Dissent Is Patriotic
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee's e-mail newsletter
November 2006, Vol. 5, No. 7
In this issue:
- Features: Shifts & Changes After the Elections; From MCA to NSA: The Attacks On Our Constitution Continue
- Take Action: Bill of Rights Day / International Human Rights Day
- New Resources: The Road to Guantánamo on DVD; New BORDC Button Available
- Grassroots News
- News Briefs: CCR Files War Crimes Charges Against Rumsfeld; Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act; "Green Scare" Defendants Drop Request for NSA Surveillance Materials; Human Rights Abuse Database; Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift Ousted; Remembering Frank Dunham, Jr.
- BORDC News: East Region Organizer Job Opening; BORDC Welcomes New Board Member; Correction: Ben Franklin’s Birthday
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
Shifts & Changes After the Elections
The voters have spoken, and the majority wisely ignored political rhetoric claiming that only one party could be trusted to protect the U.S. from terrorist attacks. Several politicians who defeated incumbents have promised to reform the USA PATRIOT Act. Incoming Democratic Senator Jon Tester of Montana, who defeated incumbent Senator Conrad Burns, has promised voters that he will work for repeal of the PATRIOT Act.
The surprising election outcome ends a siege of more than five years, during which the Bush administration's friends in Congress went to extraordinary lengths to expand Executive Branch powers, to the people's detriment, and ignored abuses of those powers. We at the BORDC hope that the 110th Congress will provide a level playing field, where members of Congress vote for bills according to their merits rather than political pressures.
Local organizing and education by Bill of Rights Defense Committees and other coalitions have already laid the groundwork for restoring civil liberties protections in the new Congress. That work must continue, because we can be sure the politicians won't stop trying to exploit terrorism fears to justify current and future freedom-robbing laws and policies. Now, while the new majority in Congress is fine-tuning its agenda, is the time for delegations of constituents to meet with their newly elected members of Congress to suggest their own priorities. Objectives should include:
- Repeal all laws that make terrorists of people exercising First Amendment rights.
- Restore "innocent until proven guilty" (presumption of innocence) as a basic standard of law
- Restore individualized suspicion as a standard for searches and intrusions into private life.
- Restore court oversight over police and FBI searches, requiring warrants based on probable cause and individualized suspicion.
- Restore and codify Congressional oversight over the Executive Branch.
- Restore human rights codes, such as the Geneva Conventions, as guiding principles, eliminating any kind of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment as options under any conditions.
- Restore and strengthen the amendments of the Bill of Rights that have been most damaged by post-9/11 laws and policies.
Here are some more specific suggestions:
- PATRIOT Act: records searches without individualized suspicion, gag orders, FBI National Security Letters with no Congressional or Judicial oversight, and more.
- New PATRIOT Act sections added during reauthorization, such as the creation of a new police force to deal with protesters and the arrest zones at Presidential events.
- Attorney General Guidelines that allow the FBI to attend political and religious meetings without any suspicion of wrongdoing.
- Attorney General guidelines that weaken the Freedom of Information Act
- Military Commissions Act and Detainee Treatment Act: restore habeas corpus for all, take away president's right to name enemy combatants, end to Combat Status Review Tribunals—detainees should have a proper court hearing. Restore war crimes penalties for U.S. offenders and Geneva Conventions. Take power away from executive to interpret Geneva. Take away "conspiracy" as a war crimes charge.
- Reassert FISA for executive wiretapping.
- Enact legislation requiring the executive to submit signing statements for court review. Anything less makes laws enacted by Congress ambiguous.
- Overturn Executive Order 13233, which allows a former president to conceal presidential records from the public.
- Curb the CIA by prohibiting extraordinary rendition—shut down CIA prison sites and eliminate ability to have "ghost detainees."
- Create a process for the naming of an enemy combatant—a court procedure, not an executive determination. Allow enemy combatants to use the U.S. system of justice, or courts martial system.
When you meet with the new members, make sure they are aware of the civil liberties resolutions passed in their districts, and remind them and your senators and representatives who are returning to Congress how important it is that they work to restore civil liberties protections, block any attempts to further abridge our freedoms, investigate alleged abuses, and provide oversight.
For tips on building relationships with members of Congress, listen to streaming audio of BORDC's "Reclaiming the Message" workshop on the topic or download workshop materials here.
