Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2003 06:30:07 -0800 (PST)
From: Maldoror <insektus-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: more info on the police state


check this shit out...

gr3g

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New US law to affect thousands of immigrants
By Anwar Iqbal

WASHINGTON, Feb 18: A new law, proposed by
Attorney-General John Ashcroft, could adversely affect
thousands of Pakistanis and other immigrants living in
the United States, including those who already have
acquired 
American citizenship.
The proposed law, entitled the Domestic Security
Enhancement Act of 2003, would allow authorities to
arbitrarily arrest American citizens, wiretap their
telephones, rescind their citizenship and send them
back to the countries of their origin.

 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says the
proposed law goes further than the US Patriot Act,
adopted after the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks "in
eroding checks and balances on presidential power
and contains a number of measures that are of
questionable effectiveness, but are sure to infringe
on civil liberties."

The justice department is refusing to comment on the
draft bill which  was first leaked by the
Washington-based Centre for Public Integrity. The
centre obtained a draft, dated Jan 9, of this
previously undisclosed
legislation, and is making it available in full text.

 A copy of the 120-page draft seen by Dawn contains
several provisions that human rights and civil
liberties groups find unacceptable. This proposed law
"would radically expand law enforcement and
intelligence
gathering, reduce or eliminate judicial oversight over
surveillance, authorize secret arrests, create a DNA
database based on unchecked executive suspicion,
create new death penalties, and even seek to take
American citizenship away from persons who belong to
or support
disfavoured political groups," says Dr David Cole, a
Georgetown University  Law professor and author of
"Terrorism and the Constitution".

ACLU legislative counsel Timothy H. Edgar says the
proposal threatens to fundamentally alter the
constitutional protections that allow citizens "to be
both safe and free."

The ACLU says Section 501 of the justice department
bill would allow  the government to strip citizenship
from any American who provides support for a group
designated by the federal government as a "terrorist
organization."

Other provisions in the bill include permitting
wiretapping of Americans for 15 days (Sections 103,
104) without a declaration of war by Congress if the
executive branch decides unilaterally that a potential
attack  has created an emergency. It would be the sole
discretion of the attorney general to allow the
wiretapping and would not need a court order to
authorize it.

 While the justice department would have to check in
with a judge after the 15 days, the information
gleaned during that period could still be retained and
used against an American citizen, the ACLU said.
The draft legislation also proposes statutory
authority for secretdetentions and the termination of
court-approved limits on police spying. "These
provisions are only a sampling of the civil liberties
concerns in
the attorney general's proposal," the ACLU said.


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"If the Nuremberg laws were applied today, then every Post-War American president would have to be hanged."          

-noam chomsky


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