Bill of Rights Defense Campaign

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BORDC's Recommended Resources

The following documentaries, online videos, books, and plays address the USA PATRIOT Act, detention, and other threats to civil liberties, as well as the grassroots movement that has emerged to defend the Bill of Rights.

Documentaries

  • The FBI Unbound: How National Security Letters Violate Our Privacy by filmmaker Matt Ehling and the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. This 26-minute DVD explores the repercussions of the FBI's power to demand hundreds of thousands of Americans' private records without any oversight by a court or by Congress within the broader context of increasing unwarranted government spying and surveillance. For more information, or to order, click here.
  • Ghosts of Abu Ghraib by acclaimed filmmaker Rory Kennedy looks beyond the headlines to investigate the psychological and political context in which torture at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison occurred. How did torture become an accepted practice at Abu Ghraib? Did U.S. government policies make it possible? How much damage has the aftermath of Abu Ghraib had on America's credibility as a defender of freedom and human rights around the world?
  • Ransacking Liberty: A Special Report on the NSA and the Phone Companies In this 12-minute video, attorney and filmmaker Sanford Lewis outlines the known facts about the program and interviews BORDC Advisory Board member Christopher H. Pyle about what the program means for our democracy. Pyle, who blew the whistle on the FBI's Counterintelligence Program known as COINTELPRO, gives a historic perspective to the issue as well as evidence that the program is being used to prevent the media from talking with government whistleblowers, an application with troubling implications for a democracy.
  • Videoconference with Moazzam Begg A conversation about detainment, torture, and civil liberties, via videoconference from the U.K. with Moazzam Begg, author of Enemy Combatant: My Imprisonment at Guantánamo, Bagram, and Kandahar. Recorded November 12, 2006 at Mount Holyoke College.
  • Intent: Searching for Meaning in the Constitution. This film, made by Matt Ehling of ETS Pictures, probes issues such as warrantless wiretapping to conduct a modern study of the U.S. Constitution. Ehling is also a member of the Minnesota Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Others of his films include Taking Liberties, which examines the impact of four decades of national security on the Bill of Rights; Urban Warrior, about the militarization of local police; and Security and the Constitution, about the debate between national security and civil liberties. For more information, click here.
  • The Forest for the Trees by Bernadine Mellis. The Forest for the Trees is the story of the case of Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney. After a pipe bomb exploded in 1990 under Bari’s car seat, maiming her and injuring Cherney, the FBI ignored logic, leads, and evidence that could have led to the perpetrators and instead charged Bari and Cherney with the crime. In 2004, Mellis filmed, directed, and narrated the vibrant story of Bari, fellow activists, and Mellis' father, Dennis Cunningham, the lead attorney for Bari and Cherney as her Master’s thesis from Temple University. The award-winning, 57-minute documentary is available for purchase or rental from Bullfrog Films, with a special price for activists.
  • USA vs Al-Arian by Line Halvorsen. USA vs Al-Arian is a documentary film about the US government prosecution of Palestinian activist and former university professor Sami Al-Arian. Norwegian filmmaker Line Halvorsen followed the 2005 trial of Al-Arian using archival footage, interviews with Al-Arian, and extensive experiential footage of Al-Arian’s wife and children. The film is an inside look at a real family facing the political persecution of one of its members and the roller-coaster of anguish they go through—from the elation of Al-Arian being found not guilty to despair because the government continues to imprison him even after he made a plea bargain in order to return to his family. If you weren’t convinced before that the Bush Administration’s brand of justice is requiring innocent people to prove their innocence, this film will convince you that the presumption of innocence is no longer present in the US system of justice—at least not for lightening-rod individuals like Al-Arian. A Norweigan clip is available on YouTube. For information on purchase, click here.