From MCA to NSA: The Attacks On Our Constitution Continue
Three weeks ago President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act (MCA) into law. This legislation will surely go down in history, alongside Executive Order 9066 and the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, as among the most odious laws ever enacted in this country.
The MCA retroactively legalizes the President’s policy of torturing detainees and allows the use of evidence gained by torture to be admitted into hearings of the Military Commissions.
The MCA also allows the President to name anyone as an “enemy combatant” and indefinitely detain them. It purportedly strips all but U.S. citizens—even legal U.S. residents—of the fundamental right to challenge their detention in court. Outgoing Republican Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Arlen Specter was correct when he stated that the legislation was “patently unconstitutional on its face." But it will take years to right this wrong in the courts. In the meantime the Bush Administration has wasted no time in pushing this unconstitutional law to the extreme, claiming that detainees have no rights to civilian lawyers and that U.S. residents living in the United States can be “whisked off” in the middle of the night and detained indefinitely with no access to the courts.
House
Roll Call Vote
Senate
Roll Call Vote
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who is expected to chair the Judiciary Committee in the 110th Congress, is reported to be drafting a bill that would restore habeas corpus rights for detainees whom President Bush names "enemy combatants." Read UPI article here.
Stop Warrantless Wiretapping Legislation
Legislation legalizing Bush’s domestic spying program, H.R. 5825, passed the House of Representatives just before the election recess. Passage of a comparable bill in the Senate would complete the legalization. Senate Democrats are united in their opposition to such a bill, but they will continue to be the minority party for the remainder of the 109th Congress Therefore, an attempt by Senate leadership to put out such a bill cannot be ruled out. There are three such bills: Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell’s S. 3931, Ohio Senator Mike DeWine’s S. 2455, and even California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s S. 3001 contain provisions that normalize the wiretapping that occurred outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and expand executive power, while failing to increase executive accountability.
Push for Telecom Accountability
Also threatening is the possibility that Congress will attach a provision to a must-pass bill that would let telecom corporations off the hook for illegally sharing private customer communications data with the NSA. Such a provision could be inserted into any piece of legislation, whether it’s related to domestic spying or not.
Two days after the election, an effort to sneak telecom immunity through by attaching it to the Port Security Bill failed. But there will be more opportunities before the lame-duck Congress adjourns in December.
Uncovering the role the telecom companies played in the domestic spying program is vitally important to hold the government and corporations accountable to the rule of law and to the American people. Over a dozen states have launched investigations into whether the telecoms violated state laws by passing on private customer data to the National Security Agency, and several independent lawsuits have been filed against the telecoms seeking to find out just what information has been illegally shared. A federal grant of immunity for the telecoms would shut down all these efforts to get at the truth.
What You Can Do: Call your senators (1-202-224-3121) and tell them to thoroughly investigate the domestic spying program before enacting any legislation. Ask them to allow the court processes involving telecom companies to continue unimpeded so that we can learn the truth about the extent to which our private phone calls have been compromised.
BORDC has created an action alert you can forward to allies, and talking points to help with the phone calls to Congress.
We need to stop any attempts to whitewash this government lawbreaking until the 109th Congress adjourns in December. (Note: Congress will recess for Thanksgiving on November 18 and will return on December 5.)
Bill of Rights Day / International Human Rights Day
Early December provides an opportunity to join with local allies to demand full human rights and Bill of Rights protections. It’s usually not a difficult task to ask your city council or county commission to pass a proclamation for either or both days, as Rainier, WA, Siskiyou County, CA, Tacoma, WA, and Tompkins County, NY have done.
Rainier WA: http://www.bordc.org/resources/rainier-borday-res.php
Tacoma, WA: http://www.bordc.org/resources/tacbord.php
Tompkins County, NY: http://www.bordc.org/resources/tompkinscty-borday-res.php
On Sunday, December 10, celebrate International Human Rights Day by joining with local allies to call for:
- repeal of all or part of the Military Commissions Act,
- an end to indefinite detention,
- an end to torture, and
- restoration of habeas corpus!
On Friday, December 15, celebrate Bill of Rights Day by joining with local allies to call for:
- the full restoration of the Bill of Rights,
- reform of the PATRIOT Act to comply fully with the Bill of Rights,
- end to warrantless wiretapping, and
- legislation to overturn arbitrary executive actions!
For more information about how you can get involved in International Human Rights Day and/or Bill of Rights Day, contact acting East Region organizer Paul DeMarco or West Region organizer Hope Marston. Or visit the BORDC web page.
