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New
U.S. Act Violates Basic Human Rights, Civil Liberties
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The
U.S. is to pass Patriot Act II to further violated human rights
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WASHINGTON,
February 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Sources with the
U.S. justice department leaked a draft law on espionage and
citizenship drawn up by Attorney General John Ashcroft to the human
rights organizations in the United States.
The
new bill will cut down or do away with the monitoring imposed on the
U.S. administration vis-à-vis the arrest and espionage operations
against “terror suspects” to the extent that it might strip
Americans of their citizenship, including those born in the U.S., if
they provided financial assistance to “terrorist” groups.
The
new law is entitled as “"Domestic Security Enhancement Act of
2003," or Patriot Act II, in indication to the USA Patriot Act I,
which was signed into law on Oct. 26, 2001 in the wake of the 9/11
attacks on the U.S.
The
act is expected to raise the ire of human rights and civil liberties
organizations in the U.S. given that the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) has set out a detailed analysis of the draft law and
highlighted the threats posed by it to civil liberties in the U.S.
The
ACLU further said that the new act, if adopted, would give free reign
to the Law Enforcement authorities in a myriad of cases.
The
proposed law would radically expand law enforcement and intelligence
gathering authority. It will permit the U.S. police to spy on
political and religious activities, the administration to eavesdrop on
citizens without getting security clearance and enhance death penalty.
Exceptional
Powers
The
U.S. - based Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)
said the new act would give the U.S. authorities unprecedented powers
and great leverage. It would also permits the following violations of
human rights and civil liberties in the U.S.:
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Increases
secret surveillance. The proposed act would create broad new
powers of surveillance by the Administration in accordance with
secret evidence. It would permit surveillance of the content of
home computers and multi-use handheld devices, and would permit
surveillance of banking and credit accounts.
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Increases
control over immigrants. The proposed act would expand the
control of the Justice Department over immigration matters,
including expedited deportation. It would criminalize many
regulatory violations and remove judicial discretion from some
immigration rulings.
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Names
new death penalty crimes. The proposed law would provide for
imposition of the death penalty for certain terrorism-related
crimes.
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Alters
procedure for taking away U.S. citizenship. The proposed act
would allow the government to strip a citizen of his or her
citizenship by government inference of intent to relinquish
citizenship, inference rising from behavior including fighting
with a hostile foreign government or terrorist organization, or
even engaging in lawful activities of a group designated as a
"terrorist organization" by the Attorney General.
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Establishes
new crimes, criminal procedures, and sanctions. The proposed
act would create new crimes, criminal procedures, and punishments
relating to non-violent activities that could be linked to
terrorism or groups deemed to be "terrorist groups" by
the Administration.
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Expanding
powers of Justice Department. The proposed act would expand
the Justice Department's subpoena power to include
"administrative subpoenas," issued without judicial
oversight.
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Grants
right to autopsy. The proposed act would give federal
officials power to order an autopsy without permission during a
federal criminal investigation if the death occurred from
terrorist attack or "other deadly crimes."
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Decreases
access to public information. The proposed act would restrict
public Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) access to public
information about those detained during terrorism investigations.
The proposed act would also prohibit disclosure of information by
witnesses and others subpoenaed in terrorism cases, transforming
these investigations from public to secret.
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Establishes
a new terrorist-related DNA database. The proposed act would
create a DNA database under Justice Department control. Anyone the
Administration suspects of association with terrorism would be
forced to contribute DNA samples.
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Allows
extradition without treaty and expanded deportation. The
proposed act would permit extradition of individuals to countries
with whom the U.S. has no extradition treaty. It would permit
deportation to any location deemed acceptable by the Attorney
General if deportation to the country of origin is
"impracticable, inadvisable, or impossible," even if the
destination's government is not recognized by the U.S. or it has
no government at all.
Targeting
Muslims
For
his part, Director General of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) Nihad Awad expressed his reservation on the idea of
the new bill, fearing that the Justice Department would
“rubber-stamp” this law as speedy as it did with the Patriot Act
I.
Awad
fears that the proposed act will not be analyzed and mulled properly
by the Congress or U.S. human rights watchdogs, particularly if the
U.S. attacked Iraq.
Awad
said Muslims in the U.S. are still suffering from the policies and
laws adopted by the U.S. administration in the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks, noting that hundreds of Muslims have been
arrested without hard evidence on their involvement in terrorist
activities.
The
Cair director also criticized the registration policy set up by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which is mainly
targeting Muslim and Arab immigrants in addition to the interviews
held by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with thousands of
new immigrants to the U.S.
Awad
said these practices make Muslims and Arabs feel that they are
discriminated against and targeted although they stand ready to
cooperate with Law Enforcement authorities, pointing out that these
measured did not really do much to the protection of the U.S. security
as much as they “down-trotted” the basis rights and liberties of
citizens and immigrants alike.
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