Vineland echo

[Doug Millison]

"Brock [...] leaning darkly in above her like any of
the sleek raptors that decorate fascist architecture."
(Vineland, p. 287)

http://www.counterpunch.org/shivani0807.html

August 7, 2002

The First 21st Century Police State

by Anis Shivani

The New York Times wrote recently about Russia getting
a new "Western-style" legal code: "The code enshrines
the fundamental concept of presumption of innocence
and gives new responsibilities--and, in theory,
independence--to judges, while it will gradually strip
prosecutors of the enormous powers they have wielded
over almost every step of any prosecution, from arrest
to trial. Defense lawyers will have the right to
challenge the admissibility of evidence, throwing out,
among other things, evidence collected by wiretaps
without a warrant."

The Times writes without a sense of irony. None of
these constitutional protections exist anymore in the
U.S. [...]

Consider, from Matthew Rothschild's Progressive
magazine, these few instances from his McCarthyism
Watch. At the Milwaukee airport on April 20, high
school students were detained before going to peace
demonstrations in Washington, D.C. because their names
were on a no-fly list. Stephen K. Jones, a graduate
student at the University of Maine at Orono, was fired
for developing a lesson plan on Islam and Islamic
civilization as part of his world history course at
Old Town High School. Musical group Alma Melodioso, on
their way from Monroe to Park City, Utah were
surrounded by cops, asked harassing questions, and had
their bus subjected to a search by FBI and Secret
Service agents, because they had earlier asked at a
gas station if there were any Olympics security
checkpoints along the way. Like several other
journalists, Tim McCarthy, prize-winning editor of the
Courier in Littleton, New Hampshire, was fired for
questioning the rush to war.

A Palestinian activist has been in detention for six
weeks, on minor, unrelated vehicular charges, after he
joined in a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy
in Boston. His teeth were forcibly pulled out while in
jail. Another Palestinian student activist in the
Chicago area has suffered a nearly identical fate.

Legislators are considering the formation of a
domestic intelligence agency, like Britain's MI-5. The
new Homeland Security agency, which will lead overt
martial rule in the event of a future "attack," is
seeking to be exempted from access to information,
conflict of interest rules, and whistle-blower
protections. The military is extending its involvement
in all phases of day-to-day "security." [...] 

In recent months, there have been some positive signs
as lower courts have sought to deny the government the
fascist powers it seeks. But on its first opinion on
the rollback of civil liberties, the Supreme Court on
June 28 blocked a federal judge's order to open
immigration hearings for detainees to the public. The
First Amendment, according to the federal judge,
requires immigration hearings to be open. But the
Supreme Court has sided with the government, which has
adopted a blanket policy of barring the public and
media from detention and deportation hearings. To
justify secret trials, the government claims that
sensitive intelligence information may leak out;
however, adequate provisions are in place to protect
sensitive information.

Across the nation, FBI agents are visiting public and
university libraries, and checking up on the reading
habits of people. The FBI does not require probable
cause for a search warrant to conduct this type of
inquiry under the USA Patriot Act. Bookstores can also
have their records searched by the FBI.

On May 29, the FBI was "reorganized" to give it carte
blanche to spy on speech and thought--libraries, the
Internet, religious groups, political meetings, all
will be subject to surveillance in cooperation with
the CIA. Last year, federal and state police legally
intercepted 2.3 million conversations and pager
communications, not including secret surveillance done
under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The
FBI, without any court order, without any evidence of
a potential crime, can now monitor chatrooms,
political or religious meetings, and commercial
databases that include subscriptions to publications,
travel records, credit profile, and medical records.
This takes us right back to the infamous days of
COINTELPRO, the bureau's program in the 1950s, 1960s,
and 1970s to spy on radical and dissident groups.
COINTELPRO infiltrated dissident groups to push them
through agents provocateurs into unlawful actions,
engaged in disinformation campaigns, and drove civil
rights activists toward burnout and desperation.

An unknown number of detainees remain held in secret.
The INS has been reorganized into an arm of the spy
state. Visitors from certain countries will be
fingerprinted and made to report their whereabouts
with a registry. Colleges are singling out students on
the basis of ethnic identity, asking them to carry
special identity papers. Committees of local
vigilantes are being encouraged around the country as
legitimate militias to root out suspicious people.

Much of the fascist agenda is being implemented by
back channel means. This is how the national ID card
is being developed. The planned unique identifier will
instantly provide cops with every possible
information--credit history, student loans, welfare
payments, drug arrests, minor traffic violations, not
to mention citizenship status. If one is poor, one is
by definition criminal and suspect, subject to
harassment and imprisonment. If one so much as raises
one's voice or violates a traffic rule, the result
could be jail. [...] 







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