- Many conservatives, liberals and libertarians are
protesting
the numerous invasions of your liberty that Congress and the Bush
administration
have imposed during the past two months.
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- But without realizing it, many of the protestors brought
these invasions on themselves.
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- This is America?
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- I do share their concerns, however.
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- First, Congress rammed through an
"anti-terrorism"
bill that violates the civil liberties of all Americans, not just
terrorists.
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- The new law allows federal officials to search your home
when you're not present and not even tell you your home has been searched.
You could come home one day and find your computer, file cabinets and legal
papers have disappeared. You'd naturally think it was a burglary, but the
burglars would be government employees (shades of Watergate).
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- Warrants can be issued in secret, and you may not be
allowed to see a warrant - or contest it - covering a search of your
property.
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- This is America?
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- Government officials can go into any company anywhere
and search records of your purchases and credit history, discover the
websites
you've visited, or monitor your e-mail - without evidence of a crime and
without telling you, and they can order the companies not to tell you about
the search.
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- Then the Bush administration, apparently invoking the
divine right of kings, decided that people can be tried and executed by
secret courts (using secret evidence not available for you to refute),
that government agents can eavesdrop on attorney-client conversations,
and that federal agents can conduct searches without judicial
oversight.
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- This is America?
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- And understand that the so-called "War on
Terrorism"
is only two months old. This is just the beginning. What's still to
come?
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- In previous wars, citizens were imprisoned for speaking
out against the government, newspapers were closed for protesting the war,
private publications were censored, and people of foreign ancestry were
put in concentration camps. We have a lot to look forward to.
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- Don't be deceived!
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- The press implies that the new civil-liberties invasions
will apply only to terrorists.
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- Not true.
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- They apply to you, because anyone can be suspected of
being a terrorist - including you. In fact, the new definition of
"suspected
terrorist" includes people speaking out against government
policies.
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- And if law-enforcement officials are to decide whose
civil liberties will be denied, one of them may become convinced you're
connected to the terrorists in some way, try you in a secret court,
sentence
you, imprison you and even execute you - with no opportunity for you to
appeal the verdict or your sentence.
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- This is America?
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- An administration official told The Washington Post
"The
U.S. Constitution doesn't protect anyone hiding and planning acts of
violence."
But what he meant was, "The U.S. Constitution doesn't protect anyone
we suspect of hiding and planning acts of violence." They don't know
who's actually guilty until after a civil, public trial - conducted with
all the traditional rules of evidence. What they have arrogated to
themselves
is the power to decide whether or not you will be protected by the
Constitution.
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- This is America?
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- If you're not frightened by this, you're simply not
paying
attention.
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- Won't be limited to a few people
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- Have you been told that some of these invasions apply
only to aliens ñ or some other small group of people?
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- Don't be reassured. When has any invasion of liberty
not been expanded to cover all people eventually?
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- The clearly unconstitutional RICO laws were supposed
to apply only to organized crime - but hardly a single Mafia kingpin has
been prosecuted using RICO, while abortion protestors and stockbrokers
have been jailed by these laws. The clearly unconstitutional
asset-forfeiture
laws were only to nab big-time drug dealers, but all across America the
property of innocent people has been seized.
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- It's only a matter of time until every new oppression
applies to all Americans.
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- Why this happened
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- I said that many of those protesting these invasions
brought this on themselves. How?
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- It's very simple.
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- Attorney General John Ashcroft justified the
unconstitutional
police-state tactics by saying, "I think it's important to understand
that we are at war now."
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- And there you have it. As Randolph Bourne said, "War
is the health of the state." Once you grant the government war-making
powers, you grant the politicians the power to do anything they want. After
all, you can't put your own personal liberty ahead of the good of the
Fatherland,
can you?
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- Congress didn't declare war. There were none of the usual
pre-war negotiations to try to avoid going to war. We're not even at war
with any specific nation. But just utter the magic word "war"
and all your rights can be stolen from you.
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- So, if you hollered for war, you hollered to have your
rights taken away from you.
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- Who gave your rights away? You did - if you supported
the idea that the politicians should be free to do anything they want to
satisfy a national lust for revenge.
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- Isn't it time to start taking back your liberty?
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- ___________________
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- Harry Browne, Libertarian presidential candidate
in the 2000 election, is the director of public policy at the American
Liberty Foundation. More of his articles can be read at HarryBrowne.org,
and his books are available at HBBooks.com.
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- Link
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- ___________________
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- Comment
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- From Name on file
11-28-1
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- Dear Mr. Browne,
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- Thank you for your wonderful column in World Net Daily.
In my opinion, anything that throws out the Bill of Rights and
Constitution,
which the antiterrorism legislation does, is illegal - no matter who
declares
it legal, by whatever fiat or order. Unfortunately, I saw much abuse under
the previous three administrations of the Bill of Rights.....I used to
say jokingly that they used it for t. paper......this current avalanche
of laws is just taking what had already been started - widespread
surveillance,
and worse - even further. Actually, the erosion of our rights - without
our consent, of course - has been going on for a very long time.
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- People need to declare that setting aside our
Constitutional
protections is illegal - (in the schoolyard, bullies always back down when
anyone stands up to them - they are cowards at heart, hence the fiats).
God gives us certain basic rights - many of these are enshrined in our
Bill of Rights - but even if we did not have the latter, we still, as human
beings have "inalienable" rights.........those who would strip
us of them are the ones who are stepping outside of their rights. And
government only, and only, gains any legitimacy by consent of the
governed.....if
the governed refuse consent, the government becomes irrelevant. Our rights
cannot be given away - God gives them to us (sorry, I believe in God) -
those who do not create them have not the power to get rid of them - but
they think they do.......and this evil and delusion is the basis for all
dictatorships. (And the whole NWO stratagem, which is based on false
thinking,
arrogance and stupidity).
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- People need to claim what they already have - and not
relinquish what they cannot get rid of.
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- Thank you.
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