In case you think of the so-called Patriot Act as being patriotic --

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Everthing you need to know about how the USA Patriot

Act...

 

This page contains the followign articles on The USA

Patriot Act:

1) How the Patriot Act Compares to the

Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act)

2) A 21st Century Comparison of The Enabling Act and

The Patriot Act

3) Ten Key Dangers of the Patriot Act

4) Bill Moyer's NOW Comments on the Patriot Act

5) The USA Patriot Act, A Legal Analysis by Charles

Doyle (link to PDA document)

 

Also: Read Alex Jones' breakdown of the USA Patriot

Act on the Rickie Lee Jones website CLICK HERE

 

1) How the Patriot Act Compares to Hitler's

Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act)

 

On March 23, 1933, the newly elected members of the

Reichstag met in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin to

consider passing Hitler's " Ermächtigungsgesetz " . The

" Enabling Act " was officially called the 'Law for

Removing the Distress of the People and the Reich.'

 

Opponents to the bill argued that if it was passed,

it would end democracy in Germany and establish a

legal dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. To soften

resistance to the passing of the Enabling Act, the

Nazis secretly caused confusion in order to create an

atmosphere in which the law seem necessary to restore

order.

 

On February 27, 1933, Nazis burned the Reichstag

building, and a seat of the German government, causing

frenzy and outrage. They successfully blamed the fire

on the Communists, and claimed it marked the beginning

of a widespread terrorism and unrest threatening the

safety of the German " Homeland. " On the day of the

vote, Nazi storm troopers gathered around the opera

house chanting, " Full powers - or else! We want the

bill - or fire and murder! "

 

The Nazis used the opportunity to arrest 4,000

communists. Not only did the Nazis use the incident as

a propaganda against communists but they also arrested

additional 40,000 members of the opposition.

Consequently, the Nazis had achieved their objective

of eliminating democracy and ensuring their majority

in the parliament.

 

After the fire on February 28, 1933, president

Hindenburg and Hitler invoked Article 48 of the Weimar

Constitution, which permitted the suspension of civil

liberties during national emergencies. Some examples

of this Decree of the Reich President for the

Protection of the People and State abrogated the

following constitutional protections: Freedom of the

press, free _expression of opinion, individual property

rights, right of assembly and association, right to

privacy of postal and electronic communications,

states´ rights of self-government, and protection

against unlawful searches and seizures.

 

Before the vote, Hitler made a speech to the

Reichstag in which he pledged to use restraint. He

also promised to end unemployment and promote

multilateral peace with France, Great Britain and the

Soviet Union.

 

In order to accomplish all this, Hitler said, he

first needed the Enabling Act. Since this act would

alter the German constitution, a two-thirds majority

was necessary. Hitler needed 31 non-Nazi votes to pass

it. The Center Party provided these votes after Hitler

made a false promise to them. Four hundred and forty

votes were registered for the Enabling Act, while a

mere 84 votes were opposed – the social Democrats. In

glory the Nazi Party stood to their feet and sang the

Nazi anthem, the Hörst Wessel song. The German

Democratic party had finally been eliminated, and

Hitler’s dream for Nazi command became closer to

reality.

 

The Enabling Act granted Hitler the power he craved

and could use without objection from the Reichstag.

Shortly after the passing of The Enabling Act all

other political parties were dissolved. Trade unions

were liquidated and opposition clergy were arrested.

The Nazi party had, as Hitler said, become the state.

By August 1934, Hitler became commander-in-chief of

the armed forces. This was in addition to being

President and Führer of the German Reich, to whom

every individual in the armed forces pledged

unconditional obedience. The Reichstag was no longer a

place for debate, but rather a cheering squad in favor

of whatever Hitler might say.

 

2) A 21st Century Comparison of The Enabling Act and

The Patriot Act

 

Last September, German Justice Minister Herta

Daeubler-Gmelin pointed out that George Bush is using

Iraq to distract the American public from his failed

domestic policies. She capped her statement by

reminding her audience: " That's a popular method. Even

Hitler did that. " What was lost in the reactions to

Ms. Daeubler-Gmelin's comments was that she wasn't

comparing Bush to the Hitler of the late 1930s and

early 1940s; but to the Hitler of the late 1920s and

early 1930s.

 

Most Americans have forgotten that Hitler came to

power legally. He and the Nazi Party were elected

democratically in a time of great national turmoil and

crisis. They themselves had done much to cause the

turmoil, of course, but that's what makes the Bush

comparison so compelling.

