Homeland security?

Writing this is hard.

Not the words, I’ve used them all before. It’s the actual writing. Putting it down on paper, in a permanent form, makes it somehow more real. It makes me more accountable for my own thoughts than I am when just talking among friends and colleagues.

The good news is, that right now, I can write this with little fear of my ideas being used against me.

The bad news? A year from now I may not be as safe when I write things down.

Right now there are a number of programs working their way through our national government that stand to severely impact our freedoms.

In the name of Homeland Security, wrapped in a cloak of patriotism and fed on the fires of anger, anguish and fear, the Bush administration is forwarding an agenda started months before September 2001. That agenda threatens to swing the balance of power away from “We the People” toward more heavy-handed government than has been seen in this country since the Civil War.

In February of 2001, shortly after he was legislated into office, President George W. Bush signed his first National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD). The NSPD replaced two other forms that the previous administrations had used to propose ideas to the National Security Council (NSC). In this first ever NSPD, which was approved by the NSC, Bush began his governmental restructuring. It is in this document (available in the archives of the Federation of American Scientists at www.fas.org/irp), the NSC’s structure was changed, eliminating many of the pre-existing inter-departmental communications committees and replacing them with new groups. It is in this document that the beginnings for the current restructuring are laid.

Three months later, on May 9, NSPD 5 of 2001 began a review of U.S. intelligence. This action came less than a year after the Federal Bureau of Investigation was raked over the coals by many electronic privacy advocacy groups for use of its “Carnivore” program. What Carnivore did was scoop up e-mail as it traveled through servers, sifting through the contents looking for specific key words. According to documents released as a result of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) filings by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC, www.epic.org), in at least one case, the e-mails gathered weren’t even close to what the FBI expected to get. Accidentally, it seems, they snooped a good bunch of people’s personal mail instead of the suspects they were after. Obviously, some kind of review was needed.

Four months later, the world as we knew it ended.

As a result of the September 11 attacks, Bush presented Executive Order 13228 on October 8, creating the Office for Homeland Security, with former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge as its head.

Since that date, more legislation has been pushed through in the name of creating a safer country. Some of that legislation has virtually removed rights for groups of people. Under the PATRIOT act, for example, those suspected of being illegal immigrants to the U.S. can be detained indefinitely without cause, explanation or official charges. Also allowable under the aforementioned bill are “roving wire taps” (which allow Federal law enforcement to move phone taps to follow a suspect), expanded search and seizure powers and reduced requirements to justify law enforcement actions when pursing the loosely defined “domestic terrorist.”

With the current push to create a cabinet level Department of Homeland Security, it is important for all Americans (and even more important for those who have come or wish to come to the U.S.) to look closely at what our Federal legislators and our Commander-In-Chief are proposing. As it is written now, the Department of Homeland Security would be exempt from many Freedom of Information Law requests, would be able to block investigations into its actions for at least thirty days and would consolidate all intelligence gathering and many enforcement agencies into one department that answers only to the President himself.

What worries me is that “We the People” are letting this happen. Most national media seem to be too busy looking for the next big explosion to worry about what our own government may have in mind for the future. Most citizens are too wrapped up in patriotic rhetoric to speak out against “the greatest government in the world.”

Ben Franklin once said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” This thought should be at the forefront of our social consciousness. Situations similar to this one have been seen before in history much more recent than Franklin’s time. Duke University history professor Claudia Koonz reminds us that during troubled economic and social times in the first half of the 20th century, “…Germans rallied to one-man-one-party rule, uniforms, flags and rifles, mass rallies, racial hatred, and appeals to national glory.”

Our government is being reorganized now. This is the time for those concerned to speak out and ensure our continued ability to do so without fear.

I’m not afraid of the terrorists. I can deal with their threats of death. What I’m afraid of is what our own government can become. It must remain accountable to us. That is what our freedom is all about. When we give away our freedoms, putting pen to paper, or even just speaking our minds, can brand any of us a terrorist.

Chris Conroy, TRR Webmaster