Defenders of Civil Liberties Attack George W. Bush
    By Corine Lesnes
    Le Monde

    Wednesday 18 October 2006

    You would say a family reunion or a student promotion ceremony. They're 21 to 65 years old with the features of ordinary Americans. Jeff and Nicole Rank came with their baby; Sawsan Tabbaa, with his son Hassan. What they have in common is all have pressed charges against the president, the army, or the United States government for abuse of powers.

    The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brought them together on Monday the 16th and Tuesday the 17th of October, on the occasion of its biennial congress. The ACLU is one of the principal organizations for the defense of civil liberties in the United States. Since 2001, the number of its adherents at the national level has doubled. And even tripled in certain states, like Oregon.

    In a legal system where the courts have complete latitude to interpret the law, the principal weapon for associations is recourse to the justice system. For that to occur, they have to find citizens who deem themselves injured and agree to bring charges against the authorities. It's to these "courageous Americans" that the association wanted to render tribute.

    About forty of them made the trip. The youngest is Kot Hordynski, a student at the University of California in Santa Cruz. He leads a little group - Students against the War - that specializes in "counter-recruitment." The students go to high schools in poor neighborhoods after military recruiters have been there to inform the students about the realities of Iraq.

    "A Credible Threat"

    At the end of 2005, the group noticed that it figured on a Pentagon list. Invoking the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU had brought to light a data bank called Talon (Threat and Local Observation Notice), which included a number of anti-war groups. "We were labeled: 'credible threat,'" Mr. Hordynski explains. "At first, I was almost flattered. I said to myself: 'Whoa, we're more effective than we thought.'"

    Afterwards, it all reminded him of what his parents had told him about Poland before 1980. Mr. Hordynski came to Washington with 250 pages of army documents. There were copies of the emails members of the group exchanged. It seemed quite obvious they had been intercepted.

    Janet Nocek is a librarian in Portland, a village of 9,200 residents in Connecticut. In the spring of 2005, she received a "National Security letter" from the FBI, suggesting that she, by virtue of the anti-terrorist law (Patriot Act), hand over information about the users who had consulted the Internet on the library's computer. She did not deliver the information. "Our rule is not to give out any more information than demanded and never without a judicial warrant in good and due form."

    The FBI also issued a prohibition to speak about the matter to anyone whatsoever for an indefinite period. "It's very strange," she explains, "to not be able to speak to anyone." The librarians sued the government. A judge lifted the secrecy order. Mrs. Nocek promptly "did a ton of research" on the legislation. She realized that she hadn't dared to before because she was so frightened.

    Another plaintiff is still anonymous. He directs an Internet server. The courts have not yet delivered him from either the FBI's letter or the obligation of maintaining secrecy.

    Other participants included Nicole and Jeff Rank. The couple decided on July 4, 2004 - national Independence Day - to signal their discontent. Wearing anti-Bush t-shirts, the Ranks placed themselves along the president's route in West Virginia. They were arrested.

    There were also better known personalities, like writer James Bamford, who brought suit against the National Security Agency (NSA), which indulges in telephone wiretaps outside of any legal framework.

    "There are 44,000 names on the "no fly list," the list of people who must undergo special controls before taking an airplane. There could just as well be 450,000," says Mr. Bamford. October 8, the CBS television station was able to consult a copy of that list. It discovered that the list included the names of Saddam Hussein, Bolivian president Evo Morales and fourteen of the September 11 hijackers.