---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 14:48:15 -0800
From: radtimes <resist@best.com>
Subject: Rescuing the Constitution by Nat Hentoff
Rescuing the Constitution
by Nat Hentoff
http://www.NewsandOpinion.com --
AT the start of both the civil rights and anti-Vietnam-war movements, a
majority of Americans did not support either campaign. But, through
teach-ins and other educational projects -- from newspaper ads to marches
on Washington -- the direction of the nation was changed.
The odds against similar organized national opposition to the Bush
administration's weakening of the Constitution, particularly the Bill of
Rights, are much longer than they were in the 1960s. Not only do polls show
overwhelming public support for the diminishing of civil liberties; but
Congress -- except for a few vocal constitutionalists -- is not going to
vigorously exercise its oversight powers over John Ashcroft and the Justice
Department.
As Democrat John Dingell, a longtime, influential member of the House, told
the Dec. 5 New York Times, "I hear a lot of members saying they're
concerned, but not many willing to say it publicly." There is insistent
public opposition from civil libertarians, both on the left and the right;
but the attorney general's often unilateral, scorched-earth approach to the
Bill of Rights takes on new dimensions so frequently that his critics have
been able only so far to react.
There hasn't been time to organize pressure nationwide so that Congress
will awaken to the separation of powers that is at the core of our system
of governance. A new addition to John Ashcroft's war on both terrorism and
our Constitution is his plan -- under the expanded surveillance powers in
the USA Patriot Act -- to reintroduce a current version of COINTELPRO
(Counterintelligence Operation). From 1956 to 1971, the FBI not only
monitored religious and political groups purportedly linked to Communist
operations, but the bureau also infiltrated and disrupted these organizations.
Among the FBI's targets were anti-war, civil rights and black nationalist
groups, along with various liberal organizations that opposed certain
government foreign policies. The Communist Party itself was, of course,
included. But, as a reporter throughout that period, I can attest that many
of the COINTELPRO probes were directed at entirely lawful groups and
individuals without any ties to Communism. Finally, in 1975, the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence Activities (the Church Committee) began to
hold hearings and otherwise investigate COINTELPRO.
The committee concluded that this FBI operation was "a sophisticated and
vigilante program aimed squarely at preventing the exercise of First
Amendment rights of speech and association, on the theory that preventing
the growth of dangerous groups and the propagation of dangerous ideas would
protect the national security and deter violence."
The Church Committee (named for Idaho Sen. Frank Church, its chairman)
added: "The American people need to be reassured that never again will an
agency of the government be permitted to conduct a secret war against those
citizens it considers threats to the established order." But a Dec. 3 Wall
Street Journal story headlined "Justice Department Considers Stepping Up
Monitoring of Religious, Political Groups" reported that the FBI will,
under this proposal, no longer be held to "Justice Department regulations
requiring agents to show probable cause that a crime was afoot before
spying on political or religious organizations."
Those regulations were put in place after the Church Committee exposed the
FBI's disgraced COINTELPRO record. On a Dec. 2 episode of ABC's "This
Week," Attorney General John Ashcroft not only did not deny the advent of a
new COINTELPRO, but stoutly maintained that he will pursue whatever has to
be done in the war against terrorism. He doesn't need congressional
approval for this assault on the First and Fourth Amendments.
During what passed for a congressional debate on Ashcroft's anti-terrorism
bill, the American Civil Liberties Union organized a Coalition in Defense
of Freedom in Time of National Crisis.
Opposing parts of that bill, which became law, was the largest array of
civil liberties organizations I have ever seen -- from left to right and
center. Included were: The Center for Constitutional Rights; the Free
Congress Foundation; the American Friends Service Committee; Gun Owners of
America; the NAACP Board of Directors; the Rutherford Institute; and
Amnesty International USA. If enough of these groups -- and individuals
also intent on rescuing constitutional rights -- can move from reacting to
organize a national coalition, Congress can be moved to act before, as
Republican Congressman Bob Barr says, "This massive suspension of civil
liberties ... will likely set precedents that will come back to haunt us
terribly.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/hentoff.html
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