| NORTHAMPTON, MA - August 26 - Attorney General John Ashcroft’s tour to correct ‘misinformation’ about the Patriot Act is raising more suspicions among Americans about what the Patriot Act actually does.
That is as it should be, according to Nancy Talanian, director of the Northampton, MA-based Bill of Rights Defense Committee. “It is Congress’s responsibility to write the laws and the Attorney General’s duty to enforce them. Members of Congress have invited Mr. Ashcroft to work with them to fix what many of them consider the Act’s flaws, but he has refused, so they are beginning to make changes without his participation.”
Talanian notes that in July Congressman Butch Otter (R-Idaho) sponsored an amendment that would deny funding for “sneak-and-peak” searches, which passed the House by a 309-118 bipartisan majority. H.R. 1157, the Freedom to Read Protection Act, sponsored by Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) now has 132 cosponsors, and several other bills are making their way through Congress. She notes that “instead of talking with lawmakers who are just as concerned as Mr. Ashcroft about protecting Americans from terrorism, Mr. Ashcroft is engaging in a series of ‘feel good’ speeches before law enforcement in closed-door sessions. It is not an effective use of Mr. Ashcroft’s time or the taxpayers’ money. We need an open, national debate to resolve the valid concerns of growing numbers of Americans and members of Congress about the Patriot Act and other regulations enacted since September 11, 2001.”
She notes that for “security reasons” the Justice Department has given the public only 24 hours notice of each scheduled appearance, yet even on short-notice, people have been on hand at each stop to show their displeasure at Mr. Ashcroft’s defense of a flawed product.
Talanian has watched concern about the Patriot Act grow from isolated handfuls of skeptics when the Bill of Rights Defense Committee formed in November 2001 to a broad-based movement that is uniting people from a broad range of political viewpoints. So far 154 municipalities and three states with a combined population of nearly 19 million people have passed resolutions condemning parts of the Patriot Act. Similar resolutions are in progress in hundreds of other cities and states. Many of the resolutions ask local law enforcement to respect rights threatened by the Patriot Act and other legislative and regulatory changes enacted since September 11, 2001. Her group’s web site, bordc.org, tracks the movement and provides information and tools to support local education about threats to civil liberties.
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee has found Mr. Ashcroft’s statements and the Justice Department’s website, www.lifeandliberty.gov, to be misleading. His speeches claim that “We have used these tools to prevent terrorists from unleashing more death and destruction on our soil” without offering proof that the Patriot Act has actually prevented any terrorist acts or that those terrorist acts could not have been prevented using the laws in place prior to the Patriot Act’s passage.
Likewise, the ‘lifeandliberty’ web page claims that the Patriot Act was passed “by overwhelming, bipartisan margins” and illustrates that fact with bar charts. However, it does not mention that many members of Congress have since raised concerns about the Act, which they had not had time to read before the vote was taken, nor that a huge majority of House members has voted to end funding for one of its provisions.
The “Congress Speaks” page relies on quotes dating from October 2001, when the Patriot Act was passed, to demonstrate Congress’s support, even though several of the quotes are from Senator Edwards (D-NC) and other members of Congress who have since been openly critical of the Patriot Act.
Talanian concludes, “Mr. Ashcroft should be pleased that so many Americans take the Constitution and the Bill of Rights seriously. He needs to respect their concerns and engage in an open, honest debate, for the good of our country.”
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