by Kevin McAbee
Technician (North Carolina State U.)
U-Wire
More people than you would expect may be listening to your conversations on the telephone. And I am not referring to your teenage brother or nosy roommate.
Now, the U.S. federal government may be listening in, making sure you aren't cooking up a batch of Anthrax or building a pipe bomb. They don't need proof you are a terrorist, they don't have to tell anyone about it and anything they hear is fair game for possible arrest.
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This is all true because, on Monday, a federal appeals court approved broader powers for secret wiretapping and e-mail reading for the American government. This ruling overturned another federal court's decision to prohibit these acts. In Tuesday's News & Observer, Attorney General John Ashcroft champions the ruling as a "victory for safety and the security of the American people." Whether you agree depends on your definition of security.
This ruling makes it much easier for the proverbial Big Brother government to eavesdrop on American citizens, and it is all done in the name of fighting terrorism. According to a Fox News article, the Justice Department says it needs this power to catch "multi-layer terror cells" through indirect criminal leads "seemingly unrelated to terror plots." This means that they can now use these wiretaps on people who are not suspected terrorists but rather only suspected criminals. They hope that surveillance on some suspected criminals could eventually lead them to terrorist factions.
How can such a blatant infringement of civil liberties be enacted? The answer is fear. When the USA Patriot Act was passed after Sept. 11, no one really battled over the specifics. What politician in his right mind would fight an anti-terrorism bill in wake of the attacks?
Now, John Ashcroft is using the Patriot Act as a means for achieving omnipotent governmental power. He is using the veil of terrorism to give law enforcement officers powers that have historically been deemed unconstitutional. Americans have the right to privacy. But this means nothing to Ashcroft -- he is after the terrorists. Get in his way, and you are just an unpatriotic terrorist sympathizer.
The power granted by this ruling basically states that all criminals may be tied to terrorists, so we need to eavesdrop on them. Most notably would be drug dealers and drug traffickers, who are painted as funding terrorist activity by many TV ads. This ruling allows Ashcroft to now wiretap these traffickers and use any information, whether terrorist or non-terrorist related, to incriminate them.
It is not hard to see that this ruling is more of a war-on-drugs tool than anything else. Ashcroft, using his veil of fear, has managed to indirectly assist his war on drugs with powers that would normally not be given to him.
Since the ruling, the FBI has doubled the number of lawyers whose sole job is to file wiretap applications. It seems Ashcroft is going to take full advantage of this power. Soon phones, e-mail accounts and all forms of communication will be open to law enforcement officials looking for the next al Qaeda attack. But no longer are they just looking at known terrorists, now they are looking at everyone they suspect of being a criminal.
Fox News reports that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had previously denied these rights. (This court was set up as non-public court, able to rule on matters of National Security.) However, an appeal by the Justice Department to a special three-judge panel resulted in the decision being overturned. Ronald Reagan appointed all three of the judges on the panel.
The American Civil Liberties Union, who battles against laws such as these, is not able to appeal this verdict. In fact, it seems no one can appeal this verdict. The special court is not open to public use, and the case had no defendant, as the Justice Department was the only party involved. Now that they have the ruling they desire, it seems no one can stop them. The ACLU may be able to bring criminal cases against the Justice Department for misuse of information, but until then, nothing will slow the process.
Be afraid, citizens; be very afraid. This is a grave omen for society.
Slowly, in the name of terror, our rights are being taken away. Anyone can be a suspected criminal -- you, your neighbor or even your grandma.
Unbeknownst to you, the FBI may be listening to you, waiting for you to admit the time when you ate your roommate's pizza and lied about it. Then they will bust in your door and cart you off to jail.
It may seem like an exaggeration, but that is the path we are on, friends. If no one steps up and protests, we could soon have another McCarthy era, where fear and finger-pointing rule. Let us stop the momentum before it reaches that point.
