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DAMAGE
CONTROL: SELLING PATRIOT ACT ON ROAD SHOW
Posted: April 17, 2004
1:05 AM Eastern
by NWV Staff Writer
� 2004 NewsWithViews.com
Due to the massive opposition by cities, counties and states to the "Patriot Act," Attorney General John Ashcroft is now sending forth his emissary, former U.S. assistant attorney general, Professor Viet Dinh, who authored the controversial legislation to conduct damange control in selected cities. To date, 282 communities in 39 states and four state-wide resolutions, representing about 49.3 million people have stepped forward to oppose the Patriot Act, either in whole or specific parts.
Forty-five days after September 11, 2001 and with no debate, Congress passed the USA Patriot Act. According to Congressman Ron Paul {R-TX}, members of Congress were not given copies of the bill to review before the vote, "It's my understanding the bill wasn't printed before the vote � at least I couldn't get it. They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote."
Opponents of this law cite serious unconstitutional provisions, i.e., checks on law enforcement are nullified. As one example, without a warrant or probable cause, the FBI now has the power to access your very private medical records, student records, library records and can strong arm anyone from letting you know your rights have been violated. The constitutionally guaranteed right for full protection under the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and seizure was completely abrogated by this law.
Despite this massive and surprising opposition, the Department of Justice is feverishly working to get Patriot II onto the books. Constitutionalists, civil libertarians and those on the left have come together to voice their outrage that this second and more extensive law is even being considered because tens of millions of Americans are so against the first version.
Ashcroft's point man for this road tour is Professor Viet Dinh, currently a professor of law at Georgetown University and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dinh escaped from Viet Nam in 1978 at age 10. Now, at age 34, Dinh is quite a story: boat refugee from Vietnam, Oregon fruit picker, Orange County burger-flipper, Harvard Law School graduate, U.S. Supreme Court clerk, Georgetown Law School professor and lawyer to a high-powered congressional committee.
Dinh became a mascot for the Republican party and a lawyer for two of this nation's most bitterly partisan battles: working for Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-N.Y.) in the Senate investigation into President Clinton's Whitewater dealings in the mid-1990s and in 1998 for Sen. Domenici during Clinton's impeachment trial. Henry Hyde, [R-Ill], member of the Council on Foreign Relations, presided over the House Managers during the impeachment trial.
David Schippers, former Democrat icon in all the right circles and mover and shaker within 10 square miles representing the federal seat of power, Washington, DC, accused the Republicans of sabotaging the Clinton impeachment hearings. Schippers was the Chief Council to the United States House of Representatives Managers for the Impeachment Trial. Schippers wrote an accounting of his experience in his book, "Sellout: Why Bill Clinton's Impeachment Was Over Before It Began."
Currently, Dinh is on tour for Ashcroft, bringing his support of the very law he crafted to American cities in an effort to stop the massive opposition to the law and refusal by cities and counties to carry out its provisions. Professor Dinh supports the Patriot Act as a deterrent to terrorism under "our constitutional democracy." The united States of America was established a Constitutional Republic and has never been a democracy
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"Currently, Dinh is on tour for Ashcroft, bringing his support of the very law he crafted to American cities in an effort to stop the massive opposition to the law and refusal by cities and counties to carry out its provisions."
