Tuesday, May 13, 2008
"Guantanamo," now playing in New York, warns that the liberties the U.S. government has taken abroad in the name of homeland security present grave threats to our own civil liberties.
Oct 12, 2004 | There's something happening here. And with apologies to the '60s rock group Buffalo Springfield, what it is, is exactly clear. In times of war, governments naturally seek to clamp down on dissent and disagreement. And people mostly support such clamping; loose lips, after all, sink ships. Only occasionally, at least in the early stages of a conflict, does significant dissent emerge. Fortunately, today buds of dissent are sprouting. One is coming up through the concrete of Manhattan -- and thereby, one can only hope, through the far harder stone of public indifference.
When a country is under attack, citizens "need to watch what they say," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told the nation on Sept. 26, 2001. There's nothing new about this belief: James Madison warned two centuries ago that "the means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home." Yet, during the recent political conventions, Americans reacted little when they heard -- if they heard -- how increasingly militarized law enforcers "kept order." Has anyone, other than a few ACLU types, objected to the police tactics in New York in particular, where the police practiced "preemption" on any assemblage that even looked as if it might become a protest?
It's not just at special events that the police and parapolice have moved into high-national-security mode. Earlier this year, I was walking along Wilson Boulevard in Arlington, Va., a Washington suburb, when I found myself sharing a sidewalk with three Men in Black -- black uniforms, that is. At least one of them had a machine gun strapped to his thigh. The men's look and gait were definitely intended to "shock and awe." But whom? And to what purpose, on a Saturday afternoon? Whatever security needs are being met here, I thought to myself, there's no doubt that some fetish needs are being met, too.
The kicker of this tale is that their badges read "WMATA," for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. In other words, these were cops to guard the subway trains and buses of the nation's capital. It's important work, to be sure, but does it really require so much spit, swagger and firepower? One needn't be French philosopher Michel Foucault to see how uniformed testosterone can lead to overeager, even brutal, "law enforcement." As the Washington Post reported, D.C.-area subway cops have recently been using extraordinary force on citizens -- a pregnant woman was recently detained for allegedly talking too loudly on her cellphone, and others have been arrested for eating a French fry or candy bar in the subway system. Such policing may or may not keep trains running on time, but for now, at least, armed and armored cops seem to be more threatening to ordinary Americans than to al-Qaida.
These anecdotes, to be sure, are from the Washington area. But if America is the empire, then D.C. is Rome; if the barbarians are going to strike at the seat of power, then Washington is the obvious target. So maybe Beltway Romans should expect to dial down a bit on their civil liberties in return for greater security.
That's a convenient argument for head-in-the-sand ostriches, but the bright, shining truth is that a string of legal and political actions is affecting Americans' freedoms everywhere. We might consider this string in an ascending order of seriousness; the first two cases may seem farcical, but we should all know by now that the censorious exercise of state power is never a joke.
First is the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 1. The $550,000 fine levied on broadcaster CBS by the Federal Communications Commission might seem small enough, relative to the worth of giant parent Viacom, but it nevertheless sets a precedent. (By the way, am I the only one who thinks that the "nipplegate" brouhaha served as a convenient diversion from presidential politics, just days after John Kerry was gaining momentum in the wake of his New Hampshire primary victory?)
Second is the continuing censorship storm over Howard Stern. The notorious shock jock may devote most of his attention to sex gags and bathroom humor, but he speaks his mind plenty about political issues. So the incessant hounding and fining he has suffered at the hands of the same FCC merit more solicitude from civil libertarians than he has received. Stern's decision to abandon broadcast radio in favor of satellite radio may be a victory for a new medium, but it is still a defeat for free speech.
Third is the looming inquisition by Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Declaring his intention to hold hearings to examine "procedures and mechanisms to protect the First Amendment," Barton is particularly exercised about the "Rathergate" flap concerning President Bush's National Guard service. Notwithstanding that CBS has already suffered enormous professional and financial damage from the case, Barton wants to pile it on -- and pile it on the First Amendment, too. Perhaps I am being too alarmist; after all, Barton pledges that the hearings will be "fair and balanced."
All these actions stand out against the general backdrop of the USA PATRIOT Act. (It's worth remembering that the law's sloganeering, stentorian title is an acronym for "uniting and strengthening America by providing appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism.") And let's not forget the administration's attempt in 2002 to bring back Iran-Contra figure John Poindexter to oversee the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Total Information Awareness program. In the firestorm that followed, Poindexter became too hot to keep his job, and the TIA program was downscaled. But who wants to bet that the same programs for profiling, data mining and "life logging" aren't continuing in some lower-profile precinct of the Pentagon?
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