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November 6, 2001
C.G. Estabrook
Our Torturers
Sheperd
Bliss
Scott
Nearing on War
Rep. Ron Paul
Underwriting
the Taliban
Tariq
Ali
The
General Who
Came to Dinner
Evan Ravitz
Stop the War
Through
Direct Democracy
Steve
Perry
Hunger
in Afghanistan
November 5, 2001
Patrick Cockburn
Living
in the Minefields
David Price
Terror
and Indigenous People
November 3, 2001
Declan McCullagh
Nancy Oden Interview
Daniel
Wolff
The
Memphis Blues Again
Mark Weisbrot
War on Civilians
Dave Marsh
How
the RIAA (and the FBI) Cheat Musicians
Robert Jensen
Speaking
Out Against
War on Campus
November 2, 2001
CounterPunch
Wire
Green
Party Leader Detained at Maine Airport; Prevented from Boarding
Any Plane
Alexander Cockburn
FBI Eyes
Torture
November 1, 2001
Dean Baker
Dying
for Patents
Sami Amarah
US Attempts
to Recruit
Russian Vets of Afghan War
Molly Secours
Where
Are the Voices of Reason? Let the Women
Be Heard
William Blum
Unleashing the
CIA
October 31, 2001
Tom Turnipseed
Terrorize
the Poor,
Subsidize the Rich
Chris Clarke
Thank God
for Berkeley
Steve
Perry
The
Silent Genocide
October 30, 2001
Rep. Ron Paul
War on Terror
Bad as War on Drugs
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Flying
Blind:
The Predator's Problem
Ali Abunimah
Dear Colin
Powell
Resources:
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About 9/11
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8-Page Special Issue
War Diary
CIA's Assassination Plan a History of
Torture in US Prisons
bin Laden and Bush
Business Connections
Aisha Ikramuddin on the Hidden Hype
of US Food Bombs
Peter Linebaugh on
Pakistan
Christopher Hitchens' Love for Mrs. Thatcher
Jiang Zemin Tells Bush:
Nuke 'Em
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How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The Memphis Blues Again:
Six Decades of Memphis Music Photographs
Photos by Ernest Withers
Text by Daniel Wolff
The New Intifada:
Resisting Israel's Apartheid
Edited by Roane Carey
A Pocket Guide to
Environmental Bad Guys
by James Ridgeway
and Jeffrey St. Clair
The
Phoenix Program
by Douglas Valentine
Al Gore:
A User's Manual
by Cockburn
and St. Clair
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November 7,
2001
Patriot Act Unpatriotic
Ayatollah Asscraft
By Dr. Susan Block
"Those who would give up essential
Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither
Liberty nor Safety." Benjamin Franklin
Maybe you've heard about the so-called Patriot
Act of 2001, maybe you haven't, but it enables the police to
hear all about you. And no, I'm not being unpatriotic or un-American
when I say this. On the contrary, dissent is very American, although
the Patriot Act punishes dissent. Dissenters could be terrorists,
after all.
So, let's have a look at the genesis
of this Act, which has snuck up on Americans like a rapist who
gives it to you in the locker-room when you're bending over to
put on your pants. Now, rapists are generally people who have
been hurt in the past, and these patriotic rapists are no exception.
They've been hurt. They feel impotent, stung by the castrating
pain of having had America's two biggest buildings cut down in
a fiery apocalypse of humiliation. To make it worse, they are
embarrassingly unable to catch anyone alive responsible for this
gargantuan crime.
So Congress and the President have lashed
out yet again, like Raving Castrati, Raving BLIND Castrati who
can't even see what they're lashing out at, pitifully unable
to hit the real bullies who hit us, not content with hitting
innocent Afghans with not-so-smart bombs, they are now hitting
innocent Americans with the Patriot Act, tossing our civil liberties
onto the blazing bonfire set by the terrorists on September 11.
The bonfire that is consuming our American
freedoms was certainly set by terrorists, but fanatics wrapping
themselves in the flag are fanning it. The man behind the Patriot
Act is US Attorney General John Ashcroft, whom I've nicknamed
(W isn't the only one with nicknames) "Asscraft," as
he is craftily using this moment of weakness to fuck us all in
the ass.
In other words, Ayatollah Asscraft is
exploiting the 9.11 tragedy and the anthrax panic, horrible mysteries
which our government officials are thus far too ill-equipped,
incompetent or just too damn lazy to solve, to put us all under
police surveillance.
