FORUM

Reichmarshall Hermann Goering of the Third Reich once said: “It is always a simple matter to drag the people along” to do “the bidding of the leaders,” regardless of the form of government. “All you have to do,” he said, “is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

Indeed, this strategy is working in the United States. Attorney General John Ashcroft painted the defenders of civil liberties as anti-American fear-mongerers when he said in December: “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. They give ammunition to America’s enemies and pause to America’s friends.”

This is the same John Ashcroft who rammed the “USA PATRIOT Act” through a timid Congress, urged federal agencies to resist Freedom of Information Act requests, and plans to engage in new COINTELPRO-style surveillance activities.

Ashcroft’s PATRIOT Act creates a new crime of domestic terrorism so broad it will cover civil disobedience and target environmental and anti-globalization activists. Representative Scott McInnis (R-CO) has already subpoenaed a spokesperson for Earth Liberation Front, which McInnis has dubbed an “eco-terrorist” organization, to appear before the House Subcommittee on Forests and Forest Health.

No wonder Ashcroft has instructed all federal agencies to resist Freedom of Information Act requests. The FOIA, enacted in 1974 in the wake of the Watergate scandal, is one of our most significant democratic reforms. It permits citizens to hold the government accountable by requesting and publicizing public records and documents. Pursuant to FOIA requests, the Charlotte Observer recently uncovered records detailing how the Duke Power Co. manipulated its books to avoid exceeding profit limits that would have mandated a rate cut, and USA Today exposed a widespread pattern of misconduct among the upper echelon of the National Guard, including the inflation of troop strength, misuse of taxpayer money, sexual harassment and the theft of life-insurance payments.

Ashcroft also seeks to resurrect the counterintelligence programs, known as COINTELPRO, which were responsible for intensive FBI surveillance in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. The spying, which targeted Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders, was so horrendous that Congress put a halt to it.

The new “patriotic” act will permit the government to spy on all of us more easily through its aptly named Carnivore surveillance system. Carnivore devours all of the communications flowing through an internet service provider’s network, not just those of the target of the surveillance.

In mid-December, the FBI announced it is developing another new internet spying software called “Magic Lantern.” It will surreptitiously enter an individual’s personal computer, record every keystroke and zap all of that data back to the G-men and G-women, in violation of the federal wiretapping statute and the Fourth Amendment.

Many people oppose the direction of the government’s war on terror, which, Vice President Dick Cheney warns, will last 50 years and extend to 50 or 60 countries. There is opposition to President George W. Bush’s request of an additional $48 billion to enhance an already engorged military budget, at the expense of social services. Yet many fear they will be harassed for speaking out against the government in this time of xenophobic flag-waving.

Those who seek to curb the excesses of governmental repression do so at great risk. Human rights activist Benjamin Prado, who tried to document the U.S. Border Patrol’s racial profiling on the San Diego Trolley, was savagely beaten, assaulted and detained by 12 Border Patrol agents for 25 hours with no charges, after his video camera was confiscated and destroyed.

Hundreds of other people of color, particularly those of Middle Eastern descent, are currently detained in U.S. prisons. Most, like Rabih Haddad, are suspected of no crime or connection to the events of September 11; yet they are being held incommunicado, in indefinite, preventative detention, in violation of the Constitution. In a recent letter, Haddad, a Lebanese immigrant who has been in custody for 76 days in Ann Arbor, Michigan, detailed his conditions of confinement. Strangely reminiscent of the prisoners in Guantanamo, he described his 6’ by 9’ solitary cell, the camera permanently fixed on him, his lack of exercise and “waves of cockroaches” in his cell at night.

Mr. Haddad’s story brings back memories of the excesses of our government during World War II, when it interned thousands of Japanese-Americans, in a shameful and racist overreaction. In a similar dragnet, federal agents have announced they will soon begin apprehending and interrogating thousands of Middle Eastern immigrants who have ignored deportation orders.

President Bush has accused the terrorists of attacking our democratic way of life. The foundation of a democracy is the right and duty to dissent against misconduct by governmental leaders. Dissent, also unpopular in the early stages of the Vietnam War, was later voiced by a majority of Americans.

We are responsible for the actions of our government. When it fails to act in a moral and lawful manner, we must speak out and educate our fellow citizens about the abuses. If we fail to dissent for fear of governmental retaliation, we will have confirmed the truth of Hermann Goering’s frightening prediction.

March 8, 2002

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Discussion

JURIST welcomes your reaction to our columns and op-eds...

