BY DAN
KENNEDY
Serving the reality-based community since 2002.
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Wednesday, April 21, 2004
MAYBE IF ASHCROFT DEMANDS THE
CAPE COD TIMES' SUBSCRIPTION LIST ... The indefatigable
Walter Brooks has posted on his Cape
Cod Media site
two
editorials on the loathsome
Patriot Act. One, from the New York Times, is against it. The
other, from the Cape Cod Times, is all for it.
Amazingly, the Cape Cod paper, part
of the Dow Jones empire, goes so far as to support the most chilling
part of the Patriot Act - Section 215, which allows federal agents,
with minimal court oversight, to demand that a library or bookstore
turn over the records of a patron in total secrecy, with no right of
appeal. The editorial says:
That's why the Patriot Act
allows - with FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act]
court approval - the FBI to snoop and gather third-party records
without the criminal requirement of certifying that a crime has
already taken place, or informing the subject of a search with a
traditional warrant. If a terror attack is looming, what would be
the point of telling would-be Mohammed Attas they're under
suspicion?
By contrast, the New York
Times says this:
Among the most troubling
provisions is Section 215, which allows the F.B.I. to order
libraries, hospitals and others with personal records to hand over
such information about individuals. People like librarians can be
jailed if they refuse, or if they notify the targets. Another
authorizes "sneak and peek" searches, in which the government can
secretly search people's homes and delay telling them about the
intrusions. As troubling as specific provisions like these is the
"mission creep" that has inevitably occurred. Mr. Bush's own
Justice Department told Congress last fall that the act's loosened
restrictions on government surveillance were regularly being used
in nonterrorism cases, like drug trafficking and white-collar
crime.
Brooks presents the two editorials
with this puckish introduction: "Both the Cape Cod Times and
the New York Times ran lead editorials today on the wisdom of
passing The Patriot Act which expires shortly. The two editorials are
diametrically opposed, and we recommend that our readers be the judge
of which advice to follow."
REAL MEN DON'T NEED TRIALS.
Also not big on legal protections today is the Boston Herald,
whose front-page - festooned with a huge file photo of Saddam Hussein
shortly after being pulled out of the spider hole - declares: $75
MILLION TO PROVE WHAT WE KNOW ALREADY: HE'S GUILTY!
Inside, David Guarino's
story
makes the perfectly reasonable point that $75 million is an awful lot
of money for the tribunal that Iraq plans to establish.
posted at 11:58 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
