San Diego Transcript

9/10/03
        
Rights group asking Council to review Patriot Act

By ANDREW DONOHUE

The balance between security and freedom is an enduring and delicate one. A movement of San Diegans, believing the Department of Justice's post-9/11 activity to be heavy-handed, wants the City Council to restore some of the freedom they say was lost in weeks following the terrorist attacks.

More than 100 municipalities nationwide have passed resolutions condemning sections of the Patriot Act, a sweeping piece of legislation enacted in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.

Although the Patriot Act was marketed as an indispensable tool in the fight against terrorism, activists from liberal, conservative and independent camps have joined together in the burgeoning movement to raise awareness of what they see as gross violations of basic American freedoms.

The city's human relations commission passed a resolution last month insisting "that efforts to end terrorism not intrude upon fundamental civil rights." Supporters are asking Mayor Dick Murphy to docket the resolution for full City Council approval, although a spokesman for the mayor said he hasn't yet read the measure.

"Basically, what the resolution does is it calls on the City Council to ask city agencies to account to them how many times they have been approached by the FBI or other federal authorities to do things that come under the Patriot Act," said Kate Yavenditti, a lawyer and member of the San Diego Bill of Rights Defense Committee.

Yavenditti and others say the Patriot Act has eroded civil liberties. In the nearly two years since its inception, the legislation has allowed the government to conduct private searches without warrant or explanation, track an individual's Internet and book-buying patterns and collect educational and medical records all without the individual's knowledge, critics contend.

During a Tuesday speech at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., President Bush praised the Patriot Act.

"That essential law, supported by a large bipartisan majority in the Congress, tore down the walls that blocked America's intelligence and law enforcement officials from sharing intelligence. It enabled our team to talk to each other, to better prepare against an enemy which hates us because of what we love -- freedom," he said.

While Bush says the legislation protects freedom, those fighting the law say it does the opposite.

"The steps the government took following the attacks on Sept. 11 were very broad reaching and draconian in nature and have done serious damage to individual liberties without having made us any safer from terrorism," said Dale Kelly Bankhead, American Civil Liberties Union spokeswoman.

The measure passed by the human relations commission would direct the city manager to seek periodically from federal authorities a comprehensive set of numbers, such as the name, location, charges against and legal representation of any city resident detained in terrorism investigation after Sept. 11, and the extent to which authorities are monitoring political, religious or other activities protected by the First Amendment.