 

Similar to the Bush administration, the Nazis were

funded and ultimately ushered into power by wealthy

industrialists looking for government favors in the

form of tax breaks, big subsidies, and laws to weaken

the rights of workers. When the Reichstag (Germany's

Parliament building) was set ablaze in 1933 (probably

by Nazis), the Nazis framed their political rivals for

it. In the general panic that followed, the German

Parliament was purged of all left-wing representatives

who might be soft on communists and foreigners, and

the few who remained then VOTED to grant Chancellor

Hitler dictatorial powers. A long, hideous nightmare

had begun.

 

History teaches us that it is shockingly easy to

separate reasonable and intelligent people from their

rights. A legally elected leader and party can easily

manipulate national events to whip up fear, crucify

scapegoats, gag dissenters, and convince the masses

that their liberties must be suspended (temporarily,

of course) in the name of restoring order. Consider

the following two statements, and see if you can

identify the authors.

 

Statement Number One: " The people can always be

brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy.

All you have to do is tell them they are being

attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of

patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It

works the same way in any country. "

 

Statement Number Two: " To those who scare peace-loving

people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is

this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode

our national unity and diminish our resolve. "

 

The first statement is a quote from Hitler's right

hand man, Hermann Goering, explaining at his war

crimes trial how easily he and his fellow Nazis

hijacked Germany's democratic government. The second

statement is a quote from Bush's right hand man, John

Ashcroft, defending the Patriot Act and explaining why

dissent will no longer be tolerated in the age of

terrorism. If that doesn't send chills down your

spine, nothing will.

 

When the shooting started at Lexington Green in 1775,

those calling themselves patriots were the men and

women who refused to yield their rights to an

increasingly oppressive government. Today, according

to John Ashcroft and his Patriot Act of 2001, a

patriot is someone who kneels down in fear, and hands

over his or her rights to the government in the name

of fighting terrorism. Isn't the hypocrisy of this all

too obvious? The Bush administration wants us to fight

in Afghanistan, to fight in Iraq, and to fight

wherever terrorists may be hiding. And what, pray

tell, are we fighting for? Well, according to the

White House, we're fighting for freedom. Yet freedom

is exactly what the White House is demanding that we

now SURRENDER in the name of fighting terrorism.

 

So what's really going on? Well, it's all a lie, of

course. The Bush administration isn't any more

interested in protecting our freedom from terrorists

than Hitler was in protecting Germans from communists,

Jews, and all the other groups he scapegoated. The

Bush administration is fighting only to protect itself

and its corporate sponsors. It hides behind a veil of

national security and behind non-stop war headlines of

its own creation. And behind that smokescreen, Bush,

Inc. is pursuing Hitler’s old agenda from the 1920s

and 1930s: serving the interests of the corporate

industrialists who brought it to power.

 

There is a name for governments that serve the

interests of Big Business at the expense of their own

citizens: fascist. Here's a short list of the rights

we've already surrendered since the September 11

attacks. Most of these abuses are from a single piece

of legislation called the Patriot Act of 2001, which

was rushed through Congress with no debate in the

aftermath of the attacks. Many of the Congressmen who

voted for it later admitted that they hadn't even read

it at the time.

 

 

3) Ten Key Dangers of The Patriot Act

That Every American Should Know

 

No. 1: The government can conduct " sneak and peek "

searches in which agents enter your home or business

and search your belongings without informing you until

long after.

 

No. 2: Government agents can force libraries and

bookstores to hand over the titles of books that

you1ve purchased or borrowed and can demand the

identity of anyone who has purchased or borrowed

certain books. The government can also prosecute

libraries and bookstores for informing you that the

search occurred or even for informing you that an

inquiry was made. According to ACLU staff attorney

Jameel Jaffer, such " searches could extend to doctors

offices, banks and other institutions which, like

libraries, were previously off-limits under the law. "

Chris Finan, President of the American Booksellers

group adds: " The refusal of the Justice Department to

tell Congress how many times it has used its powers is

even more unsettling because it naturally leads to the

suspicion that it is using them a lot. "

 

No. 3: Federal agents are authorized to use hidden

devices to trace the telephone calls or emails of

people who are not even suspected of a crime. The FBI

is also permitted to use its Magic Lantern technology

to monitor everything you do on your

computer--recording not just the websites you visit

but EVERY SINGLE KEYSTROKE as well.

 

No. 4: Government agents are permitted to arrest and

detain individuals " suspected " of terrorist activities

and to hold them INDEFINITELY, WITHOUTCHARGE, and

WITHOUT an ATTORNEY. (That could be you or me for

sending or receiving this Email, by the way)

 

No. 5: Federal agents are permitted to conduct full

investigations of American citizens and permanent

legal residents simply because they have participated

in activities protected by the First Amendment, such

as writing a letter to the editor or attending a

peaceful rally.

