Dissent Is Patriotic
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee's e-mail newsletter
October 2006, Vol. 5, No. 6
In this issue:
- Picking up the Pieces After Congress’s Retreat
- Features: Military Tribunals, Torture, and Detainees; The House’s Surveillance Bill
- Take Action: Conference Calls to Organize Around Recent Legislation; Button Contest Winner
- New Resources: Questions for Candidates; Book Review: Enemy Combatant by Moazzam Begg
- Grassroots News: Corvallis, OR; Fort Collins, CO; Haines, AK; Kansas City, MO; Northampton and Springfield, MA; Portland, OR; Wichita Falls, TX
- News Briefs: U.S. Citizens Prohibited From Coming Home; Eugene, OR, Attorney Defends Activists; BORDC News
Please support our efforts to defend the Bill of Rights!
To contribute funds or stock online, go to http://www.bordc.org/donate.php,
or mail a check or money order to:
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Northampton, MA 01060
Picking up the Pieces After Congress’s Retreat
In its haste to hit the campaign trail, Congress shredded the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights and left the fundamental legal principle of habeas corpus and the Geneva Conventions battered in its wake.
In the Military Commissions Act, S. 3930, Congress defined and broadened the term "unlawful enemy combatants" (the formal name for President Bush’s "evil-doers") to include U.S. legal residents and U.S. citizens. Material support, such as a donation made years ago to an organization that the Administration later deemed a supporter of terrorism, can send U.S. citizens or residents to Guantánamo, with citizens alone eligible for habeas corpus. Green-card holders and other foreign nationals can languish in detention indefinitely. The measure passed in the Senate 65-34 and in the House 250-170. See how your senators and representatives voted here.
The remnants of our Fourth Amendment were saved by the bell as Congress put off final passage of a bill to legalize the President’s NSA warrantless wiretapping program until after the elections. The House passed Representative Heather Wilson’s bill, H.R. 5825, by a vote of 232-191. The vote followed a narrow defeat of a Democratic motion to offer a bipartisan substitute bill, 202-221. Had the Senate passed Senator Arlen Specter’s bill, S. 2453, which the White House favors, a conference committee would have been needed to work out the differences between the House and Senate versions. Congress will return to Washington on November 9 for a "lame duck" session, and the Senate may vote on an NSA bill as early as Monday, November 13.
How did we get here, and what can we do? For more than five years, we have all seen the Administration characterize measures that expand Executive Branch power as necessary to protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks, and those who oppose the measures as supporters of terrorism. But we know that those myths can only succeed if the public is ill-informed. Stories emerging about Administration failures to protect the country make this election season one of the best times in the last five years for us to make sure all our friends, families, and community members see how removing habeas corpus and other human rights protections for detainees makes the U.S. military and residents less safe, and how legalizing unchecked surveillance powers for the Administration puts our rights set forth in the Bill of Rights at risk.
This issue of Dissent Is Patriotic includes action suggestions, new resources and tools to help you, and inspiring stories of what your fellow defenders of liberty have been doing nationwide.
Features
Military Tribunals, Torture, and Detainees
"Innocent until proven guilty" has left the building with Congress’s passage last week of S. 3930, the Military Commissions Act, although the White House and congressional power brokers took care to give an illusion of fairness by modifying the word terrorist with "suspect." In the debate leading up to the Senate vote, circular reasoning gave senators cover to deny the age-old writ of habeas corpus to as many as 14,500 detainees who remain in U.S. custody around the world: The speeches went something like this: ‘The detainees don’t deserve habeas corpus because the President has designated them as unlawful enemy combatants.’
What it means. A vote in favor of the commissions bill signified Congress’s willingness to ignore the following:
- That the purpose of habeas corpus is to allow an impartial body to verify the correctness of the detention and treatment.
- That Moazzam Begg, the Uighers, and hundreds of other Guantánamo detainees who have been released were wrongly detained, and many more innocent men who remain there may never receive an unbiased review of the reasons for their detention.
- That Maher Arar and Khaled al-Masri are just two of potentially hundreds or thousands of innocent men whom our government has wrongly captured and subjected to detention and interrogation involving torture.
- That torture and other methods of coercion do not gather useful intelligence, according to U.S. military leaders and the FBI.