The Road to Guantánamo on DVD
Michael Winterbottom's documentary/drama, The Road to Guantánamo, has been released on DVD in the U.S. The film focuses on the "Tipton Three," three British men of Pakistani descent who travel to Afghanistan and find themselves caught up in the turmoil resulting from American retaliation after 9/11. The men are captured and sent to the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where they are imprisoned for two years, interrogated, tortured and forced to submit to blatantly wrong confessions to being terrorists. The film played at several international film festivals before being released to theaters on a limited basis in the U.S. (95 minutes; rated R, available for $19.78 at Amazon.com).
Reviews of other films and books may be found at www.bordc.resources/recom-resources.php.
New BORDC Button Available
We're pleased to announce that our new "warrantless wiretapping" button is now available for purchase on our website. The slogan, "Hang up, George, it's not your call," was created by our recent contest winner--John Brown from Harrington Park, NJ. Order yours today!
Across the country, groups mobilized to raise public awareness about the passage of the Military Commissions Act and its implications for our most cherished rights. Some held marches and protests; others did public readings of Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom. For more information about local efforts on the MCA, see: http://www.bordc.org/threats/mca.php.
Austin, TX: On November 2, student activists gathered at the University of Texas campus dressed in orange jumpsuits and black hoods, and carrying signs with slogans such as “The War on Terror or the War on Freedom?” to protest the Military Commissions Act. Photos of the protest can be found here. The newly formed student group calls itself “Project for a New American Citizen,” a joint effort of libertarian and progressive students.
Brattleboro, VT: Activists organized two street protests against the Military Commissions Act in Brattleboro. They also took to the airwaves on a local radio station talk show to spread their message.
Carrboro and Durham, NC: Carrboro and Durham volunteers have been organizing with “NC Stop Torture Now” against extraordinary renditions at the Johnston County and Kingston airports in North Carolina where the CIA front company “Aero Contractors Ltd” is based. This company has been identified in the national media as flying detainees for the CIA to countries where interrogation routinely involves torture and abuse. The volunteers have also been setting up booths at fairs and other regional events to distribute flyers, sign people up and get the word out.
Chico, CA: The Chico Bill of Rights Defense Committee performed a reading of Guantanamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom on Veterans Day (Nov 11) to a crowd of about 65.
Grassroots organizers have been mobilizing 1000 Grandmothers to protest at the annual School of the Americas rally November 17-19 at Ft. Benning, GA. Using a folk song from songwriter Holly Near, the group envisions hundreds of grandmothers ...
"form[ing] a loving circle
Around the wounded wing
Then contain the brutal beasts of war
Sweet freedom songs they'll sing”
Columbia, SC: During the week that President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act, BORDC organizers in Columbia, SC, held a series of events to educate their community about the concentration camp known as Guantánamo. The events included:
- Showing of the film The Road to Guantánamo, followed by a discussion with the actors and director.
- Holding Constitutional Coffee Hour discussion at a local coffee house, and
- A presentation of Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom at the University of South Carolina.
Eugene, OR: A new student/community group has formed to protest and petition against the Military Commissions Act. Students have been collecting signatures and passing out flyers to raise awareness on campus since the MCA was signed into law. A rally and march is planned for Tuesday, November 14. A series of public forums will follow. Flyers and petitions can be found at: http://bordc.org/threats/mca.php.
Haines, AK: The Haines Borough (city and county governments combined) is being asked to consider a resolution opposing warrantless wiretapping and the Military Commissions Act.
Keene and Brighton, NY: Two groups of organizers are pressing ahead to get resolutions passed in their hometowns.
Middlebury, VT: When Supreme Court Chief Justice
John Roberts came to Middlebury College, BORDC activists were waiting
for him and posed questions about the recent legislative attacks on
the Bill of Rights.
Reno, NV: On Halloween, grassroots activists wore
the all-too-realistic costumes of the Bush Administration’s
“war on terror” to demonstrate torture, war and indefinite
detention. They carried signs saying, “Torture is Un-American,”
and chanted “Bush Supports Torture.”