 

No. 6: Law enforcement agents are permitted to listen

in on discussions between prisoners and their

attorneys, thus denying them their Constitutional

right to confidential legal counsel.

 

No. 7: Terrorism suspects may be tried in secret

military tribunals where defendants have no right to a

public trial, no right to trial by jury, no right to

confront the evidence, and no right to appeal to an

independent court. In short, the Constitution does not

apply.

 

No. 8: The CIA is granted authority to spy on American

citizens, a power that has previously been denied to

this international espionage organization.

 

No. 9: In addition to the Patriot Act, the Bush

administration has given us Operations TIPS, a

government program that encourages citizens to spy on

each other and to report their neighbors activities to

the authorities. It's EXACLTY the kind of thing for

which we used to fault East Germany and the Soviet

Union, and for which we currently fault Red China and

North Korea. Fortunately, Operation TIPS (or

AmeriSnitch, as it's known to its many detractors)

seems to have been recalled to the factory--at least

for now. (Incidentally, in a clever variation of

" two-can-play-at-that-game”, Brad Templeton has set up

a website at

http://www.all-the-other-names-were-taken.com/tipstips.html

where you can report people you suspect of being

informants for Operation TIPS. It's an interesting and

amusing site, well worth a look.)

 

No. 10: In the wake of Operation TIPS came something

even worse: Total Information Awareness. TIA is a

program of the Defense Department that when fully

operational will link commercial and government

databases so that the DOD can immediately put its

finger on any piece of information about you that it

wants. New York Times columnist William Safire writes:

" Every purchase you make with a credit card, every

magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription

you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send

or receive, every academic grade you receive, every

bank deposit you make, every trip you book and every

event you attend all these transactions and

communications will go into what the Defense

Department describes as a virtual, centralized grand

database. " And that's not all. Who did our president

appoint to head the TIA? Who gets to be Big Brother

himself? Why it's none other than John Poindexter, a

man convicted in 1990 on five counts of lying to

Congress, destroying official documents, and

obstructing congressional inquiries into the

Iran-contra affair. Another Hermann Goering, if there

ever was one.

 

 

4) BILL MOYERS' NOW COMMENTS On THE PATRIOT ACT

At the same time the Bush administration is probing

into your private life, it is shielding itself from

all public scrutiny. It has shredded the Freedom of

Information Act; it has locked away presidential

records not only of the current administration but of

administrations going all the way back to Reagan as

well; and it has even locked up George W. Bush's

gubernatorial records so that the people of Texas

can't see what he did to them while serving as their

governor.

 

Not surprisingly, the Bush administration is also

using anti-terror legislation and executive orders to

protect its corporate sponsors from scrutiny and from

prosecution. The drug company Eli Lilly, for instance,

was recently granted immunity from all cases brought

against it-–even those initiated long before the war

on terrorism--related to a vaccine it manufactured

that turned out to cause autism in many children. (Eli

Lilly contributed over $3 million in the last two

election campaigns.) The Bush administration also

protected the Bayer Corporation1s patent on the

antibiotic Cipro throughout the anthrax scare, whereas

other countries, such as Canada, broke that patent so

that other companies could make cheaper versions of

the drug in case of emergency.

 

It is interesting to note that during WWII Bayer was

part of the I.G. Farben conglomerate, the top

financial contributor to the Nazi Party. I.G. Farben

produced petrol and rubber for the Nazi war machine

and it manufactured the Zyklon B gas that was used to

exterminate millions of Jews and other " enemies of the

state. " In exchange for these services, the Nazis

provided Farben (and Bayer) with lucrative government

contracts and with slave labor from concentration

camps.

 

Under George W. Bush's kinder, gentler fascism, U.S.

corporations are now allowed to do business with the

Homeland Security Department even if they cheat the

government out of vast amounts of tax revenues by

setting up offshore business fronts in the Caribbean

Islands. It used to be that tax-evaders were tracked

down and punished. Now they're rewarded with fat

government contracts. Could the slave labor be far

behind?

