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Rule by fear or rule by law?= = =Monday, February 4, 2008 "The power of the Executive to ca= st a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, an= d particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest = degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government wheth= er Nazi or Communist."
- Winston Churchill, Nov. 21,= 1943 Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the f= ederal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, ar= rest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and deta= in people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of "an e= mergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid devel= opment of new programs." Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single= -bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR)= to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United Sta= tes. The government has also contracted with several companies to build = thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibl= y to transport detainees. According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract i= s part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goa= l the removal of "all removable aliens" and "potential terrorists." Fraud-busters such as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, have complain= ed about these contracts, saying that more taxpayer dollars should not g= o to taxpayer-gouging Halliburton. But the real question is: What kind o= f "new programs" require the construction and refurbishment of detention= facilities in nearly every state of the union with the capacity to hous= e perhaps millions of people? Sect. 1042 of the 2007 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), "Us= e of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies," gives the executive = the power to invoke martial law. For the first time in more than a centu= ry, the president is now authorized to use the military in response to "= a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a terrorist attack or any other = condition in which the President determines that domestic violence has o= ccurred to the extent that state officials cannot maintain public order.= " The Military Commissions Act of 2006, rammed through Congress just be= fore the 2006 midterm elections, allows for the indefinite imprisonment = of anyone who donates money to a charity that turns up on a list of "ter= rorist" organizations, or who speaks out against the government's polici= es. The law calls for secret trials for citizens and noncitizens alike. = Also in 2007, the White House quietly issued National Security Presid= ential Directive 51 (NSPD-51), to ensure "continuity of government" in t= he event of what the document vaguely calls a "catastrophic emergency." = Should the president determine that such an emergency has occurred, he a= nd he alone is empowered to do whatever he deems necessary to ensure "co= ntinuity of government." This could include everything from canceling el= ections to suspending the Constitution to launching a nuclear attack. Co= ngress has yet to hold a single hearing on NSPD-51. U.S. Rep. Jane Harman, D-Venice (Los Angeles County) has come up with= a new way to expand the domestic "war on terror." Her Violent Radicaliz= ation and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 (HR1955), which pas= sed the House by the lopsided vote of 404-6, would set up a commission t= o "examine and report upon the facts and causes" of so-called violent ra= dicalism and extremist ideology, then make legislative recommendations o= n combatting it. According to commentary in the Baltimore Sun, Rep. Harman and her col= leagues from both sides of the aisle believe the country faces a native = brand of terrorism, and needs a commission with sweeping investigative p= ower to combat it. A clue as to where Harman's commission might be aiming is the Animal = Enterprise Terrorism Act, a law that labels those who "engage in sit-ins= , civil disobedience, trespass, or any other crime in the name of animal= rights" as terrorists. Other groups in the crosshairs could be anti-abo= rtion protesters, anti-tax agitators, immigration activists, environment= alists, peace demonstrators, Second Amendment rights supporters ... the = list goes on and on. According to author Naomi Wolf, the National Counte= rterrorism Center holds the names of roughly 775,000 "terror suspects" w= ith the number increasing by 20,000 per month. What could the government be contemplating that leads it to make cont= ingency plans to detain without recourse millions of its own citizens? <= /p> The Constitution does not allow the executive to have unchecked power= under any circumstances. The people must not allow the president to use= the war on terrorism to rule by fear instead of by law. Lewis Seiler is the president of Voice of the En= vironment, Inc. Dan Hamburg, a former congressman, is executive director= . This article appeared on page B - 7 of= the San Francisco Chronicle |
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