ZGram - 12/11/2002 - "New Breed of Patriots Speaking Up"

irimland@zundelsite.org irimland@zundelsite.org
Wed, 11 Dec 2002 18:48:22 -0800


ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

December 11. 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Here is a heartening story, for once!

[START]

New Breed of Patriots Speaking Up

By Scott Martelle

Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Sunday, 8 December, 2002

Grass-roots efforts to rein in the anti-terrorist USA Patriot Act 
gain support. Eugene, Ore., and other cities formally oppose aspects 
of law.

EUGENE, Ore. -- Hope Marston keeps the seeds of revolution in four 
plastic crates stacked on the planked floor of her overcrowded 
bungalow here at the southern edge of this left-leaning college town.

There are pamphlets and petitions, news stories and political 
analyses, all part of Marston's battle against what she sees as the 
excesses of the USA Patriot Act, a sweeping federal law enacted after 
last year's terrorist attacks that broadens the government's ability 
to use secret searches, wiretaps and other covert surveillance 
techniques in the pursuit of terrorists.

While the law's defenders say average citizens have nothing to fear, 
civil libertarians like Marston believe the law opens the door for 
government agents to resume the kind of domestic spying that 
flourished under J. Edgar Hoover, when affiliation with radical ideas 
was enough to get someone a place in the FBI's secret files.

"We don't know how many people have had their homes searched, or 
their library or bookstore records checked," said Marston, a 
part-time secretary who launched the Eugene campaign after reading 
about similar efforts elsewhere. "People were amazed that there was 
something they could do locally."

Under pressure from a campaign that drew together liberals and 
Libertarians, Democrats and even a few Republicans, the Eugene City 
Council recently joined a growing list of local governments calling 
for a full or partial repeal of the Patriot Act, part of a nascent 
nationwide effort organizers hope will persuade Congress to undo the 
law.

Last week, city councils in Sebastopol, about 50 miles north of San 
Francisco, and Burlington, Vt., joined with their own resolutions, 
and activists are busy in Pasadena, Santa Barbara and at least eight 
other California communities.

The campaign began in November 2001 in Northampton, Mass., although 
the first cities to pass resolutions were Ann Arbor, Mich., and 
Denver, said Nancy Talanian, one of the Massachusetts organizers. So 
far, 17 cities have passed resolutions, and campaigns are underway in 
at least 50 cities in 25 states.

Organizers hope that by marshaling the voices of locally elected 
officials, they can better pressure Congress.

"Resolutions passed by elected local leaders carry a lot more weight 
than letters from individual citizens," Talanian said.

Still, the resolutions are largely symbolic, as local governments 
have no authority over federal laws or issues. The campaign echoes 
the grass-roots efforts of a generation ago in which local groups 
lobbied cities to declare themselves nuclear-free zones, a largely 
symbolic show of hands of those opposing the development, use, 
transport and storage of nuclear weapons.

"The most important aspect is to build a national consortium, a 
groundswell, and by making these somewhat symbolic resolutions cities 
are taking a stand," said Brian Michaels, a Eugene attorney who 
helped draft the local resolution. "You do what you can to slow these 
things down."

The resolutions differ from place to place, each tailored to local 
political concerns. But most call for the federal government to 
reveal what local acts they've taken under the USA Patriot Act, and 
demand that Congress either repeal the law or revoke some of its 
elements allowing domestic spying.

In Eugene, home to the University of Oregon and a cross-section of 
liberal political groups, the City Council added its own spin by 
ordering no city resources -- people or money -- be used to assist in 
"unconstitutional activities."

It's unclear whether that means Eugene police will reject requests 
for help by federal agents, though the department was one of several 
last year that refused to cooperate with a federal sweep of 5,000 men 
of Middle Eastern descent.

Since the unanimous vote, City Council members have fielded e-mails 
and phone calls from people -- mostly from outside Eugene -- deriding 
the decision as unpatriotic.

"Some of them said, 'Now we know where Al Qaeda is hiding: in the 
City Hall,' " said Councilwoman Betty Taylor, who introduced the 
measure. "But then we got some that said we made them proud to be 
American."

Marston said she was pleased by the breadth of the campaign's support locally.

"They are people who want to defend freedom, and it crossed the 
political spectrum," Marston said. "We have people who are way on the 
right saying we want to catch bad guys, too, but we don't want to be 
spied on in the process."

The pivotal vote on the eight-member council came from Gary Pape, a 
self-described pro-business, conservative Republican whose support 
set the stage for the City Council's unanimous vote. Pape said he 
took little notice when Congress passed the Patriot Act but became 
troubled by some of its elements after Marston's group began lobbying 
for the resolution.

"It's overly broad, overbearing and overly intrusive," said Pape, 
adding that he had not read the entire 342-page act -- and doubts 
that many federal legislators did either. "I've reviewed parts of it 
that deserve some real scrutiny.... Parts of it need to get into 
court, where they are more skilled and adept at constitutional issues 
than city councils."

At the heart of the challenge are elements of the USA Patriot Act 
that grant federal investigators wide latitude in "foreign 
intelligence surveillance."

That authority was backed last month by the Foreign Intelligence 
Surveillance Court of Review, which overturned a ruling that Atty. 
Gen. John Ashcroft was using the Patriot Act to improperly broaden 
the FBI's spying abilities.

Under the act, federal investigators can secretly enter homes, plant 
wiretaps, search computers and take other investigative steps if they 
believe someone is connected with foreign terrorists. The act also 
makes it illegal for anyone who has been served a warrant under the 
act -- such as bookstore owners or librarians -- from talking about 
it.

"I'm glad I live in a city where we have spoken up against it," said 
Jeremy Nissel, co-owner with his wife of J. Michaels Books in 
downtown Eugene. "It's a bad law."

His wife, Linda Ellis, described the local vote as "an act of 
courage," and disputed that it could be viewed as unpatriotic.

"There are as many flags on cars in Eugene as there are in New York 
City or Downey," Ellis said, adding that post-attack emotions might 
have clouded Congress' judgment. "We feel like we have to 
rubber-stamp everything because of the things that happened in New 
York City and internationally. And I think that's a very dangerous 
thing."

[END]

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