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    Giuliano Valverde
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    Many Americans think they understand the dangers of the Patriot Act, which Congress has vowed to extend 4 more years in a vote later this week. Trust me when I say, Americans are not nearly frightened enough.

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    Many Americans think they understand the dangers of the Patriot Act, which Congress has vowed to extend 4 more years in a vote later this week. Trust me when I say, Americans are not nearly frightened enough.

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    161 views5 pages

    "The Patriot Act: When Truth Becomes Treason", Susan Lindauer

    Uploaded by

    Giuliano Valverde
    Many Americans think they understand the dangers of the Patriot Act, which Congress has vowed to extend 4 more years in a vote later this week. Trust me when I say, Americans are not nearly frightened enough.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    of 5

    The Patriot Act: When Truth Becomes

    Treason
    By Susan Lindauer

    May 27, 2011 "The Peoples Voice" - May 23, 2011 --  Many Americans
    think they understand the dangers of the Patriot Act, which Congress has
    vowed to extend 4 more years in a vote later this week. Trust me when I
    say, Americans are not nearly frightened enough.

    Ever wonder why the truth about 9/11 never got exposed? Why Americans
    don't have a clue about leadership fraud surrounding the War on Terror?
    Why Americans don't know if the 9/11 investigation was really successful?
    Why the Iraqi Peace Option draws a blank? Somebody has known the
    whereabouts of Osama bin Laden--- or his grave—for the past 10 years.
    But nobody's talking to the people.

    In significant part, that's because of the Patriot Act--- a law that equates
    free speech with sedition. It's got a big agenda, with 7,000 pages of
    Machiavellian code designed to interrupt individual questioning of
    government policy. In this brave new world, free speech under the Bill of
    Rights effectively has been declared a threat to government controls for
    maintaining stability. And the Patriot Act has become the premiere weapon
    to attack whistle blowers and dissidents who challenge the comfort of
    political leaders hiding inconvenient truths from the public. It's all the rage
    on Capitol Hill, as leaders strive to score TV ratings, while demogauging
    their "outstanding leadership performance" on everything from national
    security to environmental policy.

    Truth has Become Treason

    But wait---Congress assures us the Patriot Act only targets foreigners, who
    come to our shores seeking to destroy our way of life through violent,
    criminal acts. Good, law abiding Americans have nothing to fear. The
    Patriot Act restricts its powers of "roving wiretaps" and warrantless
    searches to international communications among "bad guys." Congress has
    sworn, with hand on heart, it's only purpose is breaking down terrorist cells
    and hunting out "lone wolf" mad men.

    That's what they told you, right? And you believed them? You trust the
    government. Well, that was your first mistake. With regards to the Patriot
    Act, it's a fatal one. Would the government lie to you? You betcha! And
    they have.

    The Patriot Act reaches far beyond terrorism prevention. In my home state
    of Maryland, State Police invoked the Patriot Act to run surveillance on the
    Chesapeake Climate Action Network dedicated to wind power, recycling
    and protection of the Chesapeake Bay. They infiltrated the DC Anti War
    Network, suggesting the group might be a front for "white supremacists,"
    and Amnesty International, claiming to investigate "civil rights abuses."
    Opponents of the death penalty also got targeted (in case they got violent).

    Bottom line: truth tellers who give Americans too much insight on any
    number of issues are vulnerable to a vast arsenal of judicial weapons
    typically associated with China or Myanmar. In the Patriot Act, the
    government has created a powerful tool to hunt out free thinking on the left
    or right. It doesn't discriminate. Anyone who opposes government policy is
    at risk.

    How do I know all this? Because I was the second non-Arab American ever
    indicted on the Patriot Act. My arrest defied all expectations about the law.
    I was no terrorist plotting to explode the Washington Monument. Quite the
    opposite, I had worked in anti-terrorism for almost a decade, covering Iraq
    and Libya, Yemen, Egypt and Malaysia at the United Nations. At the
    instruction of my CIA handler, I had delivered advance warnings about the
    9/11 attack to the private staff of Attorney General John Ashcroft and the
    Office of Counter-Terrorism in August, 2001. FBI wire taps prove that I
    carried details of a comprehensive peace framework with Iraq up and down
    the hallowed corridors of Capitol Hill for months before the invasion,
    arguing that War was totally unnecessary.

    I delivered those papers to Democrats and Republicans alike; to my own


    second cousin, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card; and to Secretary
    of State Colin Powell, who lived next door to my CIA handler. Gratis of
    the Patriot Act, we had the manila envelope and my hand written notes to
    Secretary Powell, dated a week before his infamous speech at the United
    Nations. My papers argued that no WMDs would be found inside Iraq, and
    that the peace framework could achieve all U.S. objectives without firing a
    shot.

