Ashcroft, The Nigel brooks like Attorney General

give the fed power, more power!
____________________


By John Nichols
September 11, 2003
John Nichols: Founders warned us about Ashcroft
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

- Benjamin Franklin

The Bush administration has rarely hesitated to exploit the Sept. 11
tragedy for political and policy purposes. On the day of the attacks two
years ago, the U.S. Trade Representative's Office said Congress could
counter terrorism by approving "fast track" free trade legislation.
Since then, references to 9-11 have been used to undermine federal labor
agreements, reshuffle government agencies in order to shift more power
to the executive branch and, of course, to argue for two wars in which
the U.S. remains entrenched.

But the most consistent exploiter of the traumas of Sept. 11, 2001, has
to be Attorney General John Ashcroft. The attorney general took all the
Justice Department files labeled "unconstitutional" and dumped them into
the so-called USA Patriot Act - or, in the original Orwellian, the
Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools
Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act.

The Patriot Act was a dangerously overzealous attempt to scuttle civil
liberties and silence dissent. It was not necessary to fight terrorism;
rather, it was desired by Ashcroft and others who had long argued that
America would be easier to manage if people would simply surrender some
basic freedoms.

When Ashcroft's Patriot Act came to Congress, the only member of the
U.S. Senate to oppose it, Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold, said,
"Preserving our freedom is the reason that we are now engaged in this
new war on terrorism. We will lose that war without firing a shot if we
sacrifice the liberties of the American people."

Feingold had few allies then, but he has many now. The Patriot Act has
been condemned by city councils, state legislatures and by the U.S.
House of Representatives, which in July voted by a margin of 309-118 to
repeal a provision of the law allowing officials to execute search
warrants secretly and to delay notifying the target. When Ashcroft makes
appearances around the country these days, he is confronted by crowds of
protesters demanding that the Patriot Act be scrapped.

Ashcroft is defending himself in the most indefensible way: by claiming
that those who oppose his attacks on basic rights "have forgotten how we
felt" on Sept. 11, 2001.

In an appearance in New York, just blocks from the site where the World
Trade Center was destroyed , Ashcroft grumbled, "Just two years have
passed, but already it has become difficult for some Americans to recall
the shock, anger, grief and anguish of that day."

The absurdity of Ashcroft's attack on defenders of the Constitution was
illustrated by the fact that, outside the hall where the attorney
general was speaking, a crowd of New Yorkers - residents of the city
that was attacked on Sept. 11 - chanted, "Stop Ashcroft! Defend the
Constitution!" and carried placards reading, "Ashcroft Go Home. Leave
Our Civil Liberties Alone."

Americans have not forgotten Sept. 11. They also remember the reason why
the Bill of Rights was attached to the Constitution. Benjamin Franklin,
Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison warned in the first
years of the republic that the greatest threats to freedom would not
come from abroad but from those who would use the power of government to
restrict the liberty of the American people.

John Ashcroft's crass attempts to use Sept. 11 as a tool to try to beat
back the popular outcry against the Patriot Act confirm that the
founders were wise to worry about those who would exploit fears and
sorrows to achieve their political ends. But the objections of the
American people to Ashcroft's actions serve as a reminder that the
founders were right to trust in the people as the best check against the
excesses of exploitative and shameless politicians.

Published: 7:05 AM 9/11/03