- That by enacting the Military Commissions Act, Congress not only failed to serve as a check on the Executive, but it became party to a cover-up of the Administration’s war crimes.
- And finally, that by denying detainees habeas corpus, allowing their testimony acquired via torture and other coercion methods to be used against them, and allowing the continued use of torture methods not specifically outlawed in the bill, Congress has made our country and members of its military less safe.
The ‘bright side.’ The Military Commissions Act has an enormous capacity to outrage millions of Americans who have previously taken our country’s commitment to the rule of law and our government’s lip-service to human rights for granted. It has struck to the heart of millions of people who have sat on the sidelines until now but who can no longer remain silent. Now is the time for existing and new community-based groups to enlist those people in a fight to save our Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the rule of law. An election year is the perfect time to remind our government representatives who seek reelection of their responsibility to the governed. For suggestions, see "What you can do" below.
For an expanded summary of this bill, read Rogue Regime Rides Roughshod over Human Rights by Hope Marston, BORDC’s West Region Organizer.
The House’s Surveillance Bill
It’s quite possible that House leadership rejected the White House’s preferred warrantless surveillance bill (Senate bill S. 2453, authored by Senator Arlen Specter) and held a vote on Rep. Heather Wilson’s bill (H.R. 5825) because Wilson is in a tough race for reelection in New Mexico. Such was the climate in Washington before the current campaign recess.
Majority Leader John Boehner further emphasized the political nature of the vote when he said, "The Democrats' irrational opposition to strong national security policies that help keep our nation secure should be of great concern to the American people.... To always have reasons why you just can't vote ‘yes,' I think speaks volumes when it comes to which party is better able and more willing to take on the terrorists and defeat them."
Rep. Wilson claims that her bill would place more restrictions on the Administration than Specter’s Senate bill. But Wilson’s Electronic Surveillance Modernization Act would repeal the requirement for a warrant to prevent the executive branch from riding roughshod over the Fourth Amendment. H.R. 5825 would:
- Create a loophole whereby surveillance of phone calls and emails to and from the United States would no longer require warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The Administration would be able to bypass the current requirements by claiming that the target of all such calls or emails is the party outside the U.S. No need for a warrant means no need to show probable cause or particularized suspicion in order to conduct surveillance of individuals or large groups of people in the U.S.
- Expand the definition of "agent of a foreign power" to apply to millions more people in the U.S. who are not U.S. persons. Those people and the people with whom they communicate could then be subjected to warrantless surveillance for up to one year.
- Expand the President’s ability to conduct warrantless surveillance in an emergency from the current FISA limit of 15 days following a declaration of war by Congress to up to 90 days after a terrorist attack, whether or not Congress has declared war, or whenever the President determines a threat of attack is imminent.
- Reduce congressional oversight by allowing the chairs of the Intelligence Committees to withhold from committee members the President’s reports on intelligence activities that are currently required by the Intelligence Oversight Act.
What you can do:
- Challenge your congressional representatives running for reelection of their records on protecting civil liberties and human rights. See the BORDC Voter Information Kit for voting records.
- Use the BORDC workshop and resources on building relationships with congressional aides and representatives to involve prominent people from your community in a campaign to give your representative and senators some backbone.
- Use the BORDC workshop and resources on holding editorial board meetings with local newspaper editors to educate them about the importance of checks and balances in the federal government. Work with them on editorials, and send the printed editorials to your congressional representatives.
- You can do the same with a letter to the editor campaign, following tips from this BORDC workshop.
- In composing your message, use resources available on our web site, including talking points, literature, resolutions, the truth behind Bush Administration myths, and a diagram of what calls are currently subject to FISA here: http://www.bordc.org/threats/spying.php.
- Start a campaign locally to pass a resolution to protect your community from unbridled executive power. Follow the models of Vermont and San Francisco, found on this BORDC resources page under the heading "Resolutions."
- Continue to call and fax senators to urge them not to pass Senator Specter’s White House-approved bill (S. 2453) to legalize and expand the President’s warrantless wiretapping program. Call 202-224-3121 (24 hours a day) or look up your senators and representative’s numbers: http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
- Distribute BORDC news alerts and newsletters to people around your community, and get others involved in working to protect our domestic freedoms, before they are gone!