• Monday March 11, 2002 at 12:58 pm
  Prof.Cohn calls for a dissent.People have to respond,she says,with a "timid Congress" around.The best means is dissent.Oppose injustice.Injustice takes several incarnations.State is one.State's actions offend individual's honour.State is deified.It is sacrilege to talk against it.Treason to organise against it.Not what the State can do for you,but what you can do for the State. If the above be the ground reality Rule of Law can take leave of us.Human Rights vanish.Recklessness can rule the roost.In India we had a period.The period of national emergency.From 1975June to 1977March we had a gagged press.Abuse of Human Rights.Excesses perpetrated.All in the name of the State.Democracy,monarchy,oligarchy, plutarchy, auotarchy- call it by any name. State is state.World is full of Benjamin Prados and Rabih Haddads.Your refuge is only in "xenophobic flag-waving". Brutus slain Caesar."Not that I loved Ceasar less, but that I loved Rome more"Now the number of those who "love Rome more " is increased.Modern State acts through a number of people. State's laws, policies, and programmes have not merely a strong-hold on the individual, rather a strangle-hold.Panacea is dissent.But do we dissent? Henry David Thoreau would revolt in his grave.The great philosopher said"That Government is best which governs least"And Thoreau dissented.He even faced "waves of cockroaches". While fighting terrorism State has become a master terrorist-Leviathan has started to devour the little man. The concluding para of Prof.Cohn is quintessential.I fully agree. We are responsible.We must dissent.Ordinary, right-thinking, individuals must have the power and grit to dissent.Call a spade a spade.You will be misunderstood. Yes only for a brief period.Emerson said, "to be great is to be misunderstood", in his essay on Self Reliance, quoting that Jesus was misunderstood, Martin Luther was misunderstood.The educated intelligentia should respond, without compromising the worth of Man or sacrificing the Unity of Society[Curtsey Jethro Brown]. Socretes dissented. He got Hemlock.Christ dissented.Got crucifixon.Martin Luther dissented. Got excommunication.MartinLuther King and Gandhiji dissented. Got bullets.But, because of them, we are.Globe needs a voice as that of the above mentioned.We have reached a situation best expressed in W.B.Yeats'Words,"Best lacks all conviction, And the worst is full of passionate intensity" We shall not be caved in easily.We will dissent, debate and defeat the demon of authoritarianism. Thank You,Prof.Cohn. DR.K.P.Kylasanatha Pillay, Advocate, High Court of Kerala, INDIA.
  
  DR.K.P.Kylasanatha Pillay
  Advocate, Kerala ,India.
  Kerala, India.

• Wednesday March 13, 2002 at 9:51 pm
  The need to be vigilant with regard to governmental power being exercised stands without question. However, due to the sophistication and determination of those foreigners who would do harm to the United States as a symbolic as well as literal act, social norms must be duly adjusted. I am a North American Mohawk tribal member and despite the use of many government tools that have been applied against my relatives, I stand behind the actions that have been taken since 9/11/01. I call for an internment relocation of all Muslims for that group's own safety. In doing so, a more confined intelligence network can be developed, maximizing that type of operation, as well as allaying the public fears that currently exist. I personally got along well with my foreign-born Muslim classmates from graduate library school, even defending them from systemic discrimination at one instance. I would now maintain a different approach, justified under national security. I desire no harm, to anyone, however, these are different times. If you appear to be Arabic, regardless of creed or nationality, you are profiled today by the American public that is mainstream. My suggestion works to subside those concerns and manage the matter more efficiently. Humanity is a two way street. I myself have been profiled by various people since 9/11/01. I still understand why, despite the feeling it leaves you with. The real debate is are we to sit and allow further infilitration and possible societal erosion by failing to act to maintain a way of life, or should the anger be harnessed and exported on the lines of a new Roman Empire? Lest we shout our voices until they are cracked, I suggest that the battles be picked that can be won, as far as activism goes. Current US prison populations could be emptied, including death rows, by sentence commutation so the prisoners could "volunteer" to serve as a an American foreign legion that could be airborne dropped on any country that is not abetting the US war on terrorism. As I have not seen such rhetoric as yet, count your blessings, Prof. Cohn.
  
  Charles J. Kader
  Iroquois Confederacy
  Pennsylvania / United States

• Monday March 25, 2002 at 1:44 pm
  Thank you Marjorie. Can you please reach Brooklyn College of Law and ask them not to defame Jane?
  
  Marci Hope
  TX/US

• Tuesday March 26, 2002 at 10:10 am
  An excellent series of articles.I`m an old WW2 ex-nationalist-turned Quaker pacifist.The U.S.wonders why so many others hate/fear us. We either deny or are ignorant of the hundreds of thousands of victims of atrocities committed by our surragates in Indonesia, Guatamala, Chile, Iran, and other countries over the years. But in addition to the terrorists who have killed thousands of people in the WTC bombing, I also blame the American people who because of misguided patriotism have turned a blind eye and deaf ear to our acts of state-sponsored terrorism.
  
  Gerald Kessler
  Practicing Quaker
  MD/USA

• Wednesday April 10, 2002 at 9:29 am
  thank you Marjorie Cohn. you have revived, to a degree, my faith in the intelectual community in the US. it is amazing how efficiently quickly america was transformed to a xenaphobic and antisemitic[towards arabs],whilst the academia did not utter meaningfull protests. i am saying all this as an israeli that faces a simmilar situation with seemingly better excuses for the academia, but they are not really good reasons.so thank you very much, i am forwarding your article onwards. ada ravon tel aviv
  
  ada ravon
  israel

• Tuesday April 23, 2002 at 10:42 pm
  I was watching booktv on cspan2. I can't remember which program, but there was a quote from Mr Republican of the 50s, Robert Taft, Senator from Ohio, that it is the responsibility of the opposition party in a democracy to question policies of the government regardless of the severity of any current crisis (synopsis). You might try to find the exact quote as it was much better than my rendition and worth citing in future papers.
  
