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Court says: 'Terror Fears Can't Curb Liberty'
jettoblack writes "Finally, a glimmer of sanity... according to the AP, "Fear of a terrorist attack is not sufficient reason for authorities to search people at a protest, a federal appeals court has ruled..." Another great quote: "We cannot simply suspend or restrict civil liberties until the War on Terror is over, because the War on Terror is unlikely ever to be truly over..." Judge Gerald Tjoflat wrote for the panel. "Sept. 11, 2001, already a day of immeasurable tragedy, cannot be the day liberty perished in this country.""
Maybe soon someone will see that this whole security thing is a farce. Saying it has prevented terrorist attacks is like Bush holding up a stick and declaring the stick repels Gorillas. -- Well you don't see any gorillas do you?? It's a farce and it's freaky that you're all falling for it!
Stop being lemmings. Question your leaders. Listen to Jon Stewart!
You put men on the moon; there has to be some smart people in the country...get them out of the closet...and make one of the president. PLEASE!
It doesn't sound to me like they were going to actually be going inside the instillation, i usually think of vigils as a bunch of people standing in the street, of course i could very well be wrong ....
In case anyone is still unaware of the School of the Americas: here is an exerpt from a website with the stated intent of closing said school (soaw.org).
SOA graduates have included many of the most notorious human rights abusers from Latin America. SOA graduates have led military coups and are responsible for massacres of hundreds of people. Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. SOA graduates were responsible for the Uraba massacre in Colombia, the El Mozote massacre of 900 civilians in El Salvador, the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, and the Jesuit massacre in El Salvador, the La Cantuta massacre in Peru, the torture and murder of a UN worker in Chile, and hundreds of other human rights abuses. In September 1996, under intense pressure from religious and grassroots groups, the Pentagon released seven Spanish-language training manuals used at the SOA until 1991. The New York Times reported, "Americans can now read for themselves some of the noxious lessons the United States Army taught thousands of Latin Americans... [The SOA manuals] recommended interrogation techniques like torture, execution, blackmail and arresting the relatives of those being questioned."
In other words, SOA has long stood accused of training people in tactics which are illegal in this country, not to mention internationally, and then sending them abroad to do their dirty work. There are also accusations that the US government sends some of its prisoners to other countries to be tourtured since it's illegal here, and also that those doing the torturing are largely American-trained.
-tid242
With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science. --Carl Sagan
"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" source
i'd hate for this fabulous quote to get eventually get bastardised as Murphy's Law has been.
All in good faith, mind you, friend.
-tid242
With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science. --Carl Sagan
...activist judges! I bet terrorists have infiltrated the judiciary - we better dissolve it!
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
This would be one thing if the ability to use such information was strictly limited to terrorism cases, but it's not. It essentially gives government a whole new set of tools to get anyone they really want to get, and they don't even have to hide the wiretaps and other (once illegal) searches and intercepts any more.
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
Last attack by them furriners was in '93, you mean. But terrorists are more often Americans than middle-Easterners.
Think of Columbine, Oklahoma City, hundreds of pipe bombs not limited to the "smiley face bomber", anthrax dude (probably American), family planning clinic doctor murders, etc.
Terrorists are more likely to be fundamentalist white guys than fundamentalist brown guys.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Oh sweet fallacious logic.
Hey I have some elephant repellent here to sell you, it causes cancer but hey you dont see any elephants around here do you so it must work.
Bush and Blair ate my sig!
Actually the killing of family planning doctors (or more accurately, planned parenthood doctors) is a type of terrorism. They (the activists) are hoping to frighten (and thus TERRORize) the doctors from commiting further acts of what they consider to be unspeakable cruelty and murder.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
I wish Slashdot would just report political news without the slant. Anyway, while the Summary stated that
"Finally, a glimmer of sanity... according to the AP, "Fear of a terrorist attack is not sufficient reason for authorities to search people at a protest, a federal appeals court has ruled...""
The article said "In the absence of some reason to believe that international terrorists would target or infiltrate this protest, there is no basis for using Sept. 11 as an excuse for searching the protesters,". Which is nice and all, but I would feel a lot better if the word "international" wasn't in there. There have been Terrorists born and raised in America.
I noticed many people quoting Ben Franklin in the comments to this article. Do you realize you are quoting him out of context? He did write (and often said) "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." Do you know what he was referring to? Not Al Quadia or their ilk for sure. He was talking about welfare and the welfare state. The essential liberty he spoke of was our right not to be unreasonably taxed by the government. Surely if he saw our government today with all of it's socialist programs he would roll over in his grave.
If you read some of his writing you will find many quotes to that effect. Such as
God helps them that help themselves.
It would seem that the branch of government most concerned about our civil liberties is the one that isn't directly elected. Direct elections aren't always the best way to guard our liberty.
Way to go wikipedia!
-- Bob
1^2=1; (-1)^2=1; 1^2=(-1)^2; 1=-1; 1=0.