 

If only this were the extent of the Bush

administration's ramble down the road to fascism. Way

back in November of 2001, William Safire accused the

Bush administration of " seizing dictatorial power. "

Well, Mr. Safire, you ain't seen nothing yet. Just

when you thought it couldn't get any worse, just when

you thought we can't lose any more of our liberties

and still call ourselves a " free society, " we learn

that the Bush administration wants to take away even

more of our rights. A secret document was just leaked

out of John Ashcroft's Justice Department and turned

over to the Center for Public Integrity. Titled the

Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, this

document turns out to be a draft of new anti-terrorism

legislation, a vastly more muscular sequel to Patriot

Act. If passed, it would grant the executive branch

sweeping new powers of domestic surveillance, and it

would eliminate most of the few remaining checks and

balances that protect us from tyranny.

 

It's the Patriot Act on steroids. Charles Lewis of the

Center for Public Integrity shared this document with

Bill Moyers, who examined it on NOW, his weekly PBS

program. That episode aired Friday, February 7, yet

even now no mainstream news broadcaster has picked up

this incredible story. Read the NOW transcript and see

the document itself online at http://www.pbs.org/now/.

You can also read the Center for Public Integrity's

analysis of the document at

http://www.publicintegrity.org/.

 

Dr. David Cole, a Law professor at Georgetown

University and author of Terrorism and the

Constitution assessed the document, saying, " I think

this is a quite radical proposal. It authorizes secret

arrests. It would give the Attorney General

essentially unchecked authority to deport anyone who

he thought was a danger to our economic interests. It

would strip citizenship from people for lawful

political associations. "

 

" Secret arrests”? Did we hear that right? It seems

that the Homeland Security Department (HSD) is about

to become the KGB. The first Patriot Act already

allows for people to be locked up indefinitely without

a lawyer and without being charged with a crime. If

Patriot Act II passes, then arrests would also be

secret. That means that dissenters (or anyone else,

for that matter) could disappear without a trace, just

as they did in Nazi Germany, in Stalinist Russia, and

in Pinochet's Chile.

 

Patriot Act II would also grant even more immunity to

Big Business. A corporation could pour toxins into

your local river, for instance, and you wouldn't know

about it until all the fish died and your neighbor’s

kids were born with missing limbs. And then when you

went to court and demanded to know what

 

the company was dumping in your river, the company

could deny you that information on the grounds that

it's a national security secret. JimHightower put it

this way: " All a company has to do to shield anything

it wants to keep from the public eye--say, an

embarrassing chemical spill--is give the documents to

the Homeland Security Department and call them

" critical infrastructure information. "

 

Ah, but there's even more to be concerned about here.

The document was created back in early January, but so

far it appears that the only members of Congress who

even know of its existence are House Speaker Dennis

Hastert and Vice-president Dick Cheney. (The

Vice-president presides over the Senate, which makes

him a member of the legislative branch as well as the

executive branch.) This raises a troubling question:

Why has the White House been sitting on this bill for

a month? If the CEOs down at Bush, Inc. really believe

that they need these broad new powers to protect us

from terrorists, why not roll out that bill and start

the debate? The answer is all too plain. In all

likelihood, the Bush administration was planning to

avoid debate entirely by springing this bill on the

American people in the midst of a perceived national

crisis. Perhaps during the war with Iraq, for

instance. Or perhaps in the aftermath of the next

terrorist attack. Or perhaps right after the Reichstag

fire.

 

Had some courageous soul not leaked this document out

of the Justice Department, the White House might

easily have succeeded in passing it through Congress

without debate in the midst of our next perceived

national crisis, much as it did with the first Patriot

Act in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. A

thorough debate of this bill right now, under fairly

stable circumstances, would defuse it and prevent its

passage even under more frightening circumstances

later on. There's just one problem. The debate can't

begin until more Americans know about this bill, but

so far the Washington Post is the only major news

outlet to even MENTION this story since Bill Moyers

broke it on Friday night.

 

Here's what you can do to help

First, forward this email to everyone you know.

Second, send an email to the Center for Public

Integrity and to the producers of NOW thanking them

for breaking this story. Here's a sample message that

you can use or modify:

 

I am writing to express my heartfelt thanks and

admiration to the Center for Public Integrity, to Bill

Moyers, to the producers of NOW, and especially to the

brave unnamed patriot who valued the Bill of Rights

over his or her own personal well-being and, at great

personal risk, leaked a draft of the Domestic Security

Enhancement Act of 2003 out of the Justice Department.

 

Sincerely,(Your name, city, and state.)

 

Center for Public Integity:

feedback.

NOW with Bill Moyers: now.

 

 

click here to read:

5) THE USA PATRIOT ACT

A Legal Analysis by Charles Doyle

Senior Specialist, American Law Division

published online as a PDA document

 

 

 

" When the power of love becomes stronger than the love of power, we will have

peace. "

Jimi Hendrix

 

http://www.lightmovie.com/thelight/TheLight.html