Shenna Bellows on Disappearing Civil Liberties

Abuse of power post 9/11; Updates included

Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, gave a talk on October 26, 2006 at the University of Maine in Orono, Maine. This program originally appeared in two parts on the WERU Community Radio Voices programs with Amy Browne. Archives are located HERE and HERE.

The podcast posted today includes an extended introduction with important updates. The continuing hot issues to which Ms. Bellows lends sharp analysis in this program are two of the most vicious assaults on civil liberties in our times: destruction of the 4th amendment to the US Constitution through warrantless government surveillance and indefinite imprisonment and torture of terror war suspects. Discussion of events on these fronts subsequent to Ms. Bellows presentation with links for key news stories appears below the fold.

On the surveillance front, Ms. Bellows explains the background of a contempt citation filed by the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in order to force Verizon to comply with a PUC order to swear to the truthfulness of Verizon’s public statements concerning the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance and data collection program.

Since Ms. Bellows spoke last October, Federal District Court Judge John Woodcock in Bangor, Maine last February granted the United States a preliminary injunction which prevented the PUC from holding a contempt hearing against Verizon.

Just last week, the US Justice Department asked another federal judge in San Francisco to block all state actions attempting to reveal the truth about telecommunications company cooperation with federal snooping into phone records.

According to the Los Angeles Times, during a 70-minute hearing on Thursday June 22, Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Carl J. Nichols told U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker that “the actions of the states clearly ran afoul of the federal government’s blanket authority over foreign affairs, military and national security.”

There is yet no indication how the judge will rule.

The major new development concerning handling of US Terror War prisoners is that the US Supreme Court reversed itself on Friday June 29 and agreed to review the onerous Military Commissions Act of 2006–discussed in detail by Ms. Bellows later in this program–that stripped prisoners of their rights to challenge their detentions in a federal court.

A remarkable development preceding this decision was the filing of an affidavit by one of the army’s own officers that the government refuses to take no for an answer during the proceedings–known as Combatant Status Review Tribunals, or CSRTs–when they are asked to determine if a prisoner is to be classified the less-than-human status of “enemy combatant”.

Lt. Col. Stephen Abraham, a 26-year veteran of military intelligence, Army reserve officer, and California lawyer explains in his affidavit that access to possibly exculpatory information was repeatedly denied to decisionmakers, who were pressured to find that detainees are “enemy combatants,” anyway, despite the lack of solid evidence. “What were purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence,” Abraham stated.

It is in these incredible times, with the world coming apart and freedom under assault from our own government–much more so than any terrorists–that Shenna Bellows helps us to wake up, see what is really happening, and stand up for our county, our constitution, and our liberty.

University of Maine Professor of Philosophy Doug Allen provides additional introduction of our speaker.