  • The Road to Guantánamo. Michael Winterbottom's documentary/drama, The Road to Guantánamo, available on DVD, 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).
  • And Justice for All. This new documentary, and accompanying discussion guide, by Seattle filmmaker Sandi Cioffi is now available for purchase through Hate Free Zone Washington. It explores U.S. responses to September 11, their impact on immigrants, civil and human rights, and our character as a people. To purchase a copy of this important video, email info@hatefreezone.org. Copies are $15 each.
  • The Freedom Files. This series of short videos by the American Civil Liberties Union focuses on a variety of threats to our liberties, including the PATRIOT Act, REAL ID, immigrant rights, and racial profiling. Beyond the Patriot Act and Stop the Abuse of Power are two that portray post-9/11 Bill of Rights violations.
  • Cafe America. This video captures a satirical play, performed by the Sarasota Alliance for Voter Education (SAVE), that lampoons the so-called "USA PATRIOT Act," depicting an extreme example of its worst excesses. To order a copy in VHS or DVD, or for more information, email SAVE. You can also download the full script and consider putting on your own play!
  • THE COST OF FREEDOM - Civil Liberties, Security and the USA PATRIOT Act. This one-hour public television documentary by Iowa Public Television and The Duncan Group is currently showing nationwide. It looks at the history of civil liberties in America as well as the controversial USA PATRIOT Act. For more information and to order copies, visit DuncanEntertainment.com (DVD is $19.95 plus shipping; video is $14.95 plus shipping). Ask your PBS station to broadcast the documentary.
  • Persons of Interest. After the September 11th terrorist attacks, more than 5,000 Arab or Muslim immigrants were taken into custody by the U.S. Justice Department and held indefinitely on the grounds of national security. This documentary consists of a series of intimate encounters with 12 detainees and family members, in a bare room that functions variously as interrogation room, prison cell and home. In these encounters, detainees share their stories, show photographs, read letters written in jail, re-enact their prison experience -- even sing. For more information, visit First Run Icarus Films.
  • Reading Your Rights. This documentary on the Colorado Supreme Court case in which the Tattered Cover Book Store fought to protect reader privacy is now available for purchase on VHS and DVD. It was produced by The Just Media Fund and is being distributed by the American Booksellers for Freedom of Expression. To purchase copy, click here.
  • State Secrets: 9-11 and Civil Liberties. This documentary by Matt Ehling, which highlights civil libertarian concerns regarding the PATRIOT Act, changes to FBI investigative guidelines, the Bush administration's "enemy combatant" policy, and other post 9-11 security policies, is now available for community education efforts. The program provides a succinct analysis of these controversial powers, and reveals the historical back-story to these initiatives. Interviewees include Nancy Chang and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Law), Jonathan Turley (George Washington University), Tim Lynch (the CATO Institute), Elisa Massimino (Human Rights Now), Nat Hentoff (the Village Voice) and others. A transcript of this program, as well as more information, is available at www.etspictures.com. To purchase your own copy ($10), or borrow a copy ($4), send a check or money order to ETS Pictures, 2395 University Avenue West, Suite 312, St. Paul, Minnesota 55114.
  • Unconstitutional: The War on Civil Liberties is an hour-long Robert Greenwald presentation sponsored by the ACLU. It immediately grabs viewers with real-life stories of people affected by the Act and other administration policies and practices, from immigrants to protestors. It also explains how the USA PATRIOT Act was passed without markup or debate, and without having been read. It uses the resolution movement to illustrate public opposition, including an interview with Arcata (CA) city councilor Dave Meserve and footage of the 2002 vote of the Eugene City Council. To purchase a copy, click here.

