Civil Liberties Conference at Greenfield Community College

Press Coverage

Valley Advocate (pre-coverage)

http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:26265

Saying No to the National Security State

Ex-NYPD officer Frank Serpico is still on the stumps, fighting corruption by cops, crooks and pols. Could the United States we know change from a free, open, exuberant democracy to a "national security state" -- a society in which fear of terrorism trumps individual rights and the government controls the people rather than the other way around?

It's not only possible; the process has already begun and will continue unless we stop it, says C. William Michaels, appellate attorney, former University of Baltimore law professor and co-founder of the Catholic peace organization Pax Christi U.S.A.

"The brightly painted red, white, and blue bus, sitting at the flashing yellow road sign that reads, 'Now Entering National Security State,' is ready to move forward," Michaels has written in his book No Greater Threat: America After September 11 and the Rise of a National Security State (Algora Publishing, 2002).

Michaels is one of several nationally famous experts on constitutional law, citizens' rights and related issues who will meet at Traprock Peace Center July 25 and 26 for a conference on civil liberties. Sponsored by Traprock, Greenfield Community College, the American Friends Service Committee and other peace and civil liberties organizations, the conference, "Protecting Our Civil Liberties: The Core of Democracy," will discuss current problems in the relations between Americans and their government and ways to fight threats to traditional civil rights.

Among the increasingly visible signs that we are headed for a national security state, says Michaels, are increasing surveillance of the citizenry (think of the FBI's new rights to request sales records from bookstores and circulation lists from libraries); secrecy on the part of the ruling authority (such as the Bush administration's refusal to give Congress information about who participated in high-level energy policy meetings); and a "permanent war economy," meaning ever-greater outlays of public money to fight perceived security threats rather than to promote the well-being of the public as defined under normal (read peacetime) conditions.

The conference will include a variety of voices, from Michaels' academic style to the streetwise candor of Frank Serpico, the real-life original of the character Al Pacino played in the movie of the same name. Serpico will be the keynote speaker at the conference. A New York cop who refused to take his place on the food chain of kickbacks from drug dealers and mobsters, Serpico won the enmity of his colleagues, who delayed getting help for him when he was shot in the face during a drug raid in 1961. Today Serpico works to educate the public about the dangers of corrupt government at all levels, including the fact that such corruption can actually open the doors to terrorism.

"On 9/11, the most powerful nation in the world, equipped with the most sophisticated spying technology available and a $396 billion defense budget, was brought to its knees by a handful of rogues with 99-cent box cutters. In my opinion, there is something very foul-smelling about that. I believe that in time, the truth will come out," Serpico told a forum sponsored last year by the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight.

A morning panel on "Challenges to Civil Liberties" on the 26th will feature Michaels and Christopher Pyle, a professor of political science at Mt. Holyoke College. More than 30 years ago, Pyle, then an Army intelligence officer, shocked the country by publishing a story about how the military was spying on civilians. After his expose, the Army's high command ordered a halt to the spying.

But military surveillance over civilians is about to happen again, says Pyle, who, like Michaels, believes it's urgent that the public be alerted to the dangers of the U.S.A. Patriot Act. "We have a domestic intelligence bureaucracy that can do a lot of harm to those who challenge its legitimacy or its usefulness," he told an audience at Greenfield Community College on July 15.

Moreover, Pyle said, the gathering of enormous amounts of private data about Americans doesn't really make the country safer. "When you have to go into every mosque and go into every demonstration, you're wasting time," he told listeners at GCC.

As Michaels observes in No Greater Threat, the U.S.A Patriot Act, which embodies an enormous consolidation of government powers, could hardly have been written in the few weeks between Sept. 11 and the time of its passage. Preparations for its writing, he suggests, had begun before that, but it never would have become law without a catastrophic event like the attacks. That fact lends urgency to the issue UMass communications professor Sut Jhally, a nationally known expert on political manipulation of the media, will deal with in the morning panel as he speaks on "How a Culture of Fear Consolidates Power." Later Pyle will lead a workshop entitled "Toward a More Intelligent Terrorist Policy."

The panel will also include a presentation by Northampton attorney Bill Newman on the Patriot Act and American Civil Liberties Union citizen initiatives. Newman is affiliated with the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is one of the sponsors of the conference.

In the afternoon, "how-to" workshops for action at the grassroots level will focus on finding solutions to the problems outlined in the morning meetings. Attendees and presenters together will talk about strategies for sponsoring constitutional rights resolutions at the town level, skills for engaging in debate about civil liberties, and other ways of making politicians at the decision-making level hear individual voices.

