http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/patriot_act.html Patriot Act II Final Piece of Police State Puzzle Ready By John Tiffany The Bush administration’s allies in Congress, led by J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the speaker of the House, have launched another assault on constitutionally protected civil liberties with a bill many are calling Patriot Act II (PA II). However, it is not to be confused with the 2003 version of Patriot Act II. But according to the Associated Press, in a draft of the House GOP legislation, many of the provisions are similar to the draft copy of the “Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003” that leaked out of the Justice Department in January 2003. Many Democrats and civil libertarians charge the new PA II authorizes heavy-handed infringements on civil liberties. House Democratic leaders and civil liberties advocates said on Sept. 22 that the Republican bill ostensibly responding to the findings of the 9-11 commission would go well beyond the panel’s recommendations. It would call for broad new powers for law enforcement agencies, they said, and would include new authority to conduct electronic surveillance in terrorism investigations. Among the provisions, said AP, are measures on the deportation of aliens who are suspected of being linked to foreign revolutionary groups which have been labeled as terrorists, mandatory pretrial detention for terrorism suspects, warrants against non-citizens even when a target can’t be tied to a foreign power and enhanced penalties for threats or attempts to use chemical or nuclear weapons. John Feehery is a spokesman for Hastert. Feehery told AP that criticism of the bill was unwarranted as of the evening of Sept. 22, because the legislation was still not in final form and was not ready for release to the public. A spokesman for House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) agreed on Sept. 22 that House members were still working on a final version of the legislation. But critics warn that the proposed law is aimed against the entire U.S. population, not a minority of Arab immigrants. The proposal, they say, would grant the government the power to strip citizenship of native-born Americans and deport them without any evidence of wrongdoing, even though this would be contrary to the Constitution. It would also allow for secret arrests, secret trials and secret torturing of “suspects.” Habeas corpus, Americans’ most sacred right, would be eliminated. The law would also remove all restrictions on police spying on citizens. Patriot Act II would create 15 new death penalties, one of which could be applied to acts of protest. Under the Hastert measure’s definitions, anti-war protesters could be deemed terrorists. In fact, any dissident could be spied on, harassed, and imprisoned indefinitely for exercising their legal and constitutionally protected rights. This legislation would give the government the same power that Stalin and Julius Caesar gave themselves, said one detractor. While terrorism certainly is a threat that must be addressed, curtailing the civil liberties of innocent Americans is by no means a way of doing so. AFP readers will recall that the first so-called Patriot Act was passed without the members of Congress being allowed to view the draft of the bill. Those who wanted it to be read and debated were told to vote for it or they would be blamed for the next terrorist outrage. It passed overwhelmingly. Many experts fear similar tactics will be used to pass PA II, keeping the public ignorant of the proposed law’s existence until it is too late.
anti-war protests an act of terrorism? lol, that has got to be a joke. they better start building a few hundred more prisions.
Unfortunately, it's not a joke. Sadly, many people do not realize the extent to which we are losing our civil liberties in this country, as we move more and more toward a Nazi-like police state.
There were quite a few people protesting at the RNC who were arrested for no apparent reason, and then the city was fined $1000 per inocent protester in the can. Then there is the fact that you have to sign a form saying you are a Bush supporter to get into a pro-Bush rally. By the time the Bush Administration is done getting rid of all our freedoms, there won't be any left to defend.
I feel sick. You know, 8.5 million dollars of the $87 billion for Iraq was set aside for FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) protests in Florida. Isn't it comforting to know that our tax dollars are supporting the arrests of peaceful protesters? I sleep much better at night knowing those hippy/terrorist/commies are locked away. article
Speaker of the House Hastert also molests little boys. I'm not joking. It's been proven using standards that even Hastert himself agrees constitutes proper proof. I'm thus taking no legal risk at all in saying flatly, as a fact, that Hastert sexually molests little boys. Just so everyone knows.
Good to know I'm not the only one that realizes something must be done about this. The patriot act II is evil. All our freedoms are being taken away, and there is nothing we can do... hell most people don't even realize, or won't acknowledge how bad the situation realy is...
Even if the act itself doesn't make it, it's a safe bet all the pieces will make their way into otherwise good bills that have a chance of passing. That's how they get most shit like this through.
This is the type of stuff that angers me...what is there to do?The more we protest the more we go to jail.
Actually i take that back...this comes as no surprise at all, but it's still an outrage. And the sad part is, i'd say that maybe all of 5% of the population actually realizes what these laws mean for the future of this wonderful country and it's citizens...the rest are just sheep.
