Exploiting Fear

Six weeks after 9/11, the USA Patriot Act became law. It had been secretly drafted by the Department of Justice. There was virtually no debate in Congress. Few legislators had more than a few hours to read its 342 pages. Now that document and much else is pierced and probed by Walter Brasch in America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights.

"Although I expected the Bush administration to be scared of dissent," Brasch told me, "I don't believe that in my 35 years covering government and politics I have seen a presidential administration so fearful of the people that it would deliberately go to the lengths it has to reduce dissenting views. I kept running into incident after incident of [Bush's] 'people' restricting the First Amendment rights of the people. Had I focused only upon this, there would have been nothing else in the book."

Brasch writes that Canada is concerned that information about its citizens living or working in the U.S. falls under the Patriot Act. British Columbia Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis stated, "Our research and analysis led us to the conclusion that the USA Patriot Act knows no borders."

The Justice Department now finds it necessary to devote a website to defending the act. Its public relations campaign intensified before the November election, and Bush appears to have enough votes to continue most of the act's provisions past the December 2005 deadline.

"I was upset, although not entirely surprised," Brasch told me, "at the number of people who were so overcome by fear after 9/11 that they said they would willingly give up some of their civil liberties in order to be safe. I expected this from those who stood close to the Bush administration. I did not expect to see so much of this from the people who claim to be moderates or liberals. I was also upset, although not entirely surprised, with the level of antagonism for dissenting views.

"While this nation had a long history of dissent, and an equally long history of people suppressing dissent, it seemed that the past three years have left more people willing to hide the First Amendment as a 'necessity' to keep America safe. While all administrations in various ways have tried to curtail opposition, there is in this administration an almost morbid fear of the people-or perhaps it is a fear that if the truth emerges, the people will not support the administration. The frightening part is that this administration actually believes it has a mandate-from God? the people?-to do what it does, and opposition is not in the nation's best interest. Indeed, we have a more modern Divine Right of Kings."