Washington Post
N.Y. City Council Passes Anti-Patriot Act Measure
Fri Feb 6 14:23:25 2004
64.140.158.184

N.Y. City Council Passes Anti-Patriot Act Measure
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13970-2004Feb4.html
By Michelle Garcia
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, February 5, 2004; Page A11

NEW YORK, Feb. 4 -- New York City, site of the country's most horrific terrorist attack, Wednesday became the latest in a long list of cities and towns that have formally opposed the expanded investigatory powers granted to law enforcement agencies under the USA Patriot Act.

The New York City Council approved a resolution condemning the law, enacted by Congress six weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, with a voice vote in its chambers a few blocks from the gaping hole at Ground Zero.

"The Patriot Act is really unpatriotic, it undermines our civil rights and civil liberties," said council member Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan), the bill's sponsor. "We never give up our rights that's what makes us Americans."

The resolution criticized the Patriot Act for allowing infringements on privacy rights. Among other provisions, the Patriot Act allows investigators to see citizens' library records and eases requirements for search warrants. The council requested that Congress deliver periodic reports accounting for the information and records on New Yorkers the federal government has culled under the Patriot Act, but the measure has no means to enforce that request.

The vote follows months of negotiations between resolution supporters and New York City Council leadership. A major sticking point in the original proposal of the resolution centered on language prohibiting the New York Police Department from enforcing immigration laws, collecting information on activist groups and businesses, and refraining from establishing an anti-terrorism reporting database.

After Wednesday's vote, City Council Speaker Gifford Miller (D) said the measure in its final version "strikes the right balance."

"The resolution has evolved to focus on what's really needed: amendments to the law to protect civil liberties particularly, at a time of war," he said.

New York joins 246 municipalities and counties and three states that have passed legislation in opposition to the Patriot Act, according to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, an organization that helps local governments craft anti-Patriot Act legislation.

"So much is being done in the name of New York, we are saying don't use our name to infringe on people's rights," said Glenn C. Devitt, an organizer with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

Local governments in Virginia and Maryland have approved similar measures, including Montgomery County, Prince George's County and Alexandria.

Mark Corallo, a Justice Department spokesman, dismissed the local governments' resolutions, saying the majority were passed in locales with left-leaning constituencies and based on "erroneous" information about the Patriot Act.

Corallo said the act has been "one of the most important tools Congress has given the government to fight terrorism and prevent terrorist acts."

A handful of New York council members, both Democrats and Republicans, agreed and voted against the resolution.

Dennis Gallagher, a Republican from Queens, called the resolution a vehicle for attacking the Bush administration. New York suffered a great loss on Sept. 11, 2001, he said. The Patriot Act "is one step in ensuring this never happens again."

But at a rally of supporters, Monica Tarazi, New York director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said the Patriot Act and other tactics to fight terrorism has sowed fear within New York's ethnic communities and activists.

"This country is not about registering [people] and ethnic profiling," she said. "We need this [resolution]. We need this as Americans."

----------------------------------------
Thursday, February 05, 2004
http://www.xymphora.blogspot.com/

Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's most powerful voice for real
democracy - as opposed to the 'democracy' that the United States has
been trying to impose - has survived an assassination attempt just as
UN officials are preparing to enter Iraq to assess the preliminary
steps of setting up real elections. Now I don't want to sound like a
conspiracy theorist or anything, but the rulers of what large country
would benefit immensely should Sistani suddenly die? And why does big
stuff like this seem to always happen in the wake of Wolfowitz visits
to Iraq?
posted at 11:54 PM permanent link


Scalia is refusing to recuse himself from the Cheney Energy Task
Force case - and Rehnquist is providing cover for him - because he
knows he's the swing vote, and Cheney will lose without him. That
makes Scalia's obvious conflict even more disgusting. A fair judgment
on that case would go a long way to answering a lot of questions,
from the war on Afghanistan to the attack on Iraq to 9-11.
posted at 11:40 PM permanent link


Ariel Sharon is contemplating holding a referendum in Israel over his
plans to withdraw the settlers from the Gaza Strip. Do you think
Israel could spare the ink to stick a few more words on the
referendum, and ask at the same time whether it would be a good idea
to withdraw the settlers from the West Bank? We would all be pleased
to see how sane the average Israeli is, and how much Israel is
captive to a stupid proportional representation election system.
Removing settlers goes against everything that Sharon has done in his
life. Assuming his Gaza plans aren't a stunt to deflect attention
from his personal corruption - admittedly a large assumption - Sharon
must have the following in mind:


The demographics are killing Zionism, and within a few years one-man-
one-vote is going to prove the end of the State of Israel.

