane world by advancing 
justice and human dignity. We support human rights activists who 
fight for basic freedoms and peaceful change at the local level; 
protect refugees in flight from persecution and repression; promote 
fair economic practices by creating safeguards for workers' rights; 
and help build a strong international system of justice and 
accountability for the worst human rights crimes.


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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
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