Shopkeeper deported from South Carolina under PATRIOT Act killed in Pakistan by Jason Cato, The Herald [Rock Hill, SC] Sept. 28, 2003 All Ahfaz Khan wanted was a life in America. After marrying a naturalized U.S. citizen, having two U.S.-born children and running a Rock Hill convenience store for years, Khan was rounded up in post-Sept. 11, 2001, sweeps that targeted Muslim immigrants. The government's stated goal was to crack down on terrorism, but PATRIOT Act critics say the result was punishing thousands of people, including Khan, for immigration violations that had largely been ignored before. In February 2002, Khan was deported to his native Pakistan. It was a move he feared could cost him his life, he told his attorney, Hina Askari. In March, Khan's fear came true. He was assassinated by two armed men on a motorcycle in Karachi, Pakistan, while having coffee in a public place, said Robert DePathy, director of client relations with Askari's Orlando firm. "This shouldn't have happened to begin with," DePathy said. "This is the thing he feared in being sent back." The husband of an American citizen for five years and the father of two U.S.-born daughters, ages 2 and 5, Khan, a Pakistan native, applied for legal residency in 2001 under the federal government's immigration amnesty program. Unfortunately, that application is what eventually led Immigration and Naturalization Service officials to him for an immigration violation for overstaying his original visa seven years earlier, Askari said last year. Without knowledge of his status, Khan continued living in the United States, marrying Fatima Siddiqui, an American of Iranian descent, and purchasing the convenience store at 725 Saluda St. On Jan. 8, 2002, Khan was arrested by INS officials and jailed in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center. On Feb. 1, 2002, he was handcuffed and put on an airplane headed for Pakistan — against his will, Askari said. Five months after his removal, in July 2002, INS officials in Orlando approved Khan's pending residency paperwork. But it legally didn't matter since he'd already been deported. "It's just a whole fiasco," DePathy said. "Mr. (U.S. Attorney General John) Ashcroft has definitely put across an anti-immigrant policy to punish everyone for the acts of 19 people." And in this case, that punishment not only affected a Pakistani immigrant but cost him his life, DePathy said. "I hope it doesn't happen again before we get some real due process," DePathy said.
Political prisoner Sherman Austin, who made headlines last year after being targeted as one of the first casualties of the infamous USA PATRIOT Act, was released from the Federal Corrections Institute in Tucson and left Arizona July 12 to return to Los Angeles. The nightmare doesn’t end there for Sherman, though. He is being remanded to the custody of a halfway house where he will serve the remainder of his sentence until August 2004. San Francisco Bay View Article 8/18/04 Starting now and continuing through the next three years, Sherman will be serving an additional sentence of federal probation, under which he will not be allowed to use a cell phone, computer or other digital device unless designated by the government. In addition, Sherman has been forbidden any contact with “anarchist groups,” who, the federal government maintains, “advocate violence as a means of disrupting order and achieving social, economic and political change.” A young Los Angeles webmaster, Sherman was sentenced to one year in prison in August 2003, after federal authorities raided his home on Jan. 24, 2002, when he was 18. Most of the contents of his room were confiscated, including his computer equipment and literature. Innocuous objects such as iced tea bottles and a toy car were described as terrorist devices by the FBI and a joint task force of police officers. Added to these spurious charges was the fact that rudimentary bomb making information was posted on his server, not by Sherman, but by a white Orange County teen who was not charged with a crime. To justify the raid, the FBI also used the testimony of a militia man who assisted them in their efforts to entrap Sherman. The Terrorism Enhancement Clauses enacted with the aid of Sen. Dianne Feinstein were interpreted by the prosecution to mean that Sherman would be forced to spend a mandatory 20 years in prison if he didn’t plead out to a year in prison and the extremely restrictive three years probation, which is now in effect. Sherman will remain in a halfway house until sometime in August when he can finally return home. His dynamic website, Raise the Fist, has been forced out of cyberspace by the authorities. For more info and to give much needed support, go to freesherman.org. Also visit www.indybay.org/police/ and http://la.indymedia.org/.
Before we know it, U.S. citizens will be nothing more than mere property of the state, to do with as they please...
when i read up on the martial law plan..(this seems like it's aiming toward the same goal ie. government turning on citizens.) they've already built a lot worse than prisons. they have camps...and there's a report documenting that theyre is already a list of the first 130 00 people assigned. but there's enough for much more.
Is this the HR 10 bill (the 9/11 commission bill?)? It sounds like it might be. This bill has provisions in it that would make it legal (although it's already been happening for quite a while now in secret) for us to send our SUSPECTS (even if the only proof they have is that a distant cousin has some link to terrorist activities, not that the SUSPECT themselves do) to countries that practice torture during interrogations and detainment in order for US to get information from them. Yeah...apparently they think that that's still ok, because as long as we're not technically doing it, just someone from some other country is (where we knowingly sent the suspect), then torture is ok or something :/. I don't know if this is the same bill. But regardless, the HR 10 bill is due to be voted on on Thursday I think. Everyone needs to check out my post here on the subject. I posted it there before I crossed over to actual membership and could post here. It's definitely worth a look. Good links. Credible links. Very informative links. Contact your representative about this. Tell them it will affect how you vote in the next elections. Get involved and try to change things man.
I was going to post about Sherman Austin, but it already was..... after he was arrested, the FBI hacked into raisethefist.org and posted that anybody who questions the government's actions is now considered a terrorist.... scary shit.
