Bush, Media, and the Bill of Rights
By
Jennifer Van Bergen
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Wednesday 09 July 2003
In May 2002, Broward County, Florida became the largest community
to pass a resolution protesting the Patriot Act and affirming its commitment to
the Bill of Rights. No local or national newspaper found this sufficiently
newsworthy to report except in passing in a column in the Miami Herald by Beth
Reinhard, who wrote:
"It's a toothless resolution passed by a predominantly Democratic
panel that wields just a tad more influence in Republican-led Washington than
the Inverrary Democratic Club."
It is fine for Ms. Reinhard to have her opinion, but then news
media should make an effort to report facts completely and accurately.
The Broward Commission, on which sit several staunch
conservatives, is the 100th community to have passed such a resolution -- and
the largest yet - 1.6 million people, more populous than the state of Hawaii or
Alaska, whose legislatures have also passed such resolutions. This is no mere
symbolic gesture without teeth. It is a grass roots effort that is spreading
across this nation, a monumental and massive peaceful protest against
outrageously illegal activities of this Administration.
It is sad that the new media does not think it newsworthy that
the Bush Administration is violating the United States Constitution, the United
Nations Charter, and international treaties to which we are signatories, or that
people are rising up everywhere in protest against these practices.
While the Broward Bill of Rights Defense Coalition support the
Bush Administration's efforts to fight terrorism, as Broward Mayor
Wasserman-Rubin wrote in a May 13th letter to Bush, "we also believe that
efforts to end terrorism should not be waged at the expense of civil rights and
liberties of the people of Broward County and the United States."
The United States Government Accounting Office states that out of
56 terrorism cases Ashcroft has brought, 41 had nothing to do with
terrorism.
Human Rights Watch reported last August that the Attorney General
has subjected non-citizens "to arbitrary detention, violated due process in
legal proceedings against them, and run roughshod over the presumption of
innocence."
The Center for Constitutional Rights and other organizations
obtained a judgment from the Inter-American Court of Justice against the United
States for detaining purported combatants in Guantanamo in violation of the
Third Geneva Convention and other treaties. In March 2002, the Inter-American
Commission of Human Rights adopted precautionary measures that asked the United
States to "take the urgent measures necessary to have the legal status of the
detainees of Guantanamo Bay determined by a competent tribunal." The United
States ignored the judgment and refused to take any measures, as it ignores
protests of our friends and allies against these illegal detentions. (Geneva
requires a status hearing by a competent tribunal for each and every detainee. A
mere statement by those in power that these men are "unlawful enemy combatants"
is insufficient under Geneva.)
The American Civil Liberties Union has reported a monumental
increase in membership this past year. It has been joined in its work by several
conservative groups and individuals, including Dick Armey and Bob Barr, the
Eagle Forum and others.
The National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force reports rising
numbers of soldiers seeking legal means of refusing to fight or withdrawing from
service.
A lawsuit has been brought in Belgium against the U.S. commander
in the Iraq invasion for war crimes committed by U.S. military forces there.
This is no frivolous action. American officials are on record as taking this
very seriously, as well they should.
The American Library Association issued a protest against
Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act that allows federal law enforcement to obtain
your reading and computer usage records and prohibits the library from telling
you.
Even Dade County police has protested the measures that use state
and local police as tools of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, thus
interfering with local police work and undermining police credibility in the
community.
The American Bar Association has issued statements and reports
against military tribunals and attorney/client monitoring.
When the Miami Herald published Reinhard's statement that
"well-meaning resolutions and proclamations are as plentiful as lobbyists," it
ignored the solidarity of over 100 communities across the country who are
protesting the PATRIOT Act and related measures that violate our civil
liberties.
As more people of all political persuasions protest the gross
violations of our rights, dilutions of the rule of law, and the blowback from
bad examples we are setting internationally, hopefully, news media will find the
integrity and courage to report fairly and accurately on these issues.
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