Terrorists can threaten our freedoms, but only we can take them away. This is one of the aspects of this whole Afghanistan and Iraq business I am keeping an eye on. It is significant that the government - and by this I mean the present Presidential Administration - is planning on implementing PATRIOT ACT II which does factually and substantially abolish over 225 years of Constitutionally protected freedoms we have prided ourselves on in our boast of our superiority over other nations' Governments. I post this because I believe we Americans need to be more vigilant of their freedoms and become aware these things are happening. Please feel free to comment or e-mail at: wahkonta@graffiti.net

A repressive embarrassment

12/13/03: (The Toledo Blade) Anyone who thinks the administration and its
law enforcement chief, Attorney General John Ashcroft, aren't out to impede
a free press need only hear how the federal government is treating foreign
journalists coming to this country on assignment.

Without notification to foreign media outlets, the immigration and customs
people are arresting, detaining, and deporting journalists arriving here
without special visas. This is so even when they come from nations whose
citizens can stay for up to 90 days without a visa if they are arriving as
tourists or on business.

If that threatening form of registration is not enough, members of the press
arriving without the visas, which no one told them they needed, are treated
like criminals, handcuffed as they're marched through airports,
photographed, fingerprinted, and their DNA taken.

Peter Krobath, chief editor for the Austrian movie magazine Skip, was held
overnight in a cold room with 45 others who arrived without the visa. The
room had two open toilets, a metal bench, and a concrete bench. He was here
to interview movie star Ben Affleck and see the movie Paycheck.

Thomas Sjoerup, a photographer for the Danish paper Ekstra Bladet, was
deported after a few hours during which a mugshot, fingerprints, and DNA
sample were taken. A French journalist said he and five others from his
country were marched across the airport in handcuffs, without belts or
laces.

The International Press Institute in Vienna, a media freedom group, has
complained not only about Mr. Korbath's treatment but also, and indeed more
important, the fact that only foreign journalists need special visas.

The Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists is about to
launch a global campaign against the absurd and repressive rule that casts
suspicion on working journalists who come to this country on business as
valid as any other traveler's.

A U.S. embassy official in Vienna said visas have always been required. If
that requirement existed, it was more honored in its breach and ought to be
rescinded.

It should not take a world media outcry to address this problem. It's a
policy that puts these United States in the ranks of Third World
dictatorships.

Members of Congress, regardless of party, who understand the absurdity of it
all, even in these troubled times, should demand an end to this repressive
embarrassment.

It's not likely President Bush ever will.

END EXCERPT FROM 'BLADE' go to link for copy verify.