Two days ago I reported on my experiences with the COINTELPRO program and Mark Felt. After all the information on black bag jobs, illegal surveillance, and the like was made public by various congressional committees and media outlets in the 1970s, an outraged public forced the government to back off.
Of course, few of us believe that such actions actually came to an end, but the “bad publicity” at least forced the government to tone done its actions.
After 9/11 all of that changed. Suddenly, especially with the Patriot Act, such criminal government activity became legal again.
This brings us to the news that yesterday the U.S. Senate intelligence Committee backed a White House proposal of broad new powers for the FBI for its “fight against terrorism.” As reported in Capital Hill Blue, “After hours of secret deliberations, the oversight panel voted 11-4 to send to the full Senate a proposal that would give the FBI the power to subpoena without judicial approval a wide range of personal documents ranging from health and library records to tax statements.”
The same bill also will make permanent sections of the Patriot Act that were to expire at the end of the year exposing the lie that the Act was a temporary answer to an emergency situation.
The Intelligence Committee action had, according to Chairman Pat Roberts of Kansas, broad bipartisan support.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and others promptly condemned the action. Lisa Graves, ACLU Senior Counsel for Legislative Strategy, said, "Today’s secret vote was a failure for the Fourth Amendment, the American people, and the very freedoms we hold dear. At a time when Americans from all walks of life are calling for the Patriot Act to be brought in line with the Constitution, the Senate Intelligence Committee went ahead with an unwarranted expansion of the Patriot Act’s already intrusive powers."
"In a move antithetical to our Constitution, the new ‘administrative subpoena’ authority would let the FBI write and approve its own search orders for intelligence investigations, without prior judicial approval. Flying in the face of the Fourth Amendment, this power would let agents seize personal records from medical facilities, libraries, hotels, gun dealers, banks and any other businesses without any specific facts connecting those records to any criminal activity or a foreign agent. The panel rejected attempts to limit this extraordinary power to emergencies - creating the likelihood that it will be used in fishing expeditions and in investigations unrelated to terrorism."
"Americans have a reasonable expectation that their federal government will not gather records about their health, their wealth and the transactions of their daily life without probable cause of a crime and without a court order. We hope that Congress will protect America by giving law enforcement the tools they need without sidestepping our Constitution’s fundamental checks and balances."
An interesting example of what kind of things happen when an out of control government gives itself more and more power can be found in eastern Missouri where the ACLU is demanding records of activities carried out under the Patriot Act which will document political intimidation of Missouri residents. Times, an eastern Missouri media outlet reports, “The ACLU is seeking documents under FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) that detail activities of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). Among state residents unjustifiably targeted, according to the ACLU, is Ben Garrett, a 1998 Webster Groves High School graduate who had been attending Truman State University in Kirksville.”
Relatives and friends of Garrett last year found FBI agents at their doors asking about their political activism and plans to attend demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. Garrett and two others were later forced to appear before a Federal Grand Jury in St. Louis on the very day they had planned to protest at the Republican Convention.
Garrett told Times, "We were questioned by the FBI in July 2004 in Kirksville, and then they tailed us all over when we went to St. Louis."
"They sat in their cars outside my friends' houses. The neighbors called the local police on them, and the police were shown their FBI credentials when they showed up," said Garrett. "The agents followed us to a meeting we had with the ACLU in St. Louis and they even followed us when we went to a movie.”
Brenda Jones, executive director of the ACLU-EM said, "Civil liberties are being violated and it is happening here in Missouri. We believe that the FBI is working with local law enforcement agencies through so-called Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) to spy on individuals and groups engaged in entirely lawful, constitutionally protected activity."
"We want to know more about the workings of JTTFs and why resources allotted to fight terrorism are being diverted to watch and intimidate people and groups who have nothing to do with terrorism," Jones said.
The conduct of the FBI is "eerily reminiscent of the days of J. Edgar Hoover,” said Denise Lieberman, legal director for the ACLU affiliate in St. Louis. "They are conducting investigations based on groups' political activities and affiliations, or their religious affiliations," she said. "Under our Constitution, government is supposed to have cause to believe that you are involved in criminal activity before they put you under investigation."
Among those who filed the FOIA request according to St. Louis Today are longtime peace activist Bill Ramsey, peace activist and Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein and American Muslim magazine editor Sheila Musaji. Organizations include the St. Louis Instead of War Coalition, which opposed the Iraq War, the Alliance for Democracy, which advocates for workers' rights and environmental issues, and the Council on American- Islamic Relations.
Skyler Harmann, Garrett's mother, said, "It's too bad that our Patriot Act gives authorities license to harass people with political views that differ with the administration.”
The ACLU’s Lieberman adds, "A lot of people are going to say: 'If you don't have anything to hide, why should you care if the FBI comes to ask a few questions?' But the point is: This is a country where you are not supposed to receive a knock on the door because of your political beliefs."
By the way besides Garrett’s plans to demonstrate at the Republican Convention what is he doing that threatens the government so very much.
Well, Garrett’s threatening behavior includes his acting as an outside source of support to political prisoners by doing such nefarious things as helping them buy stamps, writing letters to prison officials and contacting organizations on their behalf.
Garrett told the Truman State University Index, "My goal is to foster a real sense of community that isn't dependent on institutional authority. The network is not so important as the goal of a strong community of people that care about the world and each other." Sources: St. Louis Today, Truman State University Index, Capital Hill Blue, Times (St. Louis, MO), ACLU
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