  Joel A. Harrison, PhD, MPH
  California

• Saturday April 27, 2002 at 12:56 pm
  John Ashcroft makes my skin crawl. Great piece by Ms. Cohn. We need more people that will seek to hold our government accountable instead of blindly going along under the guise of being patriotic. I've learned over the past year or so to be extra viligant in standing up for myself instead of being a 'yes mam' follower of fanatical devotion that spurs the like of Hitler and Bin Laden.
  
  Chris Fortner
  Libertarian Party
  TN/United States

• Thursday May 09, 2002 at 10:05 pm
  I am doing an assignment on money laundering and the introduction of Patriotic Act. What I would like to know is a rough idea of whether majority of Americans are in support of Patriotic Act and if people of colour are the ones targeted especially middle eastern, is this racism of some sought?. And lastly, if there are any avenues that the citizens have of influencing the goverment to introuduce an alternative that would be fair to all citizens regardless to there background.
  
  Halima Ismail
  Student
  Australia

• Thursday May 09, 2002 at 10:05 pm
  I am doing an assignment on money laundering and the introduction of Patriotic Act. What I would like to know is a rough idea of whether majority of Americans are in support of Patriotic Act and if people of colour are the ones targeted especially middle eastern, is this racism of some sought?. And lastly, if there are any avenues that the citizens have of influencing the goverment to introuduce an alternative that would be fair to all citizens regardless to there background.
  
  Halima Ismail
  Student
  Australia

• Friday January 10, 2003 at 7:36 pm
  what can be done? there's a lot of talk but no one except "we the people congress" that's doing anything to stop this nonsence of government terrorism in this country. i guess there has to be a real plan and a strong leader. if i'm old now and would like to see a better america and future for my grand children. most people love this country that live here with only a few that try to harm or destroy america.
  
  p.a.
  e-burg, wa.

• Friday February 07, 2003 at 11:09 am
  Thankyou for your clearly written piece. It supports my current efforts of going up against our conservative local city council, as I am petitioning them to declare a resolution opposing military action against Iraq. To peace and truth! Hillary Dembroff
  
  Hillary Dembroff
  california/USA

• Monday April 07, 2003 at 7:46 pm
  Halima, I just came across this website and am unsure as to whether you will get this response, but I would like to answer as far as my opinion on money laundering and the introduction to the Patriotic Act. I don't know how most Americans feel, but I spent some time today reading this document. I don't see where it singles out any one race or color as far as taking action against anyone in the reference to financial laundering for terrorist support. This was designed in assisting in the fight against anyone who is deamed a terrorist. I also don't feel it's a war on the Islamic populous either. I lived in the Middle East for a couple years and the people I met were the most friendly and protective people I've ever met. They took me right in and made me feel like part of their family. I also know that not everone who lives in the Middle East is of Islamic faith, so I am a little upset at some of the steriotypical information that has been said since September 11 about this being a religious war. It has nothing to do with it. The people of both Pakistan and Iraq are being tortured and killed by their own government. It's no different than when Hitler was in power in Germany. For all of you Americans who are against our being in Iraq to help liberate their country from dictatorship and tyranny, just think of this. Your protests against President Bush and our military would be considered a sign of treason in most countries around this world. As stated by Eric Foner in "The Nation" on September 20, 2001 - "Patriotism means uncritical support of whatever actions the President deems appropriate." The Constitution states that treason is the act of anyone who gives aid and comfort to the enemy. You are giving comfort to the enemy every time you criticize the actions of this country in it's efforts to help free the Iraqi people from this regime. It doesn't matter what national background any one of us has, there are good and bad in every society. It's the natural balance, just as it is to have war and peace. Sometimes we have to do things to bring that balance back to order and this is one of those times.
  
  Heather Moon
  WA/USA

• Tuesday April 15, 2003 at 2:52 pm
  Heather, Eric Foner was using irony when he wrote the words you quote. He went on to write (without irony), "[A]t times of crisis the most patriotic act of all is the unyielding defense of civil liberties, the right to dissent and equality before the law for all Americans." Read the article: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011008&s=foner Lastly, if protest would be considered treason in other countries, so be it. That freedom to protest is what makes the U.S.A. a better nation than others, is it not?
  
  Dan B.
  MA

• Tuesday April 15, 2003 at 2:52 pm
  Heather, Eric Foner was using irony when he wrote the words you quote. He went on to write (without irony), "[A]t times of crisis the most patriotic act of all is the unyielding defense of civil liberties, the right to dissent and equality before the law for all Americans." Read the article: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011008&s=foner Lastly, if protest would be considered treason in other countries, so be it. That freedom to protest is what makes the U.S.A. a better nation than others, is it not?
  
  Dan B.
  MA