Why Does the Right Hate America? Part III

Large Volume of F.B.I. Files Alarms U.S. Activist Groups - New York Times

(Parts I and II can be read here and here.)

The Bush administration is undertaking another incredible assault of American values. The specific values are rights guaranteed in the first ten amendments to the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights. Specifically, the administration is violating the following amendments with impunity:

1. Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

9. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

So, where are these violations taking place?

The F.B.I. has in its files 1,173 pages of internal documents on the American Civil Liberties Union, the leading critic of the Bush administration's antiterrorism policies, and 2,383 pages on Greenpeace, an environmental group that has led acts of civil disobedience in protest over the administration's policies, the Justice Department disclosed in a court filing this month in a federal court in Washington.

Look, Howie, Americans have the right to protest. In some cases, where opposition to war is motivated by religious belief, they have a moral obligation to protest. Protesters engaged in unlawful civil disobedience know what they're doing, and know the consequences. Americans have the right to speak out against immoral and inhumane policies, to organize against them, and to engage in protest. To engage in domestic espionage against Americans who believe, for instance, that the Bush administration knowingly and willfully fabricated false "evidence" to create a rationale for an invasion of Iraq--if true, a blatantly political and illegal act--is to politicize the Constitution, reserving its protections for only those sympathetic to the Bush administration's (and the PNAC's) global political and economic goals. It's unconstitutional at best and immoral at worst.

"I'm still somewhat shocked by the size of the file on us," said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the A.C.L.U. "Why would the F.B.I. collect almost 1,200 pages on a civil rights organization engaged in lawful activity? What justification could there be, other than political surveillance of lawful First Amendment activities?"

Like the Nixon administration before it (and Nixon was a martyred hero to people like Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the PNAC crew), the Bush administration is creating a political police force of the CIA and the FBI, undermining the Constitution and endangering the liberties of all Americans. Espionage is nothing less than illegal search of private behavior and illegal seizure of private thought, and--without due process of the law--subversive of the fourth amendment.

Protest groups charge that F.B.I. counterterrorism officials have used their expanded powers since the Sept. 11 attacks to blur the line between legitimate civil disobedience and violent or terrorist activity in what they liken to F.B.I. political surveillance of the 1960's. The debate became particularly heated during protests over the war in Iraq and the run-up to the Republican National Convention in New York City last year, with the disclosures that the F.B.I. had collected extensive information on plans for protests.

Many on the right (you listening, Howie?) will parrot once again the mindless mantra of "After 9/11 everything changed," and "It's a different and dangerous world and we can no longer cling to business as usual." The President has to have the power to fight terrorism. The President has certain powers enumerated in the War Powers Act and the USA Patriot Act which provide a legal basis for surveillance of "subversive" organizations.

BULLSHIT.

No laws can override Americans's Constitutionally guaranteed rights enshrined in the US Constitution. That's why the Bill of Rights is there. That's why these ten amendments were added to the Constitution. These rights cannot be voted away by a foolish majority (no matter how big or how small). Period. They are our sacred rights as Americans. They represent authentic American values. They put limitations on Government, especially on lying, empire-building administrators of Executive power. That's why the right hates the Bill of Rights.

That's why the right hates America.