Civil Liberties watch
"The Patriot Act wipes
out the rights I enjoyed."
Daniel Ellsberg, whose release
of the Pentagon paper's helped end the Vietnam War
"Congress passed ...
legislation between 1917 and 1919 to suppress all forms of dissent.
The Espionage Act of 1917
made it a crime punishable by a fine of $10,000 and 20 years in
jail to attempt to "convey false reports or false statements
with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the
military or naval forces of the United States or to promote the
success of its enemies...or attempt to cause insubordination,
disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal to duty."
The Sedition Act of 1918,
under the same penalties, made it illegal to "utter, print,
write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive
language about the form of government of the United States...or
any language intended to...encourage resistance to the United
States.""
Annie Zirin, International Socialist
Review
USA PATRIOT Act
""Antiterrorist"
has replaced "anticommunist" as the justification for
police spying and political repression."
International Socialist Review
"To those who scare peace-loving
people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your
tactics aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and
diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies,
and pause to America's friends."
Attorney General John Ashcroft,
Nov 2001
Homeland Security
Books
"Political freedom has
given way to guilt by association. Due process has given way to
detention on the Attorney General's say-so. Public scrutiny has
given way to secret detentions and secret trials. Equal protection
under law has given way to ethnic profiling."
The Nation magazine - about how
Sept.11 attack has allowed the government to take away Americans'
civil liberties
"If we want to limit terrorism's
appeal, we must keep our eyes and ears open to conditions abroad,
revise our perceptions of ourselves, and alter our world image
through our actions. There is nothing un-American about this...
Those who demand that we close ranks not only against murderers
but also against shocking opinions and emotions, against dissenters
at home and critics abroad, do a disservice to America."
Stanley Hoffman, American Prospect
magazine
Articles
The New McCarthyism
Democracy
and Society
Democracy in America
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