Sacramento, CA: Veterans Day action at the State Capitol drew at least fifty people to protest the passage of the Military Commissions Act. For more information on this action and other Veterans Day actions, see: http://bordc.org/involved/vetsday.php
Siskiyou County, CA: A resolution naming December 15 Bill of Rights Day passed on November 7. Gary Salamone, a news editor who suggested the resolution to the county said, “I think that Bill of Rights Day presents a golden opportunity to convince citizens to re-commit to America's Constitutional rights and guaranties of individual liberties. Such a campaign gives no offense, and no one can legitimately take offense at its purpose of encouraging a personal reading of the U.S. Constitution/Bill of Rights and a faithful adherence to the supreme law of our land.” For more information about organizing around Bill of Rights Day and International Human Rights Day (Dec. 15 and Dec. 10), see article above.
Wichita Falls, TX: "Freedom Week”—November 6 to 11 in Texas—created an opportunity for the Wichita Falls Bill of Rights Defense Committee to partner with schools and the local newspaper to increase Bill of Rights awareness throughout the community. The Times Record News is offering cash prizes for the winning public service announcements, editorials, and letters to the editor written by students in middle school through high school. The Wichita Falls BORDC members will choose a committee to judge winning entries. Prizes will be presented at a November meeting of the Wichita Falls City Council, and the winning entries will be published in the newspaper and run on local television.
CCR Files War Crimes Charges Against Rumsfeld
On the heels of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is moving to the next step: criminal prosecution of high-ranking U.S. officials for their war crimes during the “war on terror.” CCR filed a criminal complaint on November 14 with the German Federal Prosecutor’s office, requesting investigation of 12 cases of torture—11 from Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib and one from a Guantánamo Bay detainee.
The complaint names a dozen U.S. officials: Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former CIA chief George Tenet, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, Department of Defense General Counsel William Haynes II (a current nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit), Major General Geoffrey Miller (who bridged the torture gap between Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib), and others. The full list is available here.
Because the Code of Crimes against International Law (CCIL) enables German courts to provide “universal jurisdiction” for war crimes, and because the U.S. has refused to join the International Criminal Court, Germany is the only country that can bring high-ranking U.S. officials to justice for crimes committed against victims of U.S. abuse and torture. The complaint was triggered by the passage of the Military Commissions Act, which immunizes U.S. war criminals in the “war on terror.”
Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act
On November 13, the House passed the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) as part of a list of “non-controversial” bills that will be voted up or down in one bundle. The bill is considered a threat to activists, because it expands the definition of terrorist, and could impinge on First Amendment activities. Heidi Boghosian, director of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), said the bill "sets a dangerous precedent for going after people based on the content of their speech." NLG President Marjorie Cohn said, “The AETA could lead to the prosecution of undercover investigators, whistle-blowers and other activists as ‘terrorists.’” The Senate unanimously passed its version of the bill in September so if the House votes “aye” on its "suspension calendar," the AETA will become law.
What you can do: Contact your Congressional representative at 202-224-3121 and ask that she or he vote no on the “suspension calendar”—which is the bundle of bills which will be presented to the House of Representatives for an up or down vote. Tell your representative the “suspension calendar” contains a toxic bill which interferes with First Amendment rights.
"Green Scare" Defendants Drop Request for NSA Surveillance Materials
The four remaining non-cooperating defendants in the Oregon "Green Scare" case changed their pleas and agreed to drop their request for production of NSA surveillance materials and data. The four defendants believed that information obtained through NSA warrantless wiretapping had been used by prosecutors to build the case against them, but on November 8, they made a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, agreeing to accept responsibility for their own roles in environmentally-motivated crimes, provided they are not required to provide information or testify against anyone else now or in the future. Attorney Lauren Regan, of the Eugene, OR, Civil Liberties Defense Center, was interviewed about the case by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.
Human Rights Abuse Database
The human toll in the so-called “war on terror” has a much broader reach than the deaths of those who have died in Afghanistan and Iraq, the tortures, indefinite detentions and extraordinary renditions. The U.S. government is also responsible for human rights abuses throughout the U.S. You’ll recognize some of these from your own community, yet others you may never have heard about before. They are all connected by a single thread— repressive U.S. policies since 9/11. The Bill of Rights Defense Committee has been creating a Human Rights Abuse Database, with the stories of hundreds of individuals whose lives have been harshly affected or ruined entirely by U.S. government policies since 9/11.
