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Maine Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Shenna Bellows spoke on campus last Thursday as part of the Marxist and Socialist Studies Lecture Series. She discussed declining civil liberties since Sept. 11.
“Defense of the Bill of Rights is not a partisan issue,” she said at the lecture, titled “Disappearing Civil Liberties and the Abuse of Power Post 9/11″.
Bellows highlighted two general areas the American Civil Liberties Union and MCLU have been concerned about since Sept. 11 and the inception of the War on Terror: the use of unauthorized surveillance, and the torture of detainees to obtain information.
“Students have been talking to me and are very concerned about these issues,” said Douglas Allen, a professor of philosophy at the University of Maine who organizes the weekly Socialist and Marxist Studies Series.
Bellows highlighted a case that hits close to home for Maine residents, in which 22 customers of the Verizon Telephone Company, led by James Cowie, and nearly 400 members of the ACLU filed a complaint with the Maine Public Utilities Commission. The complaint urged the commission to investigate whether Verizon had been cooperating with the National Security Agency by allowing surveillance of Maine citizens without a warrant.
Verizon responded with a press release refusing to confirm or deny participation in the NSA’s program, citing “state secrets” and that MPUC lacks authority to investigate the matter.
In return, The MPUC made a request for Verizon to attest under oath to the truthfulness of statements it made in the press release. An hour after the deadline for Verizon to respond to this request the MCLU received notice of a lawsuit from the Department of Justice against the MPUC in an attempt to stop the inquiry into Verizon’s practices and to prevent any further investigation.
This comes on the heels of the discovery that the NSA engaged in wiretapping without a court order. “This sends a chilling message to the people of Maine,” said Bellows.
She also summarized the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006, which would legalize NSA surveillance without a warrant for 45 days. After those initial 45 days, the NSA has three options: to cease surveillance, obtain a warrant to continue surveillance, or to tell select members of Congress why the monitoring must continue. Bellows said the problem with the third option is that Congress only has the “power of the purse” and is not legally able to relay information to the press.
The only limit Congress could place on the NSA is to cut funding. If the bill is passed, anyone in the administration who informs the media of secret programs may be imprisoned for up to 15 years and fined up to $1 million. This act passed in the House but not in the Senate, but has the opportunity to pass in the “lame duck” session after elections, before a new Congress is sworn in, Bellows said.
Bellows also summarized a Freedom of Information Act request that was submitted by the MCLU to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, asking for files on behalf of 15 individuals and seven peace groups in Maine. Intercepted e-mails and files regarding the activities of peace groups have been declassified and turned over to the MCLU, and documents continue to come in.
The attitude from Washington has been, “trust us, we’re the government,” and this is a cause for concern, Bellows said. “It strains credibility that the FBI has to open a file for every piece of information that crosses their desk.”
“Today it might be Maine Peace Action Committee, tomorrow it might be the Maine Democratic Party,” Bellows said, emphasizing the importance of First and Fourth Amendment rights. “What we’ve done is turn the Fourth Amendment on its head.”
Another issue that has been receiving national attention is the torture of detainees and the suspension of habeas corpus-the right of detainees to go before a court to determine if their imprisonment is unlawful. Habeas corpus has not been extended to those imprisoned on charges relating to the War on Terror. “The question is, when does the War on Terror end?” Bellows said.
The White House has denied allegations that Vice President Dick Cheney endorsed waterboarding. Waterboarding is when a suspect is restrained and their nose and mouth are covered with a water-soaked cloth, to induce the sensation of drowning. The ACLU is concerned with this and other accounts of prisoner abuse that may conflict with the Geneva Conventions, the standards in international law for humanitarian issues.
These and many other issues are wrapped up in a bill signed by President Bush on Oct. 17 called the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which suspends habeas corpus and allows the president to give his own interpretation of the Geneva Conventions, according to Bellows.
“Our concern is checks and balances,” Bellows said. “We have laid out this vision for a democratic republic . granted we’ve erred, but we have always moved forward.”
The ACLU believes these laws are unconstitutional. Currently, the ACLU is suing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of eight men who were allegedly tortured by U.S. military personnel under Rumsfeld’s command.
“Each of these battles we must fight step by step, piece by piece,” Bellows said.
