Civil Liberties and the "War on Terrorism"

Civil Liberties and the "War on Terrorism"

The Questioning Citizen, a weekly public affairs program on community cable channels in northwest Connecticut, will air two programs entitled "Safe and Free: Civil Liberties and the U.S. ‘War on Terrorism’" on Charter Community TV channel 13 on Fridays, September 6 and September 13 from 7-8 p.m. Filmed at the studios of Charter Community TV in Winsted, Questioning Citizen co-producer Ken Cornet had a two-hour conversation about life in post-September 11 America with Mary-Kate Smith, a legal intern at the Office of the Community Lawyer in Winsted, and a student at UConn Law School.

Cornet and Smith cover such topics as the USA PATRIOT Act, the proposed Department of Homeland Security, military tribunals, "enemy combatant" detentions, and Attorney General John Ashcroft’s revised FBI guidelines and their effects on the civil liberties of American citizens. Cornet and Smith review events and discuss reactions and responses of citizen groups since September 11, such as the Northampton (MA) Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

According to the Northampton Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the USA PATRIOT Act, which was passed hurriedly (many members of Congress have stated that they did not have time to read the law) on October 26, 2001, creates a new crime, "domestic terrorism," so broadly defined that it could conceivably apply to acts of civil disobedience. The Act gives the FBI and CIA greater rights to wiretap phones, monitor e-mail, survey medical, financial and student records, and break into homes and offices without prior notification.

A lot has changed since September 11, and citizens need to keep in mind the words of Benjamin Franklin, who said: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety."