Respect & protection for free speech, a free press, to be free from unreasonable search & seizure, and certain privacy rights -- In the 1950s, "true blue" Americans would do anything to root out communism. So many civil rights were abused, the McCarthy era is taught to warn us about letting too many rights slip away in the name of "National Security." Yet, under the Bush administration, "true blue" Americans are expected to do anything to root out terrorism. As in the 50s, there's a chill in the air. Our President and Attorney General Ashcroft say you are either with us or against us! There is no room for gray. And, good always triumphs over evil! The FBI and Secret Service are already harassing activists and artists. Publishers are firing antiwar columnists and cartoonists. University presidents are scolding dissident faculty members.
On November, 1, the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression sent the following to its members: "Dear Bookseller, Last week, President Bush signed into law an antiterrorism bill that gives the federal government expanded authority to search your business records, including the titles of the books purchased by your customers . . . There is no opportunity for you or your lawyer to object in court. You cannot object publicly either. The new law includes a gag order that prevents you from disclosing to any person the fact that you have received an order to produce documents."
The Attorney General has embraced the U.S.A. Patriot Act giving the FBI authority to search homes and offices without probable cause, and to monitor phone conversations and email. The government can monitor conversations between inmates and lawyers in some cases, eroding due process. Grand juries can now pass confidential information to the CIA. Federal investigators have more access to business, bank, credit, and medical records. The government may detain any or all of our 6 million noncitizen neighbors, indefinitely, without charges. So far, mass arrests have led to the detention of some 1200 people, only a dozen suspected of links to Al Qaeda. Bush would like to set up secret military courts too, which the A.G. thinks is a nifty idea. Even conservative Georgia Republican Bob Barr warned that the scope of the Administration's plan "takes your breath away." But, to the extent that Bush Administration fails to dismantle our civil rights, we are more secure.
And, what would real "International Security" look like?
Respect through cooperation instead of intimidation? I'd feel more secure if the U.S. would support the dream, and the best work, of the United Nations by paying our dues, ratifying CEDAW - the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women - and several other conventions, including those addressing the rights of children, and protecting the environment. I would be proud of a United States that admitted to our own dreadful deeds, denouncing our CIA killing training grounds, and dismantling the School of the Americas instead of just renaming it (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation).
I would be proud of a United States that wandered the globe trying to create "Fair trade" policies and "Fair trade zones," and admitted the dreadful deeds done in the name of "free trade" --- a policy allowing corporations get-out-of-going-to-jail cards all over the planet, in spite of corporations' violations of human rights, workers rights, the environment & community values, all in the name of the almighty bottom line.
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