Online Videos

Books

  • Less Safe, Less Free by David Cole and Jules Lobel critiques the Bush administration’s policies of preemption and preventive arrests and demonstrates how and why the policies are not making the U.S. and the world safer, but, in fact, less safe. The authors investigate the facts behind the administration’s rhetoric about its anti-terrorism record and its use of coercive interrogations to “save lives.” They quote law enforcement experts’ criticisms of the administration’s approaches. They also compare the drawbacks of the Bush administration’s approach to those of other governments that have dealt with terrorist attacks, such as the U.K., and offer an alternative strategy that would increase our safety and restore freedoms. The New Press, 2007. (Editor’s Note: David Cole serves on BORDC’s advisory board.)
  • From the Palmer Raids to the Patriot Act: A History of the Fight for Free Speech in America by Christopher M. Finan is a fascinating journey through denials of free speech, courageous fights, defeats and victories from the turn of the nineteenth century to the present, woven together by a master storyteller. Nearly a century of laws and policies from the Espionage Act to the PATRIOT Act test the mettle of a cast of hundreds, from Roger Baldwin to Bernie Sanders and countless unsung heroes and villains, who virtually come to life in honest portraiture to replay their historic roles in the endless struggle for free speech. Beacon Press, 2007. (Editor’s Note: Christopher Finan serves on BORDC’s advisory board.)
  • Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program by Stephen Grey details the beginnings of the CIA, its rapid expansion, and its ultimate collusion with foreign governments accused of torture and obtaining false confessions. Examined in great depth is the growth of the CIA’s rendition program in the years since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Sources for much of the information included in the book were released victims of the program including Maher Arar, Binyam Mohamed, Osama Nasr, and Khaled el Masri, as well as government officials from the U.S. and abroad. Frightening details emerge of how prisoners were tortured upon arrival at their ultimate destinations such as the infamous prison known as “the grave,” containing cells roughly the size of coffins. Information also surfaces about the complacency of U.S. allies in aiding in rendition of individuals to countries known for their torture of prisoners. St. Martin’s Press, 2006.
  • Founders V. Bush: A Comparison in Quotations of the Policies and Politics of the Founding Fathers and George W. Bush by Steve Coffman. One can tell much about the character of a society's political culture by analyzing its elites' political rhetoric. So suggests Steve Coffman's independently produced book, Founders V. Bush. Coffman offers a scathing indictment of the current administration through startling juxtapositions between what Bush officials have said about key topics in American political debate and what the “Founding Fathers” said about them. Unlike many other Bush quote books, the focus is not on today's executive officials’ loss of proficiency with the English language. Coffman's lesson is more serious -- that they have lost their commitment to the constitutional principles that are supposed to bind our country together. In Coffman's book, it is as though the spirit of Thomas Paine were returned from the Eighteenth Century to retort, “An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws.” For more info: www.foundersvbush.com. One World Studios, 2007.
  • Illusions of Security: Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post-9/11 World by Maureen Webb. Canadian human rights attorney and author Maureen Webb’s book begins at a rally for Maher Arar, where she and her children first encountered Maher Arar’s wife Monia Mazigh and their two young children. Her story sets forth clearly what happened to Arar during his custody with the CIA and later with his interrogators and torturers in Syria, and how a chance encounter with a “person of interest” led to his so-called “extraordinary rendition.” Throughout the book, Webb masterfully presents the concept of preemption; the laws and policies in the US, Canada, and elsewhere that allow global surveillance, giant data-mining programs, and interrelationships among government data, data aggregators such as ChoicePoint and Lexis-Nexis, and telecommunication and commercial records; the use of “risk assessment” in conjunction with those data; and what it means to our democracy. Recommended. Published in 2007 by City Lights.
  • View of list of books compiled by Sue Lyon.
  • Enemy Combatant by Moazzam Begg and Victoria Brittain. Detained at Guantánamo Bay for three and a half years, no charges were ever brought against him, and no apologies were made for denying him his freedom. Begg traveled from his native England 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." New Press, 2006. Read the 2/25/2006 Guardian article about the book.
  • How Would a Patriot Act? By Glenn Greenwald. In this book, constitutional law attorney Glenn Greenwald discusses the myriad abuses of power by the Bush administration and the underhanded diversion tactics used to advance its dishonest political agenda. It demonstrates how his becoming aware of the facts transformed him into a more politically conscious and active citizen. Greenwald raises the red flag, advising people that if they’re not concerned yet, they should be. Working Assets Publishing, 2006.
  • Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security. David Cole and James Dempsey, The New Press, fully revised and updated in 2006, with a new Foreword by Nancy Talanian, BORDC's Director, and Kit Gage, a member of BORDC's board of directors. (David Cole and James Dempsey serve on BORDC's advisory board.)
  • For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire by James Yee is the gripping personal story of a converted Muslim, West Point graduate and former Muslim Chaplain at Guantánamo Bay. Yee provides a rare, firsthand glimpse of the treatment that Guantánamo Bay detainees received while he was stationed there for ten months. Yee describes his arrest in September 2003, two days after receiving a glowing evaluation that recommended his immediate promotion, and his treatment during 76 days in solitary confinement. Yee was charged with espionage and threatened with the death penalty. Eventually all charges against Yee were dropped, and he left the Army with an honorable discharge, but without an apology from the Army for the harm caused to Yee’s personal and professional life. Public Affairs Books, 2005.