- Form a Bill of Rights Defense Committee in your city, town or county. Contact Hope Marston if you live in the West or Paul DeMarco if you are in the East.
- Bring the reality of Guantánamo Bay prison to your community with a public reading of the play Guantánamo: ‘Honor Bound to Defend Freedom. Download the script and read our simple guide for putting on a staged reading here: http://www.bordc.org/grp. It may be easier than you think.
Take Action
Conference Calls to Organize Around Recent Legislation
Join other BORDC grassroots activists on Tuesday, Oct 10 for a conversation with one of the Guantánamo attorneys, Sabin Willett, and a strategy session about our local response to the recently passed Military Commissions Act (MCA) and the upcoming warrantless wiretapping bills. The call starts at 9 p.m. EDT (8 p.m. CDT, 7 p.m. MDT, 6 p.m. PDT, 5 p.m. AKDT, and 3 p.m. HDT). Sabin Willett is a Boston bankruptcy lawyer, who has spent the past several years as a Guantánamo attorney, helping to guarantee the essential right of habeas corpus for detainees. A similar call on October 5 featured Center for Constitutional Rights president Michael Ratner, who explained the key components of the MCA, some of which threaten U.S. residents.
The strategy portion of Thursday’s call yielded a range of organizing possibilities including: coordinated rallies on Veteran’s Day, passing local resolutions protecting habeas corpus, letter to the editor campaigns, and putting a local face on habeas corpus by gathering public statements from prominent local residents who may now be in jeopardy of being named "unlawful enemy combatants." If you’re not already engaged in local action, and want to start now, call or email our east region organizer Paul DeMarco (413-682-0110), or our west region organizer Hope Marston (541-683-1604) to get involved in this upcoming conference call, and to connect with other grassroots volunteers from around the country. BORDC activists have already shown that a small group of committed people can make a difference!
Button Contest Winner
We received more than 120 entries in our "warrantless wiretapping" button contest! Thank you to everyone who participated—we were very impressed with the submissions! The staff and board voted for the favorite slogan, and we are pleased to announce the winner: John Brown of Harrington Park, NJ. His entry, "Hang up, George, it's not your call!" will soon appear on our new button, which will be for sale on our website. Also coming soon--online ordering!
Resources
Questions for Candidates
There is still time to get involved this election season! Use our Voter Information Guide and our extensive library of sample questions to question candidates at town hall meetings, meet-the-candidate functions, or in-district meetings. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) recently issued an excellent set of questions on U.S. torture policy and practice, available here: http://www.nrcat.org/candidate_questions.aspx. You can also research the voting records of incumbents on our website to see where your lawmakers have come down on bills that affect our civil liberties. Consider using the guide in your community to organize and help others become well-informed voters!
Book Review: Enemy Combatant by Moazzam Begg
Enemy Combatant is the story of Moazzam Begg, a former detainee at Guantánamo Bay. No charges were ever brought against him, and no apologies were made for denying him his freedom for three and a half years. Begg was born in England to Pakistani parents. After being roughed up by racist hoodlums in Birmingham as a youth, Begg and other young men who were being profiled and beaten formed a gang to defend themselves. It was the beginning of an awakening in Begg that both his roots and his future would be found beyond the borders of England. He traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in the late 1990s as part of his self-discovery, and was caught up in the driftnet of men taken prisoner by the United States after September 11. Begg was first taken to Camp Rhino prison in Kandahar, and later transferred to Guantánamo. Left behind were his wife, three children and an aging father who fought for Begg’s release. Victoria Brittain, who used some of the correspondence between Begg and his father in her play Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom, co-wrote the book with Begg. Brittain elicited from Begg a personal story which reveals much about the huge gulf being created by the Bush Administration to excuse many U.S. behaviors in the "war on terrorism." Begg puts a human face on the many innocent people who have been falsely accused of being "the worst of the worst."
- Read an excerpt from Enemy Combatant
- Listen to an interview with Moazzam Begg on Democracy Now!
