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AMP Comment - December 15, 2007
Happy Bill of Rights Day:
December 15 marks the 216th anniversary
of the first ten amendments
By Abdus Sattar Ghazali
December 15 is Bill of Rights Day. It marks the 216th anniversary of the ratification of the first ten amendments to the Constitution. Unfortunately the anniversary is neglected by most Americans for its historical significance. Even worse, our government neglects the Bill of Rights by violating it on a day-to-day basis.
The Bill of Rights limits the power of the government and protects the rights of the people. It was so important that several of the original 13 states would not ratify the Constitution without it.
Nearly everything that makes an American proud to be one comes from the Bill of Rights. Freedoms to speak, print, read, assemble, pray, petition the government, keep and bear arms. Protection from unreasonable arrests and searches, excessive bail, double jeopardy, coerced confessions, cruel and unusual punishment. Rights to due process, jury trials, counsel, and to present defense witnesses. These are the freedoms and rights that define America.
The Bill of Rights was meant to ensure basic rights during times of war and times of peace, regardless of who is in power. In order to ensure its future, we must keep using the First Amendment and speaking out when our rights and the rights of non-citizens are threatened.
Seven years of President Bush have probably done more harm to the freedoms in the Bill of Rights than this country has seen in thirty, maybe even fifty years. Nearly everything the government does today is unconstitutional under the system they instituted. Under the Bill of Rights, governmental powers were expressly limited; individual liberties were not. Now it seems it is the other way around.
American Civil Liberty Union’s list of top abuses of power since 9/11 in the name of national security provides an insight into the Bills of Rights violations by the Bush administration:
1. Warrantless Wiretapping: In December 2005, the New York Times report shocked Americans to know that the National Security Agency was tapping into their telephone calls without a warrant, in violation of federal statutes and the Constitution. Furthermore, the agency had also gained direct access to the telecommunications infrastructure through some of America's largest companies. The program was confirmed by President Bush and other officials, who boldly insisted, that the program was legal. On December 12, 2007 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court rejected ACLU’s petition to release documents on the legal status of the government’s “war-on-terror” wiretap operations.
2. Torture, Kidnapping and Detention — In the years since 9/11, our government has illegally kidnapped, detained and tortured numerous prisoners. The government continues to claim that it has the power to designate anyone, including Americans as "enemy combatants" without charge. Since 2002, some "enemy combatants," have been held at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere, in some cases without access by the Red Cross.
3. The Growing Surveillance Society — In perhaps the greatest assault on the privacy of ordinary Americans, the country is undergoing a rapid expansion of data collection, storage, tracking, and mining. The FBI's Investigative Data Warehouse, as an example, has grown to over 560 million records. Over and above the invasion of privacy represented by any one specific program, a combination of new technologies, expanded government powers and expanded private-sector data collection efforts is creating a new “surveillance society” that is unlike anything Americans have seen before.
4. The Patriot Act Abuse— Several provisions of the Patriot Act were set to expire at the end of 2005 and, despite opposition from across the political spectrum and more than 400 community and state resolutions expressing concern about the Patriot Act, Congress reauthorized the law without reforming its most flawed provisions to bring these extraordinary powers back in line with the Constitution. Since then, the Justice Department's Inspector General found that the FBI has issued hundreds of thousands of national security letters, a majority against U.S. persons, and many without any connection to terrorism at all.
5. Government Secrecy — The Bush administration has been one of the most secretive and nontransparent in our history. The Freedom of Information Act has been weakened , the administration has led a campaign of reclassification, increased secrecy by federal agencies and has made sweeping claims of "state secrets" to stymie judicial review of many of its policies that infringe on civil liberties. It even refused to grant government investigators the security clearances they needed to investigate the illegal and unconstitutional NSA wiretapping program.
6. Political Spying — Government agencies — including the FBI and the Department of Defense — have conducted their own spying on innocent and law-abiding Americans. Through the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU learned the FBI had been consistently monitoring peaceful groups such Quakers, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Greenpeace, the Arab American Anti-Defamation Committee and, indeed, the ACLU itself.
7. Abuse of Material Witness Statute — In the days and weeks after 9/11, the government gathered and detained many people — mostly Muslims in the US — through the abuse of a narrow federal technicality that permits the arrest and brief detention of "material witnesses," or those who have important information about a crime. Most of those detained as material witnesses were never treated as witnesses to the crimes of 9/11, and though they were detained so that their testimony could be secured, in many cases, no effort was made to secure their testimony.
8. Attacks on Academic Freedom — The Bush administration has used a provision in the Patriot Act to engage in a policy of "censorship at the border" to keep scholars with perceived political views the administration does not like out of the United States. Additionally, government policies and practices have hampered academic freedom and scientific inquiry since 9/11, creating a system where science has come under siege.
If you are not convinced, here is another take on the looming violation of the Bill of Rights:
On October 23, the U.S. House of Representatives has quietly passed the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism (read Thought Crime) Prevention Act of 2007. The language in this bill is so vague it could mean anything. It could therefore be tailored to attack any group opposing national and international policies of the government.
Unfortunately this bill is likely to pass and be signed into law as it purports to be part of the response to 9/11 and the global war on terror. If this legislation becomes law, which is virtually certain, any dissenting anti-government action or opinion may henceforth be called "violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism" with stiff penalties for anyone convicted. In short dissent will be relabeled "homegrown terrorism"
In an America with a full respect for the Bill of Rights, there would be no Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, no Patriot Act, no secret searches, no spying on telecommunications without a warrant. There would be no torture in America’s "terrorist" dungeons.
The Bill of Rights is a major part of the "American way of life." America's civic holidays -- the Birthdays of Washington, Lincoln, and King, Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day -- all remind us of the special contributions and sacrifices made by our forefathers and leaders to preserve, protect, and extend our freedoms. Each of these civic holidays exists because someone cared enough to fight and die for our rights -- the rights contained in the Bill of Rights.
If the Bill of Rights is to regain its meaning, we must rededicate ourselves to the principles it asserts and be mindful that a government powerful enough to give us all we want is powerful enough to take away everything we have.
Let's celebrate December 15 as Bill of Rights Day, and declare our support for all of the Bill of Rights for all citizens. We owe it to our forefathers, and we owe it to our kids.
The Bill of Rights includes these Amendments:
Amendment 1- Freedom of speech, press and religion.
Amendment 2 - The right to bear arms.
Amendment 3- Protection of homeowners from quartering troops, except during war.
Amendment 4 - Rights and protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
Amendment 5 - Rights of due process of law, protection against double jeopardy, self incrimination.
Amendment 6 - Rights of a speedy trial by jury of peers and rights of accused.
Amendment 7 - Rights to trial by jury in civil cases.
Amendment 8 - Protection from cruel and unusual punishment, excessive bail.
Amendment 9 - Protection of rights not specified in the Bill of Rights.
Amendment 10 - States rights, power of the states.
Abdus Sattar Ghazali is the Executive Editor of the online magazine American Muslim Perspective: www.amperspective.com email: asghazali@gmail
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