  • Rethinking the PATRIOT Act: Keeping America Safe and Free by Stephen J. Schulhofer explores the positive and negative effects of the law and concludes that many of its powers are too broad, threatening liberty and privacy, wasting effort, misdirecting resources, and misusing legitimately acquired information for illegitimate purposes. The author, who is a Law Professor at New York University Law School and former director of the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice at the University of Chicago, concludes the report by recommending changes that would address the secrecy and lack of accountability resulting from the PATRIOT Act. The report is a part of The Century Foundation’s Homeland Security Project. The Century Foundation Press, 2005.
  • No Greater Threat: America after September 11 and the Rise of a National Security State by C. William Michaels is now available in a second revised edition. Michaels provides a comprehensive review and analysis of the USA PATRIOT Act, as well as a description of the "12 common characteristics of a national security state," which he believes the United States is coming close to fulfilling. The new edition includes updates, expanded commentary and examinations of various anti-terrorism developments since 2002. Algora Publishing, 2005.
  • America's Disappeared: Secret Imprisonment, Detainees, and the "War on Terror," edited by Rachel Meeropol, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, documents abuses of human and constitutional rights through analysis and testimony related to Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, rendition, detentions during the 9/11 terrorism investigation, and detentions of U.S. citizen enemy combatants. Seven Stories Press, 2005.
  • Military Tribunals & Presidential Power, American Revolution to the War on Terrorism by Louis Fisher, traces the history of U.S. military justice, critiques specific military tribunals, and points to their potential danger to open government. University Press of Kansas, 2005.
  • No Place to Hide by Robert O'Harrow, Washington Post book review 2/20/05.
  • American Gulag: Inside U.S. Immigration Prisons by Mark Dow. In this book, Dow provides a startling look at immigration detention, a cruel and secretive prison system operating throughout the U.S. While such prisons have existed for over 2 decades, the number of daily detentions has risen from 5,532 in 1994 to over 23,000 in 2004! Through brief explanations of immigration laws and procedures as well as shocking and horrifying personal accounts of current and former prisoners, guards, and lawyers, Dow exposes the institutional as well as individual effects of this unconstitutional prison system. University of California Press, 2004.
  • The Assault on Free Speech, Public Assembly, and Dissent: A National Lawyers Guild Report on Government Violations of First Amendment Rights in the United States 2004 by Heidi Boghosian. The National Lawyers Guild analyzes how the Department of Justice reacts to and handles local police action regarding lawful public expressions of dissent and free speech. The report methodically evaluates the monitoring and punishment of dissenters, beginning prior to actual demonstrations and continuing through the end. Ultimately, the NLG concludes that instead of the protecting the First Amendment rights of U.S. citizens and prosecuting police abuses, the DOJ under Attorney General John Ashcroft has done just the opposite. The North River Press, 2004.
  • Guantanamo: What the World Should Know by Michael Ratner and Ellen Ray. In this new release, political journalist Ellen Ray interviews Michael Ratner, a human rights lawyer and the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which brought the U.S. Supreme Court case, Rasul v. Bush. Ratner clearly explains the laws pertaining to Guantanamo and gives a vivid picture of what is actually happening to the detainees. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2004.
  • Perilous Times: Free Speech in Wartime from the Sedition Act of 1798 to the War on Terrorism by Geoffrey R. Stone. Stone chronicles the history of free speech infringements during times of war in this new book, providing detailed accounts of each period of war or national crisis. He highlights legislation that affected the very notion of free speech, and evaluates America's history of pinning basic freedoms against national security. W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.
  • Torture and Truth, America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror by Mark Danner, contains a brief narrative about torture and how a democracy confronts or fails to confront its use, along with photographs, sworn statements of Abu Ghraib detainees, documents, and reports. New York Review of Books, 2004
  • The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Have Dismantled the Bill of Rights by Elaine Cassel. In her newest book, Elaine Cassel quickly lays out the laws and policy changes that affect civil liberties, illustrating each with stories of real people or groups who have been affected and of the popular resistance. She clearly articulates the Bill of Rights issues at stake, the major affects of legislation like the USA PATRIOT Act and the Homeland Security Act, various court cases and detentions, and action taken by groups working to defend the rights and freedoms of Americans. Each chapter is devoted to a specific issue, and the glossary provides a useful list of resources to keep the reader up to date on events surrounding civil liberties as they unfold in the future. Lawrence Hill Books/Independent Publishers Group, 2004.
  • The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance by Nat Hentoff, published in 2003 in hardcover, has been updated and expanded in a new paperback edition. Seven Stories Press, 2004. (See description below.)
  • Assessing the New Normal: Liberty and Security for the Post-September 11 United States. Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First), 2003.
  • Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism. David Cole, The New Press, 2003
  • Terrorism and Tyranny: Trampling Freedom, Justice, and Peace to Rid the World of Evil. James Bovard, Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
  • The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance. Nat Hentoff, Seven Stories Press, 2003.
  • Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-September 11 Anti-Terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties. Nancy Chang, Seven Stories press/Open Media, 2002.

Plays

  • Guantánamo: ‘Honor Bound to Defend Freedom,’ a play created from spoken evidence and letters from British detainees to their families. Learn more about the play and readings that are happening across the country.
  • The Bill of Rights and the USA PATRIOT Act, a play/street theater piece created by the Freedom Rousers. Read the script.
  • Café America, a short satirical play about the erosion of civil liberties. Read the script, or purchase a video or DVD of the Sarasota Alliance for Voter Education's performance.

 

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