By Philip Newman
Americans need not choose between safety and freedom, speakers at a forum on the Bush administration’s new anti-terrorism legislation said Saturday, suggesting that some such laws could undercut basic principles of liberty.
Those addressing the meeting said American citizens and non-citizens alike should be concerned by parts of the USA Patriot Act, which they contended was approved in haste without public debate or hearings
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has said the laws are vital in time of war since terrorists seek to use America’s freedom as a weapon against the American people. Ashcroft said a training manual of the terrorist Al Qaeda organization mentions the U.S. judicial system as a help to those trying subvert the United States.
“In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the Bush administration has initiated a number of policies in the name of countering terrorism,” said Norman Siegel, former director of the New York City Civil Liberties Union.
“Some of these policies may pose a threat to the principles of freedom upon which America is founded,” Siegel said. “Taken together, these policies disturb the carefully calibrated balance of power established by our Constitution, they demonstrate a trend toward increased government secrecy and lack of accountability, and jeopardize the due process rights, privacy and other freedoms embodied in our constitution and out national identity.”
The forum was sponsored by the National Association of Korean Americans – New York chapter, the Korean American Association of Mid-Queens, the Latin American Integration Center and the Humanist Center of Cultures. It was funded by Citizens Committee for NYC.
“We need not choose between safety and freedom,” said Siegel, who also deplored suggestions by Ashcroft that those questioning some administration policies might be unpatriotic.
Siegel, attorney Cyrus Mehta, chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Nationality of the New York City Bar Association, and attorney John Kim of the National Association of Korean-Americans, all addressed the meeting Saturday at The Latin American Integration Center in Woodside.
Siegel told several dozen people who attended the forum that Ashcroft “still refuses to disclose identities, locations or charges against many of the 1,200 persons detained since the attacks.” Siegel was late arriving at the forum because he was taking part in a demonstration in Sunset Park, Brooklyn against government detention policies.
He said other policies promulgated by what he called the “Bush-Ashcroft” administration should concern Americans:
• “Potential enhancement of the government’s ability to conduct surveillance and allowing the Immigration and Naturalization Service the power to detain immigrants suspected of terrorism for lengthy and possibly indefinite periods of time.”
• Withholding information normally available under the Freedom of Information Act.
• Secret hearings and prohibiting court officials from confirming that cases exist.
• A new rule permitting the Department of Justice to detain a non- citizen despite an order of a federal judge ordering his or her release.
• A rule allowing eavesdropping on conversations between attorneys and their clients who are suspected of engaging in terrorism.
• Siegel said the administration has driven a wedge between American citizens and non-citizens.
“These encroachments on our rights and liberties by the Bush administration and the speed and secrecy with which they are being implemented are cause for alarm and raise concern that the country faces a further erosion of its fundamental freedoms in the future,” Siegel said.
“Some of these post Sept. 11 laws are draconian in the extreme,” Mehta said. “It’s scary.”
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 136.
