[IP] Land Mine in Patriot Act Provision
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Subject: [Clips] Land Mine in Patriot Act Provision
Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 18:30:13 -0800 (PST)
From: Gregory Hicks <ghicks@xxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: Gregory Hicks <ghicks@xxxxxxxx>
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CC: ghicks@xxxxxxxxxxx
Dave:
For IP if you wish...
<http://newsmax.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?s=pf&page=http://newsmax
.com/archives/articles/2006/1/26/101607.shtml>
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Land Mine in Patriot Act Provision
Paul Craig Roberts
Thursday, Jan. 26, 2006
A provision in the "Patriot Act" creates a new federal police force
with power to violate the Bill of Rights. You might think that this
cannot be true, as you have not read about it in newspapers or heard it
discussed by talking heads on TV. However, it is a looming reality.
Go to House Report 109-333 - "USA PATRIOT Improvement and
Reauthorization Act of 2005," and check it out for yourself.
Sec. 605 states the following:
"There is hereby created and established a permanent police force,
to be known as the 'United States Secret Service Uniformed
Division.'"
This new federal police force is "subject to the supervision of the
secretary of homeland security."
The new police are empowered to "make arrests without warrant for any
offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for
any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have
reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has
committed or is committing such felony."
The new police are assigned a variety of jurisdictions, including "an
event designated under Section 3056(e) of Title 18 as a special event
of national significance," or SENS.
"A special event of national significance" is neither defined nor does
it require the presence of a "protected person" such as the president
in order to trigger it. Thus, the administration, and perhaps the
police themselves, can place the SENS designation on any event.
Once a SENS designation is placed on an event, the new federal police
are empowered to keep out and to arrest people at their discretion.
The language conveys enormous discretionary and arbitrary powers. What
is "an offense against the United States"? What are "reasonable
grounds"?
You can bet that the Alito-Roberts court will rule that it is whatever
the executive branch says.
The obvious purpose of the act is to prevent demonstrations at
Bush-Cheney events. However, nothing in the language limits the police
powers from being used only in this way.
Like every law in the United States, this law also will be expansively
interpreted and abused. It has dire implications for freedom of
association and First Amendment rights. We can take for granted that
the new federal police will be used to suppress dissent and break up
opposition. The Brownshirts are now arming themselves with a Gestapo.
Many naive Americans will write to me to explain that this new
provision in the reauthorization of the "Patriot Act" is necessary to
protect the president and other high officials from terrorists or from
harm at the hands of angry demonstrators, "No one else will have
anything to fear." Some will accuse me of being an alarmist, and others
will say that it is unpatriotic to doubt the law's good intentions.
Americans will write such nonsense despite the fact that the president
and foreign dignitaries are already provided superb protection by the
Secret Service.
The naive will not comprehend that the president cannot be endangered
by demonstrators at SENS when the president is not present. For many
Americans, the light refuses to turn on.
In Nazi Germany, did no one but the Jews have anything to fear from the
Gestapo?
By Stalin's time, Lenin and Trotsky had eliminated all members of the
"oppressor class," but that did not stop Stalin from sending millions
of "enemies of the people" to the Gulag.
It is extremely difficult to hold even local police forces accountable.
Who is going to hold accountable a federal police protected by Homeland
Security and the president?
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I am perfectly capable of learning from my mistakes. I will surely
learn a great deal today.
"A democracy is a sheep and two wolves deciding on what to have for
lunch. Freedom is a well armed sheep contesting the results of the
decision." - Benjamin Franklin
"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they
be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton
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