- Read a review of this book in NY Review of Books (Oct 5 edition)
Grassroots News
Corvallis, OR – The Benton County Bill of
Rights Defense Committee took their ironing board and cell phones
to the courthouse on Constitution Day (Sep 17), using the ironing
board as a portable table. They offered their cell phones to passersby,
to make calls to Oregon’s congressional delegation, to urge
them to vote against any legislation legalizing warrantless wiretapping.
Aleita Hass-Holcombe told us, "Quite a few folks took time to
come over and phone their Senators re: Specter’s S 2453 and
DeWine’s S 2544. Also calls to DeFazio or Hooley re: HR 5825
were made." For a listing of other Constitution Day events, see:
http://www.bordc.org/involved/events.php?e=2
Fort Collins, CO – Roger Dodds, from the Bill
of Rights Supporters of Fort Collins, has been busy at work dissecting
some of the easy avoidances from this recent Congressional session.
He uncovered a section in the Defense Appropriations bill (Section
1061 from the Senate-passed version of HR 5122), which would have
compelled the President to submit a report detailing the government’s
legal briefs on whether waterboarding, sleep deprivation, stress positions,
beatings, use of dogs, forced nakedness and use of extreme temperatures
constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. What
Roger found as he continued his research was how quickly this accountability
section slipped from the pages of the DOD Appropriations bill, to
be lost forever, even while senators like McCain, Graham and Warner
gave lip service to upholding human rights and human dignity in the
Military Commissions Act. The section was probably axed during the
conference committee that reconciled the bill between the two bodies
of Congress. While the press easily picked up on the personalities
and general debate about torture, Roger was combing through obscure
legislation, finding this small piece, which if passed, would have
compelled the Administration to release its legal determinations regarding
inhumane practices it has conducted in its co-called "war on
terror." Thank you to Roger for bringing issues like this to
light.
Haines, AK -- The Haines chapter of the Alaska Native
Brotherhood, Camp 5 met on September 30, and passed a resolution opposing
the NSA warrantless wiretapping, the suspension of habeas corpus,
and legislation creating a broad definition of "enemy combatant."
The resolution now proceeds to the Alaska Native Brotherhood Grand
Camp, which is meeting October 3-7 in Hoonah, AK. If passed by the
entire Brotherhood/Sisterhood, the resolution will be sent to Congress
and to the President, urging them to respect the U.S. system of checks
and balances. The
Haines ANB resolution can be found on the BORDC website. It was
modeled on the resolution
opposing NSA warrantless wiretapping that passed in San Francisco
earlier this year, and the American
Bar Association resolution passed in February.
Kansas City, MO – The Sanctuary for Freedom
Committee took advantage of a crowded city plaza on Sunday, Sep 24,
by chanting, holding signs, and passing out brochures about the threats
to civil liberties. The Plaza Art fair attracted ten blocks full of
residents, and Committee members capitalized on those crowds, using
improvised street theatre with a gagged Statue of Liberty to engage
them. In passing out brochures, Frank Neff had some good conversations
with art patrons, who agreed threats to our liberties are increasing.
Northampton and Springfield, MA – On Tuesday,
September 26, the Pioneer Valley Coalition Against Secrecy and Torture
(PVCAST) delivered petitions against torture and indefinite detention
to their representatives’ and senators’ offices. Afterwards
they held a demonstration in front of the Springfield Federal Building
in which they called for their Senators, John Kerry and Edward Kennedy,
to filibuster the Military Commissions bill. PVCAST, whose membership
includes founders of the Northampton BORDC, held a second demonstration
the following day in Northampton.
Portland, OR – The People for the American
Way and NW Constitution Rights Center are holding a public forum about
warrantless wiretapping on Thursday, October 12 at Lewis & Clark
College (Smith Memorial Student Union) at 7 p.m. BORDC West Region
Organizer Hope Marston will be one of the speakers, along with attorney
Steven Goldberg and law professor Dr. John Kroger. For more information,
contact Hope at hmarston@bordc.org
or 541-683-1604.
Wichita Falls, TX – Joy Parsons reports that
the Wichita Falls Bill of Rights Defense Committee has attended every
city council meeting since May, hoping that by continuing their public
education effort, the council will eventually realize there is widespread
support for a resolution there. Because the council sessions are televised,
they get the added benefit of having their 5-minute remarks to the
Council broadcast to the whole community—a free public forum.
