[Peace] How Can We Justify This? (fwd)

[Bob McChesney]

Yes. This is no fluke. He is a true progressive.

At 08:56 AM 02/25/2002 -0600, parenti susan rose wrote:
>Though this rightfully should go on the peace-discuss list, I'm sending it
>to the general AWARE list, to invite people to e mail back this
>Congressman. This is the first writing, first sign, I've seen of someone
>questioning what's going on from inside the government (besides the
>California woman who did not vote to give Bush his current powers).
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 22:31:57 -0800
>From: Arun Chandra <arunc at evergreen.edu>
>To: sdas <sdas at onthejob.net>
>Subject: [Sdas] How Can We Justify This?
>
>
>the following was written by an elected member of congress --- do any of
>you know of his work?
>
>
>arun
>
>
>How Can We Justify This?
>
>By Representative Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
>
>Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the
>promise of
>democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That
>is why
>we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. We must ask why should
>America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?
>
>How can we justify in effect canceling the First Amendment and the right of
>free speech, the right to peaceably assemble?
>
>How can we justify in effect canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable cause,
>the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure?
>How can we justify in effect canceling the Fifth Amendment, nullifying due
>process, and allowing for indefinite incarceration without a trial?
>
>How can we justify in effect canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right to
>prompt
>and public trial?
>
>How can we justify in effect canceling the Eighth Amendment which protects
>against cruel and unusual punishment?
>
>We cannot justify widespread wiretaps and internet surveillance without
>judicial supervision, let alone with it. We cannot justify secret searches
>without a warrant. We cannot justify giving the Attorney General the
>ability to
>designate domestic terror groups. We cannot justify giving the FBI total
>access
>to any type of data which may exist in any system anywhere such as medical
>records and financial records.
>
>We cannot justify giving the CIA the ability to target people in this
>country
>for intelligence surveillance. We cannot justify a government which
>takes from
>the people our right to privacy and then assumes for its own operations
>a right
>to total secrecy. The Attorney General recently covered up a statue of Lady
>Justice showing her bosom as if to underscore there is no danger of justice
>exposing herself at this time, before this administration.
>
>Let us pray that our nation's leaders will not be overcome with fear.
>Because
>today there is great fear in our great Capitol. And this must be understood
>before we can ask about the shortcomings of Congress in the current
>environment. The great fear began when we had to evacuate the Capitol on
>September 11. It continued when we had to leave the Capitol again when a
>bomb
>scare occurred as members were pressing the CIA during a secret briefing. It
>continued when we abandoned Washington when anthrax, possibly
>from a government lab, arrived in the mail. It continued when the Attorney
>General declared a nationwide terror alert and then the Administration
>brought
>the destructive Patriot Bill to the floor of the House. It continued in the
>release of the Bin Laden tapes at the same time the President was announcing
>the withdrawal from the ABM treaty. It remains present in the cordoning
>off of
>the Capitol. It is present in the camouflaged armed national guardsmen who
>greet members of Congress each day we enter the
>Capitol campus. It is present in the labyrinth of concrete barriers through
>which we must pass each time we go to vote. The trappings of a state of
>siege
>trap us in a state of fear, ill equipped to deal with the Patriot Games, the
>Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice
>President.
>
>Let us pray that our country will stop this war. "To promote the common
>defense" is one of the formational principles of America. Our Congress
>gave the
>President the ability to respond to the tragedy of September the
>Eleventh. We
>licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September the
>Eleventh. But we the people and our elected
>representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to
>proportion
>the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response.
>
>Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.
>
>We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.
>
>We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.
>
>We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.
>
>We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.
>
>We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.
>
>We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas
>corpus.
>
>We did not authorize assassination squads.
>
>We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.
>
>We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.
>
>We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.
>
>We did not authorize national identity cards.
>
>We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout
>our cities.
>
>We did not authorize an eye for an eye.
>
>Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on
>September 11,
>be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan.
>
>We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere,
>anyhow
>it pleases.
>
>We did not authorize war without end.
>
>We did not authorize a permanent war economy.
>
>Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The President has
>requested a $45.6 billion increase in military spending. All defense-related
>programs will cost close to $400 billion. Consider that the Department of
>Defense has never passed an independent audit. Consider that the Inspector
>General has notified Congress that the Pentagon cannot properly account for
>$1.2 trillion in transactions. Consider that in recent years the Dept. of
>Defense could not match $22 billion worth of expenditures to the items
>it purchased, wrote off, as lost, billions of dollars worth of in-transit
>inventory and stored nearly $30 billion worth of spare parts it did not
>need.
>
>Yet the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to fight a
>cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to create new
>wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror. This has everything to do
>with fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of our nation,
>risking the future of our nation, risking democracy itself with the
>militarization of thought which follows the militarization of the
>budget.
>
>United States Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
>Email responses to Dkucinich at a...
>--
>
>
>Arun Chandra
>email: arunc at evergreen.edu
>phone: (360) 867-6077
>    fax: (360) 866-6663
>   post: COM 301
>         The Evergreen State College
>         Olympia, WA 98505
>
>
>
>
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>Sdas at che.onthejob.net
>http://che.onthejob.net/mailman/listinfo/sdas
>
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Robert W. McChesney
Your Man in Urbana
Institute of Communications Research
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
www.robertmcchesney.com