Activists Stand Vigil for Constitutional Rights Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit The News-Press, October 1, 2001 http://www.news-press.com/news/today/011001civilliberties.html Activists stand vigil against rights loss Ethnic groups suffer backlash abuses By Paige St. John & Dara Kam The News-Press Tallahassee Bureau TALLAHASSEE - In the guise of national security, Americans' civil liberties are under siege, warn guardians of those rights. "All of us should be concerned and alarmed that in trying to eradicate the terrorist threat, we have to make sure we do not infringe on the rights of the Constitution," said Kem Hussain, who locked the gates to the Islamic academy in Fort Lauderdale where he is principal after he was threatened by a man with a baseball bat. Instances of censorship, racial profiling and federal proposals to dismantle Fourth Amendment protections abound, said Art Simon, director of Florida's state office of the American Civil Liberties Union, located in Miami. "Even in our own building, an intern in our office who is from England but is Pakistani has been asked to sign in by the security guards," said Simon. "This is what happens when you give people license to make a judgment about who looks 'Middle Eastern.' " As the national hunt for accomplices to the Sept. 11 hijacking attacks entered the beginning of its third week without major criminal arrests, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft launched what he called a "national neighborhood watch." On Friday, Ashcroft released the photographs of the 19 suspected hijackers, all believed to be dead. And the FBI acknowledged that 120 individuals are in jail under prosecution by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Agents in Miami refused to confirm media reports that as many as 340 people have been detained or arrested, including on traffic charges, and as many more are on a national terrorism "watchlist." There are other lists being developed. On the day of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter sent deputies in a sweep of the South Florida community, "to seek out all people Middle Eastern, to find out where they work, or if they own the business or not." The point was to offer protection, encouraging those residents to "report any suspicious activity" or threats against them, Huntersaid. "I don't want any reverse problems," he said. At the same time, Hunter said that if asked to he would share his list of Collier County's Muslims and Arab Americans with the FBI, or even the all-encompassing "Homeland Defense System," the network of local, state and federal agencies working together against terrorism. Yet Hunter promised vigilance of civil liberties. "The Homeland Defense System is very viable, but we should not go against the Constitutional rights of our people," he said. A litany of complaints In Tampa, Oak Hill Hospital suspended the privileges of a doctor who allegedly remarked that the Sept. 11 attack was deserved. The ACLU notes that other accounts of what the physician said include an observance that lax preparation made the United States vulnerable to terrorism. What's more, the physician is of Middle Eastern descent. In Broward County, a casino worker said his gaming license and his job were revoked by the Seminole Tribe because of comments he made Sept. 11. The worker, also Middle Eastern, has filed a complaint with the Florida civil rights division of the Attorney General's office. The Miami-Dade County Asian American Advisory Board reports about 40 unconfirmed complaints of terrorism backlash-related retaliation or discrimination by residents of Broward and Miami-Dade counties. And on Friday, the University of South Florida sent home Sami Al-Arian, a Palestianian-born Islamic professor, because his presence on campus was considered dangerous to students. Al-Arian had appeared two days before on a national news show, speaking about his brother-in-law, another USF professor who was jailed for three years on secret evidence supposedly connecting him to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A judge last year ruled there was insufficient evidence to show Al-Arian's brother-in-law was a national security threat. USF officials said Al-Arian's TV appearance resulted in death threats against him and the temporary closing of a university computer room. Dangers ahead In the eyes of civil action groups, the threats against liberty loom largest in a Bush administration push to remove restrictions on federal policing, gutting Fourth Amendment limits on search and seizure. The amendment states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." The Bush administration is pushing for a vote next week on a sweeping anti-terrorism tool kit presented only last week by Ashcroft. The package would broaden the definition of "terrorism" to include "efforts to coerce the government" through property damage. Civilrights groups warn that the new "terrorism" might be stretched to include acts of civil disobedience. In the name of fighting that new definition of terrorism, the administration package would allow federal agents to detain, jail or banish selected immigrants without explanation, even to the U.S. courts. In all federal investigations, it would allow cross-country wiretaps to help track moving suspects. Civil rights groups warn that opens the door to forum-shopping - finding a favorite judge who rubber stamps warrant requests - while making it difficult for police targets to go to court to challenge privacy invasions. And Ashcroft seeks authority for federal "sneak-and-peak" searches, warrants for intelligence-gathering visits in which agents would not need to tell a judge what, exactly, they sought. Rachel King, legislative council for the ACLU in Washington, D.C., said the U.S. Justice Department has sought similar changes before, unrelated to terrorism. "Last congress, it was the anti-methamphetamine act, and in the bankruptcy reform act," King said. "They're taking advantage of this climate, where people who vote against this are going to be made to feel unpatriotic." Beyond sunshine National security also has been used to justify the temporary closing of records, despite Florida's nationally vaunted Sunshine laws. The state's drivers licenses records, crop-duster pilot registrations and even hazardous waste transport licenses have been shut down during the FBI investigation. There is enough resolve in Washington to protect the public, said Florida state Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach and who was the staff director of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations when it presided over hearings on the sarin gas attacks in Japan. Gelber is now a member of the newly formed House Select Committee on Security, which is contemplating stepping outside of Florida's Sunshine laws by holding closed-door meetings. "There are some core liberties that we're never going to give away," Gelber said. "I think everybody recognizes we ought not to overreact. But there are things we ought to do." 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