Registration for "Protecting Our Civil Liberties" is $30, $20 for students and low-income people. For registration forms, travel links, or information about accommodations, check www.grassrootspeace.org or www.gcc.mass.edu, or call Susan Callahan at Traprock Peace Center, 413-773-7427. Traprock is also looking for people willing to accommodate guests overnight in their homes.

Photo ©2003 Charles Jenks

Greenfield Recorder

http://www.recorder.com/

July 26, 2003

Serpico blasts PATRIOT Act, rights abuses

(partial article Æ entire piece not available on line)

by Diane Broncaccio

GREENFIELD - Frank Serpico, the famed whistleblower who exposed corruption in the New York City Police Department and was shot under suspicious circumstances soon afterward, sees a "staggering" correlation between the political realities of the 1960s and those of the present day, he said Friday night at Greenfield Community College.

Serpico became famous after the 1973 movie starring Al Pacino depicted his experiences on the police force. He is one of several speakers to be featured at a regional conference on "Protecting Our Civil Liberties: The Core of Democracy."

He will speak again this morning at the start of the conference around 8:45 a.m.

"I guess you all know we're at war - not with Iraq, not with terrorists, but we're at war with the multi-nationalists for our freedoms and our rights," said Serpico.

As an officer, Serpico had witnessed corrupt officers who planted evidence on suspects they wanted to hold. Now, he said, "unidentified people are languishing in prisons uncharged," through the USA PATRIOT Act. "Do you think you and I can't be next?" he asked.

When Serpico returned from military duty in the Korean War and joined the New York Police Department in 1960, he wanted to be a "good cop" and he believed in the system he was part of, he said. At first, when he witnessed bribe-taking and other forms of corruption, he thought it was "just a few bad apples," and didn't realize the corruption went all the way to the top.

"We all want to be good soldiers. We all want to be good Americans. We want to be the good guys. When you do undercover investigation, you start seeing things you're not supposed to see," he told the audience.

Serpico eventually went to New York Times reporter David Burnham, who broke the story of major graft in the police department, a story that resulted in major reforms in the department.

Serpico said he questions whether such a story could appear in a major newspaper today, because large corporations are taking over ownership of mass media. He urged people to hold government accountable for its actions and to speak out against infringements on civil liberties. "We the people must hold them accountable, before we fall prey to the PATRIOT Act."

Sunday Republican Æ Springfield, MA

http://www.masslive.com/hampfrank/republican/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1059291226176140.xml

Conference challenges Bush team

07/27/2003

By PATRICK JOHNSON Staff writer

GREENFIELD - Former New York City police officer Frank Serpico, who exposed widespread police corruption in the early 1970s, told an audience at Greenfield Community College he has little faith in the federal government in Washington.

"I have no trust in the people at the top at the current time," Serpico said at a conference titled "Protecting our Civil Liberties: The Core of Democracy."

Some 130 people registered for the conference, sponsored yesterday by the college and the Traprock Peace Center.

The main thrust of the conference and its workshops scheduled throughout the day concerned the curtailment of civil liberties by the federal government following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Serpico, whose experiences in New York inspired a book and a movie starring Al Pacino, criticized the White House for what he considers abuse of power and a "'High Noon' mentality" in dealing with Iraq.

When he was at the NYPD, he said, it was common for officers to "flake," or plant evidence against people they did not like. He believes the military will eventually plant evidence in its hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, "and sometime before the next election."

Serpico also said U.S. forces stormed the compound where Saddam Hussein's two sons were hiding, rather than waiting for them to surrender, because, "In my opinion, they didn't want them to be taken alive."

If Odai and Qusai Hussein had surrendered and been put on trial, "facts could come out that would be unsettling to the administration," he alleged.

After Serpico spoke, a panel of lawyers and scholars described the USA PATRIOT act as an assault on the U.S. Constitution and civil liberties.

Christopher H. Pyle, a Mount Holyoke College professor and former Army intelligence officer, said government excesses against citizens since Sept. 11, 2001, are unprecedented.

"This is something that was never imagined even in the darkest days of the Cold War," he said. "Our new system of domestic intelligence far exceeds anything J. Edgar Hoover or Joe McCarthy ever imagined."

The act, which stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism," was approved by Congress shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. It passed with little debate, but several congressmen later said they voted for it without much time to study it.

Northampton lawyer William Newman, director of the Western Massachusetts office of the American Civil Liberties Union, said the legislation allows the government almost unlimited power to spy through wiretaps and records searches, and to detain people without cause.

"The national security state we are in is already a reality," he said.

Springfield lawyer Mahsa Khanabai said that, in its zeal to root out terrorists, the government is rolling over the rights of law-abiding citizens. This is unacceptable, she said.

Page created July 27, 2003 by Charlie Jenks