The mayor told the group, "You’re a very committed bunch
of people," and they are!
This strategy of doing public education through public meetings has worked in other parts of the country. In Multnomah County, OR, Rights 101 purposely attended county commission meetings for nearly a year before requesting a resolution. In Coupeville, WA, Coupeville Peace and Reconciliation kept going back to their city council after being rebuffed, and on December 14, 2005, the residents' perseverance resulted in the passage of a Coupeville resolution—the 400th passed nationwide.
News Briefs
U.S. Citizens Prohibited From Coming Home
Two U.S. citizens, prohibited from entering the United States for the past five months were permitted to return October 1. Muhammad Ismail and his son Jaber intended to return to Lodi, CA, but were denied permission to fly home in April unless they were willing to be questioned and polygraphed by the FBI. The men refused. No charges have been filed against the Ismails. "I never imagined that the country I was born in would stop me from coming home for five months and separate me from my family, especially when I was not charged with a crime," said Jaber Ismail. The two men are uncle and cousin to Hamid Hayat, a Lodi man convicted in April of providing material support to terrorists. Questions about whether Hayat was railroaded into that conviction are compellingly raised by this LA Times report, based on interviews with an FBI agent who questioned Hayat.
Having a relative who’s been convicted of material support to terrorists should not alone prohibit a U.S. citizen from re-entering the country. It should not be reason enough to demand that anyone submit to questioning and polygraphs by the FBI in order to come home. But now that Congress has passed the Military Commissions Act, with language that gives a blank check to the government in naming enemy combatants based on material support, there are few if any safeguards available to any of us, and the Ismails' story of their five months in limbo serves as a cautionary tale for us all.
Eugene, OR, Attorney Defends Activists
Attorney Lauren Regan, from the Civil Liberties Defense Center, has been bringing local attention to the President’s warrantless wiretapping program through her defense of several environmental activists. Based on Regan’s defense motions at the end of August, federal judge Ann Aiken called upon the government to reveal whether it used warrantless wiretaps in making the case against several environmentalists charged with committing acts of sabotage in the Northwest between 1996 and 2001. For more, read the Willamette Week article.
The government was to have responded by September 12, but won an extension until November 3. Judge Aiken then set the hearing for November 9, the same day Congress reconvenes. Regan fully expects the government to claim "state secrets" to squash any revelation of warrantless wiretapping involvement in this case, as it has attempted to do in every other NSA spying case. Of the government’s characterization of environmental activists as "eco-terrorists," Regan says, "They’re looking at a mouse and calling it a rabid cougar. These are people accused of setting fire to a hay barn, they’re not charged with national or international terrorism. When the feds couldn’t catch bin Laden, a bunny-hugger seemed much easier to capture." She also mentioned that during the court cases' discovery process, she's learned of gross and blatant abuses against political activists. But because that information is under a protective order, she’s not able to release specifics. Regan hopes to be able to speak out about the government’s surveillance of political activists after the trial is over.
BORDC News
BORDC bids farewell to Linda Stone, who joined our staff last January as East Region Organizer. Linda assisted and advised community groups in the East and worked with Hope Marston, her West Region counterpart, to plan teleconference skill-building workshops and strategy meetings for local Bill of Rights Defense Committees. We wish Linda the best of luck in her endeavors.
The BORDC is pleased to welcome Paul DeMarco to our staff as Interim East Region Organizer. Paul holds a Juris Doctor along with a degree in public administration. As a Field Representative for a Service Employees International Union (SEIU) local, Paul represented five bargaining units totaling 2,000 members across Western Mass. Earlier, he worked in SEIU’s Public Division in Washington, DC, where he performed organizing and strategic research and created tools and information materials for the campaign. He has also been involved in numerous political and advocacy campaigns up and down the east coast.
Editor: Nancy Talanian, Director
Managing Editor: Meredith Gray, Administrator
Contributing Writers:
Hope Marston, West Region Organizer
Paul DeMarco, Interim East Region Organizer
Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Inc.
8 Bridge St., Suite A
Northampton, MA 01060
Web: http://www.bordc.org/
Email: info@bordc.org
Telephone: 413-582-0110
Fax: 413-582-0116
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