[Clips] Land Mine in Patriot Act Provision

[R. A. Hettinga]

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  Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 18:47:47 -0500
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  From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah at shipwright.com>
  Subject: [Clips] Land Mine in Patriot Act Provision
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<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?

  --
  -----------------
  R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
  The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
  44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
  "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
  [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
  experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'