WASHINGTON,
August 6 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - In a new legal
challenge to the controversial USA Patriot Act, a legal advocacy group
filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing the act is infringing on free
speech protections.
The
New York-based Centre of Constitutional Rights contends protests that
the Act outlaws "expert advice and assistance" to groups
labeled by the United States as terrorist, even if the assistance is
humanitarian in nature and has no connection to terrorism, the Washington
Post reported.
Granting
the FBI powers to secretly obtain a variety of information about
ordinary Americans, including medical records, reading habits, religious
affiliations and Internet surfing, the broad antiterrorism law came
under barrages of criticism from libertarians as a constitutional
threat.
The
plaintiffs argue that whatever links they might have with the groups
they are innocent and protected by the First Amendment, a view that has
been supported by previous federal court rulings focused on other
statutes.
"In
its rush to pass the Patriot Act just six weeks after the Sept. 11
attacks, Congress overlooked one of our most fundamental rights: the
right to express our political beliefs, even if they are
controversial," Nancy Chang, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, was
quoted by the Post as saying.
The
case involves American activists and aid workers with ties to Turkey's
Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam, both of which have been declared terrorist groups by Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell, said the Post.
Striking
Down Words
 |
|
Fertig
said the Act interferes with peacemaking efforts his group has
pursued with the PKK
|
Among
the plaintiffs are the Humanitarian Law Project and a Tamil-American
doctor that asked U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins to expand her 1999
permanent injunction striking down part of the Patriot Act's 1996
precursor, known as the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.
In
her 1999 order, Collins struck the terms "training" and
"personnel" from the definition of "material
support," finding they were unconstitutionally vague.
The
Los Angeles-based Humanitarian Law Project now wants the judge to strike
the words "expert advice and assistance"- a term that was
added to the definition of "material support" under the
Patriot Act.
Humanitarian
Law Project President Ralph Fertig was quoted by Reuters as saying the
Patriot Act provision is interfering with peacemaking efforts his group
has pursued with the Kurdistan Workers Party of Turkey (PKK), defined as
a terrorist group by U.S. officials.
The
filing, part of a long-running dispute between the center and the
federal government over the reach of antiterrorism policies, marks the
second time in a week that the Patriot Act has been the focus of a legal
challenge.
But
a new report by internal investigators at the Justice Department
published by the New York Times on July 21, identified
dozens of cases in which employees have been accused of serious civil
rights and civil liberties violations, with cases involving the
enforcement of the USA Patriot Act.
The
inspector general’s report said that from December 16 through June 15,
his office received 1,073 complaints "suggesting a Patriot
Act-related" abuse of civil rights or civil liberties.
The
report suggested that hundreds of the accusations were easily dismissed
as not credible or impossible to prove.
But
of the remainder, 272 were determined to fall within the inspector
general's jurisdiction, with 34 raising "credible Patriot Act
violations on their face."
The
report said that during the six-month period that ended on June 15, the
inspector general's office had received 34 complaints of civil rights
and civil liberties violations by department employees that it
considered credible, including accusations of beatings of Muslim and
Arab immigrants in federal detention centers.