The BORDC searchable Human Rights Abuse Database (HRAD) will be available in 2007. Until then, we plan to highlight one story per month in our newsletter. The following report comes to us via Katherine Hughes, a volunteer who has spent countless hours working to free Dr. Rafil Dhafir, a Muslim medical doctor living in New York who was arrested after creating a charity, “Help the Needy,” to distribute materials to relief networks in Iraq. Here is Katherine’s brief story about Dr. Dhafir. More can be found on her web site.
Target: Help the Needy
Dr. Rafil A. Dhafir, a man of Iraqi descent and Muslim faith, was arrested on February 26, 2003 as part of the "war on terror." Despite finally being charged with only white-collar crimes, he was held without bail for 31 months and then sentenced to 22 years in jail. Denial of bail restricted access to his counsel, and this seriously hampered his ability to prepare for his defense. He was also denied access to his own records.
An oncologist, and founder of the charity Help the Needy (HTN), he has been a U.S. citizen for 30 years. He was a vociferous critic of the government policy of sanctions that killed half a million children under the age of five, and of the depleted uranium munitions that caused cancer rates in Iraq to skyrocket.
Seven government agencies investigated Dhafir for 5 years. He was arrested with other HTN associates in a high profile operation on February 26, 2003, just weeks before the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Eighty-five government agents spent the day at Dhafir's house. Simultaneous to the arrests, between the hours of 6:00 and 10:00 a.m., 150 Muslim families who had donated to HTN were interrogated. This was one of the largest federal interrogations of Muslims in the United States and had a chilling effect on the local Muslim community.
A Muslim of Arab descent, Dhafir is the only person to face criminal charges for violation of the sanctions. Comparable violations have been addressed through civil fines.
Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift Ousted
Two weeks after Lieutenant Commander Charles Swift won a favorable ruling from the Supreme Court on behalf of his client, Hamdan, in the case Hamdan v Rumsfeld, he was notified that he would not be receiving a promotion. According to the military’s “up or out” policy, Swift is therefore on his way out. Swift's professional skills have never been in doubt, so his dismissal is clearly retaliation for his success in the landmark Supreme Court case. As one of the "best and the brightest," according to a 2004 Esquire Magazine article about him by that title, Swift will no doubt easily find a job at one the top law firms. In 2005, the National Law Journal named Swift the runner up “Lawyer of the Year.” In 2006 the journal listed him among "the 100 most influential lawyers in America."
At Swift's first meeting with Hamdan, his client at Guantánamo Bay, Hamdan told Swift that the guards had told him "There is no law here." Swift set out to prove the guards were wrong, and he took the case all the way to the Supreme Court and won. Sadly, Congress's passage of the Military Commissions Act has made all U.S. detention centers, including the Guantánamo Bay prison "law-free zones."
Remembering Frank Dunham, Jr.
Frank Dunham, Jr., died on November 6, 2006, of brain cancer. Mr. Dunham served as Zacarias Moussaoui’s court-appointed public defender. Civil libertarians will remember Frank Dunham best for his defense of Yasser Esam Hamdi, a U.S. citizen whom the Bush Administration held as an “enemy combatant.”
Mr. Dunham personally argued and won Hamdi’s case before the Supreme Court. The Court’s ruling was a stinging rebuke of the Bush administration’s claim that it could detain Hamdi indefinitely with no access to an attorney and no review by the courts. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing for the plurality in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, said, "We have long since made clear that a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens."
East Region Organizer Job Opening
BORDC is hiring a new East Region Organizer to work from our Northampton, MA office. The East Region Organizer provides technical assistance, including guidance, advice, networking, and other support to BORDC’s constituencies—civil liberties activists and organizations in the eastern half of the United States (east of the Mississippi River). Click here to view a complete job description. Application deadline is Monday, November 20.
BORDC Welcomes New Board Member
The BORDC is pleased to announce the election of Allen Davis to our board of directors. Allen is the executive director of the Greenfield Community College Foundation in Greenfield, Massachusetts. He was elected at the board's annual meeting in October.
Correction: Ben Franklin’s Birthday
On October 13, we mentioned in our Action Alert (Take Action Tuesday as Pres. Bush Signs Military Commission Act) that the date of the signing, October 17, was the day after Ben Franklin's 300th birthday. We goofed, and we're sorry. Franklin was born January 17, 1706.
Editor: Nancy Talanian, Director
Managing Editor: Meredith Gray, Administrator
Contributing Writers:
Hope Marston, West Region Organizer
Paul DeMarco, Interim East Region Organizer
Katherine Hughes, Justice
for Dhafir
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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