[Peace] Fwd:[ANSWER]: Anti-war activists condemn Ashcroft's creation

[jencart]

--------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 05 Jun 2002 23:31:56 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

PRESS RELEASE
June 5, 2002

ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS CONDEMN ASHCROFT'S CREATION OF RACIST  DATABASE

Will Protest Illegal Racial Profiling and Spying at the 
FBI in Washington on June 29

Leaders with the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition, who are 
organizing the June 29 demonstration at the FBI?s 
Washington headquarters, condemned U.S. Attorney General  John Ashcroft's fingerprinting plan announced today, 
asserting that it is designed to bolster a pre-existing, 
right-wing agenda on the part of the Bush administration. 

"Ashcroft, a defender of the Confederate south, has 
extended his campaign of racial and religious profiling to  include police state tactics and apartheid-like procedures  such as fingerprinting and the identification of people 
based on religion and national origin," said Mara 
Verheyden-Hilliard, co-founder of the Partnership for 
Civil Justice?LDEF and a member of A.N.S.W.E.R.'s steering  committee.

Ashcroft today announced the "National Security Entry-Exit  Registration System."  This system would in the first year  alone require the forced fingerprinting of more than 
100,000 immigrants living in the U.S., the overwhelming 
majority of whom would be Muslim, Arab and South Asian.  Along with photographs and other data collection, this 
information would be stored in a new Justice Department  database.

"For nine months, thousands of people have been arrested,  investigated and detained," continued Verheyden-Hilliard. 
 "They have had their homes and businesses raided ? not  because they had committed any crime, and not because they  had done anything wrong ? but because they were Muslim,  Arab, Sikh or South Asian.

"Last week Ashcroft resurrected the J. Edgar Hoover-style  domestic espionage program targeting political 
organizations," Verheyden-Hilliard said.  "He has now set  his sights on the creation of a database based on 
nationality and religion, the existence and implementation  of which is ultimately intended to put a chill on 
political expression and activity ? especially opposition 
to the Bush administration's policies of war and racism.

"By first demonizing and focusing on one segment of the  population ? the Arab, Muslim and Southeast Asian 
community ? the Bush administration is relying on its 
favorite weapon, racism, to win public acceptance of the  implementation of outrageous and illegal tactics."

Larry Holmes, co-director of the International Action 
Center, also with A.N.S.W.E.R., said the growing unity and  power of the anti-war movement would effectively combat  this strategy.  "The movement against war and racism has  already come out into the streets against Bush's phony 
'war on terrorism' in large numbers.

"On April 20, thousands of anti-war and anti-globalization  activists joined with tens of thousands of Arab, South 
Asian and Palestinian protesters and filled the streets of  Washington and San Francisco with massive rallies 
demanding an end to Israel's occupation of Palestine," 
Holmes continued. 

"On June 29, the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition, one of the 
central forces behind that demonstration, will protest at  the FBI's Washington D.C. headquarters against Ashcroft's  assault on the First Amendment.  There, people of all 
nationalities will come together to deprive Bush and 
Ashcroft of the racism they are hoping will help them 
pursue an all-war, anti-people agenda," Holmes said.

International A.N.S.W.E.R
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.internationalanswer.org

-30-

For more informati