From: Faisal Jawdat
Date: Sat Nov 17, 2001 02:37:25 PM US/Pacific
To: letters@washpost.com
Subject: End-Running the Bill of Rights
To the Editor,
Your editorial, "End-Running the Bill of Rights" (Friday, November 16,
2001; Page A46), states, "But the potential damage is so great, to U.S.
credibility abroad as well as U.S. liberty at home, that such courts
should be viewed as an absolutely last resort, particularly in domestic
cases."
If this is "potential" damage, I'd hate to see the real thing. When the
"USA PATRIOT Act" sailed through both houses of congress with almost as
few objections as instances of elected representatives actually knowing
what they were approving, the message to the world was clear: the
United States Government believes the safest place for liberty is in the
garbage can.
But we are fooling ourselves if we think the world isn't taking notes as
we push for "unity" while eliminating 346 of the 462 words in the Bill
of Rights for any government bureaucracy willing to yell "terrorist" in
a crowded democracy. The passage of that act heralded mention in every
foreign press from Egypt's Al-Ahram Weekly to Russia's Pravda.
When the state press of the former Soviet Union can claim "The Tree of
Freedom Has Faded Forever" without a trace of irony, the damage is
already done. The only question is how to undo it.
Regards,
Faisal Jawdat