Just to give you a taste of what's to
come: the Patriot Act of 2001 gives any U.S. Attorney or state
attorney general the power to install the Carnivore e-mail snooping
system in so-called "emergency situations" without
obtaining a court order. It expands the definition of "terrorist"
so broadly that it could include non-violent protesters at an
anti-war rally. It could include me, or very possibly, you. It
makes it easier for the government to tap multiple phones as
part of a "roving wiretap" warrant, and to imprison
legal immigrants for seven days based on a mere accusation of
terrorism, maybe from an angry neighbor or jealous co-worker.
And it goes on, torching our civil liberties, one by one, for
122 pages, with Ayatollah Ass-Craft leading the Crusade.
Osama may be crazy for wanting a world
ruled by Islam. But Asscraft is the one who said, "We have
no King but Jesus" (in a speech at Bob Jones University,
now turning into a sort of academic Mecca for American Holy Warriors).
And he hasn't seemed to make a stitch of progress in finding
the accomplices to those dreadful mass murders or the vermin
releasing the anthrax, though he has arrested about 1,000 so-called
potential terrorists, finding zero hard evidence on any of them.
Moreover, his Patriot Act, though it's
doubtful it will ensnare real terrorists, is already having a
chilling effect on free speech in America. I am personally feeling
the chill. One of my own former attorneys, the dastardly, cowardly
Greg Smith, Suicide Lawyer, is so chilled that he has just thrown
himself--and is now attempting to throw me-onto the bonfire of
civil liberties, set by the terrorists, fanned by the homeland
fanatics and fed by homeland wimps like Greg Smith.
Greg Smith came to me when he read in
the LA Times that my civil rights (and the rights of my staff
and guests), were violated when members of the LAPD invaded and
occupied our broadcast studio and art gallery, in the middle
of a show, with no warrant and for no legal reason. For over
a year, Greg Smith pumped me up, passionate about his belief
that my basic civil rights were violated, and I deserved recompense
and an apology. Greg Smith courted me, eager to represent me,
to try this case and win.
Then came the assignment of a judge with
a tough reputation; that gave him cold feet. I could see a bright
yellow streak emerging right down Greg Smith's spine. But when
he suggested we back out because of this judge and I said no,
I'm fighting for important principles here, he agreed that was
my right, and he would fulfill his professional duty to represent
me.
Then, shortly after the attacks of Sept.
11, Greg Smith called me into his office and, like the sheepish,
spineless coward that he is, told me that, besides his personal
fears of this judge, he was now afraid juries would not look
favorably upon private, law-abiding citizens saying that police
had violated their rights. He said Americans are now willing
to forego their civil rights for the sake of feeling secure,
and that no jury would vote against the police right now, so
we might as well just give up. That's Greg Smith, American Wimp.
I told Greg Smith that I feel that it
is more important now than ever for American citizens to defend
our precious civil liberties, our right of privacy and our right
to conduct legal business without unwarranted police interference.
If we surrender our rights so easily, then certainly, we hand
a victory to the terrorists.
In fact, the time to take our stand against
a fascist response to the terrorist threat is right now, before
the Asscrafts of the nation can consolidate their power and their
agenda. Later, it will be harder, maybe too hard.
Greg Smith, it's wimps like you, who
in the wake of these terrible attacks, are turning America into
the police state that Osama and his ilk would just love to see
us turn into. Greg Smith, give it up! Stop practicing law before
you're disbarred, or before you fail due to your own failure
of nerve and conscience. You're on way out anyway. Go raise chickens
somewhere safe.
But you're not going to stop me. And
you're not going to stop America. I believe in the power of our
Bill of Rights. And I believe that somehow, someway, we who believe
in the vitality of freedom, will not let this great sexy country
of ours fall victim to terrorism, and lose our civil liberties,
which include sexual liberties.
I believe that, unlike the Germans of
the 1930s who gave their country over to the Nazis after the
burning of the Reichstag building, we will not turn fascist because
a couple of our great buildings burned. This is what I believe.
This is what I hope for. This is what I will fight for.
Give me my Civil Liberties, or give me
death!
And hey, all you nuts, holy warriors
and crusaders out there, please don't use my patriotic passion
as an excuse to send anthrax.
If you'd like to join my campaign to
maintain our civil liberties, including our sexual liberties,
to spit in the eye of terrorism and fascism, and keep ourselves
free, in spite of the likes of the wimp Greg Smith and the high-and-mighty
Ayatollah Asscraft, call my office at 213.239.0300 or email me
at liberties@blockbooks.com.
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