by builder123
Saturday, Jul. 05, 2003 at 5:08 AM
6-26-03 Topanga Community House (Los Angeles area)
Stephan F. Rohde - constitutional lawyer, author and lecturer spoke on the post 911 erosion of civil rights under the Bush Administration. Event sponsored by the newly formed --- Mother’s for an Aware America---
Below is a portion of the transcript and photos:
image03.jpgfn6rx5.jpg, image/jpeg, 280x408
USA Patriot Act Submitted Within Weeks of 911
“…In the horror and grief and hysteria, fright after those horrible attacks. The government under the leadership of John Ashcroft created what became known as the USA Patriot Act. I have said that much of the USA Patriot Act was in John Ashcroft’s far right hand drawer before 911. I submit to that because we know many of its provisions have been … rejected before 911 because of the serious assault on civil liberties they pose. No 350 page piece of legislation with the detail and cross references amending vast portions of federal law can be written in 3 weeks, yet General Ashcroft was able to display the 1st draft of this legislation before the end of the month in September. Now at that stage people went to bat, the ACLU engaged in the process of legislation. Compromises were made, some of the more egregious provisions of the administration’s bill were removed. Then the bill went into conference committee in October of 2001 and that’s when John Ashcroft said, “If you don’t pass the original bill as introduced by the administration the next terrorist attack will be on your shoulders.” Intimidated in that fashion, stamped 3:25 am in a closed session, the conference committee of the Senate and the House reverted to the original administration bill and we got the USA Patriots Act. Men and women who voted for it called the ACLU the next morning and said, “What did I vote for?”…”
www.aclu.org