The wall has started the process of permanently turning the
international community against Israel.

George Bush is going to lose the next American Presidential election.


You can bet that Sharon has good sources of information.

posted at 11:38 PM permanent link


>From an editorial (unstable link) in The New York Observer referring
to an article in The Wall Street Journal (which is not readily
accessible online; see also here):
"In 2001, Hollinger sold the Mammoth Times, a California paper it had
bought in 1999 for $1.75 million, for $1 to Horizon, owned and
controlled by Lord Black and Mr. Radler. Why did Hollinger's board
agree to sell the paper for $1? They were told that the paper was
losing money and there were no other interested buyers. But the
Mammoth Times had actually been profitable, and earned $119,700 in
the month after the deal closed. Another buyer had been so interested
in purchasing the paper that he'd signed a letter of intent to buy it
for $1.25 million. But these details were kept from the Hollinger
board, and Lord Black was able to effectively sell himself his own
paper and collect the paper's profits after the sale. The Journal
notes that at least two other deals in which Hollinger sold papers to
Horizon for $1 are under investigation."


As the editorial notes: ". . . it seems as if Lord Black woke up
every morning thinking of some new way to rip off Hollinger
shareholders."
posted at 3:10 AM permanent link


A spokesman for Ariel Sharon said he is considering "territorial
exchanges with the Palestinians as part of future permanent
arrangements under which Arab Israeli localities would pass under the
sovereignty of the latter, while Jewish settlements [in the West
Bank] would be integrated into Israeli territory." That means he
wants to forcibly remove Arabs from Israel by shifting the border
around certain areas so these Israeli citizens would suddenly lose
their Israeli citizenship, while simultaneously appropriating into
Israel part of the Occupied Territories occupied by Israeli
settlements. That way, he gets to kill two demographic birds with one
stone: he removes some of the Arabs from Israel while at the same
time taking some of the best Palestinian land on which the settlers
are squatting. He is intending to forcibly remove citizenship from
people who have always lived on the land which is now called Israel,
and remove this citizenship solely based on their race, and as a
supposed trade for this, steal some of the best land from the
Palestinians. Can you imagine the outrage if any other country
suggested doing such a thing? Think about Sharon's idea the next time
someone tries to tell you that Zionism isn't racism.
posted at 2:30 AM permanent link


The Democrats are starting, wisely, to make an issue out of Bush's
dodgy military record, especially as contrasted with Kerry's
exemplary one. It should be relatively easy, if the members of the
disgusting American press had any interest in doing their jobs, to
unravel the whole mystery of what George Bush was up to in the
1970's. There must be lots of records lying around, and probably
hundreds of witnesses. Due to his connections, Bush was allowed to
skip Vietnam, and then was allowed to skip the usual punishment for
failure to complete his duties, which was again being shipped to
Vietnam (he had a silver spoon in this mouth). The really interesting
question is why he would take this huge risk that might have led to
his being killed, when completing his duties was not that onerous.
The reason for his failure to show up was that he would have had to
take a medical and he would have failed the drug tests (he had a
silver spoon in his nose). At that time of his life, he was a coke
addict and alcoholic, and he could not have put himself in a position
where he was to be tested (not to mention that flying planes might be
difficult in his stoned state). Questions about his military service
should naturally lead to questions about the other inexplicably
unquestioned aspect of his life, his drug and alcohol abuse. The
disgusting American press is fascinated by whether someone might have
tried marijuana, while completely ignoring the far more serious
issues raised by drug addiction. All of this material should have
been presented to the American people by the American press before
the last election (the Republicans are now arguing that since the
issue wasn't investigated before the last election, it can't be
raised now, as if it were some kind of children's game!). You can
feel sorry for a guy with a drug addiction, but it is more difficult
to feel sorry for a guy whose drug consumption meant that someone
from a lower socioeconomic position had to die in his place in
Vietnam. You just might not want such a guy as your Commander-In-
Chief. His weaknesses in character go a long way to explaining why he
has been such a disastrous President.
posted at 2:03 AM permanent link



Wednesday, February 04, 2004

I've written about the case of Capt. James Yousef Yee, who is being
crucified by the U. S. military, apparently for taking his role as
military chaplain too seriously and having some compassion for the
prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The military's original case completely
fell apart, so they charged him with committing adultery and viewing
pornography on a government computer, charges of utter hypocrisy
coming from the Pentagon. What is going on at Guantanamo Bay is
actual torture, using 'stress and duress' techniques like sleep
deprivation, exposure to noise, sensory deprivation, and other
methods which are at least as effective as the old fashioned thumb
screws (and the old fashioned kind of torture may be used as well).
Such techniques will leave lasting psychological scars on the
victims. Americans who accept what is being done in their names are
no better than the people who condone torture in more obviously evil
regimes, like Israel or Syria. To show how low America has fallen,
much has been made of the fact that American officials have released
some of the children held at Guantanamo. Do I hear any outcry about
the imprisonment of children or the torture of prisoners of war? No.
Except for a few human rights nuts (particularly in Britain, where
there is concern over the treatment of British citizens), no one even
seems particularly concerned about the breaches of American and
international law in the way these prisoners are denied all access to
proper legal representation and all access to the courts or anyone
who could determine whether they are being abused. This is not
surprising from a country which executes people for crimes committed
as children and regards those who talk about human rights as
traitors. You can look to the case of Capt. Yee to see what happens
to those who give a damn.

posted at 3:54 AM permanent link


VHeadline.com is reporting that Bush Administration officials are
preparing to create a 'regime change' in Venezuela. Venezuelan
nationals have been trained at the School of Americas at Fort Benning
and have been stationed at training camps in northern Peru.
Otto 'Third' Reich has been meeting with the Venezuelan opposition
leaders including the corrupt trade union leaders, and CIA operatives
are already in place in Venezuela. Reich also met with media mogul
and 2002 failed coup mastermind Gustavo Cisneros and Henry Kissinger.
Kissinger recently presented an award from the Inter-American
Economic Council to Cisneros, and last June Kissinger and David
Rockefeller (!) paid tribute to Gustavo Cisneros at Lincoln Center in
New York (Rockefeller no doubt wants to get his hands on the oil). A
report that the Americans are going to assist in another coup attempt
is completely plausible. The only question seems to be whether they
are going to do Haiti or Venezuela first.
posted at 2:51 AM permanent link



Tuesday, February 03, 2004

"Analysts: Tenet Likely to Remain CIA Head." You could certainly
argue that he hasn't done a very good job, and hasn't even looked out
for the CIA's interests all that well. He might also be an excellent
scapegoat for the Bush Administration to hide its own wrongdoing. But
George Tenet can testify to the contents of the security briefing
given to Bush on August 6, 2001 in Crawford, Texas. That is the
briefing that almost certainly concerned the imminent danger from an
attack from al-Qaeda. If the contents of that ever got out, Bush
could never be reelected and would go down as one of the great
villains in American history. I'm sure Bush wouldn't ask Tenet to go
anywhere Tenet didn't want to go. Americans should be troubled that
the head of the CIA has that kind of blackmail over the President.
posted at 4:17 AM permanent link


Robert Dreyfuss and Jason Vest have written a must-read article, 'The
Lie Factory' (also scroll down to see chart here, which contains the
names of most of the guilty parties), on how the Bush Administration
created and manipulated intelligence - which is a nice way of
saying 'lied' - in order to construct the propaganda basis for the
attack on Iraq. Obviously, any bogus investigation by the Bush
Administration of the whole American intelligence apparatus is
intended to hide the reality that the sole American intelligence
problem concerning the war on Iraq was that certain traitors in the
Bush Administration subverted the normal intelligence checks and
balances with the specific purpose of deceiving the American people
into supporting an unnecessary and ruinously costly war. To get down
to brass tacks, they did it because their sole loyalty was to another
country which I need not name. The 'plans' of the Office of Special
Plans were 'special' because they were treasonous.
posted at 2:49 AM permanent link



Monday, February 02, 2004

Far be it from me to complain about what drugs anyone decides to
abuse. When it comes to such things, I'm a complete libertarian.
Having said that, it is a complete tragedy to watch what the effects
of a lifetime of alcohol abuse can do to the human mind. Christopher
Hitchens, unable or unwilling to apologize for his advocacy of the
attack on a sovereign nation which had no weapons of mass destruction
or connections to al-Qaeda, whose population is clearly going to be
much

• Army Officials Up in Arms Over FAS Web Site — Steven Aftergood, Fri Feb 6 14:39