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And make no mistake: America is in terrible, terrible, real, clear and present danger right now. Not from terrorists like the crazed fanatics who used airliners as weapons a year ago; but from the man empowered, ironically, to defend America's laws and American justice -- Attorney General John Ashcroft. For the first time in our nation's history -- the FIRST time -- Federal agents can stop any citizen on the street without a warrant or the evidence of any crime; take that citizen to an undisclosed location to be held without access to a lawyer, without being charged with any crime, without having any access to the courts, to be held indefinitely without trial, and any Federal judge who questions this treatment will be told by Ashcroft's agents that he or she has no right to question any of it. And moreover, that the Justice Department is simply not going to comply with any court orders to the contrary. Period. A regrettably-large number of citizens believe that can't happen here. It already has happened here -- and what's more, Ashcroft openly states that he hopes to set up camps specifically for the detention of "enemy combatants." There need be no evidence. It is enough that Ashcroft and his agents believe a citizen is "...part of a wider terrorist conspiracy" for that citizen to be stripped of all rights and imprisoned indefinitely. No evidence, no judicial hearing, no nothing -- merely the say-so of Ashcroft. John Ashcroft once called the Federal judiciary a "robed, contemptuous elite." Now the Attorney General is having his revenge -- he has singlehandedly declared that he is a law unto himself, and to hell with any judge who tries to stand in his way. If you or I tried that, we'd be in jail so fast our heads would spin. But with the silent assent of the White House, and the terrified acquiescence of Congress, John Ashcroft has set himself up as judge, jury, and executioner. That isn't how America works. In fact, a nation that operates under Ashcroft's rules is no longer America, where equal justice formerly prevailed. The thin argument that he's doing this to help ensure our safety is preposterous -- that's like burning down your house to make sure no burglar can steal your television. Call or write or fax your Congressmen and Senators. Demand that Ashcroft be compelled by Congress to uphold the laws and the Constitution of the United States -- not the laws he's making up as he goes along. Or one day soon, you may find yourself whisked off without explanation to some "camp", and there isn't a damn thing you'll be able to do about it, then.
Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe -- who would long ago have been appointed to the Supreme Court except for expected violent opposition from conservatives -- said on ABC's Nightline: "The executive branch is taking the amazing position that, JUST on the president's say-so, any American citizen can be picked up not just on the streets of Afghanistan but on the streets of any city in this country, just because the government SAYS he is connected somehow..." with terrorist groups. Again, there need be no evidence; no proven pattern of behavior, no guilt-by-association with suspected terrorists. Ashcroft need prove nothing to take a citizen away and incarcerate him or her without cause or explanation. Surely, there must be SOME rules under which the Attorney General decides which citizens are thus to be indefinitely deprived of their civil liberties? Yes, there are some such criteria, Ashcroft claims. But he isn't going to tell anyone what they are. He thinks that information is too sensitive. It all boils down to that stock phrase you hated from childhood: "Because I said so." Only this time it doesn't mean you can't go out and play -- it means you can't go out AT ALL, ever again, stuck behind bars god-knows-where without a lawyer or a trial or even knowing WHY you are being held thus. I wasn't sure how to end this, but finally I've chosen to make a confession in closing. And that confession is that I was afraid to write this. For the first time in my life, I stopped to wonder , seriously, if this might get me put on some vague list somewhere which would end in MY being tapped on the shoulder someday on the street, firmly "helped" into a waiting van with US GOVT plates, and never heard from again. I would never have imagined that I'd seriously discuss such a possibility except humorously. I would never have imagined that so horrifyingly many Americans are simply unaware that such things have already happened to American citizens, and that plans are being made at the Ashcroft Justice Department for more such acts. I urge you to bring this up in your churches and synagogues and temples; in your workplace conversations (unless politics are banned as a topic); in the context of any contact you have with candidates for election or re-election this autumn. Right now it's only two Americans who've been subjected to the treatment I describe. But Ashcroft's made plain that he intends to expand the facilities to handle more than two -- MUCH more than two. The longer we wait to protest and to demand that our Justice Department actually UPHOLDS justice, the harder it's going to be to do it later. If Ashcroft's policies stand, it won't be long before the judiciary is powerless to rein him in. Until Congress is too intimidated and too frightened to rein him in. Until even the White House is at a loss as to how they will control their rogue Attorney General and his Draconian view of the job he was appointed to carry out. Please, friends, let's at least try to act before it's too late. Let's act while there is still an America worthy of defending and protecting from Ashcroft's attacks on its laws and its system of justice. Let's act while we are still free to act. |
A New Threat to America: John Ashcroft's assualt on civil liberties 
Former President Jimmy Carter: 'Fundamental changes are taking place in the
historical policies of the United States with regard
to human rights'