The Reichstag Fire of 1933
They who will not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Recent events raise ghosts of the past.
But regardless of who actually planned and executed the fire, it is clear
that the Nazis immediately took advantage of the situation in order to advance
their cause at the expense of civil rights.
http://www.weyrich.com/political_issues/reichstag_fire.html
Less important than the cause of the fire however was the result... President Hindenburg, easily convinced that the nation was on the verge of a communist revolution, was induced by Hitler to sign an emergency decree suspending the basic rights of the citizens for the duration of the emergency.
http://worldatwar.net/event/reichstagsbrand
Ashcroft Seeks Hitler-Style Measures:
In the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks,
John Ashcroft's Department of Justice (DoJ) went into action to patch together a
new package of anti-terrorism laws - which consisted largely of measures which
the Justice Department had already been seeking, but had been unable to get
passed by Congress.
In his appearance before the House Judiciary Committee on Sept. 24, Ashcroft
reported that the FBI and INS (the DoJ's Immigration and Naturalization Service)
have arrested or detained 352 individuals since Sept. 11, and they are seeking
392 more beyond that.
According to press accounts, many of those detained have not been given access
to a lawyer, and some are being held incommunicado.
Following are some of the most objectionable provisions of the Justice
Department bill as presented by Attorney General Ashcroft:
· Expand the government's right to conduct secret search-and-seizure
operations;
· Expand the INS's deportation and detention powers;
· Permit authorities to seize computer e-mail and voice-mail without a wiretap
court order;
· Allow a nationwide roving wiretap order for all communications by an
individual;
· Allow the use of criminal wiretap information for intelligence purposes, and
allow use of national-security electronic intercepts for criminal cases (which
cannot legally be done now);
· Allow the use in U.S. courts, of foreign government intercepts of U.S.
citizens' phone conversations abroad, obtained without Fourth Amendment
protections;
· Allow secret grand jury information to be released to military and
intelligence agencies;
· Increase all terrorism offenses to carry up to possible life sentences;
· Expand the use of racketeering laws in terrorism cases;
· Permit the Attorney General to issue an "administrative subpoena"
for documents and records, in a terrorism or national security case, rather than
requiring that the subpoena be issued by a duly convened grand jury, which is
subject to judicial review;
· Limit a detained person's ability to bring a habeas corpus petition, or seek
judicial review (an appeal) of a detention order, so that it can be brought only
in Federal court in Washington, D.C., no matter where the person is detained.
A number of the above provisions are made all the more dangerous, because of the
expansion of the definition of "terrorism" under current law-which
could now include civil disobedience, or any act of violence, or threatened
violence, not carried out for financial gain.
The New York Times reported on Sept. 28, that the administration wants to give
the new "Homeland Security Council" powers to match those of the
existing National Security Council. The new agency would include the Secretaries of the Justice, Defense, Treasury, and Health and Human Services
Departments, as well as the heads of the FBI and the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA).
At this point, the new agency appears to be more of a coordination focal point,
rather than a new command structure. But, potentially, such a structure could
combine the worst features of the National Security Council staff structure, typified by Lt. Col. Oliver North, which ran a "parallel
and secret government," and the "continuity of government," or
"emergency preparedness" program, responsible for contingency planning
for nuclear war, disaster, or mass civil unrest. (This was actually Ollie
North's first assignment in the NSC.) It was reported at the time that
contingency plans existed under this program to suspend the Constitution in a
period of national emergency.
- Edward Spannaus
October 26, 2001 - The legislation...also gives police wide-ranging new anti-terrorism powers to secretly search people's homes and business records and to eavesdrop on telephone and computer conversations.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011026/ts/attacks_terror_laws_29.html
America has now officially adopted the ways of Hitler's Nazi Germany.
- Ed.
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