December 26, 2005 6:15 AM

It was a bad idea then, and the passage of time hasn't made it a better one

Taking Liberties With the Nation’s Security

Y’all remember Rudy Giuliani, don’t you? No, I’m not talking about the folk hero invented on 9.11. I’m talking about the mediocre mayor who was palling around with his mistress while he and his estranged wife occupied opposite ends of Gracie Mansion (Say, Rudy…how’s that “family values” thing working out for you??). Right; the one whose legacy as mayor of New York City would have been thoroughly forgettable had not a group of terrorists flown two planes into the World Trade Center and scored Giuliani some serious face time on every television and cable outlet known to mankind.

Well, now Giuliani is hoping to ride his moment in the sun into the White House in 2008, so it’s clearly time for him to weigh in on matters of national importance…like the Patriot Act, f’rinstance. Yes, the Patriot Act, that ill-considered assault on our civil liberties that became a political necessity in the aftermath of 9.11, lest people think that Congress didn’t take the terrorist threat seriously. Something had to be done, and the Patriot Act was the quickest, most available option. That it was exceedingly poorly thought-out and crafted in the heat of the moment should have made it automatically suspect to anything thinking person. The problem, though, was that the period immediately following 9.11 demanded action…something, ANYTHING…that made it look as if our government was taking the threat seriously.

[T]he Senate failed to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, as a Democratic-led filibuster prevented a vote. This action - which leaves the act, key elements of which are due to expire on Dec. 31, in limbo - represents a grave potential threat to the nation’s security. I support the extension of the Patriot Act for one simple reason: Americans must use every legal and constitutional tool in their arsenal to fight terrorism and protect their lives and liberties.

OK…so far, so good. This is a difficult point to argue with Giuliani, as long as one keeps in mind the words “legal” and “constitutional”. There are many aspects of the Patriot Act that may or may not be of questionable legality, and may not pass constitutional muster if they were to be challenged in court. This reality alone ought to be enough to give reasonable Americans pause.

In October 2001, after six weeks of intense scrutiny and debate, Congress passed the Patriot Act overwhelmingly (98 to 1 in the Senate and 356 to 66 in the House).

Uh, this is where Giuliani seems to lose his grip on reality. “After six weeks of intense scrutiny and debate”?? How many Congressman complained about not being given access to the entire Patriot Act and were essentially asked to vote on one of the most important pieces of legislation in American history sight unseen? Yes, I suppose there was a good deal of debate, but given the political atmosphere and the pervasive (and understandable) anger of the moment, what politically astute career-minded politician was going to commit political suicide by voting against the Patriot Act?

So what happened in Washington? The House voted on Wednesday to renew the act; it stalled in the Senate. If the Senate fails to approve the extension, the government will be forced to revert in many ways to our pre-Sept. 11 methods. Sixteen provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire on Dec. 31, including the key information-sharing ones.

Actually, the lapsing of the 16 provisions in question is probably the best thing that could happen to the Patriot Act. Perhaps it will trigger the honest, forthright debate about the conduct of the war against terrorism that should have taken place in the aftermath of 9.11. The reality is that legislation formulated and passed into law in the heat of anger and a desire for retribution makes for damn poor policy. What Congress really needs to do is to take a long, honest look at our intelligence-gathering community and the tools available to them. Then they need to formulate a plan that will allow them to provide the government with the means for protecting Americans without invading their privacy or eroding their civil liberties.

The reality is that protecting us from terrorism and respecting our constitutional rights is not, and should not be considered, mutually exclusive. You shouldn’t have to kill the patient in order to save it…yet that is exactly what so much of the Patriot Act is about.

It is simply false to claim, as some of its critics do, that this bill does not respond to concerns about civil liberties. The four-year extension of the Patriot Act, as passed by the House, would not only reauthorize the expiring provisions - allowing our Joint Terrorism Task Force, National Counterterrorism Center and Terrorist Screening Center to continue their work uninterrupted - it would also make a number of common-sense clarifications and add dozens of additional civil liberties safeguards.

Concerns have been raised about the so-called library records provision; the bill adds safeguards. The same is true for roving wiretaps, “sneak and peek” searches and access to counsel and courts, as well as many others concerns raised by groups like the American Library Association and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The problem here is that the Patriot Act is a flawed piece of legislation. No matter how much lipstick Giuliani applies to this pig, it’s still going to be a pig…and a damn ugly one at that.

The expirations of key provisions of the Patriot Act is not the crisis that Giuliani thinks it is. No, we certainly cannot return to our previous culture of complaceny, but neither should we have to face an America in which an American citizens library records, bookstore purchases, or phone calls should be available to the government. IF the government can make a compelling case to a judge for why this information is key to an investigation of a possible terrorist threat, THEN we might have something to talk about. This is what Congress needs to revisit- HOW to allow the intelligence-gathering agencies of the US government to conduct the war on terrorism without engaging in fishing expeditions for no good reason.

Given these improvements, there is simply no compelling argument for going backward in the fight against terrorism. Perhaps a reminder is in order. The bipartisan 9/11 commission described a vivid example of how the old ways hurt us. In the summer of 2001, an F.B.I. agent investigating two individuals we now know were hijackers on Sept. 11 asked to share information with another team of agents. This request was refused because of the wall. The agent’s response was tragically prescient: “Someday, someone will die - and wall or not - the public will not understand why we were not more effective.”

How quickly we forget.

No, Rudy; no one has forgotten 9.11. I lost a friend and college classmate that day. All you have to do is to look at the sidebar on the TPRS homepage to understand that sad reality. Many Americans were impacted directly, losing a friend or a loved one; all of us were impacted indirectly by the tragedy of watching our nation’s two greatest cities attacked by a collection of hate-filled criminals.

I certainly have not forgotten 9.11, but neither am I willing to allow my government the right to gradually and inexorably erode my civil liberties in the name of fighting something the can pass of as a “war on terrorism”. Killing the patient is no way to save it. All I’m asking for is a solution that passes constitutional muster and doesn’t target innocent Americans simply because they make look different, have an unpronounceable name, or happen to vehemently opposed the corrupt, inept, and mean-spirited criminals currently in power.

WE DESERVE BETTER.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on December 26, 2005 6:15 AM.

This will happen when flying pigs violate Saudi Arabian airspace was the previous entry in this blog.

We're from the guv'mint...and we're here to...ah, fuhgeddaboudit.... is the next entry in this blog.

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