From: Nicholas Geovanis @merle.acns.nwu.edu
Subject: So-called Patriot Act of 2001
Newsgroups: soc.politics.marxism
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 15:41:40 CST
Organization: Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, US
Reply-To: n-geovanis@nwu.edu

An interesting comment from a speech given last night by
Mike Fennerty, chairman of the Chicago chapter of the
National Lawyers Guild. He is assisting two Chicago-area
Muslim clerics who have been detained and held incommunicado
by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service after the
World Trade Center attack on September 11.

He said that he has read all 402 pages of the USA-Patriot
Act passed without debate by the House and Senate, which
significantly reduces civil liberties in America in the name
of fighting "terrorism". He stated that it was humanly
impossible for a piece of legislation which is that long and
detailed to have been drafted by the Justice Department
between September 11 and September 23, when it was submitted
to Congress (and of course a good part of the Executive
Branch simply was not functioning for several days after
September 11). He believes that the legislation was most
likely drafted prior to the G. W. Bush administration by
attorneys working for one of the conservative "think-tank"
organisations, eg. the Heritage Foundation.

In other words, he believes that the legislation was
prepared outside of the government in advance (perhaps
several years in advance) in expectation of civil
disturbance in America, and used by the current
administration in order to take advantage of the situation.

* Nick Geovanis         Ignorance and blind passions abound, pervading
| IT Computing Svcs        everywhere like particles of dust.
| Northwestern Univ     Desire and hatred arising out of conflict and
|           @nwu.edu       accord are like high peaks and ridges.
+------------------->            -- Shinran Shonin