    In short, I was an Asset who loudly opposed War with Iraq, and made
    every effort to correct the mistakes in assumptions on Capitol Hill.

    Then I did the unthinkable. I phoned the offices of Senator Trent Lott and
    Senator John McCain, requesting to testify before a brand new, blue ribbon
    Commission investigating Pre-War Intelligence. Proud and confident of my
    efforts, I had no idea Congress was planning to blame "bad intelligence"
    for the unpopular War.

    Over night I became Public Enemy Number One on Capitol Hill.

    Thirty days later I awoke to hear FBI agents pounding on my door. My


    nightmare on the Patriot Act lasted 5 years--- Four years after my arrest,
    the Court granted me one morning of evidentiary testimony by two
    supremely credible witnesses. Parke Godfrey verified my 9/11 warnings
    under oath. Otherwise, I never got my day in Court.

    The Patriot Act's Arsenal to Stop Free Speech

    If you care about America and the traditions of freedom, whether you're
    progressive or conservative, you should be angry about this law.

    First come the warrantless searches and FBI tracking surveillance. My


    work in anti-terrorism gave me no protection. I got my first warrantless
    search after meeting an undercover FBI agent to discuss my support for
    free elections in Iraq and my opposition to torture and sexual humiliation of
    Iraqi detainees. (Sorry guys, body wires don't lie.)

    If truth tellers don't get the message to shut their mouths, the Justice
    Department ratchets up the pressure. Defendants face secret charges, secret
    evidence and secret grand jury testimony. Throughout five years of
    indictment, my attorneys and I never got to read a single FBI interview or
    grand jury statement. Under the Patriot Act, the whistleblower/defendant
    has no right to know who has accused him or her of what criminal
    activities, or the dates of the alleged offenses, or what laws got broken.

    Of course, I was able to piece together my activities. I knew that "sometime


    in October, 2001" an Iraqi diplomat gave me the English translation of a
    book on depleted uranium, which showed how cancer rates and birth
    defects had spiked in Iraqi children.

    And I was quite certain that on October 14, 1999, an Iraqi diplomat asked
    me how to channel major financial contributions to the Presidential
    Campaign of George Bush and Dick Cheney. The Justice Department got
    the date from me, since I reported my conversation immediately to my
    Defense Intelligence handler, Paul Hoven.

    It's unlikely the grand jury knew that, since the Justice Department has the
    prerogative to keep a grand jury in the dark. In this brave new world, a
    grand jury can be compelled to consider indictments carrying 10 years or
    more in prison, without the right to review evidence, or otherwise
    determine whether an individual's actions rise to the level of criminal
    activity at all.

    That's just the beginning. Once Congress scores an indictment against a


    political opponent, the Justice Department can force Defense attorneys to
    undergo protracted security clearances, while the whistle blower cum
    defendant waits in prison -- usually in solitary confinement or the SHU.
    After the security clearance, prosecutors have an ironclad right to bar
    attorneys from communicating communications from the prosecution to the
    defendant, on threat of disbarment, stiff fines or prison sentence.

    Scared yet? Once you get to trial, the situation gets much worse. The
    Patriot Act declares that a prosecutor has no obligation to show evidence of
    criminal activity to a jury at all. And the Defense can be denied the right to
    argue a rebuttal to those secret charges, because it requires speculation that
    might mislead the jury—or might expose issues that the government
    considers, well, secret. After all that a Judge can instruct a jury that the
    prosecution regards the secret evidence as sufficient to merit conviction on
    the secret charges. The Jury can be barred from considering the lack of
    evidence in weighing whether to convict.

    Think I'm exaggerating? You would be wrong. That's what happened to


    me. All of it—with one major glitch. All of this presumes the whistle
    blower's lucky enough to get a trial. I was denied mine, though I fought
    vigorously for my rights. Instead, citing the Patriot Act, I got thrown in
    prison on a Texas military base without so much as a hearing—and
    threatened with indefinite detention and forcible drugging, to boot.

    Americans are not nearly afraid enough.

    Neither is Congress. As of this week, members of Congress should be very


    afraid. Anyone who votes to extend the Patriot Act should expect to pack
    their bags in 2012. They will be targeted for defeat. Above all, the words
    "freedom" and "Constitution" will never appear in their campaigns without
    suffering extreme public scorn—never, ever again.

    Susan Lindauer is the author of "Extreme Prejudice: The Terrifying Story


    of the Patriot Act and the Cover Ups of 9/11 and Iraq," which describes
    her work as an Asset covering Iraq and Libya, and her arrest on the
    Patriot Act shortly after requesting to testify before Congress about the
    CIA's advance warnings about 9/11 and a peace option in Iraq.

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